Ninegal

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Not to be confused with Ningal.
Ninegal
Goddess of palaces
Other namesBelet Ekalli, Pentikalli
Major cult centerUr, Dilbat, Mari, Qatna
Personal information
Consort
Childrenpossibly Nanaya and Lagamal
Equivalents
Hittite equivalentpossibly Tešimi

Ninegal (also spelled Ninegalla

Mesopotamian goddess associated with palaces. Both her Sumerian and Akkadian name mean "lady of the palace."[2]

From

Hittite Empire in the west. She was particularly venerated in Mari and Qatna, and due to her presence in the pantheon of ancient Syria she was also incorporated into Hurrian religion. The Hurrians
transcribed her name as Pentikalli (Pendigalli).

Especially in literary works, Ninegal could function as an epithet of

Nungal
.

Character

While in the past it has been proposed that Ninegal was a form of Inanna in origin, or, as argued by Thorkild Jacobsen, that the name designated Inanna in a proposed hieros gamos ceremony, today it is considered more plausible that she originally developed as a distinct minor goddess, who served as the tutelary deity of palaces of kings and governors, and whose role was to guarantee their sovereignty.[2] She only started to function as an epithet in literary works in the second and first millennia BCE.[3] It has been pointed out that various cultic objects associated with Ninegal according to administrative texts, such as jewelry, are not identical with these dedicated to Inanna.[4] The oldest source identifying Ninegal with Inanna might be a building inscription from the Isin-Larsa period which refers to her as a daughter of Sin.[4] In god lists Ninegal usually appears near groupings of Inanna manifestations, though in the Nippur god list she and Ninsianna are placed together in a different section.[5]

Belat Ekalli/Ninegal could be implored to act as an intermediary between a praying worshiper and her husband Urash, similar to other divine wives (Aya, Shala) in the case of their respective husbands[6] or the attendant goddess Ninshubur in the case of Inanna.[7]

Worship

The oldest known attestation of Ninegal comes from a god list from Early Dynastic Tell Fara, in which she appears between two deities the reading of whose names is uncertain.[2] Other early references include a dedicatory inscription of a servant of Nammaḫ-abzu, an ensi of Nippur, and a month name in the local calendar of Ur.[2] During the reign of Gudea, Ninegal was worshiped in Lagash, where she had a temple.[4] Evidence for popular devotion to her from that city includes two minor officials who referred to themselves as "servant (arad) of Ninegal."[4]

Multiple attestations are known from the

Eresh.[4]

Her Akkadian name, Belet Ekalli, is attested for the first time in the Ur III period texts from

Kanesh.[2]

It is unclear when Ninegal started to be worshiped in

Nungal, with no location listed.[12] As these two goddesses were associated, it is possible that there was only one Esapar.[12]

Ninegal continued to be worshiped in the

Old Babylonian period, especially in Ur and in Larsa, where a temple dedicated to her, E-a-ag-ga-kilib-ur-ur (Sumerian: "house which gathers all the instructions") was rebuilt by queen Simar-Eshtar, wife of Rim-Sîn I.[4] She is however only sporadically mentioned in letters, compared to deities popular in the sphere of personal worship, such as Aya, Gula or Ishtar.[13]

A late reference to Belet-Ekalli can be found in a letter from Babylon, in which a certain Mār-isar relays to the neo-Assyrian king Esarhaddon that a statue of Belet Ekallim meant for the Esagil temple complex was not yet finished.[14]

Both the forms Ninegal[4] and Belet Ekallim are attested in theophoric names.[14]

Outside Mesopotamia

In the second millennium BCE the worship of Ninegal/Belet Ekallim spread from Mesopotamia to other areas in the

Hittite Empire in the west to Elam in the east.[5]

Earliest attestations of Ninegal from outside Mesopotamia come from

Dagan, Annunitum, Nergal, Shamash, Ea, Ninhursag and Addu.[15] In a letter Zimri-Lim's wife Šibtu enumerated Dagan, Shamash, Itūr-Mēr, Belet Ekalli and Addu as "the allies for me" and the deities who "go by my lord's side."[16] In offering lists she appears between Ninhursag and Ningal.[11]

In addition to Mari, in Syria Belet Ekalli was also closely associated with Qatna, where the played the role of the city goddess.[11] Some attestations are also known from Emar, where she was among the deities worshiped during the zukru festival.[11] She is also attested in a god list, in which Belet Ekalli in the Akkadian column corresponds to dWee-el-ti-ga-li in the Hurrian one.[17]

