Pinikir

Pinikir, also known as Pinigir, Pirengir, Pirinkir, and Parakaras, was an Ancient Near Eastern astral goddess who originates in Elamite religious beliefs. While she is only infrequently attested in Elamite documents, she achieved a degree of prominence in Hurrian religion. Due to her presence in pantheons of many parts of the Ancient Near East, from Anatolia to Iran, modern researchers refer to her as a "cosmopolitan deity."Template:Sfn

Early scholarship incorrectly identified her as one and the same as Kiririsha, an unrelated goddessTemplate:Sfn from a different part of Elam.Template:Sfn

Name

Wilfred G. Lambert considered Pinikir's origin to be Elamite.Template:Sfn

Hittitologist Gary Beckman proposes that Pinikir’s name has Sumerian origin and has been derived from pirig.gal, "great feline."Template:Sfn However, according to Piotr Taracha, this proposal cannot be proven conclusively.Template:Sfn While it was assumed in the past that a deity named Pirig-gal appears in the inscriptions of the Hurrian king Tish-atal of Urkesh,Template:Sfn subsequent research has shown that this was a misreading and the name inscribed is actually that of Nergal.Template:Sfn John MacGinnis argues that a deity named Pirig-gal, attested in an inscription of Esarhaddon, can be identified as Pinikir nonetheless.Template:Sfn

Multiple spellings are attested both in Elamite (Pi-ni-gir, Bi-ni-gir, Bi-ne-en-gi-ir, Pi-in-gi-ir-ra)Template:Sfn and Hurro-Hittite (Pi-ri-in-kir, Pi-re-en-kir, Pi-ri-kir, Pi-ri-ki-ir, Pi-ri-in-ki-ir) sources.Template:Sfn It is possible that some of the latter were read as “Piriggir.”Template:Sfn In the Yazılıkaya sanctuary, Pinikir’s name is spelled in hieroglyphs as PURUS+ra/i.Template:Sfn

Character and iconography

File:Yazilikaya25-33.jpg

Pinikir (figure 31)Template:Sfn in a procession of gods, as depicted on the Yazılıkaya reliefs

Pinikir was an astral deity, possibly a divine representation of the planet Venus.Template:Sfn In Elam she was known as kikki galirra, "mistress of heaven"Template:Sfn According to Kamyar Abdi, in Elamite context she was additionally considered the goddess of love and sex.Template:Sfn

Based on a bronze plaque from Susa depicting a procession of warrior deities and inscribed with names of various Elamite deities, including Pinikir (but also Kiririsha, Lagamar, Nahhunte and Manzat) Kamyar Abdi argues that Pinikir was viewed as a warrior goddess in Elam.Template:Sfn Javier Álvarez-Mon interprets the deities depicted as maleTemplate:Sfn and as "a version of (highland) Elamite Sebitti" instead.Template:Sfn It has also been proposed that the figures might be deified kings.Template:Sfn Pinikir was additionally seemingly associated with warfare, and especially with war horses, at least in Hurro-Hittite context.Template:Sfn

In Hurrian sources, Pinikir’s gender varies.Template:Sfn An example of masculine Pinikir can be found on the reliefs in Yazılıkaya, where the deity is depicted as winged, similarly to the masculine form of Shaushka (another Hurrian deity whose gender shows some ambiguity) and the moon god Kusuh.Template:Sfn The masculine Pinikir is also depicted in a type of skullcap associated with the sun god Shimige and with mortal kings.Template:Sfn The similarity to iconography of solar and lunar gods highlights the deity’s celestial character.Template:Sfn

Pinikir was sometimes represented symbolically in the form of a disc.Template:Sfn

Association with other deities

Pinikir was closely associated with Ishtar.Template:Sfn In a text written in Akkadian but found in a corpus of Hurro-Hittite rituals Pinikir’s name is written logographically as ^dIŠTAR, and Sin, Ningal and Shamash appear as her parents and twin brother, respectively.Template:Sfn Both in this text and at least one more source her sukkal (attendant deity) is Ilabrat/Ninshubur.Template:Sfn Daniel T. Potts additionally proposed in 1981 that it is possible that due to an association between Pinikir and Ishtar the former's possible consort (a role he assigns to Humban) would have acquired Tammuz-like traits but concludes himself that this is "pure speculation."Template:Sfn

