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Ninmada

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Ninmada
Divine snake charmer
Member ofŠassūrātu
Genealogy
SiblingsNinazu

Ninmadawas a name applied to two separateMesopotamian deities,a god and a goddess. The female Ninmada was a divinesnake charmer,and in the mythEnki and Ninmahshe appears as an assistant of the eponymous goddess. The male Ninmada was called the "worshiper of An" and was regarded as a brother of the snake godNinazu.It is assumed that these deities could be partially conflated with each other or shared a similar origin, though proposals that there was only one Ninmada are also present in modern scholarship.

Character

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The name Ninmada means "lord of the country" or "lady of the country" inSumerian.[1]Ninis a grammatically neutral term and can be found in the names of both female (Ninisina,Ninkasi,Ninmena) and male (Ningirsu,Ninazu,Ningishzida) deities.[2]Some forty percent of earliest Sumerian deities had such names, including city gods, but also servants and children of major deities.[3]

It is assumed that there were two separate deities named Ninmada, but Antoine Cavigneaux and Manfred Krebernik consider it possible that they either shared the same origin or that they could have been partially conflated.[1]Wilfred G. Lambertconsidered only the female Ninmada to function as a divinesnake charmer.[4]She fulfilled this role in the courts ofEnlilandAnu.[5]Frans Wiggermann considers the male Ninmada, the brother of Ninazu, and the snake charmer deity to be one and the same.[5]This view is also supported by Frank Simons, who assumes there was only one Ninmada, both a snake charmer and the "worshiper of An,"[6]an epithet assumed to only refer to the male deity by other researchers.[1]The god listAn = Anumrefers to Ninmada both as a snake charmer and as the "worshiper of An," and apparently considers the deity to be male.[1]

According to Jeremiah Peterson, Ninmada's status as a brother of Ninazu might indicate he was considered to be a deity associated with theunderworld.[7]He additionally points out that in different copies of theNippurgod list, Ninmada alternates withNingishzida.[8]

Worship

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A temple of Ninmada is mentioned in the so-calledCanonical Temple Listafter the temples ofNinkasi,but its location is presently unknown and its name is not preserved.[9]

Male Ninmada appears in an inscription ofGudeaas one of the deities invoked to help with the construction ofE-ninnu,[1]the temple ofNingirsuinGirsu.[10]

An exorcistic text referred to as "Gattung II" mentions Ninmada, the "worshiper of An."[11]This epithet is assumed to refer to male form of this deity.[1]The same sequence mentionsNinkurra,described as "lord who digs uplapis lazuli,"Ninzadim,Ninnisig(the butcher ofEkur),Kusu(a purification goddess),Siris(here labeled as the cook of Anu, an otherwise unknown role[12]), andNisaba.[11]

Theophoric names invoking Ninmada are also known, for example Ur-Ninmada fromSargonicAdab.[13]

Associations with other deities

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Ninmada's brother wasNinazu.[7]Frans Wiggermann notes that this tradition is known from sources from both of Ninazu's cult centers,EshnunnaandEnegi.[14]WhileEnlilis referred to as their father in the mythHow Grain Came to Sumer,Dina Katz points out that it is uncertain if he should specifically be understood as the father of Ninmada and Ninazu, or if he is simply addressed as such because of his senior status among the gods.[15]According toAndrew R. George,the female snake charmer Ninmada could be regarded as a daughter of the brewer goddess Ninkasi, and appears with her in enumerations of Enlil's courtiers.[16]

It has been proposed that male Ninmada can be identified with Umun-šudde (or Lugal-šudde), who appears withIštaranandAllain anEmesallitany.[1]

A goddess whose name was written asdnin-ma-daalso appears alongsideDaganin a text from Nippur, possibly as his parhedra (spouse), but it is possible in this case the name should be read as Belet-matim.[1]No other sources which would support the assumption that Ninmada was regarded as related to Dagan are otherwise available.[17]

Mythology

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Ninmada appears alongside Ninazu in the mythHow Grain Came to Sumer.[18]He is considered to be a male deity in this case.[19]In the beginning of the myth, Enlil restricts the growth of the freshly created grain to mountains in the distant north.[18]Ninazu wants to bring it to the Sumerians living in the south.[18]Since he has no permission to do so, Ninmada advises him to ask the sun godUtufor help, but as the rest of the narrative is not preserved, it is unknown how did he aid them and in which way the crop eventually reached Sumer.[20]Frans Wiggermann notes that the information about grain preserved in the myth appears to match conclusions of archaeologists, as it is assumed domesticated cereals arrived in Mesopotamia from the so-calledHilly Flankssurrounding the area.[21]

Ninmada appears as one of the seven helpers ofNinmahin the mythEnkiand Ninmah,alongsideNinimma,Shuzianna,Ninšar,Ninmug,Mumuduand Ninniginna.[22]In this text, all of them are understood as minor goddesses of birth.[4]Ninmah's helpers could be collectively calledŠassūrātu.[23][24]This term was derived fromšassūru,"womb," a Sumerian loanword inAkkadian.[25]In anUgariticgod list, they were equated withHurrianHutena and Hutelluraand localKotharat.[25]The latter group is also knownMari,where they were known as Kûšarātum.[25]Their name is derived from theSemiticrootkšr,"to be skilled."[25]

References

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  1. ^abcdefghCavigneaux & Krebernik 1998,p. 462.
  2. ^Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013,pp. 6–7.
  3. ^Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013,p. 7.
  4. ^abLambert 2013,p. 506.
  5. ^abWiggermann 1997,p. 42.
  6. ^Simons 2018,pp. 132–133.
  7. ^abPeterson 2009,p. 56.
  8. ^Peterson 2009,p. 55.
  9. ^George 1993,p. 168.
  10. ^George 1993,p. 134.
  11. ^abSimons 2018,p. 131.
  12. ^Simons 2018,p. 133.
  13. ^Such-Gutiérrez 2005,p. 27.
  14. ^Wiggermann 1998,p. 330.
  15. ^Katz 2003,p. 439.
  16. ^George 1993,p. 24.
  17. ^Peterson 2009,p. 50.
  18. ^abcChen 2013,p. 90.
  19. ^Katz 2003,p. 436.
  20. ^Katz 2006,p. 115.
  21. ^Wiggermann 2011,p. 670.
  22. ^Lambert 2013,p. 337.
  23. ^Stol 2000,pp. 80–82.
  24. ^Archi 2013,p. 19.
  25. ^abcdArchi 2013,p. 14.

Bibliography

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