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Ningirida
Ningirida was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as the wife of Ninazu and mother of Ningishzida. Little is known about her character beyond her relation to these two gods. Name and character The correct reading of Ningirida's name relies on the syllabic spelling from the Ur III period, '' dNin-gi-ri-da''. According to Wilfred G. Lambert, the element ''girid'' is a Sumerian noun referring to a type of hair clasp used by women, and therefore does not provide any information about her individual character beyond her gender. In the myth ''Enki and Ninhursag'', the name is reinterpreted as "the lady born of nose," ''dNin-kìri-e-tu'', but this is only a folk etymology. Little is known about Ningirida's individual role beyond her associations with deities regarded as members of her family. Jeremy Black assumed that she was associated with the underworld. She appears alongside Ninazu starting in the Ur III period. However, it is possible older attestations are available, as the deity dG ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ninazu
Ninazu (; DNIN.A.SU">sup>DNIN.A.SU"lord healer") was a Mesopotamian god of the underworld. He was also associated with snakes and vegetation, and with time acquired the character of a warrior god. He was frequently associated with Ereshkigal, either as a son, husband, or simply a member the same category of underworld deities. His original cult centers were Enegi and Eshnunna, though in the later city he was gradually replaced by a similar god, Tishpak. His cult declined after the Old Babylonian period, though in the city of Ur, where it was introduced from Enegi, he retained a number of worshipers even after the fall of the last Mesopotamian empires, in the Achaemenid period. Character and iconography According to Julia M. Asher-Greve, Ninazu was initially considered a "high-ranking local god", similar in rank to Ningirsu. His name has Sumerian origin and can be translated as "lord healer", though he was rarely associated with medicine. It is nonetheless agreed that he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesopotamian Goddess
Deities in ancient Mesopotamia were almost exclusively Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic. They were thought to possess extraordinary powers and were often envisioned as being of tremendous physical size. The deities typically wore ''melam'', an ambiguous substance which "covered them in terrifying splendor" and which could also be worn by heroes, kings, giants, and even demons. The effect that seeing a deity's ''melam'' has on a human is described as ''ni'', a word for the "Paresthesia, physical creeping of the flesh". Both the Sumerian language, Sumerian and Akkadian languages contain many words to express the sensation of ''ni'', including the word ''puluhtu'', meaning "fear". Deities were almost always depicted wearing horned caps, consisting of up to seven superimposed pairs of ox-horns. They were also sometimes depicted wearing clothes with elaborate decorative gold and silver ornaments sewn into them. The ancient Mesopotamians believed that their deities lived in Heaven, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ningishzida
Ningishzida ( Sumerian: DNIN.G̃IŠ.ZID.DA, possible meaning "Lord f theGood Tree") was a Mesopotamian deity of vegetation, the underworld and sometimes war. He was commonly associated with snakes. Like Dumuzi, he was believed to spend a part of the year in the land of the dead. He also shared many of his functions with his father Ninazu. In myths he usually appears in an underworld setting, though in the myth of Adapa he is instead described as one of the doorkeepers of the sky god Anu. Name Thorkild Jacobsen proposed that the Sumerian name ''Ningishzida'' can be explained as "lord of the good tree." This translation is still accepted by other Assyriologists today. Various syllabic spellings are known, including '' dNi-gi-si-da'', ''dNin-nigi-si-da'', ''dNin-ki-zi-da'' and ''dNin-gi-iz-zi-da''. While " nin" can be translated as "lady" in some contexts, it was grammatically neutral in Sumerian and can be found in the names of many deities, both male (Ningishzida, Ninaz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alla (Mesopotamian God)
Alla or Alla-gula was a Mesopotamian god associated with the underworld. He functioned as the sukkal (attendant deity) of Ningishzida, and most likely was a dying god similar to Dumuzi and Damu, but his character is not well known otherwise. It is known that the settlement Esagi was his cult center, but its location is presently unknown. Name and character Alla's name was written in cuneiform either syllabically (''dAl-la'' or ''dAl-lá'') or logographically (dNAGAR). It might be related to or a pun on the Sumerian word ''al'', " hoe". A variant form, Alla-gula, "Alla the great", is also attested. Additionally, the god list ''An = Anum'' indicates that he could be referred to with the Sumerian epithet Lugal-sapar, "lord of the net". The character of Alla is poorly understood, but it is agreed that he was associated with the underworld. He belonged to the circle of deities connected with Ninazu and Ningishzida, and functioned as the sukkal (divine attendant) of the latter. He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gula (goddess)
Gula (Sumerian language, Sumerian: "the great") 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'' (inscribed boundary stones), and receive figurines representing them as votive offerings. While Gula was initially regarded as unmarried, in the Kassite period she came to be associated with Ninurta. In Babylon his role could also be fulfilled by Mandanu, while the god list ''An = Anum'' links Gula with Pabilsag and Abu. The circle of deities closely associated with her also included Damu and Gunura, who eventually started to be regarded as her children, as well as her sukkal (divine attendant) Urmašum, who might have been imagined as a dog-like ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ninisina