A god list from Emar equates Pinikir with Ninsianna,Template:Sfn a Mesopotamian goddess representing the planet Venus.Template:Sfn Ninsianna in turn was also identified as ^dIŠTAR.MUL ("Ishtar of the star"),Template:Sfn which indicates that Pinikir was likely also viewed as a celestial body.Template:Sfn Ninsianna’s gender varies between sources,Template:Sfn similar to Pinikir's in Hurrian texts.Template:Sfn

In Hurrian sources Pinikir frequently appears alongside so-called "Goddess of the Night."Template:Sfn They are regarded as a dyad in scholarship.Template:Sfn The worship of pairs of goddesses with similar domains (for example Ishara and Allani, Hutena and Hutellura, Ninatta and Kulitta) as dyads was a common feature of Hurrian religion.Template:Sfn

Gary Beckman notes that Pinikir's association with war horses in Hurro-Hittite sources is similar to that between Ashtart and the same animals, documented in sources from Egypt and Syria, and proposes a connection existed between these two deities.Template:Sfn

Worship

In Elam

File:Chogha Zanbil, Ziggurat (model).jpg

A modern reconstruction of Chogha Zanbil, where Pinikir was worshipedTemplate:Sfn

Pinikir is generally regarded as part of the pantheon of western Elam, similar to deities like Manzat and Lagamar.Template:Sfn Locations associated with her include SusaTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn and Awan.Template:Sfn However, classification of specific deities as “Awanite” presently depends entirely on theories about the "Treaty of Naram-Sin of Akkad."Template:Sfn The other signatory is commonly assumed to be king Khita of Awan, and therefore it has been proposed that the first deities invoked - Pinikir and Humban - originate in the area under his rule.Template:Sfn

Pinikir is attested for the first time in the aforementioned document alongside many other deities worshiped in Elam, such as Humban, Manzat (whose origin was AkkadianTemplate:Sfn) and Simut.Template:Sfn She is the first of thirty seven the deities listed as divine witnesses, which lead a number of researchers in the past to assume she was originally the principal deity of Elam.Template:Sfn However, this theory is now regarded as lacking evidence.Template:Sfn

Pinikir rarely appears in Elamite theophoric names.Template:Sfn A daughter of king Shilhak-Inshushinak, Utu-ehihhi-Pinigir, was nonetheless named in her honor.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

During the reign of Untash-Napirisha (c. 1275-1240 BCE) a temple of Pinikir had been built in Dur-Untash (Chogha Zanbil) near the ziggurat.Template:Sfn The king donated a golden statue of the goddess to it.Template:Sfn The temple was located to the right of the royal entrance to the structure, followed by these dedicated to Adad (whose name was represented in inscriptions logographically as ^dIMTemplate:Sfn), Shala, Simut and Belet Ali ("Lady of the City," possibly an epithet of ManzatTemplate:Sfn), and the Napratep gods.Template:Sfn Excavations of Pinikir's temple revealed a number of frit vessels shaped like female heads.Template:Sfn

Untash-Napirisha also built an aštam of Pinikir.Template:Sfn This term, possibly a loanword from Akkadian aštammu (tavern)Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn is understood as an “endowed tavern” by Kamyar Abdi,Template:Sfn but as a type of regular temple by Florence Malbran-Labat.Template:Sfn Wouter Henkelman proposes that it was a siyan husame,Template:Sfn a so-called "temple in the grove."Template:Sfn Daniel T. Potts notes that in Elamite sources the term aštam appears to only designate temples of Pinikir.Template:Sfn

