Ninirigal
| Ninirigal | |
|---|---|
Tutelary goddess of Kullaba | |
| Major cult center | the Kullaba district of Uruk |
| Personal information | |
| Spouse | Nunbaranna (Gibil) |
Ninirigal.
Character and worship
The theonym Ninirigal can be translated as "lady of the Irigal,"[3] Irigal being the name of a temple dedicated to this goddess which existed in Uruk between the late third and early second millennium BCE.[4] She could be referred to as the mother of Kullaba,[5] but her individual character is poorly defined in known sources.[2]
A goddess named Nin-UNUG who appears in an Early Dynastic zami hymn, which states that she was the tutelary deity of Kullaba (also spelled Kullab), a district of Uruk, is sometimes assumed to be Ninirigal, though this remains uncertain and the reading Ninunug is also considered a possibility.[2] If not prefaced by the dingir sign, which functioned as determinative designating names of deities, nin-unug, in this case definitely understood as "the lady of Uruk," was instead an epithet of the incantation goddess Ningirima, as indicated by inscriptions of Lugalzagesi, or Inanna, as attested in a single inscription of Utuhegal.[1]
Ninirigal received offerings in
According to Julia Krul, it is possible that in the
Associations with other deities
In an
Since Ninirigal appears in some of the copies of the myth Nanna-Suen's Journey to Nippur, even though in the standard version
While it has been argued in early scholarship that Ninirigal was related to or identical with Inanna, no evidence in favor of this theory is available, even though she was also worshiped chiefly in the territory of Uruk.[6] In one ritual text from the same city she appears alongside the medicine goddesses Bau and Gula/Meme.[6]
References
- ^ a b Beaulieu 2003, p. 121.
- ^ a b c d Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 49.
- ^ a b Krebernik 1998, p. 386.
- ^ Krul 2018, pp. 86–87.
- ^ a b Krul 2018, p. 87.
- ^ a b c Krebernik 1998, p. 387.
- ^ Krul 2018, p. 67.
- ^ Krul 2018, p. 50.
- ^ Peterson 2014, p. 309.
- ^ Krul 2018, p. 73.
- ^ Krul 2018, p. 75.
- ^ Krebernik 2011, p. 606.
- ^ Cavigneaux & Krebernik 1998, pp. 614–615.
- ^ a b Peterson 2014, p. 308.
- ^ Cavigneaux & Krebernik 1998, p. 615.
- ^ Peterson 2014, pp. 308–309.
- ^ Krebernik 1998a, p. 457.
- ^ Krebernik 1998a, p. 455.
Bibliography
- Asher-Greve, Julia M.; Westenholz, Joan G. (2013). Goddesses in Context: On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Gender in Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources (PDF). Academic Press Fribourg. ISBN 978-3-7278-1738-0. Retrieved 2022-08-19.
- Beaulieu, Paul-Alain (2003). The pantheon of Uruk during the neo-Babylonian period. Leiden Boston: Brill STYX. OCLC 51944564.
- Cavigneaux, Antoine; Krebernik, Manfred (1998), "Nun-bar-a/una", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-08-19
- Krebernik, Manfred (1998), "Nin-irigala", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-08-19
- Krebernik, Manfred (1998a), "Ninlil", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-08-19
- Krebernik, Manfred (2011), "Sonnengott A. I. In Mesopotamien. Philologisch", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-08-19
- Krul, Julia (2018). The Revival of the Anu Cult and the Nocturnal Fire Ceremony at Late Babylonian Uruk. Brill. ISBN 9789004364936.
- Peterson, Jeremiah (2014). "Two New Sumerian Texts Involving the Deities Numushda and Gibil". Studia Mesopotamica: Jahrbuch für altorientalische Geschichte und Kultur. Band 1. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag. OCLC 952181311.