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Ḫurrian Sala(s)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Eric Burrows S.J.
Affiliation:
Campion Hall, Oxford.

Abstract

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Type
Miscellaneous Communications
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1927

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References

page 319 note 1 Virgo bears an ear of corn; in another aspect she is Astraea, Justice; by virtue of her name she could be Virgo Caelestis. The poet has worked in all this: spicifera (2), Ceres (4); iusti inventrix . . . . (2), lance . . . . pensitans (5); Libyae colendum (7). The identification with Justice may be connected with the Scales which follow her in the Zodiac. The Lion, precedes her: hence imminet Leoni (1), which is verified also in the mythology of the lion-drawn Mater Divum (4). Pax and Virtus (4), if not secondary developments of one of the above, possibly represent the other stellar aspect of the Syrian Goddess, Venus-star. Virtus could refer to the Morning Star, the divinity of which regularly stands for strength in Semitic, and is probably named therefrom as 'Uzzā, 'Azīz; and Pax would be a fair Latin equivalent to Arsu, Monimos (Mun'im), Favour, etc., names of the Evening Star-god as antithetic to 'Azīz. . . .

page 319 note 2 It denotes the young daughter of the Mitannic king, and so connotes either daughter or maiden; obviously, as name of a goddess, the latter meaning is more likely; naturally the word may have had both senses.

page 320 note 1 It is not clear why dŠala was related to absim (vegetation) or spica, though the fact is certain. She ought to be a vegetation-goddess, but the evidence is supposed to indicate a goddess of snow-mountains. If this view is correct, it would seem that she must have had a secondary vegetational character (e.g. due to west-Sem. Etymology, e.g. Can. spica?).