Pinikir, also known as Pinigir, Pirengir, Pirinkir, and Parakaras, was an Ancient Near Eastern astral goddess who originates in Elamite religious beliefs. While she is only infrequently attested in Elamite documents, she achieved a degree of prominence in Hurrian religion. Due to her presence in pantheons of many parts of the Ancient Near East, from Anatolia to Iran, modern researchers refer to her as a "cosmopolitan deity."
Early scholarship incorrectly identified her as one and the same as Kiririsha, an unrelated goddess from a different part of Elam.
Myths & Legends[]
Hittitologist Gary Beckman proposes that Pinikir’s name has Sumerian origin and has been derived from pirig.gal, "great feline." However, according to Piotr Taracha, this proposal cannot be proven conclusively. While it was assumed in the past that a deity named Pirig-gal appears in the inscriptions of the Hurrian king Tish-atal of Urkesh,subsequent research has shown that this was a misreading and the name inscribed is actually that of Nergal. John MacGinnis argues that a deity named Pirig-gal, attested in an inscription of Esarhaddon, can be identified as Pinikir nonetheless.
Multiple spellings are attested both in Elamite (Pi-ni-gir, Bi-ni-gir, Bi-ne-en-gi-ir, Pi-in-gi-ir-ra) and Hurro-Hittite (Pi-ri-in-kir, Pi-re-en-kir, Pi-ri-kir, Pi-ri-ki-ir, Pi-ri-in-ki-ir) sources. It is possible that some of the latter were read as “Piriggir.” In the Yazılıkaya sanctuary, Pinikir’s name is spelled in hieroglyphs as PURUS+ra/i.
Pinikir was an astral deity, possibly a divine representation of the planet Venus. In Elam she was known as kikki galirra, "mistress of heaven" According to Kamyar Abdi, in Elamite context she was additionally considered the goddess of love and sex.
Based on a bronze plaque from Susa depicting a procession of warrior deities and inscribed with names of various Elamite deities, including Pinikir (but also Kiririsha, Lagamar, Nahhunte and Manzat) Kamyar Abdi argues that Pinikir was viewed as a warrior goddess in Elam. Javier Álvarez-Mon interprets the deities depicted as male and as "a version of (highland) Elamite Sebitti" instead. It has also been proposed that the figures might be deified kings. Pinikir was additionally seemingly associated with warfare, and especially with war horses, at least in Hurro-Hittite context.
In Hurrian sources, Pinikir’s gender varies. An example of masculine Pinikir can be found on the reliefs in Yazılıkaya, where the deity is depicted as winged, similarly to the masculine form of Shaushka (another Hurrian deity whose gender shows some ambiguity) and the moon god Kusuh. The masculine Pinikir is also depicted in a type of skullcap associated with the sun god Shimige and with mortal kings. The similarity to iconography of solar and lunar gods highlights the deity’s celestial character.
Pinikir was sometimes represented symbolically in the form of a disc
Pinikir was closely associated with Ishtar. In a text written in Akkadian but found in a corpus of Hurro-Hittite rituals Pinikir’s name is written logographically as dIŠTAR, and Sin, Ningal and Shamash appear as her parents and twin brother, respectively. Both in this text and at least one more source her sukkal (attendant deity) is Ilabrat/Ninshubur. Daniel T. Potts additionally proposed in 1981 that it is possible that due to an association between Pinikir and Ishtar the former's possible consort (a role he assigns to Humban) would have acquired Tammuz-like traits but concludes himself that this is "pure speculation."
A god list from Emar equates Pinikir with Ninsianna, a Mesopotamian goddess representing the planet Venus. Ninsianna in turn was also identified as dIŠTAR.MUL ("Ishtar of the star"), which indicates that Pinikir was likely also viewed as a celestial body.Ninsianna’s gender varies between sources, similar to Pinikir's in Hurrian texts.
In Hurrian sources Pinikir frequently appears alongside so-called "Goddess of the Night." They are regarded as a dyad in scholarship. The worship of pairs of goddesses with similar domains (for example Ishara and Allani, Hutena and Hutellura, Ninatta and Kulitta) as dyads was a common feature of Hurrian religion.
Gary Beckman notes that Pinikir's association with war horses in Hurro-Hittite sources is similar to that between Ashtart and the same animals, documented in sources from Egypt and Syria, and proposes a connection existed between these two deities.