Ninĝišzida - Patron God of Medicine???

thanks madness. *dirt ignorant* might be a better classification of my own degree of understanding but I am at least very interested in all of this and trying to sort things out.

so many things are *claimed* in an off-handish sort of way as I am sure you are all painfully aware. Many of these claims are fairly attractive and it is difficult sometimes to know where artistic license ends and flim-flamery (?) begins. Clearly some things will always be taken on an *inference* basis, which is probably fair up to a point.

not to combine questions overly much, but among the things I am especially curious to know more about is the so-called *Aeon of Ninĝišzida* we hear reference to in the popular media. I still can't figure out if that has any basis in Sumerian astrology - something else - or anything at all! It sounds great though...where do I pre-register for that one?

Thanks for your response...I will check in here a little more often.

m1thr0s

As a magician, having unknowable intentions, commanding a holy word:
etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.4.19.2

Related to the god of wisdom, Enki:
etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.4.19.1

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Apart from Hydra, another point I am trying to follow up is: Ningišzida as identified with Mercury. Normally Mercury is identified with Nabû, the divine scribe, another god of wisdom. So far my leads point to only a couple of dated sources:

E. Douglas van Buren, "The god Ningizzida," Iraq Vol. 1, No. 1 (1934), p. 62.
Ernst F. Weidner, Handbuch der babylonischen Astronomie, (1915), p. 61.

us4-he2-gal2 took the time to look through van Buren's article in the other thread, but no mention of Mercury. Perhaps if it were not too much to ask, he could take a second look at the article?

Weidner (available here) mentions an astrological text (IV R 33, 2, 5) that equates Ningišzida with Nabû-Mercury.
In the Boghaskoy text, the two gods ^mul.ddumu-zi ^mul.dnin-ki-zi-da (=Ningišzida) appear, which Weidner equates with Saturn and Mercury, however Lambert equates them with Saturn and Mars for some reason.
[ The RlA entry for Ningišzida refers back to Weidner on this matter ]

M1th0s/Naomi:



Thanks very much for your questions and also your generous assessment of our group M1 - I can certainly understand where your frustration comes from when it comes to Ningishzida in the public domain..


Unfortunately, there is also a fairly high level of frustration involved in researching this deity in the academic domain, and for a number of reasons. For one thing the deity is not centrally featured in Sumerian literature, nor is his character consistent when southern Mesopotamia changed from Sumerian to Semitic hands (around 2000 BC). This means that to obtain a picture of character of the changing deity through his nearly 3000 years of somehwhat brief textual appearances, a scholar must do a fair amount of 'reconstructing,' to use one term.. a problem for interested readers like us is that, insofar as I can see, relatively few scholars have made serious attempts to define any large part of Ningishzida; those that have are usually too early to trust completely, and others in more recent times have focused on this or that aspect of period of the god - and so as a reader, we also must do quite alot of 'reconstructing'.

Essentially, the Ningizzida thread serves as our attempt at this reconstruction by containing many many notes collected from the various scholars who look at this or that aspect of Ningishzida - his hymns, or his place in myth, his descent to the netherworld, his aspect as chair bearer, his role as the personal deity of Gudea etc. However we are so far fairly vague on his aspect as Healer/Exorcist and there is reason for that. First, let me comment briefly on Ningishzida's progression in Mesopotamian religion. I really hate this part heh. I begin with an overall assessment by van Buren (1934), after which I have split consideration of the god's development into 5 parts.






van Buren: "When all the material available has been carefully sifted the vague figure of the god Ningishzida emerges as a well-defined personality. Beginning in all probability as a pretty local deity he became the powerful protector of a ruler and his son..."





(1) Early times: Ningishzida, fertility and the Orchard country.


Here I interpret van Buren as her impression of the sequence seems to get confused (already). But yes, Ningishzida was in earlier Sumerian times a relatively minor deity, possibly with a foreign air; as Wiggermann 1997 explains, both he and his father as snake gods likely were "transtigiridian" , that is, they likely owe some of their character to influence from the east (early Elam - modern Iran) where Snake god worship was prominent. There is evidence that worship of snake gods crossed the Tigris river into Mesopotamian at an early point. Ningishzida's cult center was found in Gishbanda, not a town or village but a cult center of the god - it was small and fairly unimportant -

Referring to Jacobsen we get a sense of how Gishbanda fit in within the greater area of Southern Mesopotamia in that early period - see Ningishzidda thread Reply 5:


Southern Orchards- From Uruk to Ur there are three different groups of early economies and thier gods, according to the author: Cities of the marshlander's family of gods descended from Enki ranged from Eridu and Ku'ar to Nina in the east; cities of the Herdsmans family of gods descended from Nanna in Ur extending northwards; and lastly "there is a group of cities that have city-gods belonging to still a third family of gods descended from Ninazu. The gods of this group all have pronounced cthonian character as powers of the netherworld, and several of them appear closely connected with trees and vegetation."

