Editing Nintinugga

{{Short description|Mesopotamian medicine goddess from Nippur}}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Mesopotamian
| name = Nintinugga
| deity_of = Goddess of medicine
| cult_center = [[Nippur]]
| animals = dog
| spouse = Endaga
| father = [[Ninazu]]
| equivalent1_type = Isin
| equivalent1 = [[Ninisina]]
| equivalent2_type = Umma
| equivalent2 = [[Gula (goddess)|Gula]]
| equivalent3_type = Sippar
| equivalent3 = [[Ninkarrak]]
}}
'''Nintinugga''' ({{cuneiform|𒀭𒊩𒌆𒁷𒂦𒂵}}; also romanized as '''Nintinuga'''{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=146}}) was a [[Mesopotamian goddess]] associated with [[medicine]] and cleansing. She belonged to the local pantheon of [[Nippur]]. While she has been compared to other similar goddesses, such as [[Ninisina]] and [[Gula (goddess)|Gula]], and in a number of ancient texts they appear to be syncretised with each other or are treated as interchangeable, she was nonetheless a distinct deity in her own right. She was associated with [[Enlil]] and [[Ninlil]], and was worshiped in their temples, though houses of worship dedicated only to her are also attested. 

==Character==
Nintinugga's name is conventionally translated from [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] as "Mistress who revives the dead".{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=67}} However, Barbara Böck notes this interpretation might only reflect an "ancient scholarly [[etymology]]."{{sfn|Böck|2015|p=329}} It is possible it initially had a different meaning, with one proposal being "lady of the lofty wine," and only from the reign of [[Urukagina|Uruinimgina]] onward it started to be written with the [[cuneiform]] sign ''ug<sub>5</sub>'', "to die."{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=146}} An [[epithet]] sometimes applied to her was "the lady of life and death," ''nin til<sub>3</sub>-la ug<sub>5</sub>-ga'', attested both in royal inscriptions and in various god lists.{{sfn|Peterson|2009|p=237}} 

Descriptions of Nintinugga's activity in Mesopotamian texts present her as physician, with her responsibilities including applying bandages, cleaning wounds and according to Böck specifically dealing with the [[musculoskeletal system]].{{sfn|Böck|2015|p=329}} The evidence for an association between her and healing first appears in sources from the [[Ur III period]], and she is well attested as a medicine goddess in the [[Old Babylonian period]].{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=147}} Attestations of physicians serving as her cultic officials are considered to be early evidence of her healing role.{{sfn|Böck|2015|p=329}} In texts where she and other healing deities are invoked together she might represent a specific form of healing rather than medicine as a whole.{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=150}} She was additionally associated with incantations.{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=67}} In a type of ritual, ''atua'', she is connected with cleansing rather than healing, and Irene Sibbing-Plantholt proposes this might have been an aspect of her original character.{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=148}} However, she also considers it a possibility that she developed as an extension of a healing aspect of [[Enlil]].{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=159}}

Possibly due to the meaning of her name, Nintinugga was connected to the [[Ancient Mesopotamian underworld|underworld]].{{sfn|Böck|2015|p=329}} Jeremiah Peterson notes it is likely that it was believed that she provided the dead with clean water, and that she was connected to [[Funerary cult|funerary]] [[libation]]s.{{sfn|Peterson|2009|p=237}} She was also invoked against the demon [[Asag]],{{sfn|Böck|2015|p=329}} as relayed in the texts ''Letter-Prayer of Inanaka'' and ''A Dog for Nintinugga''.{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=149}}

Dogs are well attested as an attribute of most, though not all, Mesopotamian healing goddesses.{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=158}} The connection might have been based on the observation of healing properties of dog [[saliva]],{{sfn|Böck|2015|p=330}} or on the perception of the animals as [[Liminality|liminal]] and capable of interacting both with the realms of the living and the dead, similar as the goddesses associated with them.{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=158}} Nintinugga was believed to possess dogs of her own,{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=150}} and a text from the Ur III period relays that a throne decorated with two of these animals was prepared for her in [[Ur]].{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=147}} A ''[[Mîs-pî]]'' ritual from [[Nineveh]] mentions reeds and [[Cornel tree|cornel]] wood among cult objects associated with her.{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=118}}

==Associations with other deities==
According to a late medical incantation, Nintinugga's father was [[Ninazu]].{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=331}} Despite the association between her and Ninisina, she was never referred to as a daughter of [[Anu]].{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=151}} Barbara Böck argues that Nintinugga and [[Ninurta]] were regarded as a couple,{{sfn|Böck|2015|p=331}} but Irene Sibbing-Plantholt in a more recent publication concludes that this view, also present elsewhere in [[Assyriological]] literature, is not supported by textual evidence, which is limited to Nintinugga receiving offerings in Ninurta's [[É (temple)|temple]], Ešumeša, which is attested for most members of the local pantheon and does not indicate a spousal relationship.{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=151}} According to the god list ''[[An = Anum]]'', her husband was Endaga (''<sup>[[dingir|d]]</sup>en-dag-ga''),{{sfn|Edzard|1998|p=506}} a god of unknown character already attested in the [[Shuruppak|Fara]] and [[Abu Salabikh]] god lists from the [[Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia)|Early Dynastic period]], but there is no indication in any known sources that the relationship between them was considered significant.{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=151}} In a single [[lament]], Nintinugga appears in the role of the mother of [[Damu]].{{sfn|Katz|2003|p=3}} According to Böck the tradition according to which he was her son is known from Ur.{{sfn|Böck|2015|p=329}} Sibbing-Plantholt points out that both Damu and [[Gunura]] appear in association with her in three texts from Nippur dated to the Ur III period.{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=47}}

