| Ningirima | |
|---|---|
Goddess of incantations, snakes, fish and water | |
| Major cult center | Murum,Uruk, Girima |
| Symbol | possibly two bottles and a battlemented crown |
| Genealogy | |
| Siblings | Enlil |
Ningirima was aMesopotamian goddess associated withincantations, attested already in theEarly Dynastic period. She was also associated with snakes, fish and water. According to the god listAn = Anum and other sources, she was regarded as a sister ofEnlil. While suggestions that she was conflated with the mongoose deityNinkilim can be found in modern literature, this theory finds no direct support in primary sources.
Her importance declined in the second millennium BCE, but in some locations, such asUr, she was still worshiped after theAchaemenid conquest ofMesopotamia in the first millennium BCE.
The typical early writing of the name, known fromTell Fara,Abu Salabikh andEbla isdNin-A.MUŠ.ḪA.DU,[1] meaning "mistress of snake and fish water" inSumerian.[2] The sequence A.MUŠ.ḪA.DU could be read asgirima.[3] Later the name was commonly spelled syllabically, for exampledNi-gi-ri-ma.[4] A text fromLagash refers to her as the "great true-eyed one of heaven,"igi-zi-gal-an-na.[5]
Ningrima was associated with incantations, water, fish and snakes.[2] InAkkadian, she could be referred to asbēlat tēlilti, "mistress of purification."[6] OneOld Babylonian incantation refers to her as the "mistress" of snakes, indicating she was believed to have control over these animals.[7]
Ningirima's position in the Mesopotamian pantheon of the third millennium BCE was high, though in later periods she had to compete with deities such asAsalluhi andMarduk who shared her association with incantations.[3]In theUr III period, even though most incantations were seemingly composed inNippur, deities associated withEridu, such as Asalluhi andNamma, started to predominate in this genre of texts.[8] As a result, Ninigrima's role was reduced to that of a divine purifier associated with basins ofsacred water, rather than an universal divine exorcist.[8]
Inastronomical texts Ningrima was associated with the so-called scorpion star.[9]
It has been proposed that depictions of a goddess wearing a so-called "battlemented crown" and holding two bottles can be identified as depictions of Ningirima.[9]
Muru, a city nearBad-tibira, was a cult center of Ningirima.[10] In later periods, it was also the cult center of themongoose godNinkilim and his wife, Nin-Muru.[10] An inscription ofLugalzagesi mentionsNingirima and addresses her as the "lady ofUruk."[11] Further evidence connecting her with this city includes a god list fromMari and literary texts from Fara (Shuruppak).[7] She was also worshiped in Fara itself.[12] It is possible that she also had a cult center named Girim, located in the proximity of Uruk-Kullaba.[2] WhileBabylon was not associated with her, a few isolated references are known from this city too, including a description of rites performed in E-karzagina, a temple ofEa.[13] However, despite these associations, she was chiefly worshiped as a deity disconnected from any specific location.[2]
Ningirima is attested in god lists from between theEarly Dynastic andNeo-Assyrian periods, including the Fara, Mari, Nippur,Weidner,Sultantepe, Old BabylonianAn = Anum forerunner[1] andAn = Anum lists.[3]
One of the Early DynasticZame Hymns[2] and one of theSargonicTemple Hymns are dedicated to Ningirima.[14] For uncertain reasons, Ningirima, addressed as "crossroads of the gods," also appears in connection with Babylon in a latesyncretic hymn toZarpanit.[13]
The existence of clergy of Ningirima is confirmed by formulas in incantations from Fara andEbla, and by administrative texts fromPuzrish-Dagan which mentiongudu (a type of priest) of this goddess.[7]
In incantations, Ningirima could be invoked againstsnakes, demons, and various illnesses.[15] Early Dynastic exorcism formulas were dedicated to her.[2] She is attested in this type of texts as far west asUgarit.[16] A ritual text fromNineveh mentions the "holy water vessel of Ningirima andKusu."[6] In association with this container she occurs as late in the Achaemenid and Seleucid periods.[17]
Ninigrima already appears intheophoric names from the third millennium BCE, one example being Ur-Ningirima.[4] Attestations are known from the Fara and Ur III periods from Fara,Ur, Uruk and possiblyZabalam.[7] A single female theophoric name invoking Ningirima is known from theneo-Babylonian period.[18] She occurs in a single late theophoric name from Ur as well, Ningirima-ilat, "Nigirima is divine," which belonged to a woman who lived during the reign ofArtaxerxes II.[19]Paul-Alain Beaulieu assumes that her presence in the pantheon of this city well intoAchaemenid times was the result of an association with Ninazu, whose cult was well established in Ur.[20]
The god listAn = Anum refers to Ningirima as the sister ofEnlil.[3] She is also his sister in a currently unpublished Sumerian incantation.[21] According toWilfred G. Lambert a reference to her as a sister ofAnu is also known,[22] but Frank Simons noted that this might be based on an erroneous reading of a damaged tablet, which might simply contain another attestation of the standard sibling relation between Ningirima and Enlil.[23] In some cases, due to their overlapping functions she could instead be referred to as sister ofAsalluhi, and thus as a daughter ofEnki.[16]
Ningirima,Nisaba and Kusu could function as a triad of purification goddesses.[6] Another trinity consisted out of her, Kusu andGirra. This group attested in a consecration rite for priests of Enlil, in various incantations, and in royal inscriptions ofEsarhaddon.[24] In some incantations, she could also be associated withNanshe.[25]
An early hymn compares her to the snake godIrḫan.[2] Due to both of them corresponding to the same star, she could be associated withIšḫara, who also shared her association with snakes.[16] Manfred Krebernik notes that in the god listAn = Anum both of them belong to the court of Enlil.[3] A few texts, includingŠurpu and the Weidner god list, group togetherTishpak,Ninazu and Ningirima, always in that order, based on their shared affinity with snakes.[3]
It has been proposed that Ningirima andNinkilim were considered to be analogous, based on the similarity of their names, a shared cult center (Murum) and other factors, but according to Manfred Krebernik this proposal is implausible.[26] He points out the following differences: while Ningirima is always female, Ninkilim could be regarded as a male deity; their placement in god lists always differs; while both were associated with snakes, the nature of this connection was not identical.[27]
Despite her association with Ninazu, it is not likely that she was ever confused with his similarly named wife,Ningirida.[3]
Ningirima should not be confused with a similarly named deity (dNin-gi-rim-ma ordEn-gi-rim-ma, reading of the first sign uncertain) who was the name of Enki in the role of a gardener god.[28]