Ningishzida was the son of Ninazu then and had just this association as Jacobsen explains: ""The god Ning̃išhzida, [whose name meant] "Lord of the good tree," [and] who represented the numinous power in trees to draw nourishment and to grow, had as his basic form that of the tree's trunk and roots; however, the winding roots, embodiments of living supernatural power, free themselves from the trunk and become live serpents entwined around it." So, he was closely associated with both snakes and with roots which the ancients saw as nearly one in the same (apparently based on superficial resemblance alone), and further, as he is the power that brought water to the trees (through the roots), making him perhaps the most important fertilizing principal of his native lands, as we see, the orchard country of southern Mesopotamia. This is where Ningishzida derives his aspect as a fertility god.


Ningishzida is so far:

- Not yet a dying god.
- Not yet a chairbearer of the NW.
- Not yet an exorcist.

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(2) As dying god: The mingling of Ningishzidda, his son and Dumuzi



The following developments in the mythology of these three fertility gods (Ningishzida, Damu, and Dumuzi) that must have taken place between 2400 and 1900 BC. Ningishzidda's son, Damu, is a deity somewhat difficult to explain due to a convergence and a heavy mingling of his mythology and that of an entirely different god - Dumuzi. Damu was, according to Jacobsen (reply 5 on the Ningizzida thread) "the power in the rising sap" in the spring - quite related to his fathers function then. However, the Sumerian poets must have saw a further cause for comparison between Damu, the rising sap (which rose and fell with the agriculture cycle) with that of Dumuzi who in turn was responsible for the cyclic rise of vegetation and vines and subsequent fall in the dry season - that they observed the commonality of these deities is evident in the colossal clustering and confusion of their mythological aspects, as Damu came to be a name for Dumuzi and Ningishzida ends up taking a trip the the Netherworld, dragged off by a set of demons just as traditionally happens in Dumuzi's principal myth - in every case when such a representative of vegetable fertility is forcibly dragged to the Netherworld, it is a analogy of the coming of dry season.

Additionally, Dumuzi and Ningishzida would come to be paired in subsequent mythology such as Atrahasis, guarding the Heaven - but this is twist for another time perhaps.



Ningishzida is so far:

- Not yet a chairbearer of the NW.
- Not yet an exorcist.

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(3) As personal god of Gudea:

During the reign of Gudea of Lagash, 2140 BC, the cult of Ningishzida reached it's highest point during the Sumerian culture. The depictions of Ningishzida presenting Gudea to Enki from the period unfortunately don't tell us much about the personality of the deity as this was a function of any personal deity and not specifically Ningishzida. However the much analyzed Gudea Cup with it dedication to the god and caduceus like seen is source of much debate.

For further analyses on some aspects the Cup, see the following url:

enenuru.net/html/gal/urukprocexpl.htm





Ningishzida is so far:

- Not yet a chairbearer of the NW.
- Not yet an exorcist.

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(4) The Old Babylonian period (1900 BV) The Semites take over, Ningishzida as Chair-bearer


While Ningishzida up until this time been a Sumerian deity of the south plans, associated loosely with the netherworld (as his father Ninazu as a netherworld/Cthonic deity, and perhaps as snakes/roots often or always enter the ground his association with the below was a given.) To some extent the changing of hands of south Sumer from the Sumerian to Semitic hands would came from the north or the west would represent a change for this deity as well. And because the vast bulk of surviving texts which deal with Sumerian myth actually date to the era of their Semitic successors in the Old Babylonian period, this is significant - furthermore, scholar state that while the deity carries on in myth in a somewhat modified form, in the Old Babylonian period cult activity to Ningishzida drops off completely, meaning, a god remember by the theologians and later exorcists, but who no longer recieved offerings in public cult.

