NINSU
/ NINSUN
![](600px-Bas-relief_of_Ninsun-AO_2761-IMG_7786-gradient.jpg)
Relief
with an inscription mentioning Ninsun. Louvre Museum
Ninsu
/ Ninsun :
Goddess of wild cows, mother of Gilgamesh
Other
names : Ninsumuna
Major cult center : KI.KALki, Uruk, Ur, Lagash
Abode : Egalmah in Uruk (according to Epic of Gilgamesh)
Animals : Wild cow
Personal information
Consort : Lugalbanda
Children : Gilgamesh ten other children, including Šilamkurra
Dumuzid (occasionally, through conflation with Duttur)
Ninsun
(also called Ninsumun, cuneiform : dNIN.SUMUN2; Sumerian: Nin-sumun(ak)
"lady of the wild cows") was a Mesopotamian goddess. She
is best known as the mother of the hero Gilgamesh and wife of deified
legendary king Lugalbanda, and appears in this role in most versions
of the Epic of Gilgamesh. She was associated with Uruk, where she
lives in this composition, but she was also worshiped in other cities
of ancient Mesopotamia, such as Nippur and Ur, and her main cult
center was the settlement KI.KALki.
The
degree of Ninsun's involvement in Gilgamesh's life varies between
various versions of the Epic. She only plays an active role in the
so-called "Standard Babylonian" version, in which she
advises her son and interprets his dreams, petitions the sun god
Shamash to protect him, and accepts Enkidu as a member of her family.
In the Old Babylonian version her role is passive, with her actions
being merely briefly discussed by Shamhat, while a Hittite translation
of the text omits her altogether. She is additionally present in
older Sumerian compositions, including Gilgamesh and the Bull of
Heaven, as well as a poorly preserved and very early myth describing
her first meeting with Lugalbanda and their marriage.
Kings
from the Third Dynasty of Ur regarded Ninsun as their divine mother,
and Gilgamesh as their brother, most likely to legitimize their
claim to rule over Mesopotamia. Ur-Nammu and Shulgi both left behind
inscriptions attesting their personal devotion to this goddess,
and a prince only known from a single attestation bore the theophoric
name Puzur-Ninsun.
The
god list An = Anum mentions multiple children of Ninsun and her
husband Lugalbanda separately from Gilgamesh. A sparsely attested
tradition additionally regarded her as the mother of the dying god
Dumuzi, indicating a degree of conflation with his usual mother
Duttur. She could also be equated with the medicine goddess Gula,
especially in syncretic hymns.
Character
:
Ninsun's name was written dNIN.GUL. The cuneiform sign GUL could
be read as both sun and sumun in Sumerian, as attested by syllabic
glosses in lexical lists, but its meaning was the same in both cases,
"wild cow." It is possible the name was initially understood
as "lady wild cow," but in most of the ancient sources
it was interpreted as a genitive compound, "lady of wild cows."
Ninsun was often compared to these animals, and in the Epic of Gilgamesh
she is at one point referred to with the Akkadian epithet Rimat-Ninsun,
"wild cow Ninsun."
In
texts from Lagash, Ninsun is sometimes referred to as a lamma. In
this context, lamma most likely should be understood as a designation
of a deity's function, namely their involvement in granting long
and prosperous life to devotees. It is possible that "Lamma-Ninsumuna"
was envisioned as leading Lugalbanda by the wrist, even though lamma
goddesses were usually described as walking behind the person they
protected. It is also probable that in some cases Ninsun was believed
to bestow a lamma upon kings. An inscription of Ur-Ningirsu I identifies
her with the goddess Lammašaga, usually viewed as the sukkal
of Bau. Claus Wilcke argues that in this case the name Lammašaga
should be only understood as a descriptive epithet.
The
so-called "Pennsylvania tablet" of the Old Babylonian
version of the Epic of Gilgamesh attests that Ninsun was believed
to be capable of dream interpretation.
Kings
of the Third Dynasty of Ur, as well as Gudea of Lagash, regarded
Ninsun as their divine mother. However, there is no evidence that
Ninsun was ever regarded as a mother goddess similar to Aruru or
Ninhursag.
Associations
with other deities :
Ninsun's parents are unknown, and in a myth describing her marriage
the Anunna gods appear to collectively play the role which would
customarily belong to parents of the bride, arranging the details
of her marriage. Her husband was Lugalbanda, a deified legendary
king of Uruk. They appear together in multiple sources, including
the Weidner, An = Anum forerunner and An = Anum god lists, as well
as the standard Emesal lexical list. However, in Mari Ninsun is
attested in a list without Lugalbanda.
