Gula (goddess)

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Gula
Divine physician
The goddess Gula, known as The Great Physician. Wellcome M0006293.jpg
A healing goddess with a dog (Gula or Ninisina) on a kudurru
Major cult centerUmma, Nippur
Symboldog, scalpel
Personal information
ConsortNinurta
Childrensometimes Damu and Gunura
Equivalents
Isin equivalentNinisina
Sippar and Terqa equivalentNinkarrak
Nippur equivalentNintinugga

Gula was a Mesopotamian goddess of medicine. While initially only associated with Umma, she gradually eclipsed the other healing goddesses (Ninisina, Ninkarrak, Nintinugga; as well as Bau, sometimes regarded as a healing goddess), becoming the preeminent deity of medicine.

Name and origin[]

Gula's name is usually understood as "great one,"[1] though other translations have been proposed as well: "greater," "greatest," "former," "capital" or "main."[2]

Her origin is most likely Sumerian (much like Ninisina's and Nintinugga's) rather than Akkadian.[3]

In sources from the reign of the Third Dynasty of Ur, "Gula" was sometimes used simply as an epithet added to names of various deities: references to "Inanna-Gula," "Ninhursag-Gula" but also "Alla-Gula" (Alla being the sukkal of Ningishzida, rather than a major deity) are known.[4] It was also applied to the major medicine goddess Ninisina.[5] It is possible that the goddess Gula was herself simply an epithet which developed into a separate deity.[6] An analogous example would be that of Anunitu, who was initially an epithet of Ishtar,[7] but became a goddess distinct from her in Sippar.[1]

Character and iconography[]

Kudurru of Gula, displayed in the Louvre

Like other medicine goddesses, Gula was regarded as a divine physician, performing surgeries and cleaning and bandaging wounds.[8] A hymn call her "the great doctoress."[9] Texts describe her as equipped with a variety of tools employed by physicians in ancient Mesopotamia, including various herbal remedies, a razor, a scalpel and a number of other knives or lancets.[10]

Like Ninkarrak, she was also associated with pregnant women.[11] In exorcisms Gula was sometimes asked to cut the umbilical cord and determine a favorable destiny for the newborn.[12] As an extension of such roles she was regarded as capable of treating diseases of infants, and as an enemy of the demon Lamashtu.[11]

She was sometimes associated with the netherworld to a degree.[8] Gula Hymn of Bullutsa-rabi goes as far as having the goddess declare "I bring up the dead from the netherworld."[13] In one incantation she is invoked to counter the harmful influence of Allatum (here a name of Ereshkigal, rather than a distinct deity) on a patient.[14]

Like other medicine goddesses, Gula was believed to be able to use illnesses as punishment in addition to healing them.[15]

On kudurru (decorated boundary stones) Gula was depicted in human form, sitting on a throne, rather than in a symbolic way like most other deities.[16] Nanaya (goddess of love) and Lamma (minor tutelary goddesses) were the only other female deities depicted similarly,[17] though Gula was more common.[18]

Gula and dogs[]

Gula was associated with dogs,[19] much like Ninisina, and both were depicted accompanied by these animals.[20] However, depictions of Gula's dogs are relatively uncommon.[15] One neo-Assyrian text dealing with Babylonian customs states that a dog which crossed the Esabad (one of Gula's temples) was believed to be a messenger sent by her.[21] Gula's dogs were also invoked in Old Babylonian oaths.[22] They were also believed to assist her in combat against Lamashtu.[11] A dog cemetery was found near one of Gula's excavated temples.[11]

The origin of the association between dogs and healing goddesses is uncertain, but it has been proposed that it was either the result of observing that saliva of dogs has healing properties, or an extension of a belief that disease can be transferred magically to an animal if it licks the patient.[11]

Other possible animal associations[]

In a ritual formula a worm, most likely a leech, was called "the daughter of Gula."[23] It is unclear if this was meant to elevate it to the rank of a notable demonic creature (similar to how Lamashtu was usually called "daughter of Anu" and Namtar was occasionally the "son of Enlil")[24] or if it perhaps hints at an otherwise not directly attested medicinal use of leeches in ancient Mesopotamia.[25] There is however no direct evidence of bloodletting being practiced, and the references to it in the Babylonian Talmud are assumed to reflect influence of Greek medicine in the Levant rather than a Mesopotamian tradition.[23] A single incantation (YOS 11, 5:9-14) appears to refer to unspecified worms as "dogs of Gula."[14] Describing other animals as "dogs" is not unparalleled in other Mesopotamian magical texts, as various field pests (including locusts, small birds and caterpillars) were called "dogs of Ninkilim," but no other uses of this figure of speech in relation to Gula are known.[26] Based on these scattered references Nathan Wasserman proposes that a type of worm, possibly a leech, was regarded as Gula's attribute, in addition to the better known association with dogs.[27]

Worship[]

Gula appears for the first time in sources from the reign of the Third Dynasty of Ur.[28] The initial center of her cult was Umma.[29] Other cities where she was worshiped early on were Adab, Lagash, Nippur, Ur and Uruk.[6] Some later sources from Nippur refer to her as Belet Nippuri—"Lady of Nippur"[30]—due to the fact she was viewed as the spouse of Ninurta.[31] However, Nippur also had a distinct local medicine goddess, Nintinugga,[6] while the title of Belet Nippuri was sometimes applied to Ninimma, who was neither a medicine goddess nor the wife of Ninurta.[31] Gula's temple in Nippur was the Ešumeša.[32]

In the Old Babylonian period, Gula was one of the most popular goddesses based on sources such a personal letters, in which she appears with comparable frequency to Annunitu, Aya, Ninsianna and Sarpanit, though less commonly than Ishtar.[33]

