Ningal
Ningal | |
---|---|
Tutelary goddess of Ur | |
Major cult center | Ur, Harran |
Personal information | |
Parents | Ningikuga and Enki |
Consort | Nanna/Sin |
Children | |
Equivalents | |
Hurrian equivalent | Nikkal |
Ningal (
Character and iconography
Ningal's name has
Based on some of Ningal's epithets it has additionally been proposed that she was in part an astral deity, much like her husband.[10] This aspect might have been reflected in titles such as Ninantagal, Ninmulnunna, Si-iminbi and possibly Kalkal,[6] respectively "high lady", "lady, star of the prince", "sevenfold light" and "treasured".[11]
Ningal's iconography was not consistent.
In medical treatises the term "hand of Ningal" referred to an unidentified
Association with other deities
Ningal's mother was
The
An = Anum indicates that Ningal was believed to have a sukkal (attendant deity), though the reading of their name, dMEkà-kàME, remains uncertain.[3] Richard L. Litke argued that the gloss is unlikely to point at an otherwise unknown pronunciation of the sign ME, and assumed that the deity in mention was named Meme, while an alternate version of the list had the name Kakka in the same line instead.[23] Manfred Krebernik proposes that this deity is identical with the divine messenger Kakka.[3] Litke instead concluded that in this case Kakka should be understood as a deity elsewhere equated with Ninkarrak,[23] distinct from the messenger god.[24] A medicine goddess named Kakka, associated with Ninkarrak and Ninshubur, is attested in sources from Mari.[25]
An association between Ningal and
Worship
Ningal is first attested the god lists from Early Dynastic Fara and Abu Salabikh.[5] She is also mentioned in the zame (from za3-me, "praise") hymns, in which she appears after Nanna as "mother Ningal" (ama Ningal).[4]
Ur
A
The veneration of Ningal in Ur is well documented in sources from the
In the
Ningal was still worshiped in Ur during the Neo-Babylonian period.[41] Her main temple there was rebuilt by Nabonidus.[42] Additionally a bīt ḫilṣi ("house of pressing"), assumed to be a pharmacy accompanied by a garden where the ingredients for various medicines were grown) located in the same city in this period was associated with Ningal.[18]
Harran
In Harran Ningal was worshiped in a shrine known under the name giparu.[43] Andrew R. George assumes it was located in the Eḫulḫul,[40] the temple of Sin located in this city.[44] It is attested in sources from the reign of Ashurbanipal.[40] An inscription of this king states that Ningal and Nanna crowned him in Harran.[6] According to inscriptions of Nabonidus, during the repairs undertaken at his orders in the Eḫulḫul the temple was provided with refurbished statues of its divine inhabitants, including Sin, Ningal, Nuska and Sadarnunna.[45]
Harran most likely influenced the Aramaic center of the cult of Ningal, known from sources from the first millennium BCE, Nereb (Al-Nayrab) located in the proximity of Aleppo.[46]
Other cities
Offerings to Ningal are mentioned in texts from
From
A document from Old Babylonian
References to veneration of Ningal in the Old Babylonian period are also available from multiple other cities, including
A single attestation of Ningal is known from the archive of the
The Canonical Temple List, which dates to the
One of the inscriptions of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon commemorates the construction of a temple dedicated jointly to Ningal, Sin, Shamash and Aya in Nineveh.[61] A shrine dedicated to her was also located in Dur-Sharrukin,[62] a new royal city constructed during the reign of Sargon II.[63] It was located within his palace.[64] The king implored her in an inscription to intercede with her husband to grant him a long life and to guarantee his successors will continue to rule over "every inhabited region forever".[65] Ningal is also attested in a number of theophoric names from Assyria.[6]
Letters from the reign of
Ningal was also worshiped in Uruk in the Seleucid period.[71] However, the attestations are limited to a single source, the ritual text K 7353, which shows astrological influence, but ultimately remains obscure.[72] She is absent from earlier Neo-Babylonian sources[71] and according to Julia Krul presumably was incorporated into the local pantheon due to her status as the wife of Sin, similarly to other spouses, children and servants of locally venerated deities who first appear in Uruk in Seleucid sources.[73]
Outside Mesopotamia
The cult of Ningal spread from Mesopotamia to other areas, including
In the east Ningal is attested in Akkadian theophoric names from Susa in Elam, with the oldest examples occurring in sources from the Sargonic period.[80] Additionally, a chapel dedicated to her was maintained there by an Akkadian-speaking family, possibly originally brought to the city as prisoners of war after the Elamite conquest of Ur.[81] They maintained it over the course of four generations.[82]
In Egypt Ningal (or Nikkal) is only attested once, in a single magical papyrus, in which she appears as a foreign deity implored to heal a disease.[78]
References
- ^ a b Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, pp. 173–174.
