#ninurta

Gula: The Sumerian Goddess of Doctors and the Healing Arts

Gula (also known as Ninkarrak) is the Sumerian goddess of healing and patroness of doctors, healing arts, and medical practices. She is first attested to in the Ur III period (circa 2112 to circa 2004 BCE), where she is referenced as a great goddess of health and well-being. She was among the most popular deities of ancient Mesopotamia.

Her name (Gula) means "Great" and is usually interpreted to mean "great in healing," while Ninkarrak means "Lady of Kar," interpreted as "Lady of the Wall," as in a protective barrier, though it has also been taken to mean "Lady of Karrak," a city associated with that of Isin.

In Sumeria, she was referred to as "great physician of the black-headed ones" (the Sumerians). She is commonly referred to in Mesopotamian medical texts and incantations as belet balati, "Lady of Health," and as Azugallatu, "Great Healer." Her main cult center was at Isin, though her worship would spread across Sumer in the south, upwards to Akkad, and eventually throughout the entire region of Mesopotamia. Her iconography depicts her always with a dog, sometimes seated, and surrounded by stars. She is associated with the underworld and transformation.

Originally, Gula was a Sumerian deity known as Bau (or Baba), goddess of dogs. People noticed that when dogs licked their sores, they seemed to heal faster, and so dogs became associated with healing, and Bau transformed into a healing deity. When her worship spread from the city of Lagash to Isin, she became known as Ninisina ("Lady of Isin"). Her other names included Nintinugga and Nimdindug, which related to her healing talents, or still others, which simply elevated her to patroness of a city.

Scholar Jeremy Black notes that many of her names were "originally the names of other goddesses " whom she assimilated (101). When she was venerated in Nippur, she was known as Ninnibru, "Queen of Nippur," and associated with the hero-god Ninurta. She became known as Gula, the great healer, during the latter part of the Old Babylonian period (circa 1894-1595 BCE) and is best known by this name in the present day.

Mythological Origin & Family

She was the daughter of the great god Anu, created with his other children at the beginning of time, and her husbands/consorts are variously given as Ninurta, the healer god, the divine judge Pabilsag, or the agricultural god Abu. Scholar Stephen Bertman writes:

Because at least two of these divinities were connected with agriculture, her marriage to them may symbolically reflect the medicinal use of plants.

(119)

Her sons were Damu and Ninazu, and her daughter Gunurra, all healing deities.

Damu was a Sumerian god of healing who combined the magical and 'scientific' approaches to disease. He was associated with the dying and reviving god figure Tammuz (also known as Dumuzi), central to the tales involving Inanna and rebirth, hence he is also associated with transformation and transition. He is frequently mentioned with Gula in incantations for healing (especially concerning children's illnesses and childbirth). Although Gula was considered the supreme healer, Damu seems to have sometimes been regarded as the intermediary through which her power reached doctors.

Ninazu, who was associated with serpents (symbols of transformation), the underworld (transition), and healing (transformation), carried a staff intertwined with serpents. This symbol was adopted by the Egyptians for Heka, their god of magic and medicine, and then by the Greeks as the caduceus, the staff carried by Hermes Trismegistus, their god of magic, healing, and writing (associated with the Egyptian god Thoth). Today, of course, the caduceus is seen in doctor's offices and medical practices around the world as the symbol of Hippocrates, the father of medicine.

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here a sketch of the God NINURTA I made while attending my lectures of archaeology of Western Asia ❤️❤️

Source: https://www.worldhistory.org/Mesopotamian_Warfare/

With the scarcity of resources often driving the movement of people, conflict between groups is nearly inevitable. As people began to settle, competition for resources became competition for land, minerals, or bragging rights, these conflicts became larger and more drawn out. War deities often became connected to the 'one true god' of monotheistic religions, whether they were originally war gods or became syncretized with them, leading to the idea of a 'holy war'. There are many feminine war deities, several of which are associated with love or sex as well as war. Some deities of war were invoked to hold back war and some to bring victory. War was sometimes viewed as the various gods fighting each other through the avatars of the armies, especially among city-states.

By PHGCOM (2007), CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3122874

One of the oldest attested warrior gods we know of is Ninurta 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒅁, also known as Ninĝirsu 𒀭𒎏𒄈𒋢. He was the god of law, agriculture, healing, hunting, scribes, and war in early Sumer, centered in Nippur, and syncretized with gods through the Roman Saturn. He can cause and heal human illness through his control over demons, which were thought to be the cause of illness. He took the position of warrior god as Mesopotamia became more militarized and battles became more common. He might have been the inspiration for Nimrod the 'mighty hunter' in the book of Genesis, though that is a subject of debate, as is the possibility that he might be Nisroch in the Book of Kings.

By The Walters Art Museum - This image has been extracted from another file, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=88510374

Ninurta is one of the oldest deities of the Sumerians and was the son of Enlil, the chief god and god of the air, earth, and storms. He was syncretized early with Ninĝirsu, who was worshiped in Girsu, or they might have been the same god with local dialectal variations in his name. His fierce reputation made him especially popular with the Assyrians with many kings having names that incorporate Ninurta's name. He was moved to the Assyrian capital of Kalhu (Nimrud) under the reign if Shalmaneser III (reigned 859-824 BCE).

By Anonymous (Mesopotamia) - Walters Art Museum: Home page  Info about artwork, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18804095

The only god with more myths than Ninurta is Inanna, thus exemplifying his position in the Sumerian pantheon. In one, known as Lugal-e, which means 'O king!', Ninurta confronts a demon, Asag, the personification of winter cold and sickness, who has been poisoning the rivers and making people sick. Asag has an army of stone warriors to protect him and Ninurta. Ninurta destroys Asag's armies and uses the stones to create mountains that cause all the rivers to flow into the Tigris and Euphrates, allowing for irrigation and agriculture. His mother, Ninmah, came down to congratulate him and he dedicates the mountains to her, renaming her Ninhursag, which means 'Lady of the Mountain'. This exemplifies Ninurta's dual role as warrior and agriculture god.

By editor Austen Henry Layard , drawing by L. Gruner - 'Monuments of Nineveh, Second Series' plate 5, London, J. Murray, 1853, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18217886

I know there's Sharur which means Smasher of Thousands but what about the other big numbers like Smasher of Tens, Thousands etc? Can I get a translation please? 🥺

Silim! Sharur 𒊹𒃡 is the name of a divine weapon owned by the god Ninurta, derived from ur 𒃡 "to destroy, mow down, erase, clear away" and shar 𒊹, literally the number 3,600 but also used to mean "a lot, totality, all". The Sumerian number system operated very differently from our own, but you could presumably swap in other round numbers, as in uur 𒌋𒃡 "smasher of ten", ngeshur 𒁹𒃡 "smasher of sixty", shargalur 𒐲𒃡 "smasher of 216,000".