15 Facts About Ninkasi

Ninkasi was associated with both positive and negative consequences of the consumption of beer.

Ninkasi could be paired with Siras, a goddess of similar character, who sometimes was regarded as her sister.

Ninkasi was the goddess of beer, and as such was associated with its production, consumption and both positive and negative effects of it.

Proposal that Ninkasi was associated with wine, common in older literature, is no longer regarded as plausible.

Ninkasi was already worshiped in the Early Dynastic period, but there is no evidence that she was the tutelary deity of a specific city at any point in time.

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Ninkasi was instead worshiped as an "universal" deity in various parts of Mesopotamia.

Worship of Ninkasi is attested in Early Dynastic administrative documents from Shuruppak, the cult center of Sud.

Ninkasi is well attested as one of the members of the pantheon of Nippur, where she appears for the first time in offering lists from the Ur III period.

Two temples of Ninkasi are mentioned in the Canonical Temple List, but their names are lost and their locations are uncertain.

Ninkasi's parents were Enki and Ninti, but according to the Hymn to Ninkasi, she was raised by Ninhursag rather than by her mother.

Ninkasi was regarded as the "brewer of Ekur, " and in this role appears in lists of courtiers of Enlil alongside deities such as his scribe Ninimma, his butcher Ninsar, or his snake charmer Ninmada.

Ninkasi refers to her as "the expert woman, who redounds to her mother's credit, " and states that her fermenting vat is made of lapis lazuli, while her cask - from silver and gold.

Ninkasi is referenced in passing in Lugalbanda in the Mountain Cave, where at one point "the wooden dahasa of Ninkasi" puts the hero to sleep, which is most likely another metaphor pertaining to the consumption of beer.

Ninkasi is one of the eight deities born in the end of the myth Enki and Ninhursag.

Ninkasi's name is reinterpreted as a pun on the word ka, "mouth, " in this composition, and like in the other passages her birth corresponds to Enki announcing a specific body part.