Šeri and Ḫurri
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Šeri and Ḫurri were a pair of theriomorphic Hurrian gods who almost always appear together in known sources. They were believed to pull the chariot of Teššub, the Hurrian weather god. Šeri additionally could function as a deity mediating between petitioners and his master, but no individual role was ever assigned to Ḫurri. In addition to appearing in Hurrian offering lists and theophoric names, for example from Nuzi, Šeri and Ḫurri are also attested in Hittite and Mesopotamian sources. While the Hittites incorporated them into their pantheon alongside Teššub and other deities from his circle, in Mesopotamia they instead came to be associated with Adad.
Šeri and Ḫurri almost always occur as a pair in known texts.[1] In oldest sources, the spellings of the names were Šēriš (or Šerriš) and Ḫurra, but later the forms Šeri (Šerri) and Ḫurri predominate.[2] In Emar, the forms Hurraš and Šeliš are attested.[3] A number of unique variants have also been identified in Neo-Assyrian sources, for example Ermiš and Ḫurmiš.[4] While accepted in early scholarship, the view that an Ugaritic form of Šeri's name (written as ṯr in the local alphabetic script) is also attested is now agreed to be a mistake caused by incorrect reading of the word šarri.[5] In standard syllabic cuneiform both names could be written with one of two determinatives, dingir or gud.[1]
It has been proposed that the names of Šeri and Ḫurri might be translated as, respectively, "morning"/"day" and "evening"/"night".[6] Volkert Haas instead etymologized them as "guardian of the throne" (from Hurrian šerše, "throne") and "irrigator" (through analogy with Urartian ḫurrišḫe).[7] However, so far no proposal found universal acceptance.[8]
Character and iconography
Šeri and Ḫurri were regarded as benevolent deities, and in a single text they are jointly referred to with the epithet šinurḫina, "the two righteous ones".[9] A lexical list from Emar equates this term with the Sumerian word maštabba, "twins", which was used to designate pairs of apotropaic figures.[10] Šeri is also at times attested on his own as a deity capable of mediating between petitioners and his master, but no known sources assign any individual characteristics to Ḫurri.[11]
In known texts Šeri and Ḫurri are consistently described as theriomorphic.[12] They were regarded as the divine bulls of Teššub, the Hurrian weather god.[13] They were believed to pull his chariot.[14] According to Alfonso Archi, the first references to two bulls drawing the chariot of a weather god come from texts from Ebla, and it is possible Šeri and Ḫurri were only the Hurrian names of preexisting figures from the circle of Hadda of Halab attested in this text corpus.[15] Depictions of a weather god in a chariot drawn by two bulls are well attested in art of both northern Syria and Anatolia.[16] In Yazılıkaya, Šeri and Ḫurri might be depicted next to Teššub and his family (Ḫepat, Šarruma, Allanzu and Kunzišalli),[17] though this conclusion is not universally accepted.[18] It is also sometimes argued that two bull-like figures from this site (reliefs 28 and 29) represent them, but due to their partially anthropomorphic appearance this is not regarded as a plausible interpretation.[19][12] Piotr Taracha instead labels them as “bull-men standing on a symbol of the Earth and supporting a symbol of Heaven”.[20] Frans Wiggermann interprets these figures as an adaptation of Mesopotamian kusarikku, and similarly concludes they are simply meant to support earth and heaven.[19] Possible depictions of Šeri and Ḫurri have also been identified on an orthostat relief from Malatya and on the golden bowl of Hasanlu.[5]