Ninazu

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," "great earth" being 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]

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]

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, but 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]

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] Offerings made to him in his city are mentioned in tablets from Puzrish-Dagan.[18] Much like Ninazu himself, Enegi was associated with the underworld, and could be described as "pipe of Ereshkigal's quay" in literary texts in reference to a type of implement used in funferary libations.[19] 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,[20] but he is otherwise not attested there in the Early Dynastic period,[21] with the exception of some theophoric personal names.[22]

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,[20] and it has been proposed that it might have been where the center of his cult was relocated after the decline of Enegi suggested by its absence from records from the first millennium BCE.[23] 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.[20][14] According to Paul-Alain Beaulieu, he must have remained a relatively popular deity in Ur.[24] A peculiarity associated with the late worship of Ninazu in Ur is the use of both the basic form of his name and its Emesal equivalent, Umunazu, in personal names, with the latter being slightly more common - 25 names with Ninazu and 30 with Umunazu are presently known.[25] It is possible that this situation was influenced by the role played by lamentation priests, who traditionally memorized texts written in the Emesal dialect, in the survival of Ninazu's cult.[26] Other underworld deities, like his son Ningishzida, the deified snake Nirah and the incantation goddess Ningirima, also retained a degree of popularity, likely due to being envisioned as members of Ninazu's court.[27]

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