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Ninḫursaĝ, sometimes transcribed Ninursag, Ninḫarsag, or Ninḫursaĝa, also known as Damgalnuna or Ninmah, was the ancient Sumerian mother goddess of the mountains, and one of the seven great deities of Sumer. She is known earliest as a nurturing or fertility goddess. Temple hymn sources identify her as the "true and great lady of heaven" and kings of Lagash were "nourished by Ninhursag's milk". She is the tutelary deity to several Sumerian leaders.
Nammu was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as a creator deity in the local theology of Eridu. It is assumed that she was associated with water. She is also well attested in connection with incantations and apotropaic magic. She was regarded as the mother of Enki, and in a single inscription she appears as the wife of Anu, but it is assumed that she usually was not believed to have a spouse. From the Old Babylonian period onwards, she was considered to be the mother of An (Heaven) and Ki (Earth), as well as a representation of the primeval sea/ocean, an association that may have come from influence from the goddess Tiamat.
Ninkasi was the Mesopotamian goddess of beer and brewing. It is possible that in the first millennium BC she was known under the variant name Kurunnītu, derived from a term referring to a type of high quality beer. She was associated with both positive and negative consequences of the consumption of beer. In god lists, such as the An = Anum list and the Weidner god list, she usually appears among the courtiers of the god Enlil, alongside deities such as Ninimma and Ninmada. She could also be paired with Siraš, a goddess of similar character, who sometimes was regarded as her sister. A possible association between her and the underworld deities Nungal and Laṣ is also attested, possibly in reference to the possible negative effects of alcohol consumption.
Siris or Siraš was a Mesopotamian goddess associated with beer. She was also worshiped in Ebla, where her name was spelled as Zilaš. Cognates of her name are also present as terms referring to alcoholic beverages or deities associated with them in languages such as Ugaritic and Hebrew. She was closely associated with another goddess of similar character, Ninkasi, though the nature of the connection between them varies between sources. She is attested in a variety of texts, including god lists, offering lists and a variant of the Ballad of Early Rulers.
Ninti was a Mesopotamian goddess worshiped in Lagash. She was regarded as the mother of Ninkasi. She also appears in the myth Enki and Ninhursag as one of the deities meant to soothe the eponymous god's pain. In this text, her name is reinterpreted first as "lady rib" and then as "lady of the month" through scribal word play.
Aya was a Mesopotamian goddess associated with dawn. Multiple variant names were attributed to her in god lists. She was regarded as the wife of Shamash, the sun god. She was worshiped alongside her husband in Sippar. Multiple royal inscriptions pertaining to this city mention her. She was also associated with the Nadītu community inhabiting it. She is less well attested in the other cult center of Shamash, Larsa, though she was venerated there as well. Additional attestations are available from Uruk, Mari and Assur. Aya was also incorporated into Hurrian religion, and in this context she appears as the wife of Shamash's counterpart Šimige.
Nungal, also known as Manungal and possibly Bēlet-balāṭi, was the Mesopotamian goddess of prisons, sometimes also associated with the underworld. She was worshiped especially in the Ur III period in cities such as Nippur, Lagash and Ur.
Ninimma was a Mesopotamian goddess best known as a courtier of Enlil. She is well attested as a deity associated with scribal arts, and is variously described as a divine scholar, scribe or librarian by modern Assyriologists. She could also serve as an assistant of the birth goddess Ninmah, and a hymn describes her partaking in cutting of umbilical cords and determination of fates. It has also been suggested that she was associated with vegetation. In the Middle Babylonian period she additionally came to be viewed as a healing deity.
Shuzianna was a Mesopotamian goddess. She was chiefly worshiped in Nippur, where she was regarded as a secondary spouse of Enlil. She is also known from the enumerations of children of Enmesharra, while in the myth Enki and Ninmah she is one of the seven minor goddesses helping with the creation of mankind.
Gula was a Mesopotamian goddess of medicine, portrayed as a divine physician and midwife. Over the course of the second and first millennia BCE, she became one of the main deities of the Mesopotamian pantheon, and eventually started to be viewed as the second highest ranked goddess after Ishtar. She was associated with dogs, and could be depicted alongside these animals, for example on kudurru, and receive figurines representing them as votive offerings.
Ningirima was a Mesopotamian goddess associated with incantations, attested already in the Early Dynastic period. She was also associated with snakes, fish and water. According to the god list An = Anum and other sources, she was regarded as a sister of Enlil. While suggestions that she was conflated with the mongoose deity Ninkilim can be found in modern literature, this theory finds no direct support in primary sources.
Ninmug or Ninmuga was a Mesopotamian goddess. She was associated with artisanship, especially with metalworking, as evidenced by her epithet tibira kalamma, "metalworker of the land." She could also be regarded as a goddess of birth and assistant of Ninmah, most likely because the fashioning of statues of deities and the birth of children could be described with the same terms in Sumerian texts. Her main cult centers were Kisiga, whose location remains uncertain, and Adab.
