Kippat-māti
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Kippat-māti or Kippatu[2] was a Mesopotamian goddess. She is almost exclusively attested in Neo-Assyrian state rituals. It is possible that she was regarded as capable of mediating between the kings of Assyria and their dead ancestors. Textual sources indicate that she was depicted on a relief commissioned by Sennacherib which depicted a beetle between Ashur, his allies and Tiamat.
The theonym Kippat-māti was written in cuneiform as dkip-pat-KUR.[3] A shortened form, Kippatu,[2] dkip-pa-tu4, is also attested.[3] The full form of the name can be translated from Akkadian as "circumference of the earth",[4] "circle of the earth"[5] or "totality of the earth".[6]
Salvatore Gaspa proposes that based on the meaning of Kippat-māti's name she can be connected with the pattern of concentric circles on the robes of Neo-Assyrian rulers, which following his interpretation might have been a symbol of her, as well as a representation of the king's dominion over the world.[1] It is possible that she was also believed to function as a divine mediator capable of interceding between the kings and their dead ancestors.[7]
Associations with other deities
In Neo-Assyrian sources describing rituals held in Assur in the months Šabāṭu and Addāru, Kippat-māti commonly appears as a member of a group consisting of her, Tashmetum and Šērūa, worshiped together the temple of Ashur.[1][4][a] Sometimes the deity Kutatāte appears as an additional member of the group.[4] However, Zachary M. Rubin proposes that during the reign of Sennacherib Kippat-māti was promoted as a replacement for Tashmetum, rather than as another member of the same group of deities.[10]
Hanspeter Schaudig suggests that Kippat-māti was regarded as the wife of Nuska in Assyria.[2] He notes that they appear in sequence in a tākultu ritual from the reign of Aššur-etil-ilāni, and that in a Neo-Assyrian hymn both Kippat-māti and Nuska's usual spouse Sadarnunna are paired with him in parallel.[11] Additionally, Kippat-māti is seemingly assigned Sadarnunna's position as a daughter of Anu, possibly hinting at conflation of the two goddesses in this context.[11] The same tradition might be documented in an inscription of Adad-nirari II in which Kippat-māti is described as the spouse of a god whose name is not preserved.[11] However, she might have been regarded as unmarried in earlier periods.[11]
In a single ritual text from the reign of Sennacherib (tablet BM 121206), which apparently deals with the placement of statues, Kippat-māti is paired with Enlil.[12]
Worship
Most references to Kippat-māti have been identified in texts pertaining to Neo-Assyrian state rituals.[4] According to Shana Zaia, she only starts to appear in this context during the reign of Sennacherib, and might have been a new deity invented during his theological reforms.[6] However, Hanspeter Schaudig points out that she already appears in texts from the reign of Adad-nirari II.[11] Jaume Llop-Raduà dates a single attestation even earlier, to the Middle Assyrian period.[13][b]
Kippat-māti is listed in the so-called Götteradressbuch, a list of deities worshiped in Assur compiled by Kiṣir-Aššur during the reign of Ashurbanipal.[14] She was worshiped in the temple of Ashur.[5]
In the tākultu ritual prepared by Issar-šumu-ēreš for Ashurbanipal, Kippat-māti is listed twice, with the second entry specified as an image representing the goddess.[15][5] She is also mentioned in a later tākultu from the reign of Aššur-etil-ilāni.[11][16]