At least two neo-Elamite kings were particularly dedicated to Pinikir: Shutruk-Nahhunte II (reigned c. 717-699 BCE) and Tepti-Humban-Inshusinak (reigned either c. 660 or c. 520 BCE).Template:Sfn The latter built a temple dedicated to her after a victory over balahuteppe and lallarippe.Template:Sfn Wouter Henkelman considers these to be generic collective terms for evildoers or enemies rather than proper names,Template:Sfn but Daniel T. Potts assumes they refer to specific groups.Template:Sfn Four inscriptions from Susa state that during Tepti-Humban-Inshushinak's reign work had been undertaken on temples of Pinikir and Inshushinak located in that city.Template:Sfn The king Shutur-Nahhunte also built a new temple of Pinikir in the same city out of glazed bricks.Template:Sfn During Ashurbanipal’s sack of Susa a temple of Pinikir had been plundered before being razed to the ground.Template:Sfn

In Syria and Anatolia

In addition to her presence in Elam, Pinikir was also worshiped by the Hurrians. According to Alfonso Archi, she “occupied a position of certain importance” in the Hurrian pantheon.Template:Sfn She was invoked as "Lady of the Lands," "Lady of Gods and Kings," "Queen of Heaven"Template:Sfn and also simply as "Elamite goddess."Template:Sfn She could also be referred to with the epithet allai, "lady," the Hurrian equivalent of Sumerian gašan and Akkadian bēltu.Template:Sfn Other Hurrian goddesses, for example HebatTemplate:Sfn or Shaushka, could be referred to as allai too.Template:Sfn Additionally, it was the origin of the name of the goddess of the underworld, Allani.Template:Sfn

Piotr Taracha considers her to be one of the deities received by the Hurrians from Mesopotamia, possibly as early as in the third millennium BCE, alongside the likes of Ea and Ningal.Template:Sfn Gary Beckman on linguistic grounds assumes that it is improbable that she was received directly from Elam.Template:Sfn He also proposes that forerunners to late Bronze Age rituals dedicated to Hurrian deities like Pinikir, the "Goddess of the Night" (DINGIR.GE₆), Kumarbi and the "former gods" (karuileš šiuneš) likely arose in the "Sumero-Hurrian culture of the late third and early second millennium."Template:Sfn Records of relations between Mesopotamian (for example Third Dynasty of Ur) and Hurrian (for example Nineveh, Urkesh, Nagar) polities in that time period show interchange of religious ideas.Template:Sfn While there is presently no evidence for the worship of Elamite deities on the court of the Third Dynasty of Ur (despite the presence of Hurrian ones, as well as deities from the Upper Euphrates and Diyala areas), a considerable number of Elamites are attested in the records too.Template:Sfn Additionally, there is evidence that kings of Ur showed interest in the temples of Elamite deities: Inshushinak's in Susa (Shulgi) and Ruhurater's in Huhnur (Amar-Sin).Template:Sfn It has also been noted that Hurro-Hittite ritual texts preserve knowledge about Pinikir’s association with Susa, which was likely derived from older Mesopotamian scholarly literature.Template:Sfn

In one Hurrian offering list (KUB 34.102), Pinikir appears among the deities from the circle of Teshub, alongside "Ishtar of Heaven," Allani, Ḫešui (a war god) and Iršappa.Template:Sfn

The Hittites adopted Pinikir from the Hurrians in the Middle Hittite period.Template:Sfn Other Hurrian Ishtar-like deities, such as Shaushka, entered the Hittite pantheon at the same time.Template:Sfn Invocations of "all Ishtars of the land of Hurri" are known from Hittite sources.Template:Sfn No deity of this variety played a significant role in the Old Hittite period, and their presence is a sign of Hurrian influence.Template:Sfn None of them were associated with the oldest Hittite centers, such as Nerik, Ankuwa or Zippalanda.Template:Sfn

A Hittite ritual texts (CTH 644) associates Pinikir with horses, presumably specifically these meant to draw war chariots.Template:Sfn She is also the deity invoked in a series of Hittite incantations,Template:Sfn so-called babilili rituals, named after the language they’re written in, Akkadian (called babilili in the Hittite commentary).Template:Sfn While Hittite ritual texts often feature invocations in foreign languages, such as Hurrian, Hattian, Luwian and Palaic, Akkadian is used in them very rarely, with only the babilili incantations and a so-called "ritual against insomnia" (CTH 432) featuring longer Akkadian sections.Template:Sfn Due to a number of linguistic peculiarities it is possible that the texts were copied from presently unknown compositions compiled in a peripheral area of Mesopotamia in the Old Babylonian period.Template:Sfn

