At the beginning of the year I attempted to do a sort of deep dive or serious study of ancient Elam with a focus on the ancient Elamite religion. Short of buying a few books that were just too expensive – seriously, why are textbooks expensive? - I feel like I learned a lot in these past two months. Part of my self-study plan involved some writing projects and painting a deity. The deity I decided to paint was the goddess Narundi. So, let me introduce you to Narundi!

[intro]

Before I begin, I want to apologize if I mispronounce any names or words during this episode. The Elamite language is a dead language and is actually considered to be a language isolate. I'm not sure how to pronounce words in Elamite but I've done my best in this episode.

The ancient Elamites were said to have "more than 30 gods and goddesses" according to a treaty between the Akkadian Empire and Elam. Unfortunately, not all of these gods are known and not much information has survived about gods and goddesses that we do know about.

The goddess Narundi is known from a surviving statue of the goddess that currently sits in the Louvre in Paris, France. While very few statues and other work depicting the gods and goddesses of ancient Elam have survived, the statue of a seated Narundi is one of the lucky ones to remain.

Narundi is depicted in this stone statue as sitting on a throne. Lions are seen on the sides of the statue. Narundi herself is wearing Mesopotamian styled clothing and the two inscriptions on the throne are written in Akkadian and Elamite. The inscriptions state the name of the goddess "Narundi" and the name of who probably commissioned the statue "Puzur-Inshushinak, Price of Awan".

Puzur-Inshushinak, also called Kutik-Inshushinak, was a prince of the Awan dynasty in Susa.

Judging from this statue, we can guess that Narundi was associated with lions which were a symbol of strength. Given the close relationship that Elam had to Mesopotamia, there might also be a connection between Narundi and the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna or Ishtar who was also associated with lions. Inanna was a goddess of war, fertility, love and sex. It is possible that Narundi may have also had these attributes either on her own or by her association with the Mesopotamian goddess.

The goddess is seen holding a goblet in one hand and a palm leaf in the other hand. Both of her hands are positioned in front of her breast as well. It is possible that Narundi was also a goddess of nourishment. She may have had aspects of fertility and motherhood associated with her.

Finally, Narundi wears a headdress in a Mesopotamian style. The headdress is made out of three pairs of horns showing someone of high rank. Her high rank could lead us to see her as a goddess of empires and kings. Perhaps one who protects kings and empires during times of war.

We do have to be careful when inferring aspects of the Elamite gods and goddesses based on their seemingly Mesopotamian counterparts. Not much has survived in terms of information regarding ancient Elam and so we just do not know a lot about the polytheistic religion of that region in the ancient world.

The surviving statue of Narundi can tell us a lot about the goddess but it does not tell us everything. Still, it is amazing how art has survived for so long and how much detail there is in a stone statue.

I want to thank you for listening to this episode of the podcast. If you are interested in learning more about Narundi or the Elamite pantheon, please check out my blog at FlowersForGods.com. Also, do not hesitate to send me a message on twitter, instagram, facebook or tumblr. Personally, I have a growing interest in the ancient Elamite pantheon and religion so I would love to talk more about this topic.

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---Elamite Gods & Elamite Polytheism: http://flowersforgods.com/elamite-gods-elamite-polytheism/

Blog: FlowersforGods.comInstagram & tumblr: @flowersforgodsTwitter: @LongoAtelier