Gazbaba is a deity in Mesopotamian folklore, from Uruk. Gazbaba is a minor Mesopotamian goddess associated with love and sexual attraction. She appears in Old Babylonian god lists and love-incantation formulas alongside Nanaya, Ishtar, Kanisurra, and Išḫara, and in later texts is named (with Kanisurra) among the "Daughters of Ezida" and described as a hairdresser of Nanaya.
No narrative origin story for Gazbaba is preserved in the cited sources. Attestations show her as a minor goddess in southern Mesopotamian textual tradition: she appears in Old Babylonian god lists (e.g., from Nippur and Isin), in an exercise text from Babylon among Uruk-associated deities, in love-incantation formulas alongside major love deities, in the Šurpu collection (glossed ṣayyaḫatu "the smiling one"), and in later theological and cultic-calendar tablets that address her and Kanisurra as the "Daughters of Ezida" and identify them as hairdressers of Nanaya.
The sources provide no iconography or physical description of Gazbaba. Textual forms of her name include variants Kazbaba/Kazba and a hypocoristic form written dKa-az-ba-a-a; beyond these name-forms no pictorial or anthropomorphic traits are attested in the cited materials.
Gazbaba's domain is the love and erotic sphere: her name is most likely derived from Akkadian kazbu, "sexual attraction," and she is invoked in love incantations (e.g., formula "Ishtar, Nanaya, Gazbaba help it!"). In the Šurpu collection she is described as ṣayyaḫatu, "the smiling one." Cultically she functions as a minor attendant figure: in late texts she and Kanisurra are called "Daughters of Ezida" and identified as hairdressers of Nanaya, placing her in a subordinate temple household role rather than as an independent major deity.
'Ain Samiya Goblet
Silver cup from the Middle Bronze Age I, discovered in a tomb at Ain Samiya. (Note: 1. Power tier should be "None", but add a note explaining that historical artifacts don't fit into the typical power tier classification. 2. Add a description of its appearance based on it being a sil)
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Community Record
- [1]Gazbaba - Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors, "Gazbaba," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.wiki
- [2]Wikidata entry Q111982558 (Gazbaba). Wikidata: Gazbaba (Q111982558).wiki