Ninnibru, romanized as Nin-Nibru, was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as the wife of Ninurta.
11 Facts About Ninnibru
1.
2.
Ninnibru is attested in sources from between the Ur III and Kassite periods, including offering lists, the god list An = Anum, and the poem Angim.
3.
Ninnibru was regarded as the wife of Ninurta, as attested for example in the god list An = Anum.
4.
Ninnibru appears in this role in the composition Angim, where the eponymous god meets with her in his temple Esumesa after presenting his battle trophies to his parents Enlil and Ninlil in the Ekur, and at her request blesses a king who is left unnamed.
5.
Ninnibru was associated with Ninimma, though according to Joan Goodnick Westenholz in this case the connection reflected the latter goddess' role as Ninurta's sister, rather than wife.
6.
The oldest attestations of Ninnibru have been dated to the Ur III period.
7.
Ninnibru is absent from earlier god lists and other sources from the Early Dynastic or Old Akkadian periods.
8.
Ninnibru is absent from the Old Babylonian Nippur god list, which according to Manuel Ceccarelli might indicate its compilers adhered to the view that Ninurta's spouse is to be identified as one of the Mesopotamian medicine goddesses instead.
9.
Ninnibru had her own temple in Nippur, though in a metrological text attesting its existence it is not provided with a distinct ceremonial name.
10.
Ninnibru is attested in a single offering list from the archives of the First Dynasty of Sealand, where she appears after Enlil, Ninlil, Ninurta and Nuska.
11.
Ninnibru appears in a hymn from this text corpus, according to which Ninmena was responsible for taking care of her, though this description is considered to be unusual, as a connection between the latter goddess and Nippur mentioned in this text is not otherwise known to researchers.