Religion:Ningikuga

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Short description: Mesopotamian goddess

Ningikuga was a Mesopotamian goddess. Her name can be explained as nin-gi-kug-a(k), "lady of the pure reed".[1]

A tradition according to which Ningikuga was a wife of Enki is known.[1] In the Old Babylonian An = Anum forerunner she occurs in his circle after Damgalnuna, while in An = Anum itself she is outright equated with her.[2] In the latter list she appears in line 178 of tablet II, before Ninti.[3]

In two sources, an Old Babylonian balbale composition and in a love song, Ningikuga is the name of Ningal's mother.[2] By extension, she functioned as the grandmother of Inanna.[4] While Thorkild Jacobsen assumed that the mother of Ningal and the spouse of Enki were the same goddess,[5] Antoine Cavigneaux and Manfred Krebernik keep the two uses of the name separate.[2] Jacobsen also argued that based on the meaning of Ningikuga's name it can be assumed that both she and her daughter were associated with reeds and marshes.[5]

Line 28 of tablet III of An = Anum explains Ningikuga as a name of Ningal.[6] A single hymn to Inanna also uses the name Ningikuga to refer to a manifestation of this goddess, and describes her as "the mistress of all, the pure one, who purifies the earth".[7]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Jacobsen 1978, p. 124.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Cavigneaux & Krebernik 1998, p. 361.
  3. Litke 1998, p. 88.
  4. Jacobsen 1992, p. 4.
  5. 5.0 5.1 Jacobsen 1978, pp. 124-125.
  6. Litke 1998, p. 120.
  7. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 109.

Bibliography