- ^ a b Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 57.
- ^ a b c d e f g Krebernik 1993, p. 365.
- ^ a b c Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 49.
- ^ a b c d e f Zgoll 1998, p. 352.
- ^ a b c d e f g Zgoll 1998, p. 354.
- ^ Zgoll 1998, pp. 353–354.
- ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 72.
- ^ a b c Zgoll 1998, p. 355.
- ^ Wiggins 1998, p. 768.
- ^ a b c d e Zgoll 1998, p. 353.
- ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 209.
- ^ a b c Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 230.
- ^ a b Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 231.
- ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 182.
- ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, pp. 190–191.
- ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 191.
- ^ a b Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 120.
- ^ a b Cavigneaux & Krebernik 1998, p. 361.
- ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 109.
- ^ Beckman 1999, pp. 27–28.
- ^ Abusch 2015, p. 11.
- ^ a b Litke 1998, p. 122.
- ^ Litke 1998, p. 25.
- ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 273.
- ^ Nicolet 2022, p. 19.
- ^ a b Boivin 2018, p. 215.
- ^ Boivin 2018, p. 230.
- ^ a b George 1993, p. 90.
- ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 190.
- ^ Frayne 1997, p. 87.
- ^ George 1993, p. 108.
- ^ Frayne 1990, p. 16.
- ^ Frayne 1990, p. 24.
- ^ Frayne 1990, p. 44.
- ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 227.
- ^ George 1993, p. 104.
- ^ Frayne 1990, p. 203.
- ^ Frayne 1990, p. 175.
- ^ a b c George 1993, p. 93.
- ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 277.
- ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 286.
- ^ George 1993, p. 92.
- ^ George 1993, p. 99.
- ^ Weiershäuser & Novotny 2020, p. 11.
- ^ Weippert 1998, p. 358.
- ^ George 1992, p. 159.
- ^ George 1993, p. 74.
- ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, pp. 95–96.
- ^ Archi 2013, p. 12.
- ^ Sasson 2015, p. 236.
- ^ Nakata 1995, p. 253.
- ^ Nakata 1995, p. 251.
- ^ Harris 1975, p. 153.
- ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 257.
- ^ George 1993, p. 79.
- ^ Boivin 2018, p. 222.
- ^ Boivin 2018, p. 66.
- ^ George 1993, p. 6.
- ^ George 1993, p. 67.
- ^ Leichty 2011, p. 58.
- ^ Frame 2020, p. 31.
- ^ Frame 2020, p. 30.
- ^ Frame 2020, p. 34.
- ^ Frame 2020, pp. 192–193.
- ^ George 1993, p. 33.
- ^ Weiershäuser & Novotny 2020, p. 9.
- ^ George 1993, p. 66.
- ^ Weiershäuser & Novotny 2020, p. 94.
- ^ Weiershäuser & Novotny 2020, p. 95.
- ^ a b Krul 2018, p. 72.
- ^ Krul 2018, pp. 69–70.
- ^ Krul 2018, p. 75.
- ^ Imparati 1998, p. 356.
- ^ Wiggins 1998, p. 766.
- ^ Weippert 1998, pp. 357–358.
- ^ Wiggins 1998, p. 769.
- ^ a b Weippert 1998, p. 357.
- ^ Konstantopoulos 2023, p. 142.
- ^ Zadok 2018, p. 154.
- ^ Zadok 2018, p. 155.
- ^ Zadok 2018, p. 153.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - Zgoll, Annette (1998), "Ningal A. I. In Mesopotamien", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-02-14