| Mamitu | |
|---|---|
Underworld goddess | |
| Major cult center | Kutha |
| Genealogy | |
| Spouse | Nergal orErra |
| Equivalents | |
| Mandean | Amamit |
Mamitu (Mammitum,Mammitu,Mammi[1]) was aMesopotamian goddess associated with theunderworld. She was regarded as the wife ofNergal, or sometimes of other gods regarded as analogous to him, such asErra. Her importance in Mesopotamian religion was minor, and she was most likely worshiped primarily inKutha, though attestations are available from other cities too. It is possible that she was a forerunner of theMandeanAmamit.
Multiple variants of thetheonym Mamitu are attested incuneiform texts, including(d)ma-ma,dma-mi anddma-mi-tum.[1] As the short form of her name ishomophonous withMami, a goddess of birth or "divinemidwife",[2][a] some researchers treat them as one deity.[5] However, while intheophoric names with elements such asma-ma the identification of the deity invoked is not always possible, they are kept apart in ancient Mesopotamiangod lists, such as theWeidner god list, theNippur god list and bothAn = Anum and itsOld Babylonian forerunner.[1] Longer forms of the name, such as Mammītu, with the exception of a single passage from theEpic of Gilgamesh were never used to refer to Mami or any analogous deity.[6] The goddess Mammītu who is responsible for the declaration of destiny alongside "Anunnaku, the great gods" in this composition (tablet X, lines 319–322) is commonly identified as Mami rather than Mammitum by modern translators.[7] The opposite approach was common in early editions, but Rim Nurullin points out that the parallel passage inAtrahasis confirms that this interpretation is incorrect.[6]
It has been suggested that like in the case of Mami, Mamitu's name goes back to alallwort for mother, though it is also possible that might instead derive from the terms "oath" or "frost" (Akkadianmammû; also "ice").[1] If the last of these possibilities is correct, its meaning might be "wintry".[8]
Mamitu was associated with theunderworld.[9]
As already attested inOld Babylonian sources, Mammitum's spouse wasNergal.[1]Wilfred G. Lambert noted that pairing them with each other was standard in this period, but from theKassite period onward Mamitu came to be replaced byLaṣ.[10] The god listAn = Anum mentions both of them and equates them with each other.[5] However, inNippur god list Laṣ occurs separately from Nergal,[11] while Mamitum is listed alongside him.[12] It is possible that they coexisted inKutha in the second millennium BCE.[13] While a further goddess,Ereshkigal, could also be regarded as the wife of Nergal,[14] there is no evidence that she was ever equated with Mamitu.[15]
Mamitu could also be regarded as the wife ofErra,[2] who came to be identified with Nergal from the Old Babylonian period onward.[16] In theEpic of Erra, she appears as the wife of the eponymous god,[17] though in this text he is referred both as Erra and Nergal at various points.[18]An = Anum also refers to her as the wife ofMeslamtaea, though in this context he is directly identified with Nergal.[1]
Douglas Frayne has proposed that inTell al-Wilayah in theUr III period Mamitu was regarded as the spouse of the local god Aški, who he interprets as an early form of Ḫuškia (later attested as a byname of Nergal;An = Anum, tablet VI line 5), as opposed to an alternate writing ofAshgi as sometimes suggested.[19]
Cinzia Pappi argues that the name of the goddess Taški(m)-Mamma is a theophoric name, possibly one originally belonging to a ruler, and that based on apparent connection to the underworld and groundwater she displays it can be presumed that it invokes Mamitu, rather than Mami.[20] This deity is known from texts fromMari, where she was already worshiped in theŠakkanakku period.[21] She also received offerings during the reign ofZimri-Lim, and textual sources indicate atemple dedicated to her existed in the city.[20]
The earliest possible attestations of Mamitu occur intheophoric names from theEarly Dynastic andOld Akkadian periods with elements such asma-ma, which also occur in bothAkkadian andAmorite onomasticon in later periods, though the identification of the deity invoked in them with certainty is impossible.[1] According to Marcos Such-Gutiérrez, it can be presumed that Mamitu appears in two names fromAdab from between the Old Akkadian andUr III periods, as the theophoric element is spelled as ma-mi-tum in this case.[22] According to Douglas Frayne, names invoking her occur commonly in texts fromTell al-Wilayah from the Ur III period.[19] Cinzia Pappi argues that she appears in theophoric names fromOld BabylonianMari as well.[20] However, according to Ichiro Nakatadma-ma anddma-am-ma most likely represent the divine midwifeMami in this text corpus.[23] Examples of Akkadian theophoric names invoking Mammitum are also known fromSusa from the same period.[24] However, Christa Müller-Kessler and Karlheinz Kessler state that ultimately she was entirely unknown outside of Mesopotamia.[14]
Mamitu's importance inMesopotamian religion was minor.[15] In the Old Babylonian period she received offerings in theEkur temple complex inNippur alongsideNergal.[12] However, most likely her significance was limited toKutha and its immediate surroundings.[25] Frans Wiggermann argues that she was initially introduced to the local pantheon alongsideErra.[5] She continued to be worshiped there until the first millennium BCE.[14] A hymn toNanaya most likely composed no later than 744-734 BCE which enumerates goddesses of various cities lists Mamitu as the deity Kutha.[26] The last available attestation of her from this city are theophoric names in aHellenistic text dated to the year 226 BCE, though the evaluation of the scope of her cult is difficult as few cuneiform texts from late periods have been recovered from this site.[14] She was also worshiped inBabylon.[27] In a new year ritual from this city which according toWilfred G. Lambert predates the reign ofNebuchadnezzar I and the rise ofMarduk to the position of the head of the Mesopotamian pantheon which enumerates deities arriving in theakitu building, Mamitu is listed as one of the deities from Kutha alongside Nergal andLaṣ, next to Marduk,Zarpanitu and members of the pantheons ofKish (Zababa andBau) andBorsippa (Nabu,Nanaya andSutītu).[28] She was also worshiped in Babylon in later periods, as evidenced by attestations of theophoric names invoking her in two texts dated to the 23rd year of the reign ofNebuchadnezzar II (Mammitu-silim) and the sixth year of the reign ofCyrus (Mammitu-silat), respectively.[14]
It is possible that due to thecult of Mamitu retaining a degree of importance in both Babylon and Kutha in late periods, she came to be incorporated intoMandaean tradition.[27][b] Christa Müller-Kessler and Karlheinz Kessler propose that Mamitu corresponds toAmamit (ˀmˀmyt, less commonlymˀmyt), who is attested as ademon in thefifth book of the Ginzā Yamina.[30] Amamit is described as a daughter ofQin and spouse ofZartai-Zartanai, and her name can also function as an epithet ofLibat, the planetVenus.[31]
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