Nintinugga was also associated with [[Enlil]]{{sfn|Edzard|1998|p=506}} and could be designated as his ''šimmu'', translated as "incantation priestess" or "sorcerer" by [[Joan Goodnick Westenholz]],{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=67}} but as "a type of healer and provider of [[Medicinal plants|medical plants]]" by Sibbing-Plantholt.{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=148}} The latter author argues that the common assumption that this term designated a specialist similar to the ''[[ašipu]]'' is based only on sources from the first millennium BCE, and earlier texts instead indicate a role similar to that of a [[herbalist]].{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=173}} Another deity connected with Nintinugga was [[Nungal]], the goddess of prisons.{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=86}} In a fragmentary literary text both of them appear alongside [[Ereshkigal]], the goddess of the underworld, possibly due to all three of them sharing a connection to the land of the dead.{{sfn|Peterson|2009|p=234}} 

===Nintinugga and other healing goddesses===
Various goddesses associated with healing, namely Nintinugga, [[Gula (goddess)|Gula]], [[Ninisina]], [[Ninkarrak]], [[Bau (goddess)|Bau]] and [[Meme (Mesopotamian goddess)|Meme]], formed an interconnected network in [[Ancient Mesopotamian religion|Mesopotamian religion]], either due to analogous functions or shared associations with other deities.{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=14}} The existence of multiple similar goddesses responsible for medicine reflected the well attested phenomenon of local pantheons typical for individual cities or regions.{{sfn|Böck|2015|p=328}} However, while a degree of interchangeability is attested,{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=156}} Nintinugga was usually regarded as distinct from the other similar goddesses.{{sfn|Westenholz|2010|p=396}} Their individual character was reflected in distinct traditions regarding their parents and spouses, as well as in associations with separate cult centers.{{sfn|Böck|2015|p=328}} For example, while Nintinugga was associated with [[Nippur]], Ninisina was the goddess of [[Isin]], Gula most likely originated in [[Umma]],{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=82}} and Ninkarrak was worshiped in [[Sippar]].{{sfn|Westenholz|2010|p=385}}

An association between Nintinugga and Ninisina is attested in sources from the Old Babylonian period, and might have been meant to strengthen the ties between their respective cities, Nippur and Isin.{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|pp=150-151}} However, they were not necessarily interchangeable, and references to the former traveling to visit the latter in Isin are known from literary texts.{{sfn|Böck|2015|p=331}}{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=148}}

In the ''Gula Hymn of [[Bulluṭsa-rabi]]'', a [[syncretistic]] work composed at some point between 1400 and 700 BCE{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=100}} which equates the eponymous goddess both with other medicine goddesses and with deities of different character, such as [[Nanshe]] and [[Ninigizibara]] (a minor goddess from the entourage of [[Inanna]], described as a harpist), Nintinugga appears as one of the names assigned to her.{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=115}} Despite the syncretistic approach, each section focuses on the individual traits of each deity,{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=116}} and that dedicated to Nintinugga highlights both her character as a healing goddess and her connection to the underworld.{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=101}} However, sources from Nippur indicate that local theologians equated Gula with Ninisina, not Nintinugga, possibly due to their respective characters being more similar.{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=156}}

==Worship==
The cult of Nintinugga was centered in [[Nippur]],{{sfn|Böck|2015|p=331}} as already attested in sources from the [[Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia)|Early Dynastic period]].{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=146}} It was closely connected to those of [[Enlil]] and [[Ninlil]].{{sfn|Edzard|1998|p=506}} Initially she was likely worshiped in the [[É (temple)|temple]] of the former, while in the Ur III period one of the four chapels located in the temple of the latter belonged to her (the other three were dedicated to [[Nanna (Sumerian deity)|Nanna]], [[Nisaba]] and [[Ninhursag]]).{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=67}} She also had her own temple in Nippur, possibly named Eurusaga, "the foremost city," though it is left nameless in the Ur III sources.{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=73}} The so-called "''[[Lamassu|lamma]]'' (tutelary deity) of the king," ''<sup>d</sup>lamma-[[lugal]]'', was worshiped inside it as well.{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=196-197}} A further sanctuary dedicated to her, located within the ''E''.NI.''gula'' (reading of the second sign uncertain) of Enlil, was the Eamirku, "pure house of stormy weather," attested in a copy of a building inscription which might have been based on an original from the reign of [[Ur-Nammu]].{{sfn|George|1993|p=63}} It is possible that at one point Nintinugga was the personal goddess of Enlilalša, a governor of Nippur and ''gudu'' priest of Ninlil, and she might be depicted on his [[Seal (emblem)|seal]].{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=280}} Another historically notable person known to be a worshiper of this goddess was [[Ubartum]], regarded as the best documented female practitioner of medicine in ancient Mesopotamian sources.{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=148}} 

