Oracle of Nusku

The oracle of Nusku was a slave-girl from the outskirts of Harran who lived at the time of the late Neo-Assyrian Empire and was heavily involved in the Sasî movement, which aimed to depose the king Esarhaddon. In 671 BC she claimed to receive a divine message from the god Nusku that the Assyrian official Sasi was to become king and that Esarhaddon and his family were to be destroyed. The oracle placed herself under the protection of Sasi, became a leading figure of a conspiracy to seat him on the throne and continued to speak in support of him. Sasi's rapid gain of supporters, including influential figures in the imperial administration, is probably attributable to the great personal charisma of the oracle.

The conspirators were defeated through some means in 670 BC and Sasi and the oracle were presumably captured and executed. Though they did not dethrone Esarhaddon, Esarhaddon's subsequent great massacre of officials and generals loyal to Sasi may have been a major contributing factor to the fall of the Assyrian Empire less than a century later.

Biography The oracle was a slave-girl from the outskirts of the city of Harran. At the time of making her prophecy concerning Sasi she belonged to a man named Bel-ahu-usur. She was not actually a professional prophetess nor employed in a temple. or the "maid-servant from the House of Sasi".

In 671 BC, shortly after Esarhaddon successfully conquered Egypt, the oracle claimed to have received a divine message from the god Nusku and proclaimed Sasi as the king of Assyria, ecstatically uttering the prophecy "This is the word of the god Nusku: Kingship belongs to Sasi. I shall destroy the name and the seed of Sennacherib!". The oracle thus spoke the supposed words of Nusku directly, unlike most other prophecies and as if she was being possessed by the god and acted as his mouthpiece. The aftermath of the Sasi conspiracy also marked the second massacre of capable officials and generals conducted in Esarhaddon's reign; a lack of such officials and later failures in replacing them may have been one of the major reasons for the fall of the Assyrian Empire in the late 7th century BC.