KU-PA₃-PA₃
Kubaba, Sumerian Kug-Baba 'Pure is Baba' (divine or personal name)
- Reading
- Kubaba
- Confidence
- Probable
- Root
- Kubaba (Sumerian Kug-Baba 'pure Baba', Haas 1994, 406; kug = ellu 'pure', CAD E 102)
- Kind
- Divine
- Language
- Sumerian
- Rank
- #77 of the top 100
Compared forms
- Sumerianku₃-ᵈba-ba₆ Kug-Baba, the woman tavern-keeper (munus lu₂-kurun-na) who made firm the foundations of Kish and reigned 100 years (Sumerian King List 224–227, CDLI P479895); Ur III PN Ku-ba-ba-e (Monti 2017, 179)
- AkkadianOld Babylonian awat Kubaba ša šarrūtam iṣbatu ‘the case of Kubaba, who seized the kingship’ (CAD Ṣ 32); ᵈNIN ku-ba-ba GAŠAN KUR.URU kar-ga-miš ‘Lady Kubaba, Lady of the land of Carchemish’ (RS 17.146; DULAT 208); ᵈku₃-KA₂ ᵈ15 ša uru gar-ga-mis ‘Kubaba, Ištar of Carchemish’ (SAA 2 6:469; CAD R 359)
- Old AssyrianKubabat (ku-ba-ba-at), with the Semitic feminine -t, in the pantheon of Kaneš (Haas 1994, 384, 406, 614); PNN Ṣilli-Kubabat, Ummi-Kubabat (CDLI P357798, P360824)
- Ugaritic𐎋𐎁𐎁𐎊kbbykbby PN ‘Kubaba’ (KTU 4.695:7), syllabic {f}ku-ba-ba, wife of Arḫalba, king of Ugarit (RS 16.144:6) (DULAT 419; Watson 2012, 332; Kinlaw 1967, 74); Hurrian kbbd ‘for Kubaba’ (KTU 1.116:23; Pardee 2002, 94–95)
- AmoriteKupapa fem. DN (Gelb 1980, 23); ʾAlli-Kupapa, Baʿli-Kupapa (Gelb 1980, nos. 708, 2094); Mari ḫa-ià-ku-ba-ba ‘Kubaba is alive’ (Weeden 2009, 96 n. 118)
- HurrianᵈKu-pa-pa, gen. Ku-ba-ba-be, with Adamma and Ḫašuntarḫi (Laroche 1980, 150); Alalakh fKubaba-danni (AT 364:7; Draffkorn 1959, 39)
- HittiteᵈKu-pa-pa, ᵈKu-ba-ba, in the circle of Ḫebat (van Gessel 1998, 264–266; Haas 1994, 406–407)
- Luwianthe ‘Queen’ of Carchemish, her name written with rhombus, bird and vessel (Haas 1994, 406)
Attestations1 cited
Commentary
HT 88, under KI-RO ·: KU-PA₃-PA₃ 1, then KA-JU 1 and KU-PA₃-NU 1, in a list of single units totalled KU-RO 6. Kubaba sign for sign, with PA₃ in its proposed value ba. The name is Sumerian Kug-Baba ‘Pure is Baba’: the Sumerian King List writes ku₃-ᵈba-ba₆ for the tavern-keeper who founded Kish (SKL 224–227), an Old Babylonian omen already calls her Kubaba (CAD Ṣ 32), and Haas reads the goddess of Carchemish the same way, ‘reine Baba’, the Sumerian Kar ‘trading place’ in her city’s name supporting it (Haas 1994, 406). Haas holds her identity with Phrygian Kybele and Lydian Kybebe secure (Haas 1994, 408). The goddess and women bear the name alike, and on HT 88 it names the goddess, a woman or a cult institution. Rival: an Old Syrian-Anatolian name of unknown meaning (Haas 1994, 406), with Assyrian KÙ.KA₂ kù-bābu ‘holy gate’ a folk etymology at most (Haas 1994, 406). One attestation.