Ninmada was a name applied to two separate Mesopotamian deities, a god and a goddess. The female Ninmada was a divine snake charmer, and in the myth Enki and Ninmah she appears as an assistant of the eponymous goddess. The male Ninmada was called the "worshiper of An" and was regarded as a brother of the snake god Ninazu. It is assumed that these deities could be partially conflated with each other or shared a similar origin, though proposals that there was only one Ninmada are also present in modern scholarship.
Mamu was a Mesopotamian goddess associated with dreams. She was regarded as the daughter of the sun god Shamash (Utu) and could herself be called the "Utu of dreams". References to male Mamu are also known, though it has been proposed that they only represent a late change of gender attested for a number of other originally female deities as well.
Šassūrātu were a group of Mesopotamian goddesses regarded as the assistants of Ninmah. Their name can be translated as "midwives" and they were considered to be tutelary goddesses of pregnant women. They appear in the myth Enki and Ninmah, where they receive individual names, as well as in a late version of Atrahasis.
Ninirigal or Ninirigala was a Mesopotamian goddess associated with Kullaba, a district belonging to the city of Uruk. Her character is poorly known beyond her role as a tutelary goddess of this area. Her husband was a god known under the name Nunbaranna, most likely an epithet of the fire god Gibil.
Sadarnunna was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as the wife of Nuska. Very little is known about her individual character. She was worshiped in Nippur, and appears alongside other deities of this city in texts from the Ur III period already. In later times she is also attested in sources from other locations, for example Harran and Uruk.
Nin-MAR.KI was a Mesopotamian goddess. The reading and meaning of her name remain uncertain, though options such as Ninmar and Ninmarki can be found in literature. In the past the form Ninkimar was also in use. She was considered the divine protector of cattle, and additionally functioned as an oath deity. She might have been associated with long distance trade as well. It is possible that in art she was depicted in the company of birds, similar to her mother Nanshe. Other deities associated with her include other members of the pantheon Lagash, such as Dumuzi-abzu and Hendursaga.
Aruru was a Mesopotamian goddess. The origin of her name is presently uncertain. While initially considered an independent deity associated with vegetation and portrayed in hymns as violent, she eventually came to be viewed as analogous Ninhursag. Her name could also function as an epithet of goddesses such as Nisaba and Ezina-Kusu. She was often called the older sister of Enlil. Her cult centers most likely were the cities of Kesh, Adab and Irisaĝrig. She appears in a number of literary texts, some of which preserve information about her original character. She is also present in the Epic of Gilgamesh, which portrays her as the creator of Enkidu.
Epithets of Inanna were titles and bynames used to refer to this Mesopotamian goddess and to her Akkadian counterpart Ishtar. In Mesopotamia, epithets were commonly used in place of the main name of the deity, and combinations of a name with an epithet similar to these common in ancient Greek religion are comparatively uncommon. Inanna had more titles than any other Mesopotamian deity. They pertained to her associations with specific cities or areas, such as Uruk, Zabalam, Akkad, Nineveh, or the Sealand. Others instead highlighted her specific roles, for example, that of an astral goddess personifying the planet Venus—or that of a war deity. In some cases, her individual epithets eventually developed into separate deities.
References
- 1 2 3 4 Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 55.
- 1 2 Lambert 2013, p. 506.
- 1 2 George 1993, p. 24.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Cavigneaux & Krebernik 1998, p. 484.
- 1 2 3 Simons 2017, p. 90.
- ↑ Cavigneaux & Krebernik 1998a, p. 486.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Cavigneaux & Krebernik 1998, p. 485.
- ↑ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 56.
- ↑ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, pp. 55–56.
- 1 2 Cavigneaux & Krebernik 1998, p. 486.
- 1 2 Simons 2017, p. 89.
- ↑ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 58.
- 1 2 George 1993, p. 169.
- ↑ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 101.
- ↑ George 1993, p. 147.
- ↑ Lambert 2013, p. 337.
- ↑ Stol 2000, pp. 80–82.
- ↑ Lambert 2013, p. 376.
- ↑ Lambert 2013, p. 381.
Bibliography
- Asher-Greve, Julia M.; Westenholz, Joan G. (2013). Goddesses in Context: On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Gender in Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources (PDF). ISBN 978-3-7278-1738-0.
- Cavigneaux, Antoine; Krebernik, Manfred (1998), "dNin-SAR", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-04-28
- Cavigneaux, Antoine; Krebernik, Manfred (1998a), "dNin-šár", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-04-28
- George, Andrew R. (1993). House most high: the temples of ancient Mesopotamia. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 0-931464-80-3. OCLC 27813103.
- Lambert, Wilfred G. (2013). Babylonian creation myths. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-1-57506-861-9. OCLC 861537250.
- Simons, Frank (2017). "A New Join to the Hurro-Akkadian Version of the Weidner God List from Emar (Msk 74.108a + Msk 74.158k)". Altorientalische Forschungen. 44 (1). De Gruyter. doi:10.1515/aofo-2017-0009. ISSN 2196-6761.
- Stol, Marten (2000). Birth in Babylonia and the Bible: Its Mediterranean Setting. Cuneiform Monographs. Brill Styx. ISBN 978-90-72371-89-8 . Retrieved 2022-07-24.