41 Šalaš Consort of Dagan and Kumarbi

The further back in time written sources go and the more gaps are filled relat-
ing to particular areas, the greater is the number of elements which appear to
have been transmitted from one culture to another throughout the history of
the Ancient Near East.
Following certain cults through the centuries enables us to note which re-
lationships were created between various populations, beyond the level of po-
litical events; which beliefs were received; which changes were provoked with-
in cultural systems by the acceptance of external elements. The great cultural
break with the past for Anatolia and Syria coincides with the advent of the
Roman Empire.
In the Ebla texts (24 th century BC) we find the divinity Šalaša, certainly a
minor divinity as she only appears to be attested to four times, and never in
the lists of offerings of sheep which reflect the official cult of the city. In three
passages Šalaša is connected with dWa-da-ʾà-an, who precedes her. Wadaʾan
and Šalaša are the divine couple1 of Gar(r)amu, a place which, according to
the treaty with Abarsal, belonged to Ebla,2 and which must have lain to the
north-east, towards the valley of the Euphrates.3 According to the fourth pas-
sage, given here below, Šalaša, represented by a female statue, was venerated
also at Tuttul on the Baliḫ.
1. TM.75.G.2464 rev. V 4–10: tar babbar:kù šir-za dWa-da-ʾà-an wa dŠa-la-ša
lú Ga-ra-mu ki “Thirty (shekels) of silver for a leaf for the gods Wadaʾan
and Šalaša of Garamu.”
2. TM.75.12505 rev. VII′ 8′–14′: 2 gín kù-gi kinx-ak 4 geštux-lá dWa-˹da-ʾà˺-an
wa dŠa-la-ša dam?-sù [… “Two shekels of gold to make four earrings for the
gods Wadaʾan and Šalaša, his wife (?) […”

Pp. 1–6 in Studio Historiae Ardens. Ancient Near Eastern Studies Presented to Philo H. J. Houwink
ten Cate on the Occasion of his 65 th Birthday, eds. Theo van den Hout, and Johan de Roos.
Leiden. 1995.

1 In the case of divine couples, the first name is that of the male god, which is followed by
that of the female one preceded by the conjunction wa “and”, cf. ARET 7.150 § 2.
2 Sollberger 1980: 135, 67–70 [= ARET 13.5 § 13]: Ga-ra-mu ki in šu en Ib-la ki “G. (is) in the hand
of the king of Ebla.”
3 Ga/Gàr-ra-mu ki cannot be identified with Gàr-mu ki, Gàr-me/mi-um ki, which was an inde-
pendent town ruled by a king, see ARES 2: 231–232, 242 and 239–242 respectively. Gar(r)amu
was a place belonging to the reign of Ebla; certain sons of the vizier Ibrium possessed lands
there, TM.75.G.1452 (Fronzaroli 1980a: 34–35), as well as certain sons of the judge Iram-damu,
ARET 7.156.

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 Šalaš Consort of Dagan and Kumarbi 633

3. ARET 3.540 I 1′–6′: 2 mí[-TÚG] dWa-da-ʾà-an wa dŠa-a-ša lú Ga-ra-mu ki “2

m.-clothes for the gods Wadaʾan and Ša(l)aša of Garamu.”
4. TM.75.G.1771 obv. X 1–15: …] Ib-rí-um níg-ba dBE Du-du-lu ki ša-pi gín DIL-
MUN babbar:kù šir-za 1 an-dùl munus … 17 gín DILMUN kù-gi šir-za sag-
sù 2 šu-sù DU-sù níg-ba dSa-a-ša si-in Du-du-lu ki Ib-rí-um šu-mu-“taka4” “…]
presented by (vizier) Ibrium to the god Lord of Tuttul. Forty shekels of
silver for a leaf for a female statue, seventeen shekels of gold for a leaf for
her head, her two hands and feet: gift for the goddess Ša(l)aša, brought by
Ibrium to Tuttul."

