1. Nanshe was a Mesopotamian goddess in various contexts associated with the sea, marshlands, the animals inhabiting these biomes, namely bird and fish, as well as divination, dream interpretation, justice, social welfare, and certain administrative tasks.
Nanshe was regarded as a daughter of Enki and sister of Ningirsu, while her husband was Nindara, who is otherwise little known.
The oldest attestations of the worship of Nanshe come from the Uruk period.
Nanshe is attested in a number of other cities in other parts of Mesopotamia, including Adab, Nippur, Umma, Ur and Uruk, but her importance in their local pantheons was comparatively smaller.
Nanshe was later adopted as a dynastic tutelary deity by the kings of the Sealand, and came to be worshiped in the Esagil temple complex in Babylon.
The meaning of Nanshe's name is unknown, and it is agreed it has no plausible Sumerian etymology.
Andrew R George notes that in the Canonical Temple List Sirara, a toponym associated with Nanshe, might have been reinterpreted as an alternate name of her.
Nanshe's functions have been described as "heterogeneous", and a variety of roles and presumed iconographic attributes are attested for her in primary sources.
However, the term ab, "sea", was used to refer to marshlands in Sumerian and Nanshe has been described as the goddess of this biome.
Nanshe was associated with the animals inhabiting it, namely fish and birds.
Gebhard J Selz presumes that Nanshe's attested association with wisdom pertains to divinatory arts.
Nanshe was said to demarcate boundaries, and this role is still attested for her in the Gula Hymn of Bullutsa-rabi, where she is called belet kudurri, "lady of the boundary stone".
Nanshe was considered a deity of justice and social welfare.
Nanshe functioned as the divine protector and benefactor of various disadvantaged groups, such as orphans, widows or people belonging to indebted households.
Texts from Lagash might indicate that Nanshe could fulfill the role of a so-called Lamma.
Nanshe's brother was Ningirsu, who likely initially was viewed as Enki's child.
Nanshe suggests that the deity Nin-MUS-bad, who was worshiped alongside Nin-MAR.
Nanshe was believed to act as her herald and overseer of her estate.
KI, as well as Shul-utula, the family god of Ur-Nanshe's dynasty, were further more deities who belonged to Nanshe's circle.
In Ur in the Old Babylonian period, Nanshe came to be integrated into the circle of deities associated with Ningal, the wife of the moon god.
Nanshe is first attested in sources from the late Uruk period.
Nanshe is one of the oldest known tutelary goddesses of specific Mesopotamian cities, next to the likes of Nisaba, Ezina, Inanna of Uruk and Inanna of Zabalam.
Gebhard J Selz states that it is possible that Ur-Nanshe, who was the founder of the first dynasty of Lagash, the first attested local user of the title lugal, and a devotee of Nanshe, came from a family which originally lived in the proximity of Nina.
Nanshe was a central figure in the pantheon of the state of Lagash.
Nanshe played a role in the royal ideology during the reign of Ur-Nanshe and might have been connected to the religious legitimization of his dynasty, as evidenced by the fact that Entemena credited her with granting him rule over his kingdom.
Entemena built a temple dedicated to Nanshe which bore the ceremonial name Esapada, "house chosen in the heart".
Nanshe had a shrine in the Eninnu, in which she was worshiped alongside Shul-utula.
Nanshe had sanctuaries in Kisala, which was either located close to Girsu, or outright was a part of it, and in Sulum, whose location is unknown.
Nanshe's clergy included a head priest referred to as en or enmezianna.
Theophoric names invoking Nanshe were common in the state of Lagash.
The worship of Nanshe continued in Nina, Lagash, Girsu and a number of other nearby settlements through the Ur III period.
Julia M Asher-Greve argues that it is not impossible Nanshe was introduced to the pantheon of Nippur as early as in the Early Dynastic period.
Nanshe was venerated in Uruk and Ur in the same period too, but only in a limited capacity.
Nanshe continued to be worshiped in Ur, and appears in a handful of religious texts from Nippur as well.
At some point Nanshe became the tutelary goddess of the First Sealand dynasty.
Nanshe's cult was nonetheless sponsored by the kings themselves, and she presumably belonged to the state pantheon.
Nanshe received offerings referred to as nindabu, which might have been a commemoration of the full moon.
Nanshe regularly received animal sacrifices, chiefly ewes, considered to be particularly valuable.
The text known as Topography of Babylon or Tintir = Babylon, most likely compiled in the twelfth century, indicates that Nanshe was worshiped in the Esagil temple complex in Babylon, where she had a cultic seat named Esbanda, "little chamber".
The plot focuses on a banquet to which a figure referred to as the "queen of the fishermen," often interpreted as Nanshe, invites various fish, presumed to be freshwater species.
Nanshe appears in Enki and the World Order, where the u5 bird standing next to her is apparently an object of Inanna's jealousy.
Nanshe is mentioned in the latter goddess's complaint about not being assigned a specific position, unlike her divine peers.
The domain assigned to Nanshe is the open sea, and the text states that she was capable of saving people from drowning.
Nanshe appears in the composition preserved on the Gudea cylinders.