Ningishzida

deity underworld Mesopotamian single tradition · 19

Ningishzida is a deity whose shrine may have been housed in the temple dedicated to Dumuzi-abzu in Kinunir. Ningishzida is also mentioned as the king's personal god.

↻ synthesized from 19 sources

When

First attested
3000 BCE
Attested period
-3000 – 2020
Historical notes
Attested in Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets.

Relationships

child of
Ninazu, Ningiridda
syncretized with
Dumuzi, Amurru
sibling of
Amashilama, Labarshilama
consort of
Ekurritum, Geshtinanna

Expand to full subgraph →

Sources

Source passages

“A temple dedicated to her existed in Kinunir. It is possible that it also housed shrines of Nergal and Ningishzida. At one point it was pillaged by Lugalzagesi. Kinunir often occurs in documents from the Ur III period alongside Nina, the cult center of Nanshe.”

#10986 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“Passages alluding to this event are considered evidence of lamma being regarded as separate from a personal deity, as it is well attested that Ningishzida played this role for said ruler.”

#11016 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“Additional members of the pantheon mentioned in association with her in hymns include Nisaba, Haya, Ningublaga, Ningishzida and Ištaran, though in the case of the last two the context in which they appear is unclear.”

#11226 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“She also proposes that Damu only acquired his own character as a healing deity due to his new status as Ninisina's son, and that originally his primary role was that of a dying god comparable to Dumuzi and Ningishzida.”

#11295 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“alongside Ninazu, Ningishzida, Ishtaran and Tishpak he can be considered one of the members of a category of deities he refers to as the "Transtigridian snake gods"”

#11771 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5