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Ninlil
Ninlil ( DINGIR, DNIN (cuneiform), NIN.LÍL; meaning uncertain) was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as the wife of Enlil. She shared many of his functions, especially the responsibility for declaring destinies, and like him was regarded as a senior deity and head of the pantheon. She is also well attested as the mother of his children, such as the underworld god Nergal, the moon god Sin (mythology), Nanna or the warrior god Ninurta. She was chiefly worshiped in Nippur and nearby Tummal alongside Enlil, and multiple temples and shrines dedicated to her are attested from these cities. In the first millennium BCE she was also introduced to Ḫursaĝkalamma near Kish (Sumer), Kish, where she was worshiped alongside the goddess Bizilla, who was likely her sukkal (attendant deity). At an early date Ninlil was identified with the goddess Sud from Shuruppak, like her associated with Enlil, and eventually fully absorbed her. In the myth ''Enlil and Sud'', Ninlil is the name Sud received af ...
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Enlil And Ninlil
Enlil and Ninlil or the Myth of Enlil and Ninlil or Enlil and Ninlil: The begetting of Nanna is a Sumerian creation myth, written on clay tablets in the mid to late 3rd millennium BC. Compilation The first lines of the myth were discovered on the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, catalogue of the Babylonian section (CBS), tablet number 9205 from their excavations at the temple library at Nippur. This was translated by George Aaron Barton in 1918 and first published as ''"Sumerian religious texts"'' in ''"Miscellaneous Babylonian Inscriptions"'', number seven, entitled "A Myth of Enlil and Ninlil". The tablet is by by at its thickest point. Barton noted that Theophilus G. Pinches had published part of an equivalent Akkadian version of the same story in 1911, noting ''"The two texts in general agree closely, though there are minor variations here and there."'' Another tablet from the same collection, number 13853 was used by Edward Chi ...
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Enlil
Enlil, , "Lord f theWind" later known as Elil, is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with wind, air, earth, and storms. He is first attested as the chief deity of the Sumerian pantheon, but he was later worshipped by the Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Hurrians. Enlil's primary center of worship was the Ekur temple in the city of Nippur, which was believed to have been built by Enlil himself and was regarded as the "mooring-rope" of heaven and earth. He is also sometimes referred to in Sumerian texts as Nunamnir. According to one Sumerian hymn, Enlil himself was so holy that not even the other gods could look upon him. Enlil rose to prominence during the twenty-fourth century BC with the rise of Nippur. His cult fell into decline after Nippur was sacked by the Elamites in 1230 BC and he was eventually supplanted as the chief god of the Mesopotamian pantheon by the Babylonian national god Marduk. Enlil plays a vital role in the Sumerian creation myth; he se ...
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Mesopotamian Goddess
Deities in ancient Mesopotamia were almost exclusively 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 " physical creeping of the flesh". Both the 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, but that a god's statue was a physical embodiment ...
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Sin (mythology)
Nanna, Sīn or Suen ( akk, ), and in Aramaic ''syn'', ''syn’'', or even ''shr'' 'moon', or Nannar ( sux, ) was the god of the moon in the Mesopotamian religions of Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Babylonia and Aram. He was also associated with cattle, perhaps due to the perceived similarity between bull horns and the crescent moon. He was always described as a major deity, though only a few sources, mostly these from the reign of Nabonidus, consider him to be the head of the Mesopotamian pantheon. The two chief seats of his worship were Ur in the south of Mesopotamia and Harran in the north, though he was also worshiped in numerous other cities, especially in the proximity of Ur and in the Diyala area. In Ur, he was connected to royal power, and many Mesopotamian kings visited his temple in this city. According to Mesopotamian mythology, his parents were Enlil and Ninlil, while his wife was Ningal, worshiped with him in his major cult centers. Their children included maj ...
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Ninazu
Ninazu ( sux, ) was a Mesopotamian god of the underworld of Sumerian origin. 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 as a deity belonging to the same category of underworld gods. 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. 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 could be considered a healing ...
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Nergal
Nergal ( Sumerian: d''KIŠ.UNU'' or ; ; Aramaic: ܢܸܪܓܲܠ; la, Nirgal) was a Mesopotamian god worshiped through all periods of Mesopotamian history, from Early Dynastic to Neo-Babylonian times, with a few attestations under indicating his cult survived into the period of Achaemenid domination. He was primarily associated with war, death, and disease and has been described as the "god of inflicted death." He reigned over Kur, the Mesopotamian underworld, depending on the myth either on behalf of his parents Enlil and Ninlil, or in later periods as a result of his marriage with the goddess Ereshkigal. Originally either Mammitum, a goddess possibly connected to frost, or Laṣ, sometimes assumed to be a minor medicine goddess, were regarded as his wife, though other traditions existed, too. His primary cult center was Kutha, located in northern Mesopotamia. His main temple was the E-Meslam and he was also known by the name Meslamtaea, "he who comes out of Meslam." Initi ...
