Ningikuga

Ningikuga was a Mesopotamian goddess. Her name can be explained as nin-gi-kug-a(k), "lady of the pure reed".^[1]

A tradition according to which Ningikuga was a wife of Enki is known.^[1] In the Old Babylonian An = Anum forerunner she occurs in his circle after Damgalnuna, while in An = Anum itself she is outright equated with her.^[2] In the latter list she appears in line 178 of tablet II, before Ninti.^[3]

In two sources, an Old Babylonian balbale composition and in a love song, Ningikuga is the name of Ningal's mother.^[2] By extension, she functioned as the grandmother of Inanna.^[4] While Thorkild Jacobsen assumed that the mother of Ningal and the spouse of Enki were the same goddess,^[5] Antoine Cavigneaux and Manfred Krebernik keep the two uses of the name separate.^[2] Jacobsen also argued that based on the meaning of Ningikuga's name it can be assumed that both she and her daughter were associated with reeds and marshes.^[5]

Line 28 of tablet III of An = Anum explains Ningikuga as a name of Ningal.^[6] A single hymn to Inanna also uses the name Ningikuga to refer to a manifestation of this goddess, and describes her as "the mistress of all, the pure one, who purifies the earth".^[7]

• Asher-Greve, Julia M.; Westenholz, Joan G. (2013). Goddesses in Context: On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Gender in Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources (PDF). ISBN 978-3-7278-1738-0.
• Cavigneaux, Antoine; Krebernik, Manfred (1998), "Nin-gikuga", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-11-20
• Jacobsen, Thorkild (1978). The Treasures of Darkness. Yale University Press. doi:10.12987/9780300161823. ISBN 978-0-300-16182-3.
• Jacobsen, Thorkild (1992). "The New House". The Harps that Once... Sumerian Poetry in Translation. Yale University Press. doi:10.12987/9780300161878-003.
• Litke, Richard L. (1998). A reconstruction of the Assyro-Babylonian god lists, AN:^dA-nu-um and AN:Anu šá Ameli (PDF). New Haven: Yale Babylonian Collection. ISBN 978-0-9667495-0-2. OCLC 470337605.