Note the different ways of writing the name of the goddess: dŠa-la-ša (nos. 1,
2); dSa-a-ša (no. 4); dŠa-a-ša (no. 3). At Ebla the sign sa expresses /š/, and ša
is used for /ḏ/ e /ṯ/, a rule which is not, however, always respected.4 Further,
/l+V/ can be expressed simply by V.5
For the Eblaites, therefore, Šalaša was the consort of Wadaʾan(u), a god
attested to in the administrative documents concerning cloth and metals as
rarely as Salasa, but who occurs eight times in the offering lists of sheep.6 This
means that Wadaʾan(u) had been included in the pantheon of Ebla. Another
centre of the cult of Wadaʾanu was A-dab6ki, a minor locality belonging to the
reign of Ebla, like Gar(r)amu, TM.75.G.1771 obv. I 1–14: níg-ba dWa-da-ʾà-nu lú
[A-]dab6ki Ib-rí-um in-na-sum. Of Wadaʾan(u), whose name would appear to be
Semitic, there is no later trace.
At Tuttul, on the other hand, Šalaša was considered to be the consort of
Dagan: passage no. 4 is sufficiently clear on this. Although only mentioned
once for Tuttul, she is the only other divinity known of for that town, apart
from Dagan.7
The name of Dagan is rarely used. In the texts, in general, the god is re-
ferred to by means of the epithet “lord of Tuttul”, dBE Du-du-lu ki(BE = bēlu),
d
Lugal Du-du-lu ki (at Ebla lugal = baʿal, Akk. bēlu), or simply: “god (dingir) of
Tuttul”.8 dBE/dingir kalamtim “Lord/God of the country” is also to be identified
with Dagan, as well as dBE Ga-na-na(ki), a locality of the Middle Euphrates,

4 Krebernik 1982: 214–18. For the variants in the geographical names, see ARES 2: 18.
5 Krebernik 1982: 211. One finds -a- instead of -la- also in the name dḪa-a-ba-du /ḫalabājtu/,
see Archi 1994a: 250 [593], with further literature on the “L Reduktion.” The name is not of
Hurrian origin. The fem. PN Šalašu, borne by a MUNUSŠU.GI from Kizzuwatna, KBo XIX iv 50,
would, instead, appear to derive from the Hurrian šali, šala “daughter”; cf. Haas 1971: 139,
who has pointed to a suffix -šu, which recurs in a number of fem. PNs.
6 For the four lists already published, see Pettinato 1979a: 111.
7 See ARES 2.203 section IV.
8 ARES 2, loc. cit.

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634 Studio Historiae Ardens

and probably some other dBE followed by a geographical name.9 The frequency
of -dDa-gan as a theophoric element in the Eblaite personal names, is analo-
gous to that of -BE.10 At pre-Sargonic Mari we have dLugal Ter5(BAN)-ga, and
in an offering list of the šakkanakkus period dLugal Ter-ga “Lord of Terqa”;
from the OB documents from Mari it appears that “lord of Terqa”, bēl Terqa,
was Dagan.11 The temple of Dagan at Tuttul was the most important sanctuary
of the Middle Euphrates; it was there that the king of Nagar (Tell Brak) swore
friendship to Ebla.12 To the kings of Akkad the importance of this king was
well-known: Sargon declares that he received as a gift “the upper land” (north-
ern Syria) from Dagan, after having prostrated himself before the god at Tut-
tul.13
During the Third Ur dynasty, Dagan receives offerings at the court of Šu-
Sîn, three times alongside Išḫara, the great goddess of Syrian origin, and once
alongside Ḫaburitum, the goddess of the river Ḫabur.14
The ancient tradition created at Tuttul, that Šalaš(a) was the consort of
Dagan is received in the lists of gods of the second millennium.15 In the docu-
mentation of Amorite Mari, Šalaš is not mentioned, possibly because the cult
of Dagan of Terqa was more widely diffused at Mari,16 and Šalaš does not ap-
pear to have been venerated at Terqa. The goddess only appears in a few theo-
phoric feminine personal names, such as dŠa-la-aš-tap-pí, ARM XIII 1 III 26;
d
Ša-la-aš-tu-ri-ja, ARM XXII 10 IV 4.
A thousand years after Ebla, in the Hurrian-Hittite documents, Šalaš is con-
nected with Kumarbi. The goddess has not passed on to new nuptials: more
simply, her former spouse Dagan has been equated with Kumarbi through a
syncretistic process.
In the work of systematization carried out in Babylonia and established in
the great series An = Anum (Middle Assyrian copies), Dagan is equated with
the ancient Enlil and Šalaš with Ninlil (CT 24: 6, 22–23; 22: 120). Dagan is seen
as a god of primary importance, but somewhat in the shadow of Adad, the
great Weather-god of the Amorites, which they had received from the Semitic

9 On Dagan at Ebla, see Pettinato 1985. It must, however, be borne in mind that the principal
god of Ebla was Kura and not Dagan, as affirmed ibid. 244.
10 Krebernik 1988: 150, 157–158.
11 On the pantheon of Mari, see Edzard 1967 (in table 1, p. 69, Da-gan is to be cancelled);
Lambert 1985. The pre-Sargonic texts from Mari have been published by Charpin 1987.
12 Archi 1999c: 198.
13 Sargon b 2; Hirsch 1963: 38.
14 Waetzold 1985b: 248–49.
15 Deimel 1914: 249.
16 Rouault, ARM 16, 1: 254.

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 Šalaš Consort of Dagan and Kumarbi 635

peoples of the third millennium, when the principal centre of the cult of Adad
was already Aleppo (Eblaite Ḫa-lam ki = Ḫalab).17 The fact that in the series
An = Anum the consort of Adad is Šala, a name similar to Šalaš, could mean
that, in the Babylonian theological spheres, Dagan and Adad were perceived
as gods with similar functions.18
In both versions of the treaty between Šuppiluliuma and Šattiwaza, in the
pantheon of Mittani, only Šala appears among the goddesses. This could mean
that, in Mittani, no distinction was made between Šala and Šalaš, and the form
of the name closer to the Hurrian vocabulary was preferred. KBo I 1 rev. 57–58:
(several Teššubs) Nabarbi, Šurūḫi, Aššur MUL, dŠa-la, NIN.É.GAL, Damkina,
Išḫara. KBo I 3 rev. 25–26: (several Teššubs) Nabarbi, Šurūḫi, Ištar DINGIR ù
MUL, dŠa-la, NIN.É.GAL, NIN ajakki, Išḫara, Bardāḫi19
As shown by the Emar texts, Dagan was still one of the principal deities of
the Middle Euphrates in the 13 th century.20 He occupies an important position
in the liturgical calendar, Emar VI.3 446: 8, 50′ (be-el numunmeš “lord of the
seed”), 54′, 62′, 79′, 96′, 99′; 448: 4′, 5′, 18′. In an inventory of objects relating
to the cult and in the zukru-festival, Dagan appears under various epithets,
274: 2: dKur uruTu-ut-túl; 9: dKur ša kara-ši “of the camp”; 10: dKur ša ra-[qa-ti]
“of the bank-field”; 18′: dKur en ni-pi-ši “lord of activity”. 373 (zukru-festival):
156′: dKur en ṣa-lu-li pa-su-ri “lord of protection and praise”; 157′: dKur en ma-
aṣ-ṣa-ri “lord of the guardian”; 161′: dKur iš-pa-a-at “lord of the quiver”; 162′:
d
Kur en ḫa-pa-x; 175′, 176′, 185′, 192′: dKur en bu-qà-ri “lord of cattle”; 195′:
d
Kur a-bu-ma “the father”.
Šalaš, on the other hand, appears only in a fragment of the “Anatolian
Ritual”, which harks back to the Hurrian-Hittite tradition, 480: 3: dŠa-la-aš.21
A central concept of Hurrian religious thought was that the gods had suc-
ceeded each other, generation after generation. For this reason, the Hurrians
had no difficulty in equating Kumarbi, the predecessor of their Weather-god
Teššub, with Enlil, as shown by the trilingual version of the series An = Anum
(Ugaritica 5 (1968) 137 35″–36″, p. 246, where also Ninlil is mentioned as “the
consort of Kumarbi”, [aš-t]e Ku-mur-wi-ni-wi = A[širtum(?)]). On this basis, Ku-
marbi comes to be equated with Dagan and, since in West Semitic dagān
means “wheat”, in the Hittite texts one can find the writing NISABA instead of
Kumarbi and, occasionally, also Ḫalki.22

17 See von Soden 1987; Lambert 1990; Archi 1994a: 250.

18 Deimel 1914: 248–49; Schmökel 1938: 100.
19 Weidner 1923: 32, ll. 57–58; 54 ll. 42–43.
20 See Fleming, 1992: 240–48.
21 On the pantheon of this ritual, see Laroche 1988; Lebrun 1988.
22 The documentation of Ugarit has been studied by Laroche, Ugaritica 5: 453–54, 523–25. For
Kumarbi = NISABA, see Laroche 1948: 117. For Ḫalki, see the study by Kammenhuber 1991.

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636 Studio Historiae Ardens

In the Hurrian of the Hittite archives dŠa-(a-)lu-uš (variants: dŠa-a-la-aš;

