Abstract

Many depictions and representations of the Mesopotamian goddess Nanaja are attested from about the second Century BC until the second Century AD. During this time the cult of Nanaja, equated by the Greeks with Artemis, reached its climax, being attested from Greece and Egypt to far-away Bactria. Her iconographic characteristica are those of a moon-goddess. In cuneiform texts Nanaja is regarded as daughter of the moon-god Sîn, but there are no indications that she was a moon-goddess herseif; so this trait of Nanaja seems to be the result of a late development.