Outside Nippur, worship of Nintinugga is attested in texts from [[Ur]] and [[Isin]].{{sfn|Edzard|1998|p=506}} A temple dedicated to her rebuilt by [[Enlil-bani]] which bore the ceremonial name Enidubbu, "house which gives rest," might have been located in the latter of those two cities.{{sfn|George|1993|p=131}}

The cult of Nintinugga lost importance after the [[Old Babylonian period]].{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=160}} The reason might have been the gradual decline of southern Mesopotamian cities.{{sfn|Böck|2015|p=331}} However, it did not fully disappear, as for example in an inscription on a [[Neo-Babylonian Empire|Neo-Babylonian]] jar stopper she appears alongside [[Marduk]], [[Ninisina]] and [[Meme (Mesopotamian goddess)|Meme]] (here a representation of Gula).{{sfn|Sibbing-Plantholt|2022|p=153}} In litanies, her name was preserved until the [[Seleucid Empire|Seleucid period]].{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=84}} However, [[Paul-Alain Beaulieu]] argues that it was already only understood as an epithet of Gula during the reign of [[Cyrus I]].{{sfn|Beaulieu|1995|p=91}}

==References==
{{reflist}}
===Bibliography===
*{{cite book|last1=Asher-Greve|first1=Julia M.|last2=Westenholz|first2=Joan G. |url=https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/135436/1/Asher-Greve_Westenholz_2013_Goddesses_in_Context.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181104132337/https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/135436/1/Asher-Greve_Westenholz_2013_Goddesses_in_Context.pdf |archive-date=2018-11-04 |url-status=live |title=Goddesses in Context: On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Gender in Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources|year=2013|isbn=978-3-7278-1738-0}}    *{{cite journal|last=Beaulieu|first=Paul-Alain|title=The Brewers of Nippur|journal=Journal of Cuneiform Studies|publisher=American Schools of Oriental Research|volume=47|year=1995|issn=0022-0256|jstor=1359817|pages=85–96|doi=10.2307/1359817 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1359817|access-date=2022-08-22}}
*{{cite journal|last=Böck|first=Barbara|title=Ancient Mesopotamian Religion: A Profile of the Healing Goddess |journal=Religion Compass|publisher=Wiley|volume=9|issue=10|year=2015|pages=327–334 |issn=1749-8171|doi=10.1111/rec3.12165|hdl=10261/125303|s2cid=145349556 |hdl-access=free}}
*{{citation|last=Edzard|first=Dietz Otto|author-link=Dietz Otto Edzard|entry=Nin-tin-uga, Nin-tila-uga|encyclopedia=Reallexikon der Assyriologie|year=1998|entry-url=http://publikationen.badw.de/en/rla/index#8989|language=de|access-date=2022-08-23}}
*{{cite book|last=George|first=Andrew R.|author-link=Andrew R. George|title=House most high: the temples of ancient Mesopotamia|publisher=Eisenbrauns|publication-place=Winona Lake|year=1993|isbn=0-931464-80-3|oclc=27813103}}
*{{cite book|last=Katz|first=Dina|title=The Image of the Netherworld in the Sumerian Sources|publisher=CDL Press|publication-place=Bethesda, MD|year=2003|isbn=1-883053-77-3|oclc=51770219}}
*{{cite journal|last=Peterson |first=Jeremiah|url=https://www.academia.edu/2286620 |title=Two New Sumerian Texts Involving The Netherworld and Funerary Offerings |journal=Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie |volume=99 |number=2 |year=2009|doi=10.1515/ZA.2009.006|s2cid=162329196}} 
*{{cite book|last=Sibbing-Plantholt|first=Irene|title=The Image of Mesopotamian Divine Healers. Healing Goddesses and the Legitimization of Professional Asûs in the Mesopotamian Medical Marketplace|publisher=Brill|publication-place=Boston|date=2022|isbn=978-90-04-51241-2|oclc=1312171937}}
*{{cite book|last=Westenholz|first=Joan G.|title=Von Göttern und Menschen|chapter=Ninkarrak – an Akkadian goddess in Sumerian guise|publisher=Brill|date=2010|pages=377–405 |doi=10.1163/9789004187474_020|isbn=9789004187481 }}
*{{citation|last=Wiggermann|first=Frans A. M.|entry=Nin-azu|encyclopedia=Reallexikon der Assyriologie|entry-url=http://publikationen.badw.de/en/rla/index#8527|year=1998|access-date=2021-10-01}}

==External links==
*''[https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.3.3.10# Letter from Inanaka to the goddess Nintinuga]'' in the [[Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature]]

{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Mesopotamian goddesses]]
[[Category:Health goddesses]]