The

Sumer Sumer () is the earliest known civilization, located in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (now south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. ...

ian word NIN ( 𒎏), later borrowed into Akkadian, was used to denote a queen or a priestess, and is often translated as "lady". Other translations include "queen", "mistress", "proprietress", and "lord". The word EREŠ, also meaning "queen" or "lady",J A Halloran �
Sumerian Lexicon Version 3.0
Retrieved 2023-09-05. is written using the cuneiform sign for NIN as well. Many

goddess A goddess is a female deity. In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship. For example, Shaktism (one of the three major Hinduism, Hindu sects), holds that the ultimate deity, the source of all re ...

es are called NIN or EREŠ, such as ^D NIN.GAL ("great lady"), ^D É.NIN.GAL ("lady of the great temple"), ^D EREŠ.KI.GAL, and ^D NIN.TI. The compound form NIN. DINGIR ("divine lady" or "lady f agod"), denotes a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

ess.

In writing

NIN originated as a ligature of the

cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

glyphs of MUNUS () and TÚG (); the NIN sign was written as MUNUS.TÚG () in archaic cuneiform, notably in the Codex Hammurabi. The syllable ''nin'', on the other hand, was written as MUNUS.KA () in Assyrian cuneiform. MUNUS.KU = NIN₉ () means "sister". File:MUNUS-SAL-sinnishtu Cuneiform.svg, Basic cuneiform MUNUS sign ("woman") File:TUG-subatu-ku Cuneiform.svg, Basic cuneiform TÚG sign (syllable ''ku'')

Occurrence in the Gilgamesh epic

Ninsun (^DNIN.SÚN) as the mother of

Gilgamesh Gilgamesh (, ; ; originally ) was a hero in ancient Mesopotamian mythology and the protagonist of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'', an epic poem written in Akkadian during the late 2nd millennium BC. He was possibly a historical king of the Sumer ...

in the ''

Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poetry, epic from ancient Mesopotamia. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian language, Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh (formerly read as Sumerian "Bilgames"), king of Uruk, some of ...

'' (standard

Babylonia Babylonia (; , ) was an Ancient history, ancient Akkadian language, Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as a ...

n version), appears in 5 of the 12 chapters (tablets I, II, III, IV, and XII). The other personage using NIN is the god

Ninurta Ninurta (: , possible meaning "Lord fBarley"), also known as Ninĝirsu (: , meaning "Lord fGirsu"), is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian god associated with farming, healing, hunting, law, scribes, and war who was f ...

(^DNIN.URTA), who appears in Tablet I, and especially in the

flood myth A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these Mythology, myths and the ...

of Tablet XI. Of the 51 uses of NIN, the other major usage is for the Akkadian word ''eninna'' (''nin'' as in ''e-nin-na'', but also other variants). ''Eninna'' is the adverb "now", but it can also be used as a conjunction, or as a segue-form (a transition form). The two uses of NIN as the word for "sister" (Akkadian ''ahātu''), for example, are used in Tablet 8 (''The Mourning of

Enkidu Enkidu ( ''EN.KI.DU10'') was a legendary figure in Mesopotamian mythology, ancient Mesopotamian mythology, wartime comrade and friend of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk. Their exploits were composed in Sumerian language, Sumerian poems and in the Akk ...

''), line 38: :"May… :"May the brothers go into mourning over you like sisters…"

References

* (Volume 1) in the original Akkadian cuneiform and transliteration; commentary and glossary are in English Cuneiform determinatives Mesopotamian goddesses Sumerian titles Sumerograms Women's social titles {{Semitic-lang-stub

In writing

Occurrence in the Gilgamesh epic

See also

References