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Concept
Siduri
Summary
Siduri, or more accurately Šiduri (Shiduri), is a character in the Epic of Gilgamesh. She is described as an alewife. The oldest preserved version of the composition to contain the episode involving her leaves her nameless, and in the later standard edition compiled by Sîn-lēqi-unninni her name only appears in a single line. She is named Naḫmazulel or Naḫmizulen in the preserved fragments of Hurrian and Hittite translations. It has been proposed that her name in the standard edition is derived from an epithet applied to her by the Hurrian translator, šiduri, "young woman." An alternate proposal instead connects it with the Akkadian personal name Šī-dūrī, "she is my protection." In all versions of the myth in which she appears, she offers advice to the hero, but the exact contents of the passage vary. Possible existence of Biblical and Greek reflections of the Šiduri passage is a subject of scholarly debate.
In other contexts, the epithet šiduri could refer to various goddesses, including Hurrian Allani, Ishara and Allanzu, as well as Mesopotamian Ishtar. However, equating Ishtar with the alewife from the Epic of Gilgamesh is regarded as incorrect.
The name Šiduri (dSI-du-ri) is often transcribed as Siduri, but based on alternate orthographies from outside the Epic of Gilgamesh Andrew R. George concludes that the former spelling is more accurate. The alewife is nameless in the preserved Old Babylonian fragments of the Epic of Gilgamesh, and even in the standard edition only a single line directly refers to her as Šiduri. Her name is preceded by the dingir sign, so-called "divine determinative," and it is assumed that she should be understood as a deity.
The etymology of the name is a matter of debate, with two theories being presently regarded as plausible. According to Wilfred G. Lambert, it is likely derived from the ordinary Akkadian personal name Šī-dūrī, known from the Ur III period, which he interpreted as "she is my wall (metaphorically: protection),: but a second proposal, already acknowledged as a possibility by Lambert, connects it with the Hurrian word šiduri, "young woman.
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