Beletseri-Akkadian

 

Belet-Seri was a Mesopotamian goddess who served as a scribe in the court of the underworld goddess Ereshkigal. She could be regarded as the Akkadian counterpart of Sumerian Geshtinanna, but the name could also function as a title of Ašratum, the wife of Amurru, or as a fully independent deity.


The name Belet-Seri means "mistress of the steppe.The Akkadian word ṣēru, in addition to its literal meaning, could also refer to the underworld. Old Babylonian incantations, such as Udug-hul, attest that Belet-Seri was envisioned as a scribe of the underworld (ṭupšarrat arallê). It has been proposed that she was meant to server as a mirror of the royal scribe (ṭupšar ekalli) in the underworld court of Ereshkigal. She was most likely believed to hold a list containing the names of the dead, on the basis of which they were admitted to the underworld. Her role is described in the Epic of Gilgamesh when Enkidu has a vision of the underworld in a dream. In the incantation series Maqlû, Šurpu, and Bīt Mēseri she is asked to bind demons and witches and prevent them from leaving the underworld.

At an undetermined point in the second millennium BCE, Belet-Seri developed an association with the goddess Gula and by extension with medicine.

Julia Krul proposes that in Hellenistic Uruk Belet-Seri came to be seen as the vizier (sukkal) of Ereshkigal and perhaps Anu, as she received offerings alongside Papsukkal, well attested in such a role. She also proposes that she could be associated with Ningishzida, whose cult was still present in this city in late sources.