Ningublaga

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Ningublaga
God of cattle
Major cult centerKiabrig
Personal information
SiblingsAlammuš
SpouseNineigara

Ningublaga (𒀭𒊩𒌆𒂯, less commonly Ningublag

Mesopotamian god associated with cattle. His cult center was Kiabrig, a little known city located in the proximity of Ur. He belonged to the circle of deities related to the moon god, Nanna, and sometimes could be viewed as his son. He is also well attested as the brother of Alammuš, and they frequently appear together in god lists, incantations
and especially in astronomical texts.

Character

It is assumed that Ningublaga's name is a genitive construction meaning "lord of Gublag" in Sumerian, Gublag presumably being an otherwise unknown toponym linked with the worship of this god.[2] Two further names which possibly referred to him are GUL-zi (attested in the name of a priestess, reading of the first sign uncertain) and Lugal-baḫar.[2]

Ningublaga was associated with

Ur III period).[5]

Associations with other deities

Ningublaga was closely associated with the moon god

Mesopotamian astronomy.[8] It has been proposed that Little Twins corresponded to Lambda Geminorum and Xi Geminorum.[9] The analogous title "Great Twins" referred to Lugal-irra and Meslamta-ea.[10] Alammuš and Ningublaga also appear together in incantations, ritual texts, and oath formulas.[3] Ningublaga's wife was Nineigara.[1] Her temple was the Eigara ("house of butterfat"), but its location is not known and in the so-called Canonical Temple List it was misinterpreted as a temple of her husband.[11]

A

Zarpanit and Nanaya respectively, specifically as their hairdressers, Andrew R. George concluded that the remaining pairs also were regarded as maidservants in the household of the respective major deity or deities.[14]

In one text, the god

Dumuzi in the role of his superior instead.[16]

Jeremiah Peterson proposes that Numushda was perceived as similar to Ningublaga and for this reason the former also came to be sometimes viewed as a son of Nanna, though he notes no direct equivalence between these two deities is attested in any known god lists.[17]

Worship

Ningublaga's cult center was Kiabrig.

Nanna and Enegi, the cult center of Ninazu.[23] According to Andrew R. George, after the Ur III period Gaburra was likely relocated to Ur, where it was rebuilt first by Warad-Sin and then later by one of the two rulers from the Kassite dynasty bearing the name Kurigalzu (Kurigalzu I or Kurigalzu II).[19] Much like Nanna, he had an entu priestess in this city, who similarly resided in her own gipar building.[24] During the reign of Lipit-Ishtar, this office was held by his daughter Enninsunzi.[25] There is also evidence that in addition to Ur, he was worshiped in Nippur as early as in the Ur III period, and from the Old Babylonian period onward he is attested in Larsa as well.[3]

Ningublaga was worshiped in

astral deities, such as Šulpae and the two pairs of "astral twins."[10] He did not have his own temple, but was instead worshiped a cella in one dedicated to Sin.[27] He was paired with Alammuš during the annual akitu festival of Anu.[28] He is not attested in personal names or legal texts.[26]

An inscription on a kudurru (boundary stone) from the reign of Marduk-apla-iddina I (the "land grant to Munnabittu kudurru") mentions Ningublaga alongside a large number of other deities, including Nergal, Laṣ, Bēl-ṣarbi, the pair Lugal-irra and Meslamta-ea, Šubula, Ishum, Mammitum, Ištaran and Tishpak.[9]

A theophoric name invoking Ningublaga, Ur-Ningublaga, is known from documents from the Early Dynastic period and the Ur III period.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c George 1993, p. 28.
  2. ^ a b c d Cavigneaux & Krebernik 1998, p. 374.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cavigneaux & Krebernik 1998, p. 375.
  4. ^ a b Marchesi 2006, p. 41.
  5. ^ a b Peterson 2009, p. 67.
  6. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 230.
  7. ^ Simons 2017, p. 10.
  8. ^ Krul 2018, p. 67.
  9. ^ a b Simons 2016, p. 9.
  10. ^ a b c Krul 2018, p. 75.
  11. ^ George 1993, p. 103.
  12. ^ a b Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 113.
  13. ^ Cavigneaux & Krebernik 1998, p. 376.
  14. ^ a b George 2000, p. 295.
  15. ^ MacGinnis 2020, p. 109.
  16. ^ Marchesi 2006, p. 58.
  17. ^ Peterson 2014, p. 292.
  18. ^ George 1993, p. 97.
  19. ^ a b George 1993, p. 86.
  20. ^ George 1993, p. 71.
  21. ^ George 1993, p. 136.
  22. ^ D'Agostino & Greco 2019, p. 470.
  23. ^ a b D'Agostino & Greco 2019, p. 471.
  24. ^ George 1993, pp. 92–93.
  25. ^ George 1993, p. 93.
  26. ^ a b Krul 2018, p. 72.
  27. ^ Krul 2018, p. 66.
  28. ^ Krul 2018, p. 68.

Bibliography

External links

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