Shullat and Hanish
Shullat (Šûllat) and Hanish (Ḫaniš) were a pair of Mesopotamian gods. They were usually treated as inseparable, and appear together in various works of literature. Their character was regarded as warlike and destructive, and they were associated with the weather. Names Multiple syllabic spellings of the name Shullat are attested in cuneiform texts, including dśu-ul-la-at, dšu-il-la-at, dšu-ul-la-at and dsu-ul-ut. The spelling of Hanish's name was consistently dḫa-ni-iš. Shullat's name was sometimes written logographically as dPA and Hanish's as dLUGAL. Ignace Gelb proposed that their names were derived from the Akkadian words šullatum, "despoilment," and ḫanīšum, "submission," but Dietz-Otto Edzard and Wilfred G. Lambert note that while it is certain that both were derived from a Semitic language, their precise meaning is unknown, and it cannot be ruled out that speculative etymologies were already present in ancient scholarship. Daniel Schwemer in a more recent study concludes that no fully plausible etymology has yet been proposed for either name. Character In most known sources Shullat and Hanish appear as a pair. Douglas Frayne goes as far as proposing they should be understood as a single deity with a compound name, similar to Ugaritic Kothar-wa-Khasis. However, while references to them in an inscription of Shulgi are grammatically singular, the view that they were a single deity, rather than a pair, is otherwise not accepted by researchers. The god list the god list An = Anum refers to them as šena-ilān(a), "two gods" or "twin gods." Paul-Alain Beaulieu considers them to be two of the deities who entered the Mesopotamian pantheon in the early period of interaction between speakers of Sumerian and Akkadian. He notes that unlike some of the other deities of the latter group, for example Shamash, they were not identified with any Sumerian deities, but nonetheless entered the common pantheon as minor deities. Shullat and Hanish are assumed to be minor weather deities. Andrew R. George proposes identifying them as personifications of gale. However, as noted by Daniel Schwemer, while it has been proposed in the past that Hanish was in origin an independent Ishkur-like weather deity, no known sources support this conclusion. Both of them were described as warlike and destructive. An omen text mentions the pair marching alongside troops on campaign. Andrew R. George describes them as "twin agents of destruction." It is possible that both of them were associated with Ishkur/Adad, but the extent of this connection is uncertain. In a Šurpu passage, they occur near Adad and alongside his children Misharu and Uṣur-amāssu. In astrological texts and in the god list An = Anum, Shullat could be identified with Shamash, and Hanish with Adad. However, elsewhere, for example in the Epic of Gilgamesh, they are treated as separate deities. "Twin stars" associated with Shullat and Hanish in various works of Mesopotamian astronomy might correspond to Mu Centauri and V Centauri. Worship The cult center of Shullat and Hanish is presently unknown. The oldest attestations of worship of this pair are theophoric names from the Sargonic period. For