Ninisina ( Sumerian: "Mistress of Isin") was a Mesopotamian goddess who served as the tutelary deity of the city of Isin. She was considered a healing deity. She was believed to be skilled in the medical arts, and could be described as a divine physician or midwife. As an extension of her medical role, she was also believed to be capable of expelling various demons. Her symbols included dogs, commonly associated with healing goddesses in Mesopotamia, as well as tools and garments associated with practitioners of medicine. While Ninisina was initially considered to be an unmarried and childless goddess, the god Pabilsag eventually came to be viewed as her husband. Her children were Damu and Gunura, like her considered to be healing deities, as well as Šumaḫ, who also served as her sukkal, a type of divine attendant. Further members of her court included Ninarali, a goddess associated with the underworld, harpist goddesses Ninigizibara and Ninḫinuna, and sometimes Ninshub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ningirima
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. Her importance declined in the second millennium BCE, but in some locations, such as Ur, she was still worshiped after the Achaemenid conquest of Mesopotamia in the first millennium BCE. Character The typical early writing of the name, known from Tell Fara, Abu Salabikh and Ebla is d Nin-A.MUŠ.ḪA.DU, meaning "mistress of snake and fish water" in Sumerian. The sequence A.MUŠ.ḪA.DU could be read as ''girima''. Later the name was commonly spelled syllabically, for example ''dNi-gi-ri-ma''. A text from Lagash refers to her as the "great true-eyed one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enegi
Enegi or Enegir was an ancient Mesopotamian city located in present-day Iraq. It is considered lost, though it is known that it was one of the settlements in the southernmost part of lower Mesopotamia, like Larsa, Ur and Eridu. Attempts have been made to identify it with multiple excavated sites. In textual sources, it is well documented as the cult center of the god Ninazu, and in that capacity it was connected to beliefs tied to the underworld. It appears in sources from between the Early Dynastic and Old Babylonian periods. Later on the cult of its tutelary god might have been transferred to Ur. Name The earliest attested writing of the toponym Enegi in cuneiform is EN.GI.KI or EN.GI4.KI from the Early Dynastic period, replaced by EN.DIM2.GIGki in subsequent Sargonic and Ur III sources. A shorter logographic writing, IMki, is also attested. It occurs in sources from the Old Babylonian period. However, the same logographic writing was also used to represent the names of two ot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abu (god)
Abu was a Mesopotamian god. His character is poorly understood, though it is assumed he might have been associated with vegetation and with snakes. He was often paired with the deity , initially regarded as distinct from Gula, but later conflated with her. Name and character The reading of the second sign in the name is uncertain, and in addition to Abu, the second proposed reading of the name is Abba. According to Jeremiah Peterson, the former option is supported by the partial etymology assigned to this theonym in the myth ''Enki and Ninmah'', , "lord of the plants." It might be either an example of scribal wordplay or an invented scholarly etymology for his name. As pointed out by Gianni Marchesi, for the assumed pun on the name to work, it would have to end in the phoneme ''u''. Dina Katz translates Abu's name as "father plant." However, it is generally assumed the theonym is unrelated to Akkadian ''abum'', "father." Abu's character is poorly known. Irene Sibbing-Planthol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meskilak
Meskilak or Mesikila was one of the two main deities worshiped in Dilmun. The other well attested member of the pantheon of this area was Inzak, commonly assumed to be her spouse. The origin of her name is a subject of scholarly dispute. She is also attested in texts from Mesopotamia, where her name was reinterpreted as Ninsikila. A different deity also named Ninsikila was the spouse of Lisin, and might have started to be viewed as a goddess rather than a god due to the similarity of the names. Under her Mesopotamian name Meskilak appears in the myths ''Enki and Ninhursag'' and ''Enki and the World Order'', in which she is associated with Dilmun. In Dilmun It is assumed Meskilak was one of the two main deities of Dilmun, the second one being Inzak, often interpreted as her spouse by researchers. An alternative proposal is that he was her son. An attested variant of Meskilak's name is Mesikila. The origin of the theonym Meskilak is not certain, and various proposals have been mad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eshnunna
Eshnunna (also Esnunak) (modern Tell Asmar in Diyala Governorate, Iraq) was an ancient Sumerian (and later Akkadian) city and city-state in central Mesopotamia 12.6 miles northwest of Tell Agrab and 15 miles northwest of Tell Ishchali. Although situated in the Diyala Valley northwest of Sumer proper, the city nonetheless belonged securely within the Sumerian cultural milieu. It is sometimes, in very early archaeological papers, called Ashnunnak or Tupliaš. The tutelary deity of the city was Tishpak (Tišpak) though other gods, including Sin, Adad, and Inanna of Kiti ( Kitītum) were also worshiped there. The personal goddesses of the rulers were Belet-Šuḫnir and Belet-Terraban. History Early Bronze Inhabited since the Jemdet Nasr period, around 3000 BC, Eshnunna was a major city during the Early Dynastic period of Mesopotamia. It is known, from cuneiform records and excavations, that the city was occupied in the Akkadian period though its extent was noticeably le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kassite Period
The Kassites () were a people of the ancient Near East. They controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire from until (Chronology of the ancient Near East#Variant Middle Bronze Age chronologies, short chronology). The Kassites gained control of Babylonia after the Hittites, Hittite sack of Babylon in 1531 BC, and established a dynasty generally assumed to have been based first in that city, after a hiatus. Later rule shifted to the new city of Dur-Kurigalzu. By the time of Babylon's fall, the Kassites had already been part of the region for a century and a half, acting sometimes with Babylon's interests and sometimes against. There are records of Kassite and Babylonian interactions, in the context of military employment, during the reigns of Babylonian kings Samsu-iluna (1686 to 1648 BC), Abi-Eshuh, Abī-ešuh, and Ammi-Ditana, Ammī-ditāna. The origin and classification of the Kassite language, like the Sumerian language and Hurrian language, is uncertain, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
