Hailed as:  “The Great Lady”, “The Lady of Liyan” , “Mistress of the Sky”, “Mother of Gods”, “The Great Consort”.

Pray to her for:  Victory, establishing ownership, destruction of enmity, protection against the evil eye, protection against jealousy, to tame anger, to overcome darkness.

Invoke her powers with:  A handful of black onion seeds kept in a small earthen bowl. Empty out the seeds onto clean earth every Saturday and put in fresh ones.

Kiririsha was the omnipotent mother goddess of Elam, who was referred to as Pinikir in northern Elam. In later times, many aspects of Kiririsha were assimilated into Anahita, the Iranian water goddess.

Kiririsha was capable of both destruction and regeneration.  She was the giver of life and death, disease and good health. So great was her power that she controlled opposites. She controlled battle and victory and votive offerings of battle axes have been found in her temples at Dur-Untash. She was often shown seated on a coiled serpent. On engravings, snakes with horns were sometimes depicted with her.

Kiririsha was a protector goddess, and often, boundary stones and stelae of commemoration were also erected and inscribed, bearing her name at conclusion. Her name was invoked as warning, meaning that any who intruded into the boundaries marked out, or offended the ruler whose name was exalted by the stelae, would be cursed by the great goddess Kiririsha. She would bring utter destruction onto the offender. There is a well-known carved statue, partially broken, of the Queen Napir Asu. It bears an engraving which says:

He who would seize my statue, who would smash it, who would destroy its inscription, who would erase my name, may he be smitted by the curse of Napirisha, of Kiririsha , and of Inshusinak, that his name shall become extinct, that his offspring be barren, that the forces of Beltiya, the great goddess shall sweep down on him.

The name of Kiririsha was also invoked to assume kingship, and take on the power of the throne. There survives an inscription from the time of a king Humban-Numena (or Khumban-Numena) of the middle Elamite period, which reads:

O great god Kiririsha, and the divine protectors of the earth, gods of Liyan, I Humban-numena, son of Attar-kit-tah am the enlarger of the kingdom, the master of the Elamite land, the holder of the Elamite throne, the king of Anzan and Susa; on account of continuity by my mother, the great god chose me and loved me; prosperity established, the crown restored, Inshusinak gave me my kingship.

While the other gods might give victory and riches, it was the goddess Kiririsha who was invoked to assume the power of kingship. Without her blessing, all would be naught.

 Feast of the Pouring Offerings : In addition to regular temple offerings, great feasts were held as public occasions. One of the most important is the Gusum, dedicated to the "Lady of the High City." It is supposed that this refers to a mother goddess who goes back even farther in time than Kiririsha, but by middle Elamite times, it was meant for Kiririsha. There was large scale ritual slaughtering of fattened rams and the flow of blood must have led to it being also called "Feast of the Pouring Offerings”. The meat was roasted and all who were part of the festivities received a piece. The ritual sacrifice was followed by music and song and a lot of festivity. This feast always took place at the new moon at the beginning of autumn. In the early period, this was at the beginning of the new year.

Records of worship of Kiririsha show a sudden disappearance in the late Elamite period.

 

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