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Ninsianna

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Ninsianna
Personification of Venus
TheVenus tablet of Ammisaduqa.Ninsianna is mentioned as a name for the planet Venus.[1]
Major cult centerNippur,[2]possiblyUr[3]
PlanetVenus
Symbola star[4]
Gendervariable[4]
Genealogy
SpousepossiblyKabta[5]
Equivalents
Hurrian equivalentPinikir[6]

Ninsianna(Sumerian:"Red Queen of Heaven"[7]) was aMesopotamian deityconsidered to be the personification ofVenus.This theonym also served as the name of the planet inastronomicaltexts until the end of theOld Babylonian period.There is evidence that Ninsianna's gender varied between locations, and both feminine and masculine forms of this deity were worshiped. Due to their shared connection to Venus, Ninsianna was associated with Inanna. Furthermore, the deityKabtaappears alongside Ninsianna in many texts, but the character of the relation between them remains unclear.

The oldest evidence for the worship of Ninsianna comes from theUr III period,and includes references to the construction of two temples of this deity. Many further attestations are available from theIsin-LarsaandOld Babylonianperiods, including royal inscriptions, personal letters, seals andtheophoric names.The use of Ninsianna's name to refer to the planet Venus declined later, though the feminine form of this deity continued to be worshiped, for example inNippur.In the Hellenistic period, she appears in ritual texts fromUruk,

Character

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Ninsianna, the "Red Queen of Heaven," was a divine representation of the planet Venus.[7]In the second millennium BCE thistheonymcould be used to represent the astral body in various works ofMesopotamian astronomy,though in the first millennium BCE the nameDilbatcame to be used more commonly instead, with the exception ofNeo-BabylonianVenus tablet of Ammisaduqa,which relied onOld Babyloniansources.[3]It refers to Ninsianna as the name of Venus during the month ofNisan.[1]

Many of Ninsianna'sepithetshighlight a connection to light and radiance.[3]A text fromSippar-Amnanumuses the phraseilum elum,"radiant god."[8]A late source fromUrukcalls Ninsianna the "mistress who illuminates heaven."[9]It has been proposed that in art, for example oncylinder seals,Ninsianna was depicted in the form of a goddess with a star on her horned crown, or a goddess accompanied by a star.[4][10]

Ninsianna was occasionally associated withharuspicy,like a number of other astral deities.[3]A compendium of oil omens states that oil spreading into the shape of a star is an omen pertaining to Ninsianna.[11]

An inscription ofRim-Sîn Ipresents Ninsianna both as a deity of justice, "judge, supreme advisor, who distinguishes between truth and falsehood," and as a divine warrior.[3]

Gender

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Ninsianna's gender varies between known sources.[12]A scholarly tablet from the archive of Ur-Utu, who served the chief lamentation priest (kalamāḫu) ofAnnunituminSippar-Amnanum,indicates that it is possible that as a personification of Venus, the deity was viewed as female at sunset and male at sunrise.[8]Joan Goodnick Westenholzhas characterized Ninsianna as a "dimorphic (...) goddess,"[12]while Julia M. Asher-Greve—as a "bi-gendered deity."[4]It has been proposed that Ninsianna was originally considered to be female, but her gender became variable due to contact betweenSumeriansand speakers ofSemitic languageswho represented the same celestial body as a male deity.[3]However, according Westenholz Ninsianna's case is distinct from instances of deities whose gender changed due tosyncretism,such asNinshubur.[8]

Gender of Ninsianna seems to vary based on location as well.[12]It is generally accepted that inSippar,he was worshiped as a male deity.[13]Similar evidence is known fromUrandGirsu.[14]Rim-Sîn I ofLarsaon at least one occasion referred to Ninsianna as male, calling him as a “king” (lugal) who helped him in battles against his enemies.[1]Douglas Frayne nonetheless translates the inscription as if a feminine deity was meant, "for the goddess Ninsianna, my lord,"[15]though Manfred Krebernik in a review notes this is incorrect.[16]Frayne himself acknowledges thatlugalis otherwise exclusively a title of gods, not goddesses.[17]According to Daniel Schwemer, direct references to masculine Ninsianna are overall relatively common.[18]However, some evidence in favor of interpreting specific references to Ninsianna as designating this deity as a god rather than a goddess, for example an inscription ofIddin-SinofSimurrum,is uncertain, as it is possible that theAkkadianwordiluin such cases might be employed as a gender neutral term, similar to Sumeriandingir.[8]Prayers fromKassitearchives appear to present Ninsianna as a goddess, rather than a god, as evidenced by the connection to thešubastone mentioned in them.[19]Ninsianna was also considered female in the context of the worship of this deity inNippur,[2]Isin[20]andUruk.[3]