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Nisaba
Nisaba was the Mesopotamian goddess of writing and grain. She is one of the oldest Sumerian deities attested in writing, and remained prominent through many periods of Mesopotamian history. She was commonly worshiped by scribes, and numerous Sumerian texts end with the doxology "praise to Nisaba" as a result. She declined after the Old Babylonian period due to the rise of the new scribe god, Nabu, though she did not fully vanish from Mesopotamian religion and attestations from as late as the neo-Babylonian period are known. In myths and god lists, she was a part of the circle of Enlil, alongside her husband Haya. In the myth ''Enlil and Sud'' she plays an important role due to being the mother of the eponymous deity. Enlil seeks her permission to marry Sud with the help of his sukkal (attedant deity) Nuska. Both this narrative and other sources attest that she and her daughter were regarded as very close. Outside Mesopotamia her name was used to logographically represent thes ...
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Šerua
Sumerian religion was the religion practiced by the people of Sumer, the first literate civilization of ancient Mesopotamia. The Sumerians regarded their divinities as responsible for all matters pertaining to the natural and social orders. Overview Before the beginning of kingship in Sumer, the city-states were effectively ruled by theocratic priests and religious officials. Later, this role was supplanted by kings, but priests continued to exert great influence on Sumerian society. In early times, Sumerian temples were simple, one-room structures, sometimes built on elevated platforms. Towards the end of Sumerian civilization, these temples developed into ziggurats—tall, pyramidal structures with sanctuaries at the tops. The Sumerians believed that the universe had come into being through a series of cosmic births. First, Nammu, the primeval waters, gave birth to Ki (the earth) and An (the sky), who mated together and produced a son named Enlil. Enlil separated heaven ...
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Shalash
Shalash (Šalaš) was a Syrian goddess best known as the wife of Dagan, the head of the pantheon of the middle Euphrates area. She was already worshiped in Ebla and Tuttul in the third millennium BCE, and later her cult is attested in Mari as well. She was also introduced to the Mesopotamian and Hurrian pantheons. Both in ancient Mesopotamian texts and in modern scholarships a long-standing issue is the differentiation between Shalash and the similarly named Shala, wife of the weather god Ishkur/Adad in Mesopotamia. Name The etymology of the name Shalash is unknown. Based on the attestations in the Ebla texts, theories of Hurrian origin can be rejected. However, as noted by Alfonso Archi, there is no plausible Semitic etymology either, similar as in the case of other Syrian deities like Kubaba or Aštabi. Lluis Feliu proposes that it might have originated in an unknown substrate language. The spellings d''sa-a-ša'', d''sa-a-sa'' and d''ša-la-ša'' are attested in docu ...
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Mullissu
Mullissu is a goddess who is the consort of the Assyrian god Asshur. Mullissu may be identical with the Sumerian goddess Ninlil, wife of the god Enlil, which would parallel the fact that Asshur himself was modeled on Enlil. Mullissu's name was written .Karlheinz Kessler, “Mylissa, Mylitta,” in ''Brill’s New Pauly'', Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and , Helmuth Schneider, English Edition by: Christine F. Salazar, Classical Tradition volumes edited by: Manfred Landfester, English Edition by: Francis G. Gentry. Consulted online on 27 January 2021 Mullissu is identified with of Nineveh in the times. Also proposed to be Mullissu is a goddess whom ...
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Ishum
Ishum (Išum; possibly the masculine form of Akkadian ''išātum'', "fire") was a Mesopotamian god of Akkadian origin. He is best attested as a divine night watchman, tasked with protecting houses at night, but he was also associated with various underworld deities, especially Nergal (or Erra) and Shubula. He was associated with fire, but was not exclusively a fire god unlike Girra or Gibil. While he was not considered to be one of the major gods, he was commonly worshiped and appears in many theophoric names. In bilingual texts he could be associated with Sumerian Hendursaga, but this equation is only attested for the first time in the Old Babylonian period, and the rationale behind it remains uncertain. Both of those gods could be regarded as the husband of the goddess Ninmug, though she was primarily associated with Ishum and only secondarily with Hendursaga. Character Ishum has been characterized as a "benevolent fire-god." It has been proposed that his name was relat ...
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Bizilla
Bizilla (also spelled Bizila) was a Mesopotamian goddess closely associated with Nanaya and like her sometimes listed alongside courtiers of Inanna. However, she is also attested in connection with Ninlil, and it is assumed that she was viewed as the sukkal (attendant deity) of this goddess in Ḫursaĝkalama near Kish. Name and character It has been proposed that similar to Nanaya, who was closely associated with her, Bizilla was a love goddess. According to Joan Goodnick Westenholz, Bizilla's name has a plausible Sumerian etymology, which would support this interpretation: the form ''Bi-zé-la'' can be translated as "she who is pleasing." It could be written as dNE.NUN.LAL. An Emesal vocabulary composed between 1400 and 900 BCE lists Nanaya's Sumerian equivalent as dNIN.TAG.TAG, Ninzilzil. According to Paul-Alain Beaulieu, the name most likely should be read as Ninzizli, as one document from the Eanna archive adds a gloss to it indicating such a pronunciation: dNIN.TAG.TAGli ...
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