Gunura

Gunura
Gunura
Major cult center	Pabilsag
Siblings	Damu and Šumaḫ

Gunura was a

Mesopotamian goddess, best known as a daughter and member of the entourage of the medicine goddess Ninisina. She was also associated with other similar goddesses, Gula and Nintinugga. Her original cult center is unknown, though she was worshiped in Isin, Nippur, Ur, Babylon and Assur

. She is attested in a number of laments, in which she mourns the death of her brother Damu, and in a narrative about a journey of her mother Ninisina to Nippur.

Character

The

Ur III period attest an association between her and latter deity.^[5] She also appears alongside her in an Old Babylonian incantation against the evil eye.^[6] Furthermore, a liturgical text from the same period lists her after both Ninisina and Nintinugga, and before Kusu.^[4] In the so-called Great Star List, she is one of the "seven Gulas", next to Bau, Ninšudda, Dukurgal, Ama-arḫuš, Ninasag and Nin-umma-siga.^[7] However, as pointed out by Joan Goodnick Westenholz, Gunura does not appear in connection with another closely related goddess, Ninkarrak, in any known sources, with the exception of a single bilingual text.^[8] It is a variant of Ninisina's Journey to Nippur in which Ninkarrak appears in the Akkadian version as a translation of the eponymous goddess.^[9]

In the past, it has been argued that Gunura's individual character cannot be established, as in known texts she always appears alongside other members of her family.[10] According to Irene Sibbing-Plantholt today it is assumed that she was a deity associated with healing.^[11] She suggests Gunura might have originally arisen as an independent healing deity, and was only incorporated into the circles of medicine goddesses for that reason.^[5] When associated with Ninisina, Gunura also functioned as one of the deities of Isin, though this role is not attested for her in contexts where she appears with Gula instead.^[12] An example can be found in the document SAT 3 127, which lists her, Damu, Šumaḫ and their mother Ninisina as the deities of Isin.^[5]

The epithet dumu-é-a, translated as "child of the house"

Kassite period.^[15]

Worship

The earliest attestations of Gunura come from the

Utu and Urmašum.^[18] Documents from the archives of the Third Dynasty of Ur indicate that sometimes offerings to her were made by practitioners of medicine (asû), with historically notable members of this profession who performed them including Šu-kabta, Nawir-ilum and Ubartum.^[19] She also worshiped in Ur in a temple of Gula.^[20] She is attested in two offering lists from this city.^[21]

According to a

Achaemenid period copy of a Neo-Babylonian original.^[1]

Examples of theophoric names invoking Gunura are known, one example being Ur-Gunura, "man of Gunura."^[1]

Literature

Gunura is attested in a number of literary compositions, in which she usually appears alongside members of her family.

Ninazimua.^[26] Dina Katz suggests that due to the presence of members of families of multiple dying gods this text, known from Old Babylonian copies though possibly related to rituals performed in the Ur III period already, might have been based on a number of originally separate laments.^[27] She also appears in a similar role in another lament, MAH 16016.^[28]

In Ninisina's Journey to Nippur Gunura appears alongside her brother Damu, and both of them either collectively act as a "good protective spirit", Alad-šaga, or are accompanied by a being bearing this name.[2]