RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIESduring the two months following the vernal equinox when raiding
was forbidden (Gk. anathema).10
Several ancient native deities were still venerated in late Sasanian
Iraq. Shamash (the sun), Sin (the moon), Bel (the planet Jupiter), Nanai,
and Nergal (the planet Mars) are all invoked as benevolent powers
on a Syriac incantation bowl from Nippur.ll Bel and Nabu (the planet
Mercury) were associated with Babil and were objects of sacrifice at
the court of Shapiir H.12 A virgin goddess called 'Ishshar-Bel (Joy of
Bel) was known at Hatra in the third century and survived until the
fourth century as Sharbel, the patroness of Irbil.13 The great goddess
of Mesopotamia had several names during the Sasanian period, but
she was also still known by her original name of Nanai (from the
Sumerian Inanna), "the great goddess of the entire earth."14 The cult
of Nanai was originally associated with the regions of Maysan and
Babylonia. She was worshiped in Beth Garme in the fourth and fifth
centuries because of the resettlement of ninety families from Maysan
at a village near Kirkuk by Shapiir H, who had brought the cult of
Nanai along with them. She was also venerated in Beth 'Arbhaye and
at the court of Shapiir H.1S This goddess of procreation and destruction,
of war and of love was also worshiped as the Babylonian Ishtar, and
as such was popular both as goddess and as demon on the Nippur
incantation bowls.^16 In the fifth century, she was worshiped with li-
bations and sacrifices as Bedukht at the town of Dumma below Kal-
wadha and in nearby Radhan.^17 Through syncretism she was identified
with the Iranian goddess, Anahit, who may have been worshiped as
Mammai in the Diyala region in the fifth century. IS She was also
identified with the planet Venus as Dlibat Ishtar, and "Dlibat the
10 Mas'iidi, Muruj, 1,118; Prokopios, Wars, Il. xvi. 18; xix. 33-34; Scher, "Histoire
nestorienne," Il(2), 468; Trimingham, Christianity, pp. 242, 248.
11 Montgomery, Incantation Texts, pp. 238-40.
12 Hoffmann, Persischer Martyrer, p. 29.
13 W. Ismail, "The Worship of Allat at Hatra," Sumer 32 (1976), 179; J. T. Milik,
Dedicaces faites par des dieux (Palmyre, Hatra, TyrJ et des thiases semitiques Cl l'epoque
romaine (Paris, 1972), pp. 337-44; Peeters, "Passionaire d'Adiabene," p. 277. Ismail
argues that Joy of Bel and virgin (,srbl btlh) were epithets of Allat whose representation
at Hatra was assimilated to that of Athena, and who seems to have been served and
venerated by women.
14 Hoffmann, Persischer Martyrer, p. 29.
15 Ibid., pp. 29, 49, 131.
16 Neusner, History, p. 231; Yamauchi, Incantation Texts, pp. 165, 169,205,207,
229,273,277; Peeters, "Passionaire d'Adiabene," p. 277.
17 Hoffmann, Persischer Martyrer, pp. 72, 74, 128-30.
18 Ibid., pp. 74, 139.