Ninazu

Ninazu was a Mesopotamian god of the underworld of Sumerian origin. He was also associated with snakes and vegetation, and with time acquired the character of a warrior god. He was frequently associated with Ereshkigal, either as a son, husband, or simply as a deity belonging to the same category of underworld gods.

His original cult centers were Enegi and Eshnunna, though in the later city he was gradually replaced by a similar god, Tishpak. His cult declined after the Old Babylonian period, though in the city of Ur, where it was introduced from Enegi, he retained a number of worshipers even after the fall of the last Mesopotamian empires.

Functions[]

Ninazu’s Sumerian name can be translated as “lord healer,”^[2] though he was rarely associated with medicine.^[3] He was regarded as the “king of the snakes” and as such was invoked in incantations against snakebite.^[4] Many of such texts, even though originating in Enegi, were written in Elamite and Hurrian, rather than in Sumerian or Akkadian.^[5][6]

It is possible that he was the oldest Sumerian god of the netherworld, only overshadowed by Ereshkigal and Nergal in later periods.^[7] He was referred to as a “steward of the great earth (an euphemism for the underworld)” or as “lord of the underworld,” an epithet shared with many deities, including his son Ningishzida, Nergal, Nirah and the primordial deity Enmesharra.^[8]

Ninazu was also regarded as a warrior deity, especially in Eshnunna.^[3] He was both described and possibly depicted as armed with two maces.^[8] Additionally he was associated with vegetation and agriculture.^[4]

Iconography[]

No depictions of Ninazu have been identified with certainty.^[9]

Ninazu’s symbols mentioned in textual sources include snakes and the “snake-dragon” mushussu.^[8] In an Early Dynastic zami hymn he is also compared to a black dog, known from later Mesopotamian incantations and compendiums of omens as a symbol of death.^[10] “The Elam star,” one of the Mesopotamian names of the planet Mars, was associated with Ninazu in astronomical texts.^[11]

Position in the Mesopotamian pantheon[]

According to Julia M. Asher-Greve, Ninazu can be considered a “high-ranking local god.”^[12]

Multiple traditions regarding Ninazu’s parentage existed. He was regarded either as a son of Ereshkigal and a “Great Lord” (possibly to be identified with Gugalanna known from the god list An-Anum and from the myth Inanna’s Descent), who might have been analogous to anonymous deities described as “mighty cow” and “untamable bull” attested as his parents elsewhere,^[3] of Enlil and Ninlil (an association originating in Eshnunna but present also in other sources, including the myth Enlil and Ninlil), or of Suen.^[3] Frans Wiggermann assumes that the genealogies where Ereshkigal is listed as his mother represent the original tradition, and making Ninazu a son of Enlil and Ninlil was the result of absorption of some features of Nergal.^[3] In an Early Dynastic text from Shuruppak the god of Enegi, presumably Ninazu, is already referred to as “Nergal of Enegi.”^[10]

His wife was Ningirida, first attested in the Ur III period in this role.^[6] Less commonly he could be the husband of Kulla (the wife of Tishpak), there are also instances where Ereshkigal is referred to as his wife rather than mother.^[6]

Ninazu’s children include Ningishzida, his two sisters, and in later sources sometimes the healing goddess Nintinugga.^[6] The names of the two daughters associated with Ningishzida vary between sources, with the best attested being Amashilama, known from a myth about the death of Ningishzida.^[1] Ningirida was regarded as the mother of Ninazu’s children.^[1]

The god Ninmada, called the snake charmer of An, was consistently regarded as Ninazu’s brother.^[3] In the myth How grain came to Sumer the brothers gift grain and flax to mankind.^[13] In the myth Enlil and Ninlil Ninazu’s brothers are instead Nanna, Nergal and Enbilulu,^[3] though he retains a connection with agriculture there nonetheless.^[14]

Ninazu has no sukkal (attendant deity) in the major god lists, it is possible that the viper god Ippu (or Ipahum), later known as the sukkal of Ningishzida, originally was a courtier of his father instead.^[6]

In the god list An-Anum Ninazu appears in a sequence including Ereshkigal, Ningishzida, Tishpak, Inshushinak and Ishtaran.^[15] Based on their association in god lists and similar attributes, Frans Wiggermann proposes that these gods shared a similar origin somewhere in the trans-tigridian area on the border between Sumerian and Elamite spheres of cultural influence.^[16]

Outside Mesopotamia[]

A trilingual god list from Ugarit explains Ninazu as ši-ru-hi (meaning unknown) in Hurrian and possibly as il mutema (“god of death”) in Ugaritic.^[10]

Worship[]

Ninazu’s primary cult center was Enegi, a city located between Ur and Uruk.^[17] The association is first attested in an Early Dynastic document from Lagash.^[3] His main temple in that city was Egidda, “sealed house” or “storehouse.”^[10] The cults of Enegi were likely influenced by Uruk, as in addition to Ninazu typical Urukean deities like the messenger goddess Ninshubur, the demigod Gilgamesh and his mother Ninsun were venerated in this city.^[10]

He was also worshiped in Eshnunna, where his temple was the Esikil, “pure house.”^[10] However, after the Akkadian period, Ninazu competed with the god Tishpak in that location, and ceased to be mentioned in documents from it after Hammurabi’s conquest.^[10] While similar in character, Ninazu and Tishpak were not fully conflated, and unlike Inanna and Ishtar or Enki and Ea were kept apart in god lists.^[10]

In Lagash Ninazu was one of the deities who were part of the official pantheon during the reign of Urukagina,^[18] but he is otherwise not attested there in the Early Dynastic period,^[19] with the exception of some theophoric personal names.^[20]

From Enegi Ninazu was also introduced to Ur, where his cult survived until late periods.^[10] A temple dedicated to him in this city was also named Egidda.^[18] Other cities from which offerings to him are attested are Nippur and Umma.^[14]

In the first millennium BCE he was also venerated in Assur.^[10]

The last available evidence for cult of Ninazu are theophoric personal names from Ur invoking him, present in sources from the period of Persian rule over Mesopotamia.^[18][14]

References[]

Bibliography[]

External links[]

• How grain came to Sumer in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
• Enlil and Ninlil in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature