Belet-Seri
Lady of the Steppe
In her paper Prayers from Him Who Is Unable to Make Offerings: The Cult of Bēlet-ṣēri at Late Babylonian Uruk, Julia Krull singles out the Goddess Belet-Seri from the Sumerian pantheon. Her name means Lady of the Steppe. She is a scribe, assigned to serve the Goddess Ereshkigal who ruled over the Underworld. Sometimes, Belet-Seri’s name is also translated as Lady of the Wilderness. Belet-Seri was associated with both the steppe and the Underworld.
Steppe & Underworld
The steppe is a very sparse and inhospitable environment, and this is also true for how the Ancient Babylonians viewed the Underworld; barren and uncultivated. The word seru, steppe or wilderness, was also used as one of the names for the netherworld and the steppe was thus seen as an entry point to the Underworld, a place where the living could not go. There are other sources of information, like sales contracts and written instructions and incantations, as well as legal documents that refer to the Goddess, even though not many religious texts have survived from that period.
Magic & Celebration
Belet-Seri mirrors the royal scribe in the Underworld. She sits at the entrance and all who enter must present themselves to her. The Goddess held a list with names of those who were admitted into the Underworld. She is described as squatting before Ereshkigal, a tablet in her hand and reading aloud. She was also regularly called upon to assist in binding spells and averting or healing disease that was brought on by malevolent spirits. In the later Uruk period, she was one of the most celebrated deities of the pantheon.
Divination & Divine Justice
Belet-Seri has scribal authority over the fates of witches, demons and ghosts. She is Goddess of Divination, usually through extispicy, involving the entrails of animals after sacrifice and later also takes on the role of purifier and is responsible for women’s healthcare. She likes to be exact and places emphasis on her role of a sort of guardian of the worlds, keeping evil spirits trapped in the Underworld, while rewarding and assisting those she deems worthy. And again, worthiness is determined by actions and thoughts, rather than a personal preference for someone’s personality. She is very thorough in this respect.