Inshushinak
Inshushinak was the tutelary god of the city of Susa in Elam. His name has a Sumerian etymology, and can be translated as "lord of Susa". He was associated with kingship, and as a result appears in the names and epithets of multiple Elamite rulers. In Susa he was the main god of the local pantheon, though his status in other parts of Elam might have been different. He was also connected with justice and the underworld. His iconography is uncertain, though it is possible snakes were his symbolic animals. Two Mesopotamian deities incorporated into Elamite tradition, Lagamal and Ishmekarab, were regarded as his assistants. He was chiefly worshiped in Susa, where multiple temples dedicated to him existed. Attestations from other Elamite cities are less common. He is also attested in Mesopotamian sources, where he could be recognized as an underworld deity or as an equivalent of Ninurta. He plays a role in the so-called Susa Funerary Texts, which despite being found in Susa were written in Akkadian and might contain instructions for the dead arriving in the underworld.
Name
Inshushinak's name can be translated as "lord of Susa". It is a loanword which originated in Sumerian, with apheresis, otherwise rarely attested in this language, resulting in the shift from dnin-šušinak to Inshushinak. As suggested by Frans Wiggermann, Inshushinak's name might have originally developed in the Uruk period, when according to him Mesopotamians established a colony in Susa. He proposes that alongside Ninazu, Ningishzida, Ishtaran and Tishpak he can be considered one of the members of a category of deities he refers to as the "Transtigridian snake gods", who likely developed on the border between the cultural spheres of Mesopotamia and Elam.The most common spelling of Inshushinak's name in cuneiform was dIn-šu-ši-na-ak, though other phonetic syllabic variants such as dIn-su-uš-na-ak, In-sú-uš-nak, dIn-šu-uš-na-ak and Šu-ši-na-ak are also attested, in addition to logographic ones. A well attested example of the latter is dMÚŠ. In Neo-Elamite sources the variant dMÚŠ.LAM is attested, with the last sign presumed to be derived from the Akkadian term lammu, used to designate the underworld. Further logographic spellings include dMÚŠ.EREN, dNIN.MÚŠ.EREN and dMÚŠ.ḪU.LAM.
Character
Tutelary god of Susa
It is assumed that Inshushinak's original role was that of tutelary god of Susa. He was also the main deity of the local pantheon, the ruler of the gods. He was also considered a royal god by Elamite rulers. An early Elamite source, the treaty with Naram-Sin of Akkad, states that "to the god Inshushinak a king is subject", while in later times he was frequently invoked in royal theophoric names and epithets. For example, Atta-hushu referred to himself as the "shepherd of Inshushinak". Shutrukids commonly used the title " whose kingdom Inshushinak loves". Multiple rulers dedicated new construction projects to Inshushinak. Jan Tavernier argues Inshushinak was initially elevated to a high position by Puzur-Inshushinak, and states that through history it reflected the political position of Susa, similarly to how the changes in the position of Marduk in Babylonia reflected the fate of the city of Babylon. Wouter Henkelman states that while Inshushinak's primacy was recognized across the Elamite lowlands around Susa, Elamite religion, like other ancient religions, should be understood as a "patchwork of local traditions", and as a result further east Humban and Napirisha were more commonly recognized as deities of comparable status instead. An inscription of Shilhak-Inshushinak refers to Inshushinak as the "greatest of gods", though the same epithet is also applied to Humban in this text. Katrin De Graef suggests that an oath from the Sukkalmah period which invokes Napirisha before Inshushinak might indicate that at the time Susa was a dependence of Anshan, where the former was recognized as the main deity.Inshushinak was strongly associated with the acropolis of Susa, its most elevated section, and he could be accordingly referred to as its lord. An inscription from a stele of Shilhak-Inshushinak invoked him under this title and implored him to listen to his prayers and grant him his various requests.