According to Alfonso Archi, in Hurrian sources Ninegal was referred to as Pentikalli.[18] The name is also sometimes transcribed as Pendigalli.[17] Archi assumes that the Hurrians received her from Syria, and that her importance in Mari played a role in her spread.[19] Marie-Claude Trémouille describes her as a goddess from the circle of Hebat from Halab (modern Aleppo).[17] In Hurrian texts, she is designated as a concubine of Teshub.[20] She was assimilated with Pithanu, described as a goddess who sits on Teshub's throne.[21] The later name likely meant "daughter from Hanu," and should be understood as a sign of her association with the middle Euphrates area.[14] Depictions of Pentikalli are mentioned in texts from Hattarina and Lawazantiya.[21] She is also known from texts from Ugarit, where her name is spelled alphabetically as pdgl, and possibly appears in a personal name, annpdgl, theoretically reconstructed as Anani-Pendigalli.[17] It has also been proposed that the Ugaritic goddess b'lt btm/nhtm, "lady of the house," was derived from Belet Ekalli.[5]

A triad consisting of dNIN.E.GAL, Nergal and Ea is attested in economic texts from

Elamite gods and goddesses worshiped at Chogha Zanbil, built by Untash-Napirisha.[24]

While

Šattiwaza Ninegal appears after the couples Enlil and Ninlil and Anu and Antu in a list of "primeval gods" meant to serve as divine witnesses.[26]

Associations with other deities

It is presently uncertain which deities were worshiped with Ninegal in her earliest history.[2] In a tradition originating in Dilbat, the local agricultural god Urash was regarded as her husband.[11] In a god list from neo-Babylonian period they are followed by Lagamal,[11] who was regarded as a son of Urash.[27] In a ritual text, also from the neo-Babylonian period, Ninegal and Urash appear in a formula alongside Nanaya,[28] a goddess referred to as "firstborn of the god Urash."

Kassite period seals, which invoke either couples of deities (Marduk and Sarpanit, Ninurta and Gula) or individual deities (Ishtar or Marduk) to secure success and material wealth for the seal owner.[31] According to Wilfred G. Lambert, unless an otherwise unknown tradition identified Amurru with Urash, he has nothing in common with Ninegal, making this specific inscription unusual.[32]

According to the god list An = Anum, the sukkal (divine attendant) of Ninegal was the minor deity Dikum.[33]

Wolfgang Heimpel proposes that in Mari, Ninegal was closely associated with Annunitum, possibly due to their shared connection with Inanna/Ishtar.[34]

Ninegal as an epithet

The name Ninegal could function as an epithet of Inanna and other goddesses,[3] sometimes impossible to identify.[4] Examples of texts where the identification of Ninegal with Inanna explicit include the so-called Ninegalla hymn, in which the names occur in parallel.[5]

In the Hymn to Nungal the eponymous goddess is apparently referred to as Ninegal.[5] This association is also attested in a fragment of another, presently unidentified, hymn, and in two proverbs.[5]

While the use of the name as an epithet was common in literary texts, the Shulgi hymns seem to be an exception, as they treat Ninegal as a distinct goddess.[4]

References

  1. ^ Behrens & Klein 1998, p. 342.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Behrens & Klein 1998, p. 343.
  3. ^ a b Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 111.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Behrens & Klein 1998, p. 344.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Behrens & Klein 1998, p. 345.
  6. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 119.
  7. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 273.
  8. ^ Behrens & Klein 1998, pp. 343–344.
  9. ^ George 1993, p. 88.
  10. ^ Behrens & Klein 1998, pp. 346–347.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Behrens & Klein 1998, p. 346.
  12. ^ a b Cavigneaux & Krebernik 1998, p. 618.
  13. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 251.
  14. ^ a b c Behrens & Klein 1998, p. 347.
  15. ^ Nakata 2011, p. 130.
  16. ^ Nakata 2011, p. 131.
  17. ^ a b c d Trémouille 2005, p. 386.
  18. ^ Archi 1990, p. 116.
  19. ^ Archi 2013, p. 12.
  20. ^ Archi 2013, pp. 12–13.
  21. ^ a b Archi 2013, p. 13.
  22. ^ Graef 2009, p. 8.
  23. ^ Potts 2010, p. 484.
  24. ^ Potts 2010, p. 495.
  25. ^ Taracha 2009, p. 56.
  26. ^ Archi 2004, p. 322.
  27. ^ Lambert 1983, p. 419.
  28. ^ Drewnowska-Rymarz 2008, pp. 76–77.
  29. ^ Drewnowska-Rymarz 2008, p. 139.
  30. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 96.
  31. ^ Lambert 1970, pp. 46–47.
  32. ^ Lambert 1970, p. 47.
  33. ^ Litke 1998, p. 155.
  34. ^ Heimpel 2003, p. 260.

Bibliography

Further reading

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