Ninimma

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Ninimma was a Mesopotamian goddess best known as a courtier and scribe of Enlil, but connected to birth and nursing children as well.

While usually regarded as a goddess, sporadically Ninimma was described as a male deity instead.[1][2]

Association with other deities[]

Ninimma was regarded either as a daughter of Enlil (and as such was referred to as a sister of Ninurta), or less commonly as a daughter of Enki and Ninkurra.[3] Based on a recently discovered cultic song, a tradition according to which she was a spouse of Ninurta existed too.[4]

She was sometimes associated with, and possibly acquired some of the characteristics of Nisaba, the goddess of writing,[5] due to fulfilling a similar role in the pantheon of Nippur.[1] In god lists she often follows the latter and her spouse Haya.[3]

According to Frans Wiggermann Ninimma was sometimes confused with the obscure creator goddess Nammu; the latter was as a result referred to as "true housekeeper of Ekur" sporadically.[6] Wilfred G. Lambert instead considered it possible that Nammu and Ninimma were related, rather than merely confused to each other, and that Ninimma known from Nippur was at some point in time at least to a degree analogous to Nammu, and also regarded as a primordial creator deity.[7]

Functions[]

Ninimma was regarded as a deity serving Enlil as a scribe and scholar.[6] In the god list An-Anum she is also said to be a nurse of his children,[8] notably Suen.[9] However, this role was sometimes attributed to Suzianna instead.[10] Joan Goodnick Westenholz noted that such direct references to goddesses breastfeeding are rare in Mesopotamian literature.[11]

In the composition Hymn to Ninimma for Nanne (Nanne being a little known king mentioned also in the Tummal Inscription) she appears as the wife of Ninurta she is said to mediate between human supplicants and her husband.[4]

In a myth Ninimma appears as one of multiple birth goddesses.[8]

Sometimes she was also regarded as a healing goddess.[1]

Worship[]

A temple of Ninimma existed in Nippur.[12]

She appears on seals and in prayers from Kassite Babylonia, but not in the role of a goddess of birth, which in this period was reserved for Ninmah.[13]

References to Ninimma being part of a procession of deities during a festival dedicated to Gula are also known.[14]

A relatively common name of Babylonian scribes included Ninimma as a theophoric element.[15]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 96.
  2. ^ Lambert 2013, p. 434.
  3. ^ a b Focke 1998, p. 384.
  4. ^ a b Peterson 2020, p. 9.
  5. ^ Focke 1998, pp. 384–285.
  6. ^ a b Wiggermann 1998, p. 137.
  7. ^ Lambert 2013, p. 436.
  8. ^ a b Lambert 2013, pp. 435–436.
  9. ^ Lambert 2013, p. 506.
  10. ^ Krebernik 1993, p. 364.
  11. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 144.
  12. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 101.
  13. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, pp. 95–96.
  14. ^ Focke 1998, p. 385.
  15. ^ Focke 1998, p. 386.

Bibliography[]

  • Asher-Greve, Julia M.; Westenholz, Joan G. (2013). Goddesses in Context: On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Gender in Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources (PDF). ISBN 978-3-7278-1738-0.
  • Focke, Karen (1998), "Nin-Imma", Reallexikon der Assyriologie, retrieved 2022-02-02
  • Krebernik, Manfred (1993), "Mondgott A. I. In Mesopotamien", Reallexikon der Assyriologie, retrieved 2022-02-08
  • Lambert, Wilfred G. (2013). Babylonian creation myths. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-1-57506-861-9. OCLC 861537250.
  • Peterson, Jeremiah (2020). "Christopher Metcalf: Sumerian Literary Texts in the Schøyen Collection, Volume 1: Literary Sources on Old Babylonian Religion. (Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology 38) (review)". Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie. Walter de Gruyter GmbH. 111 (1). doi:10.1515/za-2020-0025. ISSN 1613-1150.
  • Wiggermann, Frans A. M. (1998), "Namma", Reallexikon der Assyriologie, retrieved 2022-02-09

External links[]

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