The God’s and Goddessesof

The Red TentSally Little, Kaylee Smith, Whitney Robinson, Hanna Allen,

Philip Cope

Uttu

Within The Red Tent, Uttu is the personal

deity of Bilhah.“Bilhah’s grain offerings were made to Uttu, the weaver.”

(Diamant 90)

Uttu is known as the weaver goddess. She is the daughter of Nanna, god of the moon, and Ninhursag, the mother of

the plains. She taught women how to weave, which stopped mortals from walking around naked and freezing

to death.

Nanna

Within The Red Tent, Nanna is the father

of Uttu mentioned in the story told by

Bilhah,

“Nanna scoffed and said that women were too stupid to

remember the order of cutting…but because he loved

his daughter he let her go.” (Diamant 79)

Nanna, which is Sin in Babylonian religions, is the god of the moon. He is the father of the sun god, Shamash, and the weaver goddess, Uttu. His symbol is a crescent, just

like the crescent moon.

Nanshe

Nanshe is the daughter of Enki and Ninhursag. She was a goddess of social justice, prophecy, fertility, and fishing. She was heavily associated with water, like her father. Her seat of

power was the Sirara temple in the city of Nina..Within The Red Tent, Nanshe is the interpreter of dreams, the goddess of water and fertility, and Zilpah’s

beloved goddess— This is why Rachel decides to steal the

teraphim.

She was wide-eyed. ‘This tree, this place, this is where she is, my little goddess,

Nanshe.’ The sisters sat up to hear Zilpah speak the name of her own deity, something

done only on a deathbed. Their sister felt herself at the end of hope, and her voice

was choked with tears as she said ‘You too, sisters. All of your named gods abide here.

This is the place where we are known, where we know how to serve. I will be death

to leave. I know it” (Diamant 89).

Gula

Gula is the goddess of healing. She is often depicted as a woman with a dog. People dedicated small dog statues in

hopes of being healed. She helped restore the world after the “Great Flood”.

Within The Red Tent, Gula functions as the

personal deity of Rachel and Inna.

“Gula, quicken the deliveryGula, I appeal to you, miserable

and distraught Tortured by pain, your servant

Be merciful and hear this prayer” (Diamant 59).

Enlil

Enlil is the first father and god of the sky, air, wind and storms. He is the son of An (Heaven)

and Ki (Earth).

Within The Red Tent, Enlil is depicted as the

first father and as a story to comfort the wives and

children.

“It was nothing exalted, only a children’s song… who was snatched away by An and

Enlil, the sky gods, and placed in the heavens to

teach him a lesson” (Diamant 109).

Taweret

Taweret is a water horse that stands on its hind legs with an enormous belly and a smile. Taweret ensures

an easy labor.

Within The Red Tent, Taweret is used to help Dinah have an easy labor when she delivers her son, Bar-Shalem.

“Taweret,” she said, touching the clay figure and moving her hand to my belly. Like a woman in labor, she

placed the figure between her legs to show me that Taweret would ensure

an easy labor”(Diamant 222).

Osiris

Osiris is the Egyptian god of the underworld, worshiped as a fertility, resurrection, and vegetation god. Married

to Isis, the sky goddess.

Within The Red Tent,Osiris is portrayed as the god

of life, death, and fertilization.

“His wife has no knack with growing things, and my mother tells me you have the Osiris’s own touch with the

soil” (Diamant 263).

Ninhursag

Ninhursag is a Sumerian mother goddess, “Lady of the Foothills,” mother of the plains. She is a goddess of the earth and fertility. She wears a horned headdress and

tiered skirt and keeps a lion cub by her side.

Within The Red Tent, Ninhursag appears in the ancient creation stories

Dinah’s sisters tell.

“Zilpah talked about gods and goddesses almost more than she

spoke about people...I loved her stories about Ninhursag, the great mother, and Enlil, the first father” (Diamant

13).

Innana

Innana is the Sumerian goddess of night, sexual love, fertility, and warfare.

Within The Red Tent, Innana is presented as The great mother that gives gifts to women that is

not known among men, and this is the secret of blood.

“In the red tent, where days pass like a gentle stream, as the gift of Innana

courses through us, cleansing the body of last month's death, preparing the body to receive the new month's life, women give thanks-for repose and

restoration, for the knowledge that life comes from between our legs, and that

life costs blood.” (Diamant 153).

Innana

Innana is the Queen of Heaven and Earth and the Goddess of Love. She is also Goddess of Grain, War,

Fertility, and Sexual Love, as well.Within The Red Tent,

Innana is part of all the females lives. She is

mentioned a lot when it comes time for birth or

the “first blood.”

“Mother! Innana! Queen of the Night! Accept the blood offering

of your daughter, in her mother’s name, in your name. In her blood may she live. In her blood may she give life.”

(Diamant 172)

El

El is the leader of all Canaanite gods, the creator. He lives on Mount Saphon. El is represented as an older man; he

sometimes appears with a bull’s horns, which symbolize strength.

Within The Red Tent, El stands as the god of

men, namely, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. He will exist

later as Yahweh to Hebrews.

“El was the only god to whom Jacob bowed down- a jealous, mysterious god, too

fearsome (he said) to be fashioned as an idol by human hands, too big to be

contained by any place -even a place as big as the sky” (Diamant 61).

El’s Place in the NovelIn many ways, El is simply another god to the female characters

in the book. They do not challenge his existence; rather, they see him as another god in an increasingly large terephim. In

many ways, El begins to weaken the feminine gods and goddesses .

El is the god of the male characters in the novel. For example, Jacob spreads tells the story of his father’s near sacrifice to his

sons. El slowly replaces the terephim of gods and goddesses. He is the creator and destroyer of all things.

In short, the men and the women almost had a separate religion.

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