46 Facts About Ninisina

Ninisina was a Mesopotamian goddess who served as the tutelary deity of the city of Isin.

Ninisina was believed to be skilled in the medical arts, and could be described as a divine physician or midwife.

Ninisina's symbols included dogs, commonly associated with healing goddesses in Mesopotamia, as well as tools and garments associated with practitioners of medicine.

Ninisina's children were Damu and Gunura, like her considered to be healing deities, as well as Sumah, who served as her sukkal, a type of divine attendant.

Ninisina developed associations with various other goddesses of similar character, including Ninkarrak, Gula and Nintinugga.

For political reasons, Ninisina acquired some traits originally belonging to Inanna when the kings of Isin lost control over the cult center of the latter goddess, Uruk.

The oldest evidence of the worship of Ninisina comes from Isin from the Early Dynastic period.

Ninisina is attested in a number of texts from the Sargonic period, including an inscription of Manishtushu.

Ninisina is attested in other types of texts, such as prayers and god lists.

Ninisina's importance did not depend on a connection to any other deity.

Ninisina was associated with healing, and was believed to be skilled at various medical practices.

Ninisina was believed to be familiar with medicinal plants, as well as with the mythical "plant of life," which is well known from the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Ninisina was believed to intercede with Anu and Enlil on behalf of the personal deities of people attacked by demons as well.

Ninisina proposes that Damu only acquired his own character as a healing deity due to his new status as Ninisina's son, and that originally his primary role was that of a dying god comparable to Dumuzi and Ningishzida.

Ninisina is not to be confused with the similarly named goddess Ama-sumah, the "housekeeper of Ekur," though she was associated with Ninisina.

Ninisina was sometimes equated with Ninkarrak, with the latter's name being used in Akkadian translations of Sumerian texts about the former.

Ninisina could be viewed as the mother of Damu like Ninisina, however with the exception of a single bilingual text she was never associated with Gunura.

In contrast with Ninisina, Ninkarrak was typically not perceived as motherly, and texts which describe her as a mother might be the result of the association between them.

Ninisina is referred to as "Ninisina of Umma" in documents from Puzrish-Dagan, as the scribes from this location were more familiar with the latter goddess, and used her name to represent other healing deities.

Ninisina is entirely absent from known texts from Umma, and had no cult in this city, though in an inscription from the Ur III period the local governor Lu-Utu calls himself a son of this goddess.

Barbara Bock argues that Ninisina was fully absorbed by Gula in the centuries following the reign of Ishbi-Erra, but according to Irene Sibbing-Plantholt the association between them is only attested in Isin after Hammurabi's conquest of the city, and Christina Tsouparopoulou states that it is not certain if they were viewed as identical in the Old Babylonian period.

Ninisina is not listed among the goddesses conflated with Gula in the Gula Hymn of Bullutsa-rabi, which was most likely composed between 1400 BCE and 700 BCE.

Ninisina was originally the goddess of Girsu, and was worshiped elsewhere in the state of Lagash.

Ninisina could be addressed with titles originally associated with the goddess of Isin in hymns.

Manuel Ceccarelli notes that the connection between Bau and Ninisina developed in parallel to that between their respective husbands, Ningirsu and Pabilsag.

Ninisina proposes this might indicate they were equated to more closely tie them to the circle of Enlil.

Unlike Ninisina, Bau was usually not invoked in incantations, and there is no indication she was believed to be an adversary of any specific demons.

The hymn "Ninisina and the gods" is an early example of identification of one deity with multiple other ones.

The lasting result of this process was an exchange of attributes between the two goddesses involved, with Ninisina acquiring a warlike aspect and Inanna being occasionally associated with healing.

Ninisina assumes that this goddess was the original spouse of Pabilsag, though the only sources attesting her existence come from the Old Babylonian period or later.

The earliest attestations of Ninisina come from the Early Dynastic period, and include oath formulas from Isin, an entry in the god list from Fara, and a passage from the Zame Hymns.

Ninisina was introduced to Nippur in this period at the latest, though she did not play a large role in the local pantheon.

Ninisina might have nonetheless had a shrine in the Ekur.

Ninisina is well attested in sources from the Ur III period.

Ninisina was worshiped in the Erabriri, "house of the shackle which holds in check," a temple of Pabilsag.

Ninisina was worshiped in this city alongside Pabilsag, possibly due to the close association between various healing goddesses and their respective spouses.

The Esabad, the "house of the open ear," or possibly "house of the opening of bodily cords," was another temple of Ninisina located in Isin or close to it according to Irene Sibbing-Plantholt, though George suggests it might have been instead located in Larak.

Ninisina was still venerated in this city during the reign of Ishbi-Erra, at which point it might have only had a religious function.

King Gungunum rebuilt the Eunamtila, the "house of the herbs of life," a temple dedicated to Ninisina located in Larsa.

Since the worship of Ninisina is not otherwise attested in Ur, it has been suggested that the goddess venerated in this temple was actually Gula, though evidence is lacking, and it possible that the goddess of Isin might have only been introduced to this city by Warad-Sin.

For example, Adad-apla-iddina later restored the temple for Ninisina, as evidenced by information stamped on multiple bricks from the site.

Ninisina is well attested in the so-called suillakku, a type of prayers focused on an individual entreaty which could be incorporated into various rituals.

Possible references to Ninisina going down to the underworld to recover Damu are known, though the source might be an adaptation of a text originally focused on Inanna.

Ninisina is described as a nu-ge17, a term now agreed to refer to a midwife.

Ninisina is mentioned in the Song of the Hoe, where she brings offerings for Enlil, including young lambs and fruit.

Ninisina is attested in a number of god lists, starting with the Early Dynastic Fara god list.