Sirsir

Sirsir, also known as Ninsirsir,[1] was a Mesopotamian god. He was associated with sailors. It has been proposed that he corresponds to the so-called "boat god" motif known from cylinder seals, but this theory is not universally accepted.

Sirsir
God of sailors
Cylinder seal and modern impression showing the so-called "boat god," a figure sometimes identified with Sirsir. Sargonic period, Oriental Institute Museum.
Other namesNinsirsir

Character

Sirsir was the god of sailors.[2] He could be identified as the boatman of Enki.[3] Proposed translations of his name include "slithering one"[3] and "rower."[1] In the text Marduk's Address to the Demons he appears alongside Laguda, also argued to be a god associated with the sea.[2] A late god list explains his role as that of "Ea of the boatman."[1] In Muššu'e, he is placed in the proximity of Marduk, and identified with Tutu.[4] A single late hymn identifies him as a son of Qingu.[5]

Frans Wiggermann argues that in addition to being the god of sailors, he was also associated with vegetation.[3]

Worship

Sirsir is already present in the Early Dynastic god list from Abu Salabikh.[6] A zami hymn dedicated to him has been found, which indicates he was likely a deity of relatively high rank at this time.[7] He belonged to the pantheon of Eridu.[8] It has also been proposed that he had his own cult city somewhere on the coast of the Persian Gulf.[9]

Mythology

Sirsir appears in the myth Enki and the World Order, in which he is designated as the captain (ensi) of the eponymous god's boat.[1]

In the Enuma Elish, Sirsir is listed as the twenty eighth of the fifty names of Marduk:[6]

Sirsir, who heaped up a mountain on top of Tiamat, Who plundered the corpse of Tiamat with [his] weapons[10]

According to Wilfred G. Lambert, it is possible that this passage was an echo of an originally independent tradition, in which it was Sirsir, rather than Marduk, who battled a personification of the sea.[11]

Sirsir is also mentioned in the text Marduk's Address to the Demons as a deity separate from Marduk:

I am Asallulḫi whom Sirsir nominates in the upper sea, I am Asallulḫi whom Laguda exalts in the lower sea[2]

Sirsir and the "boat god" art motif

It has been proposed that Sirsir can be identified with the so-called "boat god," a motif known from cylinder seals.[6] However, this identification has yet to be conclusively proven.[12]

The boat god is usually depicted transporting the sun god Utu/Shamash.[6] Typical portrayals have a snake tail, though sometimes he can also have two or four legs.[13] A snake or dragon head might be placed on the end of the tail.[13] Most attestations of this motif are known from the Diyala area and the Hamrin Mountains, fewer come from Kish and Mari, and only three or four are known from southern Mesopotamia.[13] Based on the distribution of these works of art and on the serpentine form of the "boat god" Frans Wiggermann proposed an association between him and the gods of the "trans-Tigridian" region, such as Ishtaran from Der and Inshushinak from Susa.[14]

According to Helene J. Kantor, an argument against the identification of the boat god with Sirsir is the apparent relatively high status of the latter in the Early Dynastic sources.[7]

References
  1. Krebernik 2011, p. 554.
  2. Lambert 2013, p. 247.
  3. Wiggermann 2011, p. 674.
  4. Krebernik 2011, pp. 554–555.
  5. Krebernik 2011, p. 555.
  6. Lambert 1997, p. 7.
  7. Kantor 1984, p. 279.
  8. Lambert 2013, p. 255.
  9. Kantor 1984, p. 280.
  10. Lambert 2013, p. 129.
  11. Lambert 2013, p. 246.
  12. Woods 2004, p. 71.
  13. Wiggermann 1997, p. 46.
  14. Wiggermann 1997, p. 47.

Bibliography
  • Kantor, Helene J. (1984). "The Ancestry of the Divine Boat (Sirsir?) of Early Dynastic and Akkadian Glyptic". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. University of Chicago Press. 43 (4): 277–280. ISSN 0022-2968. JSTOR 544843. Retrieved 2022-04-10.
  • Krebernik, Manfred (2011), "Sirsir", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-04-10
  • Lambert, Wilfred G. (1997). "Sumerian Gods: Combining the Evidence of Texts and Art". In Finkel, I. L.; Geller, M. J. (eds.). Sumerian Gods and their Representations. ISBN 978-90-56-93005-9.
  • Lambert, Wilfred G. (2013). Babylonian creation myths. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-1-57506-861-9. OCLC 861537250.
  • Wiggermann, Frans A. M. (1997). "Transtigridian Snake Gods". In Finkel, I. L.; Geller, M. J. (eds.). Sumerian Gods and their Representations. ISBN 978-90-56-93005-9.
  • Wiggermann, Frans A. M. (2011). "Agriculture as Civilization: Sages, Farmers, and Barbarians". Oxford Handbooks Online. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199557301.013.0031.
  • Woods, Christopher E. (2004). "The Sun-God Tablet of Nabû-apla-iddina Revisited". Journal of Cuneiform Studies. American Schools of Oriental Research. 56: 23–103. ISSN 0022-0256. JSTOR 3515920. Retrieved 2022-04-10.
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