About the Semitic modification of Ningishzida: According to Dina Katz "The Image of the Netherworld in Sumerian sources", the Semites idea of the Netherworld differed in some respects then that of the Sumerians - their Netherworld was more structured and it was modeled closely of the palace and the ruling administration of the mundane human realm; therefore, some deities who previously had no such particular role came to have a function in the "netherworld court" of sorts, to include Ningishzida. Katz writes:

"The textual evidence suggests that, during the Old Babylonian period, the divine nature of Ningishzida was altered. In texts from the Old Babylonian period onward, Ningishzida is known as gu-za-la2-kur-la-ke4 "chairbearer of the Netherworld." ... "

She indicates that the myth of Ningishzida's descent to the Netherworld, besides being touching on his older association with the dying god, and before that with the fertile principal (on an agricultural cycle), serves the express purpose of acting as a "charter myth" - a myth written for the specific purpose of explaining how something happened, in this case, Ningishzida became a chairbearer of the Netherworld as a result of his being dragged off by the demons (according to the myth that is..we would blame incoming Semitic reinterpretations and their administrative view of the netherworld). A chairbearer, as Jacobsen explained (I believe it was in his "Towards an Image of Tammuz"), is responsible for the safeguarding of the ruler and for admitting or turning out those seeking audience - as such Ningishzida would have had say over who could come and go in the Netherworld or to where, and it's perhaps in appealing to this authority that exorcists began to refer to him in incantation texts in the Old Babylonian period.




Ningishzida is so far:

- Not yet an exorcist?


We have only traces of his function as exorcist in the Old Babylonian period, his name appears rarely in this context - there are the myth references Madness mentions above, and Katz gives an example of an Old Babylonian incantation against Lamashtu which mentions Ningishzida in one line (line 32 reads: "Ningishzida, the chair-bearer of the Netherworld will adjure you.") Its only in much later periods when this association with incantations is better borne out in the texts.

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(5) Ningishzida in Late Mesopotamia - "healer?" exorcist?



Crap! I've gotta go to work 0_0 Right when I was getting to the point to!.. Well, I don't have alot on this and sources are fairly mute - but will say what I can tomorrow. Regards.

M1- we're happy to address any concerns to the best of our ability. Definitely know what you mean as far information on the popular level, and the vague and scattered nature of text sources on this deity would add to the problem there. As for ancient Chinese depictions of serpent gods and Elam (east of Sumer) its an interesting though, though I have no perspective on Elam unfortunately hm.

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(5) Ningishzida in Late Mesopotamia - "healer?" exorcist?




To continue where we left off (I guess that was a bad place to pause to go to work) I believe the best attestations of Ningishzida as an exorcist come from the later Mesopotamian periods, lets say between 1100 and 600 BC for example. Because my focus has always been on earlier Sumerian culture and religion I have only a limited impression of these Assyrian and Babylonian texts and incantations - however I should be able to say something on this.


The original question was something like "was Ningishzida a physician (or a physcian lord, etc.)?" - in the field of Mesopotamian studies, a question is like a gift that keeps on giving (it will always open up a whole range of potentially unanswerable questions). To assess whether Ningishzida was a physicians, we must take a moment to determine what the experts are currently defining as a physician and exorcist in the ancient Near Eastern context - on that subject we have written some on the Mesopotamian Medicine thread. There are two distinct sorts of healers in the Mesopotamian context: the āšipu (exorcist) and asû (medical practitioner). In ancient times these were two distinct healing professionals, although the distinction is not so strong as it would be in today's world; the exorcist's primary goal was to expel demons who acted as agents of illness - in effect his aim was to banish the sickness from the victims body and this may amount to "healing" in the sense that the the victim was healed of sickness - while the exorcists focus is presumably on incantations and ritual, the āšipu is known to sometimes employ drugs, confuses the role the medical practioners of the time - The medical practitioner on the other hand, while resorting to medicinal items and herbs and being something like a druggist, had no qualms about resorting to incantations in some scenarios - a magical healer, but at the same time, we have to assume, more directly concerned as well with scenarios we would understand as a physicians domain.


The line between the two is thus quite very blurred - if we want to know which class Ningishzida was more relevant to, my impression is that he is decidedly more an exorcist then an medical practitioner or "physician". This puts the popular comparison of Ningishzida and the Greek Asclepius (both bearers of the caduceus) at odds, as the Greek god is more clearly associated with medicinal practice and physicians, this being the opposite inclination of two (what in ancient times) were very approaches.

