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Ḫegir
Ḫegir (𒀭𒃶𒄈) or Ḫegirnunna (𒀭𒃶𒄈𒉣𒈾) was a Mesopotamian goddess who belonged to the pantheon of Lagash. She was considered a daughter of Bau and Ningirsu. Name The reading of the first cuneiform sign in the theonym dḪÉ''-gír(-nun-na)'' is not certain. Among the authors who employ the form Ḫegir(nunna) are Wilfred G. Lambert and Andrew R. George. Toshiko Kobayashi omits the breve below the first consonant, and renders the name as Hegir. The romanization Gangir has also been proposed, and has been adopted for example by Mark Cohen. Kobayashi refers to Ḫegirnunna as the full form of the name, but notes that the difference between the variants seems to be chronological, with the shorter form being older. It is assumed that ''gír'' in the short form and ''gír-nun'' in the long one both refer to a procession route located in Girsu, and that ḪÉ might represent an allograph of the word ''gemé'', which makes it possible to translate the name from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ningirsu
Ninĝirsu was a Mesopotamia, Mesopotamian god regarded as the tutelary deity of the city of Girsu, Ĝirsu, and as the chief god of the local pantheon of the state of Lagash. He shares many aspects with the god Ninurta. Ninĝirsu was identified as a local Hypostasis (philosophy and religion), hypostasis of Ninurta in a syncretism that is documented at the latest by the time of Gudea in the late third millennium BC. Assyriology, Assyriologists are divided on the question of whether they were originally two manifestations of the same god, or two separate deities. Ninĝirsu's two main aspects were that of a warlike god, and that of a god connected with agricultural fertility. In Lagash, he was particularly associated with a composite emblem depicting the Anzû bird over two lions. It could sometimes represent him in cultic contexts. Ninĝirsu was an important local god from the Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia), Early Dynastic Period until the Old Babylonian Empire, old Babylonian p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Urnunta-ea
Urnunta-ea was a Mesopotamian goddess originally worshiped in Girsu as one of the daughters of Ningirsu and Bau. She might have been associated with rain clouds. She is known from an Early Dynastic inscription of Urukagina, from texts from the reign of the Second Dynasty of Lagash, and from the god list ''An = Anum''. In the last of these sources she appears in the circle of deities associated with Lisin, rather than Bau or Ningirsu. Name The theonym Urnunta-ea can be translated from Sumerian as "who comes out of the lap of the prince" (implicitly: Ningirsu). It was written in cuneiform as '' dúr-nun-ta-è-a''. It is sometimes romanized as Urnunta'ea or Urnuntaea. A variant spelling, ''dúr-é-nun-ta-è-a'', is known from the Gudea cylinders. Thorkild Jacobsen and Dietz Otto Edzard suggested reading it as Uragrunta-ea. However, according to this is erroneous. A further variant known from a fragment of an Old Babylonian litany from Kish describing the pantheon of Kesh or Ada ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesopotamian Goddesses
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] |
Bau (goddess)
Bau (cuneiform: 𒀭𒁀𒌑 ''dingir, dBa-U2''; also romanized as Baba or Babu) was a Mesopotamian goddess. The reading of her name is a subject of debate among researchers, though Bau is considered the conventional spelling today. While initially regarded simply as a life-giving deity, in some cases associated with the creation of mankind, over the course of the third and second millennia BCE she also acquired the role of a healing goddess. She could be described as a divine midwife. In art she could be depicted in the company of waterfowl or scorpions. In sources from Lagash and Girsu, Bau's husband was the god Ningirsu. Among their children were deities such as Igalim, Shulshaga and Ḫegir. While they could still be regarded as a couple in later sources, from the Old Babylonian period onwards Bau was also viewed as the wife of Zababa, the tutelary god of Kish (Sumer), Kish. Another deity associated with her was her attendant goddess Lammašaga. Most likely for political reas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Igalim
Igalim () or Igalimma () was a Mesopotamian god from the local pantheon of the state of Lagash. He was closely associated with Ningirsu, possibly originating as the personification of the door of his temple, and was regarded as a member of his family. His older brother was Shulshaga and his mother was Bau, as already attested in Early Dynastic sources. Until the end of the Ur III period he was worshiped in Lagash and Girsu, where he had a temple, though he also appears in a number of later texts. Name and character The consensus view is that Igalima's name can be translated as "door of the bison". He functioned as the divine gatekeeper of the E-ninnu, "house of fifty" (also known as E-ninnu-Anzû-babbar, "house of fifty white Anzû birds"), the temple of Ningirsu in Girsu. It has been proposed that he was originally the personification of its gate, and the cuneiform sign ''alim'' ("bison") in his name metaphorically referred to Ningirsu, rather than to a real animal. An inscr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gudea Cylinders