Ninsun
was regarded as the mother of the deified hero Gilgamesh, as already
attested in Sumerian poems about him. She is consistently attested
in this role in various versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The identity
of Gilgamesh's father is not mentioned in the Old Babylonian version,
and traditions where his identity was left unspecified are known,
for example a king list simply refers to him as a "phantom"
(líl-lá), but due to the preexisting association with
Ninsun Lugalbanda was widely accepted as the hero's father in Mesopotamian
tradition, and references are known from other texts, for example
the Poem of the Mattock. As there is no indication that Ninsun was
ever envisioned as a mortal woman, rather than a goddess, references
to deceased mother of Gilgamesh present in the text Gilgamesh, Enkidu
and the Netherworld most likely refer to an unrelated tradition
regarding the hero's origin.
The
god list An = Anum enumerates ten deities regarded as children of
Ninsun and Lugalbanda alongside them. The first among them, a goddess
named Šilamkurra, was worshiped in Uruk in the Seleucid period,
where she appears in a ritual text alongside Usur-amassu, Ninimma
and otherwise unknown Ninurbu. In An = Anum, Gilgamesh occurs separately
from Ninsun and her other family members on a different tablet,
possibly in the company of Enkidu though the restoration of the
latter's name is uncertain. A sukkal (attendant deity) of Ninsun
appears in the same list after Lugalbanda's sukkal Lugalhegal, but
the full name cannot be fully restored due to the state of preservation
of the tablet. According to Richard L. Litke, the name starts with
lugal and ends with an-na, but one more sign present between these
two elements is not preserved.
There
is evidence that as early as in the Old Babylonian period, Ninsun
could be equated with Gula in theological texts, for example in
two column versions of the Weidner god list. An association between
these two goddesses is also present in the Hymn to Gula composed
by Bullu?sa-rabi, which identifies the eponymous goddess with a
large number of other female deities, among them Nintinugga, Ninkarrak,
Nanshe and Ninigizibara. Joan Goodnick Westenholz notes that while
syncretism between different medicine goddesses is not unusual,
the presence of Ninsun in this text is, especially since it preserves
information about her usual character instead of reinterpreting
her as another similar deity. A similar equation between Ninsun's
and Gula's respective husbands, Lugalbanda and Ninurta, is also
attested, though it was likely secondary and there is no evidence
Ninurta was ever referred to as Gilgamesh's father.
Ninsun
could also be identified with the mother of Dumuzid, Duttur, which
according to Manfred Krebernik indicates that the latter was likely
viewed as a goddess associated with livestock in general rather
than specifically with sheep, as originally proposed by Thorkild
Jacobsen. It is also possible that this equation was the result
of the network of associations between Dumuzid, Damu, and kings
of the Third Dynasty of Ur, who referred to Gilgamesh as their brother.
Dina Katz proposes that it was inspired by king lists, in which
Dumuzi the Fisherman (a figure distinct from the god Dumuzid) is
listed between Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh, though without being labeled
as a son of the former. In at least one case, Dumuzid is called
the son of both Ninsun and Lugalbanda. An indirect association between
Dumuzid and Ninsun is also present in an inscription of Utuhegal,
in which Gilgamesh, directly called the son of this goddess, assigns
Dumuzid to him as a bailiff.
Worship
:
![](Ur-Nammu_dedication_tablet_for_the_Temple_of_Nin-Sun_in_Ur.jpg)
Ur-Nammu's
dedication tablet for the temple of Ninsun in Ur: "For his
lady Ninsun, Ur-Nammu the mighty man, King of Ur and King of Sumer
and Akkad, has built her temple"
Ninsun has been characterized as a "well-known goddess in all
periods." She is already attested in the Early Dynastic god
lists from Fara and Abu Salabikh. Her main cult center was KI.KALki,
but she was also worshiped in Lagash, Nippur, Ur, Uruk, Ku'ara,
Umma and other settlements. A temple dedicated to her existed in
Ur, as attested in an inscription of Ur-Nammu, which states that
it was rebuilt by this ruler and that it bore the name E-mah, "exalted
house." A temple dedicated to her known as E-gula, "big
house," is also known, but its location is not specified in
known documents, and the same name was also applied to a large number
of other houses of worship in various parts of Mesopotamia. In the
"Standard Babylonian" edition of the Epic of Gilgamesh,
the Egalmah ("exalted palace") is said to be Ninsun's
temple in Uruk, but an inscription of Sîn-kašid indicates
it was originally a temple of Ninisina, while in a document from
the first millennium BCE the deity worshiped in it is Belet-balati,
a manifestation of closely connected Gula. Sîn-kašid
also built a temple of Lugalbanda and Ninsun bearing the name E-Kikal,
"house, precious place."
An
inscription of Gudea addresses Ninsun as his divine mother. However,
there are also cases where he referred to Nanshe or Gatumdag as
such. Kings of the Third Dynasty of Ur also described Ninsun as
their divine mother. For example, in Death of Ur-Nammu, Ninsun mourns
the passing of the eponymous king and is addressed as his mother.