Rituals dedicated to Pinikir often took place at night.Template:Sfn She also often appears in texts alongside the Hurrian "Goddess of the Night," for example in the text CTH 481 she received a keldi (so-called "goodwill offering") on the roof of the latter deity's temple, while in a variety of fragmentary damaged texts references are made to a purification ritual invoking them both.Template:Sfn The association between them is particularly evident in texts from Samuha,Template:Sfn where Pinikir was worshiped in the temple of the "Goddess of the Night."Template:Sfn

A Hittite text describes a vow to Shaushka made by queen Puduhepa, in which some cultic utensils of Pinikir are mentioned.Template:Sfn

Gary Beckman argues that Pinikir occurs in a single alphabetic Ugaritic ritual text, written as prgl.Template:Sfn This attestation is however regarded as uncertain by Piotr Taracha.Template:Sfn

In Carchemish Pinikir maintained a degree of relevance at least until the middle of the ninth century BCE.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In a Luwian curse formula from this city Pinikir (“Parakaras”) appears alongside Tarhunza, Karhuha, Kubaba, the moon and the sun.Template:Sfn

A theophoric name beginning with the divine name Pirengir (Pinikir) is attested on an administrative tablet of neo-Assyrian provenance found in Tushhan (modern Ziyaret Tepe).Template:Sfn While due to its incomplete preservation the linguistic affinity of the bearer is unknown,Template:Sfn multiple individuals bearing Hurrian names are attested from this location,Template:Sfn while none have been identified as Elamite.Template:Sfn The phraseology of the text in mention indicates the people listed in it might have been deportees from other parts of the Assyrian empire.Template:Sfn

Inscriptions of Esarhaddon mention that he ordered the king of Shupria to round up Assyrian fugitives in the temple of a deity named Pirig-gal.Template:Sfn John MacGinnis identifies this deity as Pinikir.Template:Sfn It is possible that the Shuprians were related to Hurrians, though it is far from certain and this guess is only based on a handful of names of kings.Template:Sfn

Disproved theories

Walther Hinz, an early researcher of Elam, believed that Pinikir was one and the same as Kiririsha, and that the latter was merely a "taboo name".Template:Sfn The theory of Elamite divine "taboo names" in general and specifically of the alleged equivalence between Pinikir and Kiririsha (and between Humban and Napirisha) is considered discredited by modern researchers of Elamite religion such as Wouter Henkelman and François Vallat.Template:Sfn Kiririsha and Pinikir have their origin in pantheons of different parts of Elam (Liyan and Awan, respectively),Template:Sfn were worshiped separately at Chogha Zanbil,Template:Sfn and both appear in an inscription accompanying a bronze relief from Susa.Template:Sfn Additionally, while Pinikir is compared both in ancient texts and in modern scholarship to Ishtar,Template:Sfn Kiririsha is instead regarded as similar to Ninhursag.Template:Sfn

The view that Pinikir and Kirirsha were one deity, pioneered by Hinz,Template:Sfn lead to the formation of a theory that Pinikir was a mother goddess.Template:Sfn However, the title "mother of gods" is only attested for Kiririsha and Mashti.Template:Sfn Heidemarie Koch, who accepts many of Hinz's assumptions about Elamite religion, concludes that Pinikir at most could have absorbed the maternal traits of other deities.Template:Sfn

Hinz also asserted that Pinikir was originally the main deity of Elam,Template:Sfn but there is no evidence for that outside of her position in the Naram-Sin treaty,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and she is attested very infrequently in known Elamite texts.Template:Sfn It has also been pointed out that the deities in the Naram-Sin treaty are not necessarily arranged according to theological importance.Template:Sfn For instance, while Humban is listed as second and Inshushinak only as sixth, the latter is subsequently invoked multiple times while the former is not, possibly indicating greater significance.Template:Sfn