We can observe already in the Old Babylonian period descriptions of Ningishzida as a maš-maš - this is the Sumerian term for exorcist (Akk. ašipu); we refer here to the Old Babylonian hymn to Ningishzida:


etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.4.19.2&display=Crit&charenc=&lineid=c4192.8#c4192.8

See Sumerian transliteration here:

etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=c.4.19.2&display=Crit&charenc=&lineid=c4192.8#c4192.8



A serious issue is that near Eastern scholars, because of the indistinct line between the practice of ancient exorcists and medical practitioners have sometimes either not known how, or simply not bothered to distinguish between one or another when they discuss these deities - some will actually call Ningishzida a "physician" and here is a line from van Buren which is sure to confuse anyone - she comments: "Ningizzida, in his character of physician, is merely called upon to exorcise them. "

And this from the person who wrote the book (article) on Ningishzida. In any case, my feeling is that, due to the similarity of physicians and exorcists there is a temptation (present even in the field experts) to associate Ningishzida with the role of physician - and it may be a temptation furthered by his association with the caduceus and what that came to be married to. In the end however, in my opinion we are best to classify him as he is named in the texts - an ašipu not an asû. This seems to be the professional term actually used in the texts, furthermore it is in the corpus of exorcistic texts dating from late Meopotamia that Ningishzida contunues to be mentioned after the demise of his cult around 1900 BC at which point the god became relatively obscure.

Beginning in the Old Babylonian period and making occasinal appearances in incantation texts down into the Maqlu texts, Ningishzida is mentioned, often he in his capacity as chair/throne bearer of the netherworld - he is an enforcer and one who has control over admittance to areas of the netherworld - he is appealed to by the exorcist to help control and contain the demon or ghost afflicting the patient, agents of illness whose origin was the Netherworld. If there is sufficient interested from Abrahadabra we can begin an effort to collect some of these incantations mentioned Ningishzida, which are the main reason to consider him an exorcist in any regard, this wouldnt be too difficult. However, one should bear in mind that the most these will contain on the god is brief one liners almost entirely to the effect of "may so and so be exorcised by Ningishzida, chairbearer of the Netherworld."

If we can track down (at least two) astronomical texts, we may begin to answer in the positive.

IV R 33, 2, 5 [Ningišzida = Nabu ?]
KUB 4 47 rev. 43-46 [Nin-ki-zi-da (alongside Dumuzi) as a star, possibly being either Mercury or Mars]


We can't be too sure just yet. Bill has already rejected the idea
> a Ningishzida = Mercury statement seems like a Greco-Roman inspiration <

Is this van Buren's premise?

All five volumes of Henry Rawlinson's The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia can be viewed online:
echo.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/home/search?searchSimple=Rawlinson

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IV R 33 is Hemerology for the Month of the intercalary Elul.

The whole text, translated by Sayce (1875), is provided at the end of this page:
www.masseiana.org/RP/rp07.htm

An important text, as it assigns each day of the month to a deity. However there is no mention of Ningišzida.

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It took me a while to realise, but we're not supposed to be looking at this text. For tucked away on plate 33 is a text called List of Months and their Regents.
Aha. Ningišzida appears on line five, associated with the fifth month Abu (July/August). Now I just have to figure out what the relevance of this is supposed to be, since it doesn't answer any questions...

I'm thinking some of the academics are interpetating archeology, because of obvious similarities and influence between Greece-Rome-Babylon.

Madness -

Nice work tracking down the full name for the source IV R 33 which is treated by Wiedner - he says:

'Dass Ningishzida = Nabu-Merkur is, folgt auch IV R 33, 2, 5, wich ich Zum Kampfe um die AOW, S. 13 geziegt habe.'

Basically saying that he has on page 13 shown that this text equates Ningishzida to Nabu/Mercury. That you have discovered IV R 33 to be in treated as a "Hermerology for the Month of the Intercalary Elul" by Sayce (1875) is impressive - been trying place the text to some difficulty here. I notice Livingstone mentions IV R 33 on page 42 of his book - you can read it for us maybe since I'm on limited access?

I also see you have kept going and have produced a sum of the list of months from IV R 33 -

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List of Months and their Regents

First : Nisannu (March/April) : Anu and Enlil
Second : Ajaru (April/May) : Ea
Third : Simanu (May/June) : Sin
Fourth : Du'ūzu (June/July) : Ninurta
Fifth : Abu (July/August) : Ningišzida
Sixth : Ulūlu (August/September) : Ištar
Seventh : Tašrītu (September/October) : Šamaš
Eighth : Arahsamna (October/November) : Marduk
Ninth : Kislīmu (November/December) : Nergal
Tenth : Tebētu (December/January) : Papsukkal
Eleventh : Šabatu (January/February) : Adad
Twelfth : Addaru (February/March) : dIMIN.BI "The seven gods"
Intercalary : Addaru arkû : Aššur
--

