132 herbert niehr
he procures pastures, victuals, and offerings for all the deities; and he lets
all countries be bountiful (lines 1–5). hadad’s warlike traits are expressed
in his epithet gbr “hero” (line 12; cf. qardu “warlike, heroic” in line 18 of
the assyrian version).
hadad of guzana, the aramaean weather-god, dominated the Jazira
region as hadad of aleppo did for the region between the euphrates and
the Mediterranean.19 the god hadad, mentioned parallel to the god Ḫaldi
(Kai 320) in an inscription on a stele from Bukan southeast of lake Urmia
dating to the 8th century B.c., might be the weather-god of guzana. the
closely related textual equivalents in the curses of the inscriptions of tell
Fekheriye and Bukan bear this out.20
the goddess Šuwala is attested in anatolia, northern syria, and north-
ern Mesopotamia from the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.c.21 she is
a chthonic goddess and appears often in connection with nergal, the god
of the underworld, such as in tell Fekherye, where she is named “Mistress”
of the statue’s donor as hadad is named his “lord”. thus, she apparently
is the paredros of hadad and resembles the goddess Šala, who appears in
northern syria as paredros to the deities addu, Kumarbi, and Dagan from
old Babylonian times onward.22
the third deity mentioned by name in the inscription is nergal (line 23).
he is the god of all ills, and the weather-god’s curses threaten pestilence
as the scourge of nergal and his paredros.
the deities named collectively in line 4 are the remaining deities of the
sikani pantheon. as they are divine beings, they are called “brothers” of
hadad. the distinction in rank between them and hadad is expressed by
the fact that hadad, the highest deity, distributes the offerings to them.
continuing with the kingdom of Baliḫ (or also Ḫuzirina),23 one finds at
the top of the harran24 pantheon the lunar deity sin. his cult is attested
in Mari from the 18th century B.c. and in Mittani from the 14th century
B.c. researchers are still divided on the origins of this cult. one opinion
19 cf. Fales 2011: 233.
20 on the inscription, cf. lemaire 1998a; id. 1998b; Fales 2003; id. 2011b: 565. on the
curses, see section 2.2.
21 on the goddess Šuwala, cf. lipiński 2009b.
22 cf. Feliu 2003: 288–293; schwemer 2008a: 147–149; id. 2008b.
23 on the kingdom of Baliḫ, cf. the details in lipiński 2000a: 121–123, 127–130, 132 and
niehr 2010a: 229–234.
24 on harran, cf. the details in niehr 2010a: 229f; on the cult of harran, cf. especially
cramer 1986: 642f; tubach 1986: 129–175; Beaulieu 1989: 43–65; green 1992; d’agostino
1994; gündüz 1994; lipiński 1994: 171–192; holloway 1995; theuer 2000: 323–369; niehr
2010a: 230–232.