By extension, the rulers also treated Gilgamesh as their divine
brother, and Ur-Nammu's successor Shulgi called Lugalbanda his divine
father. It is possible that one of this king's daughters served
as the en priestess of Ninsun. It is agreed that claiming descent
from Ninsun was viewed as a way to legitimize their rule, but it
is unknown whether it should be understood as a sign that the dynasty
originated in Uruk, or if the only reason was the fact that Gilgamesh
was recognized as a model of kingship. In addition to the kings,
there is also evidence for worship of Ninsun by their families.
A concubine of Shulgi, Šuqurtum, referred to Ninsun as "my
goddess" in a curse formula on an inscribed vase. A prince
(dumu lugal) bearing the theophoric name Puzur-Ninsun is also known,
but no detailed information about his life is presently known, and
the Puzrish-Dagan tablet attesting his existence is undated.
Ninsun
continued to be worshiped in later periods. Sporadic references
to her are present in Old Babylonian personal letters. In cylinder
seal inscriptions from Sippar, Ninsun and Lugalbanda occur less
commonly than the most popular divine couples, such as Shamash and
Aya and Adad and Shala, but with comparable frequency as Enlil and
Ninlil or Nanna and Ningal. Ninsun continues to appear in seal inscriptions
from Kassite period as well.
In
Seleucid Uruk, Ninsun was celebrated during the New Year festival
of Ishtar. Most of the deities involved in it were well known as
members of the pantheon of Uruk, in contrast with a different group
which was celebrated during an analogous festival of Antu.
Mythology
:
An Early Dynastic myth from Abu Salabikh describes the first meeting
and marriage of Ninsun and Lugalbanda. The text is regarded as particularly
difficult to translate and study, as only one most likely incomplete
copy survives. In the surviving fragments Ninsun offers beer bread
to Lugalbanda, and later spends a night with him in Iri'aza, a mountainous
location in Elam. After waking up she receives an enclosed clay
tablet, and after reading it most likely urges Lugalbanda to go
with her to Uruk to visit the En (ruler) of the city. Once they
arrive there, the goddess Inanna appears to instruct Lugalbanda
how to approach Ninsun's nameless father to be allowed to marry
her. The restoration of the ending is uncertain, but Jan Lisman
proposes that the final known section involves Lugalbanda inviting
both his own relatives and members of Ninsun's family to their wedding.
It has been argued that this myth culminated in the birth of Gilgamesh,
but this proposal is unproven and controversial.
Ninsun
appears in some copies of the Sumerian myth Gilgamesh and the Bull
of Heaven. She advises her son to reject Inanna's proposals and
gifts.
In
the Old Babylonian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh, the eponymous
hero asks Ninsun to interprets his dreams foretelling the arrival
of Enkidu. In the younger versions of the composition, this is not
shown directly, but rather mentioned by Shamhat to Enkidu. Ninsun
predicts that Gilgamesh and Enkidu will become close (according
to Andrew R. George: that they will become lovers), which comes
true after their subsequent duel. In the "Standard Babylonian"
version, the heroes later visit Ninsun in her temple in Uruk. She
prays to Shamash to take care of her son, even though she is aware
of the fate awaiting him. She also asks Shamash's wife Aya to intercede
on her Gilgamesh's behalf. She manages to convince Shamash to give
Gilgamesh thirteen winds meant to help him on the way to the Cedar
Forest. At one point, she acknowledges that he is destined to dwell
in the underworld alongside deities such as Ningishzida and Irnina.
The final lines are damaged, but Ninsun seemingly holds Shamash
responsible for Gilgamesh's plan to journey to distant lands, and
therefore expects him to help him. It has been noted that overall
the later version expands Ninsun's role, as in the Old Babylonian
version, Gilgamesh prays to Shamash himself, without his mother's
intercession. Both Ninsun and the dream sequences are absent from
the Hittite translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh known from Hattusa.
After
finishing her prayer to Shamash, Ninsun decides to meet with Enkidu
and proclaims him as equal to her son in rank and a member of her
family. The scene has been conventionally interpreted as representing
adoption. There is no evidence that an analogous plot point was
present in the Old Babylonian versions. Andrew R. George proposes
that the passage reflected a custom known from neo-Babylonian and
later documents from Uruk, according to which foundlings and orphans
were raised in temples, though their divine protectors were the
anonymous "Daughters of Eanna" rather than Ninsun. A different
interpretation has been proposed by Nathan Wasserman, who assumes
that by adopting Enkidu, Ninsun guaranteed his loyalty to Gilgamesh
and the city of Uruk. He argues that Enkidu's actions during the
confrontation with Humbaba indicate that he valued Ninsun's acceptance
highly, as he seemingly tells Gilgamesh to ignore the monster's
pleas because the latter earlier mocked him as a being with no family.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninsun