The God

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The Gods and GoddessesofThe Red Tent
Sally Little, Kaylee Smith, Whitney Robinson,
Hanna Allen, Philip Cope
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Uttu
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.
Bilhahs grain offerings were made to Uttu, the
weaver. (Diamant 90)
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Nanna
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 cuttingbut
because he loved his daughter he let her go.
(Diamant 79)
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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..
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).
Within The Red Tent, Nanshe is the interpreter of
dreams, the goddess of water and fertility, and
Zilpahs beloved goddess This is why Rachel
decides to steal the teraphim.
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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.
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).
Within The Red Tent, Gula functions as the
personal deity of Rachel and Inna.
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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).
It was nothing exalted, only a childrens song
who was snatched away by An and Enlil, the sky
gods, and placed in the heavens to teach him a
lesson (Diamant 109).
Within The Red Tent, Enlil is depicted as the
first father and as a story to comfort the wives
and children.
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Taweret
Taweret is a water horse that stands on its hind
legs with an enormous belly and a smile. Taweret
ensures an easy labor.
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).
Within The Red Tent, Taweret is used to help
Dinah have an easy labor when she delivers her
son, Bar-Shalem.
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Osiris
Osiris is the Egyptian god of the underworld,
worshiped as a fertility, resurrection, and
vegetation god. Married to Isis, the sky goddess.
His wife has no knack with growing things, and
my mother tells me you have the Osiriss own
touch with the soil (Diamant 263).
Within The Red Tent, Osiris is portrayed as the
god of life, death, and fertilization.
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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.
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).
Within The Red Tent, Ninhursag appears in the
ancient creation stories Dinahs sisters tell.
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Innana
Innana is the Sumerian goddess of night, sexual
love, fertility, and warfare.
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).
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.
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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 mothers
name, in your name. In her blood may she live. In
her blood may she give life. (Diamant 172)
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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 bulls 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).
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Els 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 fathers 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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