Documents from Sippar mention individuals serving as sanga priests of Ninkarrak and Gula, Ninisina or Gula, or just Gula alone.[34] The merging of these cults in that location was likely caused by an influx of immigrants from Isin in Hammurabi's times.[35] The identification between the goddesses was so close in some cases that an individual called Puzur-Ninkarrak in one document but Puzur-Gula in another.[35]

At some point in the second millennium BCE, Gula eclipsed all the other medicine goddesses.[3] Archives of the First Sealand dynasty mention only one healing goddess, Gula.[36] In the same time period she also appears as the only such goddess on seals from Kassite Babylon.[37]

In the city of Babylon, Gula was worshiped in a temple initially built by the king Sumu-abum for Ninisina.[38] She had a second temple there as well.[39] The names of these two temples were Esabad[40] and Egalmah.[41] Additionally the name Ehursagsikila, which was usually assigned to a temple of Ninkarrak, is associated with Gula in a few inscriptions instead.[41]

Late texts associate Isin, originally associated with Ninisina, with Gula instead.[42]

In Seleucid Uruk Gula was one of the deities listed as participants in a parade held during a New Year festival as a member of entourage of Antu (rather than Ishtar).[43]

Association with other deities[]

At least since the Kassite period, Gula was regarded as the spouse of Ninurta,[44] though in the god list An-Anum her husband is Pabilsag.[45] Children of Ninisina, Damu, and Gunura, were sometimes regarded as Gula's.[46] In Umma, a festival was centered on Gula mourning the temporary death of Damu.[8]

Gula's sukkal was named Urmašum according to a late astrological texts.[21] It's possible he was a canine being, as his name starts with ur, a sign present in the words urgi (dog), urmah (lion) and urbarra (wolf).[21]

One text connects her with Enmesharra: "Gula set up weeping for Enmešarra, who had been defeated."[47]

Gula was also seemingly believed to be able to mediate with Marduk, the city god of Babylon, on behalf of human supplicants.[48]

Luwians seemingly regarded the Anatolian goddess of magic, Kamrušepa, as analogous to Gula.[49]

Other healing goddesses[]

Initially individual medicine goddesses were fully separate, as evidenced by the fact that in the so-called Weidner god list Gula, Ninisina and Ninkarrak are said to be goddesses of different locations.[50] After the Old Babylonian period, the worship of Ninisina declined, and she was syncretised with Gula.[51] Earlier the medicine goddess of Umma was sometimes referred to as "Ninisina of Umma," though likely mostly because scribes in Puzrish-Dagan were more familiar with the goddess of Isin and as a result preferred applying her name to other healing deities.[52] Opinions of experts regarding the time at which the process of partial syncretism between these two goddesses (and additionally Ninkarrak) started vary.[52] Not all of their associations and attributes were fully interchangeable, for example Gunura, daughter of Ninisina, could be referred to as daughter of Gula too but was never associated with Ninkarrak.[46]

There is some evidence that Gula and Ninkarrak could both be treated as "Interpretatio Babylonica" of Ninisina in bilingual (e.g. Sumerian and Akkadian) texts.[53]

A syncretic hymn to Gula, written by a scribe named Bullutsa-rabi at some point between 1400 BCE and 700 BCE, describes various identities assigned by the author to this goddess.[53] They include Nintinugga; Nanshe; Bau; Ninsun; Ninkarrak; Ninigizibara (a harpist goddess from the entourage of Inanna); and Ninlil.[54] The text nonetheless preserves information about the distinct character and spheres of influence of each of the listed deities.[55] The goddess' spouse is identified with various gods too, including Ninazu[54] and Pabilsag.[56]

References[]

  1. ^ a b Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 133.
  2. ^ Böck 2015, p. 6.
  3. ^ a b Westenholz 2010, p. 396.
  4. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 69.
  5. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 82-83.
  6. ^ a b c Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 82.
  7. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 71.
  8. ^ a b c Böck 2015, p. 3.
  9. ^ Westenholz 2010, p. 394.
  10. ^ Wasserman 2008, p. 80-81.
  11. ^ a b c d e Böck 2015, p. 4.
  12. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 65.
  13. ^ Wasserman 2008, p. 78.
  14. ^ a b Wasserman 2008, p. 82.
  15. ^ a b Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 254.
  16. ^ Lambert 2013, p. 233.
  17. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 278.
  18. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 281.
  19. ^ Livingstone 1988, p. 57.
  20. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 252.
  21. ^ a b c Livingstone 1988, p. 58.
  22. ^ Lambert 2013, p. 234.
  23. ^ a b Wasserman 2008, p. 79.
  24. ^ Wasserman 2008, p. 79-80.
  25. ^ Wasserman 2008, p. 80.
  26. ^ Wasserman 2008, p. 83.
  27. ^ Wasserman 2008, p. 84.
  28. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 286.
  29. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 64.
  30. ^ Lambert 2013, p. 435.
  31. ^ a b Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 102.
  32. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 104.
  33. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 251.
  34. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 253.
  35. ^ a b Westenholz 2010, p. 385.
  36. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 94-95.
  37. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 95-96.
  38. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 86.
  39. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 106.
  40. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 120.
  41. ^ a b Westenholz 2010, p. 392.
  42. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 130.
  43. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 126.
  44. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 96.
  45. ^ Westenholz 2010, p. 383.
  46. ^ a b Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 84.
  47. ^ Lambert 2013, p. 285.
  48. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 119.
  49. ^ Taracha 2009, p. 150.
  50. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 79.
  51. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 56.
  52. ^ a b Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 83.
  53. ^ a b Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 100.
  54. ^ a b Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 115.
  55. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 116.
  56. ^ Westenholz 2010, p. 382.

Bibliography[]

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