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Ishara
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ishara (išḫara, ishkhara) is the Hittite word for "treaty, binding promise", also personified as a goddess of the oath. The word is attested as a loanword in the Assyrian Kültepe texts from the 19th century BC, and is as such the earliest attestation of a word of any Indo-European language.
The name is from a PIE root *sh2ei "to bind (also magically)", also in Greek himas "strap" and Old Norse / Old High German seil "rope". Possibly also cognate is soul, and Welsh Gwen-hwyfar (Irish Find-abair, from Proto-Celtic *vindo-siabraid "white phantom", from a meaning "enchanted" of the extended root *sh2ei-bh-).
As a goddess, Ishara could inflict severe bodily penalties to oathbreakers, in particular ascites (see Hittite military oath). In this context, she came to be seen as a "goddess of medicine" whose pity was invoked in case of illness. There was even a verb, isharis- "to be afflicted by the illness of Ishara".
Ishara's main Mesopotamian cult centre was the Babylonian town of Kisurra, but she is also thought to have been worshipped across a wide area amongst Syrians, Canaanites, and Hittites.
ishar (or eshar), oblique ishan-, the Hittite for "blood" is probably derived from the same root, maybe from a notion of "bond" between blood-relations (c.f. Sanskrit bandhu). The verb ishiya "to bind, fetter", "to oblige" is directly cognate to Sanskrit syati or Russian shyot with similar meanings.
Michael Jordon, Encyclopedia of Gods, Kyle Cathie Limited, 2002
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