Did Urartian Šiwini Imitate Mesopotamian Šamaš?

Document Type : Original Research

Author
Maryam Dara
Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Texts and Inscriptions Research Center of RICHT, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Sun deities had sometimes the function of judgment during antiquity. Mesopotamian Šamaš and Urartian Šiwini are of similar examples. Their function as the Judge Deity was more significant than the sun function. Šamaš was the great sun in mythological texts but the judge in royal inscriptions. Šiwini is mentiond in ending and cursing formula of the royal inscriptions to punish the destructor and the enemy. He sometims accompanied two other significant deities in Urartian Pantheon, Ḫaldi and Teišeba. Šiwini had been exhibited and pictured as the winged disc or a horse which are both symbols of Šamaš as well. Accordingly, the similarities between Šamaš and Šiwini are doubtless. Simultaneously, they have differences as the way they are mentiond in inscriptions and Šiwini’s third place in Urartian pantheon. It is the aim of the author to compare these two deities through reviewing the texts they are mentioned in to demonstrate the absolute effect of Šamaš over Šiwini and to refuse the exact imitation of Šiwini from Šamaš.

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The International Journal of Humanities
Volume 27, Issue 2
Winter 2020
Pages 43-52