Goddess of the Night (Hurrian)

It has been suggested that the Hittite deities Išpanzašepa ("genius of the night") or Išpanza ("night") known from other documents might correspond to Goddess of the Night,[6] though due to her prominence in Kizzuwatna compared to the relatively low rank of Išpanzašepa this proposal isn't free from criticism.[7]

Gary Beckman proposed that she might be analogous to "Ishtar of Šamuḫa" known from Hittite sources, similar to how Shaushka was referred to as "Ishtar of Nineveh."[8] Jared R. Miller regards this view as the modern consensus, but doesn't consider this theory convincing himself, noting that it is not impossible there was aleady an Ishtar hypostasis, Ishtar of Tamininga, in Šamuḫa before Goddess of the Night was brought to that city from Kizzuwatna by one of the kings bearing the name Tudhaliya (and as a result that said hypostasis became Ishtar of Šamuḫa), and that she was regarded as distinct enough from her for both to be worshiped separately in later periods.[9]

While Ahmet Ünan concluded that Goddess of the Night was a form of Lamashtu,[10] this view is not accepted by other Hittitologists.[11] Richard H. Beals criticizes it as rooted in an incorrect interpretation of a fragmentary text (KUB 55.24), which deals with a nightmare merely experienced in a temple of the Goddess of the Night, and is unlikely to describe the goddess herself on the account of her character as a "respectable deity."[12]

In the Late Hittite period in some cases the same ideogram could represent the Luwian moon god Arma,[13] though it is unlikely that Goddess of the Night was confused with him or even just shared his lunar character, as no known Ishtar hypostasis is associated with the moon.[14]

Goddess of the Night most likely had Hurrian origin and can be considered an indigenous member of the pantheon of Kizzuwatna, and Hittites started to worship her due to the growing influence of that culture on their own. No deity of the night is known from Syria or Mesopotamia, with the exception of the poetic phrase "gods of the night" referring to stars and planets in some texts.[15] Gary Beckman nonetheless suggests that it is possible ritual texts related to her have their origin in "Sumero-Hurrian" culture of northern Syria and the "transtigridian" area in the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium BCE.[16]

In Hurro-Hittite religion Goddess of the Night was one of the deities representing the night sky and stars, envisioned as various goddesses in part analogous to Ishtar.[17] She was also associated with dreaming.[18] Her identification as an Ishtar-like goddess is further supported by the fact that in an oracle text she's both preceded and followed by various hypostases of the latter. It is also possible she was a cthtonic deity, as she was sometimes invoked through ritual pits (abi).[19]

According to ritual texts, Goddess of the Night was believed to wear a white or red kureššar, a type of shawl commonly worn as headwear by Hittite women. Together with the use of the singular feminine form of the verb "to love" (tarâmī) in a text referring to her sympathy for specific locations this fact is regarded as proof that she was a goddess rather than a god.[20] However, in one text she receives both feminine and masculine sets of clothing.[21] According to Gary Beckman, "ambiguous gender identification" was sometimes a characteristic of a category he refers to as "Ishtar type" goddesses,[22] among them Goddess of the Night.

In addition to these articles of clothing, a text dealing with creation of a new temple for Goddess of the Night enumerates a variety of objects a new statue of her had to be equipped with: multiple broaches made out of silver and iron (at the time regarded as a precious metal), ivory combs, musical instruments, a bronze basin used to "bathe" her, stools, tables and tapestries in five colors made out of wool meant to provide the statue with privacy when necessary. The statue itself had to be made out of gold encrusted with a variety of precious and semi-precious stones such as carnelian, lapis, alabaster and "Babylon stone" (cast glass). The statue's navel and a pair of purka (an unidentified body part) were apparently separate, also golden, objects.[23] Gary Beckman notes that it is likely most cult statues were much less complex than this depiction of Goddess of the Night.[24]

Goddess of the Night was closely associated with Pinikir, a goddess of Elamite origin who was also worshiped by Hurrians. Pinikir was viewed as a personification of Venus and thus an equivalent of Ishtar (and, in a text from Emar, Ninsianna).[25] In a ritual, Goddess of the Night is summoned from cities associated with Ishtar (Babylon, Agade, Kish), but also from locations where Pinikir was worshiped (Susa, Elam).[26]

A golden disk attached to the back of a statue of Goddess of the Night in the ritual preceding her transfer to a new temple likely represented Pinikir.[27] The statue and the gold disc together can be interpreted as a "rendering of night sky with its luminaries."[28] In the aforementioned ritual, Pinikir received a keldi (so-called "goodwill offering") identical to that dedicated to Goddess of the Night, though located on the roof rather than on the temple. In another text, dealing with ritual purification, the same rites were performed for them both.[29]

Goddess of the Night and Pinikir are likely an example of a Hurrian dyad.[30] The worship of duos of deities with similar domains (for example Allani and Ishara or Ninatta and Kulitta) as if they were one was a common feature of Hurrian religion.[31]