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As for why Ningishzida is assigned the month of Abu, Cohen in his Cultic Calendars of the Ancent Near East states "Directly related with the netherworld is the reference in a Nimrud incantation to Abu as the month of Ningishzida, lord of the netherworld." This makes some sense as Abu is the time for festivals of the dead, and the time in which evil spirits were felt to be closer, and the Maqlu rites to banish witches and evil spirits were performed.
Cohen gives as his source the following:

D.J. Wiseman, "A Lipshur Litany from Nimrud," Iraq 31 (1969), 175ff. cd. 4R 33 (K.2049 and K.129). Notice 4R 33 = IV R 33

When downloaded Iraq 31 and first read over the following selected lines of Wiseman's Incantation/litany I was struck how closely they resemble Sayce's translation of IV R 33 that you had found here.


From Wiseman we read:

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May the month of Nisan, of (that is, which belongs to or is dedicated to) Anum and Enlil, absolve.
May the month of Ayar, of Ea lord of mankind, absolve.
May the month of Sivan, of Sin, formost son of Enlil, absolve.
May the month of Tammuz, of the (chief-)warrior Ninurta, absolve.
May the month of Ab, of Ningishzida lord of the underworld, absolve.
May the month of Elul, of Ishtar queen of the lands, absolve.
May the month of Teshrit, of the warrior of Shamash, absolve.
May the month of Arahsamna, of lord Marduk the sage of the gods, absolve.
May the month of Kislev, of the great warrior Nergal, absolve.
May the Month of Tebet, of the vizier of Anu, absolve.
May the month of Shebat, of Adad irrigator of heaven and earth, absolve.
May the month of Addar, of the Sibitti, the great gods, absolve.

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Here is Sayce's 1875 translation for comparative purposes:


1 The month Nisan (dedicated) to ANU and BEL.
2 The month Iyyar (dedicated) to HEA the Lord of man kind.
3 The month Sivan (dedicated) to the Moon-god, the eldest son of BEL.
4 The month Tammuz (dedicated) to the warrior ADAR.
5 The month Ab (dedicated) to (ALLAT) the Mistress of the wood of the right hand.1
6 The month Elul (dedicated) to I STAR, the Lady (of battle).2
7 The month Tisri (dedicated) to the Sun-god, the Warrior of the world.
8 The month Marchesvan (dedicated) to the Lord, the Prince of the gods, MERODACH.
9 The month Chisleu (dedicated) to the Mighty hero NER-GAL.
10 The month Tebet (dedicated) to PAP-SUCCAL, the Messenger of ANU and ISTAR.
11 The month Sebat (dedicated) to RIMMON the Minister of heaven and earth.
12 The month Adar (dedicated) to the Seven Great Gods.
13 The month Ve-Adar (dedicated) to ASSUR the Father of the gods



Wiseman notes that the list of months is like that of other hemerologies and the scribes who compiled the litanies knew these month lists from other sources - it appears the tablets Wiseman translates are actually not IV R 33 but that these tablets hold another example of precisely the same month list (Wiseman's translation is naturally far more accurate than Sayce's). As for IV R 33, we know now these are composed of K.2049 and K.129 from the Kuyunjik collection - perhaps a more recent treatment can be found from cdli or so - and I still don't see how the planets are established from these month lists, so we will have to talk soon Madness ;]

Bill has kindly sourced Lambert's article from JAOS 107 for us.


Lambert proposes the following identifications for the Boghazhöy list:

- a-ha-ti as ahāti "sister (of)" and identifies this with Venus (Ištar)
- ga-ga is read as kà-kà (=Kakka) and identified with Mercury, since Kakka "became a vizier or messenger of all the gods, he could be Mercury because the Greek god equivalent to Mercury, Hermes, was an errand boy for the other gods."
- Dumuzi (māru kīnu in Akkadian translation) as Saturn (Kayamānu)
- Ningišzida as Mars since he is a god of the Netherworld
- e-pá-e (a corruption of šul-pá-e) as Jupiter


The only problem I have with this is that kà-kà is not written with the divine determinative, so I don't know if it is correct to identify this with the deity Kakka. And his comparison to Hermes would surely irk us4-he2-gal2!

But anyway, this is probably the most accurate explanation of the list. The scanty evidence we have examined does not bode well for a Ningišzida=Mercury equation, so unless something more tangible pops up I can no longer consider it a possibility.