The Gudea cylinders are a pair of terracotta cylinders dating to , on which is written in cuneiform a Sumerian myth called the Building of Ningirsu's temple. The cylinders were made by Gudea, the ruler of Lagash, and were found in 1877 during excavations at Telloh (ancient Girsu), Iraq and are now displayed in the Louvre in Paris, France. They are the largest cuneiform cylinders yet discovered and contain the longest known text written in the Sumerian language. Compilation Discovery The cylinders were found in a drain by Ernest de Sarzec under the Eninnu temple complex at Telloh, the ancient ruins of the Sumerian holy city of Girsu, during the first season of excavations in 1877. They were found next to a building known as the Agaren, where a brick pillar ''(pictured)'' was found containing an inscription describing its construction by Gudea within Eninnu during the Second Dynasty of Lagash. The Agaren was described on the pillar as a place of judgement, or mercy seat, and it ... [...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] |
Ninshubur
Ninshubur (,; Ninšubur, "Lady of Subartu" or "Lady of servants"), also spelled Ninšubura, was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as the ''sukkal'' (divine attendant) of the goddess Inanna. While it is agreed that in this context Ninshubur was regarded as female, in other cases the deity was considered male, possibly due to syncretism with other divine messengers, such as Ilabrat. No certain information about her genealogy is present in any known sources, and she was typically regarded as unmarried. As a ''sukkal'', she functioned both as a messenger deity and as an intercessor between other members of the pantheon and human petitioners. Due to the belief that she could intercede with higher ranking deities, Ninshubur was popular in everyday religion, and many theophoric names invoking her and other references to personal worship are known. Her original cult center was Akkil, but in the Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia), Early Dynastic Period she was already worshiped in nearby Ur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ninšar
Ninšar (, dNIN.SAR; also read Nin-nisig) was a Mesopotamian goddess commonly associated with the preparation of meat. The reading of her name remains uncertain, and its possible etymology appears to be unrelated to her role in the Mesopotamian pantheon. She was chiefly worshiped in Nippur, though her original cult center was the settlement AB.NAGAR. Name The reading of the theonym written in cuneiform as NIN.SAR remains uncertain. Wilfred G. Lambert considered Ninšar to be the correct reading. This option is also accepted by Andrew R. George. Antoine Cavigneaux and Manfred Krebernik instead argue that the correct reading might be Nin-nisig. Ninmu and Ninezenna have also been proposed as alternatives. According to the god list ''An = Anum'', the name could also be represented by the logograms dMUḪALDIM ("cook") or dGÍRI ("knife"). A syllabic spelling, ''Nin-nì-si'', might be present in a god list from Mari, but both the restoration of the final sign and the identification ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
É (temple)
É (Cuneiform: ) is the Sumerian word or symbol for house or temple. The Sumerian term É.GAL (𒂍𒃲,"palace", literally "big house") denoted a city's main building. É.LUGAL (𒂍𒈗,"king's house") was used synonymously. In the texts of Lagash, the É.GAL is the center of the ensi's administration of the city, and the site of the city archives. Sumerian É.GAL is the probable etymology of Semitic words for "palace, temple", such as Hebrew היכל ''heikhal'', and Arabic هيكل ''haykal''. It has thus been speculated that the word É originated from something akin to *hai or *ˀai, especially since the cuneiform sign È is used for /a/ in Eblaite. The term TEMEN (𒋼) appearing frequently after É in names of ziggurats is translated as "foundation pegs", apparently the first step in the construction process of a house; compare, for example, verses 551–561 of the account of the construction of E-ninnu: ''Temen'' has been occasionally compared to Greek '' temenos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lammašaga
Lammašaga was a Mesopotamian goddess who functioned as the sukkal (divine attendant) of Bau. She belonged to a class of protective deities known as Lamma. She was originally worshiped in Lagash and Girsu, though attestations are also available from other cities. A hymn focused on her was copied in scribal schools in the Old Babylonian period. Name and character The name Lammašaga can be translated as "the good protective spirit" or "the good Lamma," with the element Lamma referring to a type of female protective deity. The name Lamma itself sometimes could be used to refer to the specific goddess too. Irene Sibbing-Plantholt notes that the addition of the element ''šaga'' to a theonym also finds a parallel in Memešaga, a variant form of the name of the goddess Meme. Lammašaga functioned as the divine attendant (sukkal) of Bau. She was believed to intercede between her and worshipers. Her role might be reflected by the personal name Lamma-sukkal. The association between ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
