The Gods and Goddesses of The Red Tent

The God’s and Goddesses of The Red Tent Sally Little, Kaylee Smith, Whitney Robinson, Hanna Allen, Philip Cope

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. Within The Red Tent, Uttu is the personal deity of Bilhah. “Bilhah’s grain offerings were made to Uttu, the weaver. ” (Diamant 90)

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. 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)

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 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 delivery Gula, I appeal to you, miserable and distraught Tortured by pain, your servant Be merciful and hear this prayer” (Diamant 59).

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 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 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 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 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 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 Novel In 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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