God of justice
Another well attested aspect of Inshushinak's character was his role as a divine judge, which exemplified his connection to justice. In the Sukkalmah period he frequently appears in oath formulas in economic and legal documents alongside Ishmekarab. Sources from the same period also state that parties in agreements committed themselves to them by touching the kidinnu or kitin of this god. This term is variously translated as "god-given royal power", "divinely-enforced legal protection", "legal authority", "legal order, rules" or "divine symbol, emblem". Its meaning is ultimately uncertain, though as pointed out by De Graef, it is possible that it was represented symbolically by a statue or an emblem, as indicated by the references to touching it. In the Neo-Elamite period the concept of kitin started to appear in royal inscription too, and one such text, attributed to Shutruk-Nahhunte, invokes Inshushinak as the deity responsible for bestowing kitin alongside the king.Underworld god
Inshushinak was also associated with the underworld and textual sources from Susa indicate that he was believed to reside in it. He was considered its lord in local tradition as well. Furthermore, his judicial authority was believed to extend to the land of the dead. However, it is not certain if he was recognized as the god of the underworld in the entirety of Elam, and it is possible individual areas had their own deities fulfilling an analogous role in local pantheons. Jan Tavernier notes an analogous role has been proposed for Kiririsha in Liyan and for Upurkupak in Choga Pahn, though he stresses this remains speculative. In the Neo-Elamite period, Inshushinak's underworld aspect apparently overshadowed all his other functions. He could be referred to as temti kukunnum lahakra, which is commonly translated as "lord of the dead in the kukunnum", a type of temple. However, it has been pointed out that the Elamite word stem laha- can also be translated as "hidden" or "secret", and it is not certain that epithets including it necessarily designated a given deity as related to the underworld; even in Inshushinak’s case it might have been used to refer to his other qualities. Yasmina Wicks on this basis translates it as "the lord who is hidden in the kukkunum".Iconography
Inshushinak's iconography remains uncertain. It is assumed that the god handing the rod-and-ring symbol to a king on a stele of Untash-Napirisha from Susa is likely to be a depiction of him. While a connection between Inshushinak and snakes is not confirmed by textual sources, it has nonetheless been proposed that he was associated with these animals in. It has been argued that a god depicted alongside a snake and a spring depicted on Elamite seals and reliefs from the beginning of the second millennium BCE up to the reign of Untrash-Napirisha might be him, though identification with Napirisha has also been proposed. Jan Tavernier goes as far as stating that snakes constituted his main symbol. Javier Álvarez-Mon instead suggests he might have been associated with a creature common in Elamite art which he describes as the "bird-headed griffin", though he stresses it is not impossible it was linked to other Elamite deities as well. Representations of these beings inscribed with a dedication to Inshushinak are known from Chogha Zanbil, but their native name is not preserved. Yasmina Wicks suggests that a fish-woman depicted on the aforementioned stele of Untash-Napirisha, who she compares to other similar hybrids attested in Elamite art, might have been an apotropaic being associated with him.The figures on the Middle Elamite reliefs from the walls of the temple of Inshushinak are presumed to depict intercessory minor goddesses and bull-men.
Associations with other deities
Lagamal and Ishmekarab
and Ishmekarab, who both originated as Mesopotamian deities, were regarded as Inshushinak's assistants, and like him played a role in the journey of the dead to the afterlife in Elamite religion. During the judgment of the dead, Lagamal most likely acted as the prosecutor and Ishmekarab as a defender, as suggested based on the respective meanings of their names, "who has no mercy" and “who hears the prayer”. Wouter Henkelman metaphorically describes them as advocatus diaboli and advocatus dei. They were also responsible for executing Inshushinak's judgments.In the past it was commonly assumed that Ishmekarab was regarded as Inshushinak's spouse, though this proposal relies on the assumption the former was a female deity, which remains uncertain. An inheritance document indicates that it was believed that Inshushinak and Ishmekarab were responsible for establishing the customary view that the position of a brother by adoption was equal to that of a biological brother.
Napirisha and Kiririsha
There is evidence that Inshushinak could form a triad with Napirisha and Kiririsha. It originally formed no earlier than in the first half of the nineteenth century BCE, with references only starting to appear commonly in texts from the Middle Elamite period. These three deities are invoked together in Untash-Napirisha's inscriptions from Chogha Zanbil and in texts attributed to Shilhak-Inshushinak. It has been suggested that since Inshushinak was the lead god of Susa and Napirisha held an analogous position in Anshan, rulers might have sometimes attempted to present them the same figure. For example, in a number of texts from Chogha Zanbil plural forms are not used when these two gods invoked at once where they would be necessary according to the grammar of the Elamite language. It has been argued that the relief, which depicts a male deity variously interpreted as either of them by modern authors, might have been a product of this process. Milad Jahangirfar states that most likely both of them nonetheless maintained separate identities, though Inshushinak likely acquired some traits from Napirisha.In the past attempts have been made to present Kiririsha as the spouse of both Inshushinak and Napirisha, but this view is not considered plausible anymore. Primary sources commonly recognize her and Napirisha as a couple.