Lisin
Lisin was a Mesopotamian deity initially regarded as a goddess and addressed as ama, "mother," who later came to be regarded as a god and developed an association with fire. The name was also applied to a star associated with Nabu, presumed to correspond to Antares. Lisin's spouse was Ninsikila, whose gender also changed between periods. It was believed that they had eight children. The initial cult center of Lisin is uncertain, with locations such as Abu Salabikh, Adab and Kesh being often proposed. She is attested in texts from various cities, including Umma, Lagash, Nippur and Meturan. Only a single literary text focused on Lisin is known, a lament in which she mourns the death of one of her sons, for which she blames her mother Ninhursag. Both female and male version of Lisin also appears in other similar texts.
Name and character
Lisin's name was written as dli9-si4 in cuneiform. It is sometimes romanized as Lisi instead. The reading with n as the final consonant is based on genitive forms in which the final sign is na, such as the theophoric name Geme-Lisina. Due to uncertainties about sign values, the spelling dNE.GÙN was used in early Assyriological literature, but it was possible to establish the correct reading based on ancient lexical lists providing pronunciation glosses. The meaning of the name is unknown. Lisin's character also remains poorly known.Gender
Lisin is addressed as ama, "mother," in one of the Early Dynastic Zame Hymns. Authors such as Jeremy Black, Anthony Green and, relying on this fact, describe her as a "mother goddess". However, according to and Jan Lisman this epithet does not necessarily indicate maternal characteristics. According to Joan Goodnick Westenholz, it should be understood as a title highlighting the protective nature of goddesses regarded as tutelary deities of specific cities.Despite ama being her most common epithet, Lisin came to be viewed as a male deity in later periods. In texts postdating the Old Babylonian period, and uncommonly also earlier, the genders of Lisin and her spouse Ninsikila were switched around, and in the god list An = Anum the former is male and the latter female. The fact that in Old Babylonian god lists Lisin precedes Ninsikila might have influenced the reinterpretation of their gender. Furthermore, it is also possible the existence of a Dilmunite goddess homophonous, but not identical, with Ninsikila, whose original name was Meskilak but who came to be referred to as Ninsikila in Mesopotamia, was a factor.
According to Westenholz, the gender of Lisin did not change in laments, in which she continued to be addressed as a female deity even in later periods. However, Paul Delnero states that a fragment of a single lament in which Lisin is male is known. Lisin is also treated as a female deity in Udug Hul, a corpus of incantations which remained in circulation until the end of the use of cuneiform in Mesopotamia.
Later reinterpretation
In various esoteric texts, an association between Lisin and fire and burning developed. An explanatory text, referred to as The Weapon Name Exposition by Alasdair Livingstone, includes an invented Akkadian etymology of Lisin's name. The deity, in this case treated as male, is described as "he who burns with fire" and "he who burns on an offering", relying on the use of the first sign of the name to write the verb qalû, "to burn," and the second one to represent the nouns izi and išātu, "fire". A third explanation of the name provided, "the handsome one, the burning one", relies on explaining the first sign as banû, "to be beautiful", and on treating izi, the value previously established for the second sign, as analogous to qalû.According to Markham J. Geller, an Udug Hul incantation in which Lisin, in this text referred to as a goddess, appears when ingredients needed for the ritual are cooked might also depend on the association with fire. The fact that an esoteric text which equates deities with various materials and objects assigns "white fumes" to Lisin is also presumed to depend on a similar invented etymology. In incantations, Lisin could be associated with a variety of other materials, including hūlu and kibrītu, both presumed to be minerals, horn of the gazelle, and medicinal plants ninû, azupiru, and sahlû.
In Mesopotamian astronomy
In the first millennium BCE in Mesopotamian astronomy Lisin's name came to be used as the designation of the star known today as Antares. Based on the fact that the star could also be referred to as "the breast of the scorpion", Gabriella Spada argues that Lisin herself was at some point associated with scorpions. The compendium MUL.APIN states that praying to the star Lisin when it was visible in the sky could secure good luck as long as all members of the petitioner's household were woken up to partake. According to Hermann Hunger, despite the origin of its name, the star was associated with Nabu.Associations with other deities
was regarded as Lisin's mother, and Šulpae as her father. Her brother was Ashgi. However, for unknown reasons in the Old Babylonian forerunner of the god list An = Anum Lisin appears separately from the section dedicated to Ninhursag and her family.Lisin's spouse was Ninsikila, and eight children are assigned to them in the god list An = Anum: KU-anna, KU-kita, KU-ta-abzu, KU-kita-abzu, Irḫangul, Kituš-Keš, Lalanna and Urnunta-ea. Urnunta-ea is also attested as a daughter of Bau and Ningirsu in early sources from Lagash, which might indicate a degree of interchange between the local pantheons of this state and Kesh.
In literary texts portraying her as a mourning goddess, Lisin could be equated with other similar deities. For example, Antoine Cavigneaux and Manfred Krebernik note the existence of an eršemma composition which implicitly identifies her with Ninhursag, Dingirmaḫ and Ninmug. Mark E. Cohen proposed that Lisin and Dingirmaḫ were already equated in the Early Dynastic period, and that the correspondence between them was responsible for the apparent interest in the Kesh temple hymn among the scribes from Abu Salabikh. Dina Katz additionally notes similarities in the portrayal of Lisin and Duttur as mourning goddesses.
The male form of Lisin could be sometimes treated as comparable to Ninurta, or alternatively as one of the members of his entourage or one of his deified weapons.
In ritual texts from the first millennium BCE, Lisin appears as a member of the household of Nanaya of Euršaba alongside deities such as Qibi-dumqi and Uṣur-amāssu.
Worship
Oldest known attestations of Lisin have been identified in texts from Abu Salabikh. It is assumed that her position in the Mesopotamian pantheon was initially high. However, references to worship of her postdating the third millennium BCE are uncommon, and it is presumed that she lost her initial importance at some point in the Old Babylonian period or earlier.ĜEŠ.GI
Piotr Michalowski states that the main cult center of Lisin is unknown, but Manfred Krebernik and Jan Lisman note that in the final, seventieth section of the Zame Hymns from Early Dynastic Abu Salabikh, she is designated as the tutelary goddess of ĜEŠ.GI. The reading Ĝišgi has been proposed for this toponym. It is referred to with the epithet "good place".Mark E. Cohen proposed identifying ĜEŠ.GI with Abu Salabikh. He argued that it can be assumed Lisin was the city goddess of this site in the Early Dynastic period based on her position as the final deity mentioned in the Zame Hymns. He also noted that the toponym ĜEŠ.GI is otherwise chiefly attested in texts from Nippur, which would match Abu Salabikh's location. It lies 12 kilometers to the northwest of Nippur, and it is possible in antiquity the two sites were linked by a canal. Cohen also notes that excavations at Abu Salabikh indicate that it was abandoned before the Old Babylonian period, when Lisin evidently no longer had a specific cult center. The identification of ĜEŠ.GI as Abu Salabikh is also supported by Manfred Krebernik and Jan Lisman. They propose that the Zame Hymns were originally composed to commemorate the foundation of a temple dedicated to Lisin, and later were performed during ceremonies commemorating this event. They speculate an annual or otherwise cyclical celebration might have taken place in her honor. However, the identification of Abu Salabikh as ĜEŠ.GI is not universally accepted.