Abstract
The Eblaite royal wedding ritual is preserved in two parallel versions: for Irkab-damu and Iš‛ar-damu, the last two kings (ARET XI 1, 2). A monthly and an annual administrative document register the goods given to the people who took part in the rite. The wedding was celebrated in nenaš, in the vicinity of the city, seat of the mausoleum of the ancestors, who had to bestow their blessing: the Mother-goddess declared that as from that moment “there is a new Kura (the city-god) and a new Barama (his paredra)”, so “there is a new king and a new queen”, (this although the king had already reigned for several years). Every year, in the same month, the benediction of the ancestors was renewed by a commemorative rite in nenaš. The king and queen had to wear a special garment: a maštāpu; the rite took place in the temple of Ganana, the goddess “who decrees the fate”. Every royal child (male and female), moreover, was presented at the temple of Rasap, at Ebla, but for the crown prince (at his birth) a rite was celebrated at the goddess’ temple in the same month as the wedding of his parents. The name of the goddess derives from*gnn, Heb., Aram. “to cover; to protect”, Akk. ganānum “to confine”. The goddess was not considered part of a couple with the Lord of Ganana, whose temple must be localized on the Euphrates, between the kingdom of Emar and the sanctuary of Dagan at Tuttul.
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