d
Ša-la in the treaty with Mittanni) is generally associated with Kumarbi.
In the 10 th tablet of the itkalzi ritual (KUB XXIX 8 (= ChS I 1, 9; perhaps a
later copy of a Middle Hittite tablet) Kumarbi appears with Šalaš at third place
(after Teššub and Šuwalijat = NIN.URTA); this reflects the fact that Kumarbi
belonged to the preceding generation, i 12–20: Teššub – Ḫebat UTU of Arinna;
Šuwalijat – Nabarbi; Kumarbi – dŠa-a-lu-uš dBi-ti-in-ḫi; Ea; Šawuška – Dam-
kina.
In other texts Šaluš appears in the circle, kaluti, of Ḫebat, constituted prev-
alently of goddesses; thus Šaluš precedes Kumarbi. The (ḫ)išuwa-festival, KUB
XII 12 vi 20–25 (similarly v 33 ff., ChS I 4, 23; duplicates KBo XXXIII 194 vi 1–4,
ChS I 4, 26; KUB XXVII 10 vi! 23–24, ChS I 4, 29, where the writing is dŠa-lu-uš)
has: Ḫebat mušuni; dŠa-a-lu-uš – Kumarbi; Aa – Šimegi; Šawuška.23 KBo XV 37
ii 17–23 (duplicates KUB XXXII 90 ii 3–9; IBoT I 24 i! 9–11), iv 14–22: Ḫebat’s
court; dŠa-a-lu-uš – Kumarbi; Aa – Šimegi; Šawuška; Išḫara. The same list ap-
pears in the fragment KBo XXXV 258. A different sequence is to be found in
the ritual KBo XXIV 79, 2–4 (ChS I 2, 22): Šawuška; […]; dŠa-a-lu-uš – Kumarbi;
[…]; Aaiu – Šimegi. KBo XXXIII 121, 2–3: d]Ša-lu-uš Kum[arbi] Nupatik [… .
The epithet (d)Pidenḫi, often attributed to Šalaš, is an ethnic from Piden,
attested in the Alalaḫ Tablets.24 In the ritual KBo V 2, Ḫebat is followed by
certain goddesses such as Išḫara, Allani and Šawuška; there is then the se-
quence, iii 13–15 (duplicate KBo XXVII 131 iii 1–3): Nabarbi, Šūwala, Aiūn –
Ekaldu,25 dŠa-a-lu-uš Bi-te-in-ḫi, Adamma – Kupapa – Ḫašuntarḫi. The same
sequence is found in the ritual (SISKUR) KUB XXVII 1+, dedicated to Šawuška
by Muršili II, and reworked by Ḫattušili III. After many hypostases of Ḫebat
and Šawuška (each followed by divinities closely connected with them) we
have, ii 51–53: Nabarbi; Šūwala; x[…]; Ajan – Ekaldun; dŠa-a-lu-uš B[i-ti-in-ḫi];
Adamma – Kupapa – Ḫašuntarḫi.26 KUB XLV 71, 1 ff. is parallel to this section.
Similar (fragmentary) lists are KBo XX 29 rev. 3 ff. (1. 6: dŠa-la[-aš); KUB LX 51,
1 ff. (2–3: d]˹A˺-i-u-un – dI-g[a-al-du]; dŠa-a-lu-uš d[Bi-ti-in-ḫi]. Perhaps a ritual
for Šawuška is KUB XLV 46, 1. 4: dŠa-a-la-aš Bi-[te-in-ḫi].

Kumarbi corresponds to Enlil also in the Akkadian-Hittite bilingual omen KUB IV 1 iv 22/24,
see Güterbock 1980–83: 325.
23 Cf. Laroche 1948: 131–33.
24 Laroche, 1979: 200; for the writings concerning Šaluš, see ibid. 213.
25 Aja, consort of Šimegi, is a loan from the Akkadian pantheon, where Aja is the consort of
Šamaš. (d)E-kal-du(-un) / dI-kal-ti is often connected to Aja in the Hurrian offering lists (see
Laroche 1979: 39), and it is probably a loan-word too, from Akkadian ikletu “darkness”; Šamaš
is said to be “who brightens the darkness”, munammir ikleti, see CAD, I–J 61.
26 Cf. Lebrun 1976: 80.

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 Šalaš Consort of Dagan and Kumarbi 637

Other lists give Uršui − Iškalli in the place of Aja – Ekaldu, such as KUB
XXVII 8 obv.? 11–14, KBo XX 113 i 20–23, XXXIII 207 ii 8–11: Nābarwi Šūwala;
Uršui Iškalli dŠa-a-la-aš dBi-te-in-ḫi; Adamma – Kupapa – Ḫašunta[rḫi].
KBo XIV 141 ii 2–4 is very fragmentary: dŠ]a-a-lu-uš Bi-t[e-in-ḫi]; A[dam-
ma … .
The list of the gods of the “Rituel aux dieux antiques” stands alone, CTH
492, which for Šalaš gives an entirely anomalous writing, an indication that
this ritual belongs to a different tradition, KUB XVII 20 ii 4–6: Dauija; Kurwašu;
Nekmi; dŠa-lu-un; Menkišuri.
In the pantheon of Yazılıkaya, Kumarbi/NISABA (no. 40) is determinated
by the head of grain, FRUMENTUM, and follows Tašmišu. Amongst the god-
desses, the inscription (DEUS)sa-lu-sa identifies figure no. 52, which appears
between Nabarbi and Damkina.27

27 See Masson 1981: 38. Cf. Haas and Wäfler 1974: 220–22; Güterbock 1982: 44.

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