Ninmug

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Ninmug
Goddess of artisanship and birth
Member of Šassūrātu
Major cult centerKisiga, Adab
Symbolgolden chisel, silver burin, obsidian knife
Personal information
Consort
ChildrenLumma

Ninmug or Ninmuga

Ninmah, most likely because the fashioning of statues of deities and the birth of children could be described with the same terms in Sumerian texts. Her main cult centers were Kisiga, whose location remains uncertain, and Adab
.

From the

Lugalabba
.

Character

Ninmug was associated with artisanship and with birth.[2] Most likely both functions were interlinked, and Antoine Cavigneaux and Manfred Krebernik point out that the same terms could be used to refer to birth of children and fashioning of cult statues and statuettes.[3] She was particularly closely connected with metalworkers.[2] She was referred to as the "metalworker of the land" (Sumerian: tibira kalamma).[4] She could be described as wielding a variety of tools related to this trade, such as a golden chisel, a silver burin and an obsidian knife.[5] She was also associated with the investiture of kings, as attested in the myth Enki and the World Order.[6]

The name Ninmug could be written as dNIN.MUG or possibly dNIN.ZADIM,[7] though it has also bean argued Ninzadim was a separate deity associated exclusively with seal cutters.[8] Thorkild Jacobsen interpreted the name Ninmug as "lady vulva",[9] but it is now assumed that element mug refers to an unidentified cult utensil or building.[3] It is also attested in personal names, such as Mugsi (from Adab).[3]

It has been argued that in late periods Ninmug started to be viewed as a male deity.[10] However, as noted by Antoine Cavigneaux and Manfred Krebernik, it is not certain if the male deity Nin-MUG, who could be equated with Ea and who is conventionally assumed to be a god of bowyers, is simply a male form of Ninmug.[3] The reading of his name is uncertain and might instead be Ninzed or Ninzedim.[3]

Worship

Ninmug is already attested in the Early Dynastic god list from Fara (

Sealand.[12] Texts from the first millennium BCE indicate it was close to Ur, Larsa, Uruk, Kullaba, Eridu and Nemed-Laguda.[13] Identification with Tell al-Lahm is sometimes proposed.[12] In other sources it could also be described as a city of Inanna and Dumuzi or of Lugal-irra and Meslamta-ea.[14]

Another major cult center of Ninmug was

Ishkur or Nisaba.[16] Offerings to Ninmug are also mentioned in records from Umma, while in Lagash she had a sanga priest.[3]

In the Ur III and Old Babylonian periods, Ninmug could appear alongside her husband Ishum in cylinder seal inscriptions.[17] It has been argued she was a popular deity at the time.[17] References to her in personal letters are infrequent, though she nonetheless occurs comparably often as Ninsun or Ninkarrak.[18] Theophoric names invoking Ninmug are known, one example attested in sources from between Early Dynastic and Ur III times being Ur-Ninmug.[16]

Associations with other deities

Ninmug's husband was

dying god, mentions them both alongside goddesses such as Nintinugga, Ninisina, Ereš'ugga and Lisin.[24] Lumma was regarded as a guardian (udug) of Ekur, Enlil's temple in Nippur,[25] or as an underworld demon (gallû).[25] Gianni Marchesi describes him as "gendarme demon par excellence."[25] It is possible that he originally belonged to the pantheon of Kisiga.[1]

Lumma could also be associated with Ereš'ugga, whose name means "queen of the dead."[1] A second translation, proposed by Wilfred G. Lambert and based on variant spellings, is "mistress of the house of the dead."[26] Due to similarity between the names, she was sometimes confused with Ninmug.[1] Her name was written as NIN-ĝa'uga or NIN-ug-ga, with the NIN sign in this case read as either ereš or égi based on provided glosses.[27] The god list An = Anum equates her with Ninkarrak.[27] It is possible that the confusion between her and Ninmug is responsible for the equation between the latter and Meme in a double column edition of the Weidner god list.[4] According to An = Anum, Meme was an alternate name of Ninkarrak.[28] Ereš'ugga was the wife of Lugala'abba,[27] ("lord of the sea"), a god associated with both the sea and the underworld[29] who was worshiped in Nippur during the reign of Samsu-iluna.[26] An = Anum keeps Ninmug and Ereš'ugga apart, with the former appearing alongside Ishum and the latter alongside Lugala'abba.[8] However, Wilfred G. Lambert asserted that they should be considered two variant spellings of the name of a single deity, who could be viewed as the wife of both Ishum and Lugala'abba.[30]

In texts pertaining to the fashioning of divine statues, Ninmug could appear alongside other deities associated with crafts, such as

Ninduluma and Ninkurra.[4]

An offering list from Umma from the Ur III period mentions a nameless sukkal (attendant deity) of Ninmug.[3]

Mythology

In the myth Enki and

Mumudu and Ninniginna.[32] It is assumed that Ninmug's role in this myth might be the reason why a single eršemma text equates her with Ninhursag, Dingirmah and Lisin.[4] Ninmah's helpers could be collectively called Šassūrātu.[33][34] This term was derived from šassūru, "womb," a Sumerian loanword in Akkadian.[35] In an Ugaritic god list, they were equated with Hurrian Hutena and Hutellura and local Kotharat.[35] The latter group is also known Mari, where they were known as Kûšarātum.[35] Their name is derived from the Semitic root kšr, "to be skilled."[35]

Ninmug also appears in the myth Enki and the World Order. When Inanna complains about not being assigned a domain, she mentions her alongside Aruru, Nanshe, Nisaba and Ninisina as goddesses who receives specific areas of influence from Enki.[36] Ninmug's appointment is stated to be the office of tibir kalamma.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Marchesi 2006, p. 59.
  2. ^ a b Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 222.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Cavigneaux & Krebernik 1998a, p. 473.
  4. ^ a b c d e Cavigneaux & Krebernik 1998a, p. 472.
  5. ^ Marchesi 2006, p. 44.
  6. ^ Marchesi 2006, p. 61.
  7. ^ a b Cavigneaux & Krebernik 1998a, p. 471.
  8. ^ a b Lambert 2013, p. 242.
  9. ^ a b Vanstiphout 1997, p. 126.
  10. ^ a b c Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 55.
  11. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 58.
  12. ^ a b Röllig 1980, p. 620.
  13. ^ Röllig 1980, p. 621.
  14. ^ Röllig 1980, pp. 620–621.
  15. ^ a b Such-Gutiérrez 2005, p. 27.
  16. ^ a b c d Such-Gutiérrez 2005, p. 28.
  17. ^ a b Weiershäuser 2010, p. 356.
  18. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 251.
  19. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 273.
  20. ^ Veenhof 2018, p. 87.
  21. ^ Veenhof 2018, pp. 57–58.
  22. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 61.
  23. ^ Edzard 1980, p. 213.
  24. ^ a b Marchesi 2006, p. 45.
  25. ^ a b c Marchesi 2006, p. 58.
  26. ^ a b Lambert 2013, p. 244.
  27. ^ a b c Cavigneaux & Krebernik 1998, p. 361.
  28. ^ Krebernik 1997, p. 56.
  29. ^ Lambert 2013, pp. 240–241.
  30. ^ Lambert 2013, pp. 243–244.
  31. ^ Lambert 2013, p. 506.
  32. ^ Lambert 2013, p. 337.
  33. ^ Stol 2000, pp. 80–82.
  34. ^ Archi 2013, p. 19.
  35. ^ a b c d Archi 2013, p. 14.
  36. ^ Vanstiphout 1997, p. 118.

Bibliography

External links
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