Associations with other deities

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The god listAn = Anumstates that Ninsianna was regarded as “Ishtarof the star,”Ištar kakkabi.[1]The same explanation of her name is given in anemesalvocabulary.[21]Jeremiah Peterson instead favors the translation "goddess of the star."[22]The association between Ninsianna andInannagoes back to theUr III period.[3][10]The latter goddess own association with the planet Venus goes back to the Uruk period.[23]However, their functions in Mesopotamian religion were separate.[13]InLarsa,Ninsianna and Inanna were worshiped separately from each other, with only the former serving as a divine representation of the planet Venus.[12]Separatecultsof them both are also attested in sources fromNippur.[2]As an extension of the association between Inanna and Ninsianna, in theIsin-Larsa period,the former was partially syncretised withIsin’s dynastic goddessNinisina,with the justification relying partially on the similarity between the names of Ninsianna and Ninisina.[7]

A deity namedKabta( "star" ) or Maḫdianna ( "lofty one of heaven" ) was frequently associated with Ninsianna.[5]They appear together in multiple god lists.[21]A certain Sîn-išmeanni described himself as "servant of Ninsianna and Kabta" on a cylinder seal.[24]However, the exact nature of the relationship between these two deities, and even Kabta's gender, remain uncertain due to scarcity and state of preservation of available sources.[5]Wilfred G. Lambertconsidered it possible that the deity was male and functioned as the spouse of Ninsianna,[5]but there is also evidence in favor of viewing Kabta as a goddess, including a seal depicting two goddesses who might be Ninsianna and Kabta.[3]According to Jeremiah Peterson, in the god listAn = Anumand in thelexical textProto-Diri,Ninsianna, Kabta and Maḫdianna are all explained asIštar kakkabi,and thus as goddesses.[22]

The goddess Timua frequently appears in god lists and other lexical lists alongside Ninsianna and Kabta, and is also explained with the same phrase as both of them inAn = Anum.[25]She is also attested in prayers from the Kassite period.[26]A variant spelling of her name, Simua, might indicate that it was derived fromsi-mu2,"horn growing,"[27]though Manfred Krebernik remarks this even if this assumption is correct, it might only be the reflection of afolk etymology.[28]An = Anumalso listsdALAM as a byname of Timua, though according to Wilfred G. Lambert this is most likely a reference of the concept of deified statues, and does not indicate any relation to other deities whose names could be written with the same logogram, such asAlalaandBelili.[29]

A god list fromEmarindicates that theHurriansviewedPinikiras analogous to Ninsianna.[6]Pinikir's gender varies inHurrian religious texts.[6]

A late hymn which uses "rare and unusual lexical equations" to identifyAntuwith other deities equates her with Ninsianna.[9]According to Julia Krul, the goal was to establish Antu as "Ištar’s superior in the domain of the heavens" as a part of a broader phenomenon of extending the scope of her cult inUrukin theHellenistic period.[30]

Worship

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Ninsianna was worshiped in various locations inMesopotamia[4]and is attested for the first time in texts from theUr III period,such as an inscription ofShulgipertaining to the construction of atemplefor this deity.[3]According to Walther Sallaberger, a tablet from the reign ofAmar-Sinwhich mentions the construction of a different temple of Ninsianna might pertain to a house of worship located in Nippur, though other locations have been proposed as well in the past, includingSippar,which he considers unlikely,[23]andUruk.[3]

Thecultof Ninsianna is well attested in the followingIsin-LarsaandOld Babylonian periodsas well.[3]She was worshiped by the kings ofdynasty of Isin,such asIddin-Dagan.[20]A temple dedicated to Ninisianna, É-ešbarzida ( "House of True Decisions" ), was rebuilt byRim-Sîn IofLarsa,and might have been located inUr,[31]where a clay cone with an inscription commemorating this event has been found.[17]Ninsianna is also mentioned in a curse formula ofIddin-SinofSimurrum.[32]A second similar formula has been attributed either to him, to his son Zabazuna, or less plausibly toAnubanini.[33]

