Belili

Belili, or Belit-ili or Belet-ili (Belela among the Semitic peoples), She was a lunar goddess, originally a minor divinity, revered by the Sumerians. Said Sumerian goddess was also called Gesht-inanna, sister of Dumuzi, and wife of Ningizzida. In Babylonian religion she is sometimes made the wife of Bel. The invasions of the 18th century a. C.diluted the presence of towns that worshiped Belili.

Name

The name of Belili does not coincide with an acceptable etymology in Sumerian or in any Semitic language. Based on its structure, it has been compared to other divine names whose origin also remains a mystery, including Alala, Aruru, Bunene, and Zababa. Belili has also been attested as an ordinary name, known in both Mesopotamia and Elam. Names with this structure are particularly common in early Akkadian documents from Gasur (later known as Nuzi). It has been proposed that such names, both divine and ordinary, originate from a substrate language (the so-called "proto-euphratic").

The theonym Belili has been considered to be a contracted or corrupted verb form of the epithet Belet-ili. This theory is today considered unfounded.

Character

Belili appears in two separate documents in Mesopotamian texts as the sister of Dumuzi and as the primordial deity among Anu's ancestors. Andrew R. George and Wilfred G. Lambert form a school of thought where Dumuzi's sister and Anu's said ancestor are considered to be the same goddess.

Sister of Dumuzi

An explicit reference to Belili as Dumuzi's sister is only present in the myth The Descent of Ishtar, although they also appear together in other texts. Other deities considered relatives of Dumuzi include Geshtinanna, well attested in literature and cultural tradition as her sister, their mother being Duttur. Belili is described as a mourner in the Šurpu series of charms, which is used as evidence of her family relationship with Dumuzi.

It has been argued that, as with Belet-Seri, Belili was the Akkadian counterpart to Geshtinanna. However, Manfred Krebernik considers Belili and Gesthinanna to be two independent goddesses. Krebernik alleges that both could be described as Dumuzi's sister. In addition, both appear in separate roles in the myth Dumuzi's Dream.

Primordial Deity

In lists of the ancestors of the sky god Anu, Belili was typically paired with Alala, and together they rank last in multiple documents listing such deities. This probably indicates that they could be considered as the parents of Anu. In the Udug Hul series of incantations they appear in an enumeration of primitive deities: "Dūri, Dāri; Laḫmu, Laḫamu; Engur, Ningarra; Alāla; Bēlili". A single list of gods (K 4349) equates them with each other. According to Andrew R. George, this couple is also present in an unpublished hymn dedicated to the city of Borsippa. However, they were not associated with each other in other contexts and, according to Wilfred G. Lambert, it is possible that they only came to be considered a pair due to both names being iterative.

Worship

Belili used to be worshiped alongside Dumuzi. E-Arali (Sumerian: "house, underworld "), a well-known shrine to this god located at his cult center Bad-tibira, also appears as a place dedicated to Belili in the List of canonical temples. Another temple dedicated to both was the E-erra (Sumerian: "house of lamentation"), although its location is unknown.

A temple dedicated to Belili, the Ekadimma, was located in Babylon. In a single administrative text it is paired with a poorly attested Shara temple for unknown reasons. Andrew R. George used its absence from the Canonical Temple List to estimate the date of composition of this document as the second half of the Kassite period, since it is after the founding of Dur-Kurigalzu, but it does not mention the commonly listed temples. in Babylonian and Assyrian sources from the late 2nd and 1st millennium BCE. C., after the fall of the Kassite dynasty. Belili was also worshiped at the Esagil compound, in this case sharing a seat of worship with Alala.

Mythology

Belili is attested in various literary texts dealing with the death of Dumuzi. In Dumuzi's Dream, Dumuzi wants to hide in her house while the demons chase her. Belili accepts and offers her water, but then has to leave, allowing the pursuers to break into her house and take Dumuzi to the underworld. She is described as an old woman. Geshtinanna appears in the same myth in a different role. In Ishtar's Descent, a late Akkadian reinterpretation of an earlier Sumerian myth, Belili hears the wailing heard when Dumuzi dies and has to enter the underworld. The term used to describe these sounds is ikkillu, "an inarticulate cry expressing high-intensity suffering".

In the Desert by the Early Grass, a collection of laments dedicated to dying gods temporarily mourned by their respective mothers or sisters, mentions Belili along with Amashilama, Ninazimua, Geshtinanna and three deities whose names are not preserved. [[Category:Mesopotamian Goddesses]]