Ninsianna, according to Julia M. Asher-Greve treated as a goddess in this context, is one of the female deities most commonly mentioned in personal letters from the Old Babylonian period, in which she appears less often thanIshtar,but with comparable frequency toAyaorGula.[34]One of them invokes her in the role of a tutelary deity of a specific family.[35]In another, the same deity andIlabratare asked for a blessing for the person it was addressed to.[36]Manysealinscriptions mentioning Ninsianna are known too.[13]For example, three have been found in Sippar.[37]Some such seals mention this deity alongside Adad.[18]Occasionally Ninsianna appears as a theophoric element in personal names, with known examples including Ur-Ninsianna, Lu-Ninsianna, andMarioteYar’ip-Ninsianna.[1]In Old Babylonian sources from the city ofBabylonitself Ninsianna is one of best attested goddesses in various documents, next to Ishtar,Inanna of Zabalam,AnnunitumandZarpanit.[13]According to Rivkah Harris, a temple of Ninsianna must have existed in Sippar, as apašišupriest of this deity is attested in one document.[37]A text from this location deals with an oracular inquiry to Ninsianna about the well-being of Ur-Utu.[38]A reference to a city gate of Ninsianna is also known, though the tablet is broken making the context it appears in difficult to ascertain.[37]

The use of Ninsianna's name to refer to Venus declined after the Old Babylonian period.[3]However, there is evidence that the feminine form of Ninsianna continued to be worshiped in theKassite period.[26]The existence of a temple dedicated to her[2]in Nippur is attested in aMiddle Babylonianmetrologicaltext, but its ceremonial name is not listed in it.[39]ANeo-Assyrianversion of theMîs-pîrituals involved offerings to Ninsianna, as well as the astral representations of other deities.[3][40]While absent from texts from Uruk fromNeo-Babylonian period,Ninsianna also came to be worshiped in this city in the late first millennium BCE.[41]She is attested in the description of a parade of deities accompanying Ishtar during a parade celebrating the New Year festival (akītu[42]), which also involvedNanaya,Ninigizibara,Išartu,Ninmeurur,Ilid-eturra,Šaĝepada,Ninsunand other goddesses, most of whom are known for association with either Ishtar or the city of Uruk.[43]According to Julia Krul, she was introduced to the local pantheon in this period because of her association with Inanna-Ishtar.[44]

References

[edit]
  1. ^abcdeHeimpel 1998,p. 488.
  2. ^abcdAsher-Greve & Westenholz 2013,p. 101.
  3. ^abcdefghijklmnStephens 2016.
  4. ^abcdeAsher-Greve & Westenholz 2013,p. 254.
  5. ^abcdLambert 1980,p. 284.
  6. ^abcBeckman 1999,p. 27.
  7. ^abcAsher-Greve & Westenholz 2013,p. 86.
  8. ^abcdAsher-Greve & Westenholz 2013,p. 93.
  9. ^abAsher-Greve & Westenholz 2013,p. 127.
  10. ^abvan Dijk-Coombes 2021,p. 37.
  11. ^Anor & Cohen 2021,p. 58.
  12. ^abcdAsher-Greve & Westenholz 2013,p. 92.
  13. ^abcdAsher-Greve & Westenholz 2013,p. 255.
  14. ^Heimpel 1998,p. 487.
  15. ^Frayne 1990,pp. 297–298.
  16. ^Krebernik 1997,p. 125.
  17. ^abFrayne 1990,p. 297.
  18. ^abSchwemer 2001,p. 441.
  19. ^Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013,pp. 95–96.
  20. ^abWestenholz 1997,p. 69.
  21. ^abGeorge 1993,p. 34.
  22. ^abPeterson 2009,p. 58.
  23. ^abSallaberger 2021,p. 355.
  24. ^Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013,p. 434.
  25. ^Peterson 2009,pp. 58–59.
  26. ^abAsher-Greve & Westenholz 2013,p. 95.
  27. ^Peterson 2009,p. 59.
  28. ^Krebernik 2011,p. 508.
  29. ^Lambert 2013,p. 425.
  30. ^Krul 2019,pp. 225–226.
  31. ^George 1993,p. 83.
  32. ^Frayne 1990,p. 709.
  33. ^Frayne 1990,p. 712-713.
  34. ^Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013,p. 251.
  35. ^Veenhof 2018,p. 87.
  36. ^Veenhof 2018,p. 55.
  37. ^abcHarris 1975,p. 152.
  38. ^Foster 1996,p. 155.
  39. ^George 1993,p. 169.
  40. ^Krul 2018,p. 188.
  41. ^Krul 2018,p. 73.
  42. ^Krul 2018,p. 67.
  43. ^Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013,p. 126.
  44. ^Krul 2018,p. 75.

Bibliography

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