page_title: Ninurta
section_title: Iconography
hierarchical_section_title: Ninurta / Iconography
caption_attribution_description: English: Mesopotamian Sun God Shamash; Assyrian Relief, North-West Palace of Nimrud (room B, panel 23); 865–860 BC. Français&#160;: Le dieu soleil mésopotamien Shamash; palais nord-ouest, Nimrud; 865-860 av. J.-C. Italiano: Šamaš, dio solare nella mitologia mesopotamica; palazzo di nord-ovest, Nimrud&#160;; 865-860 a.C. Deutsch: Mesopotamischer Sonnengott Schamasch; Nordwesten-Palast aus Nimrud; 865-860 v. Chr.
context_page_description: Ninurta, also known as Ninĝirsu, is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with farming, healing, hunting, law, scribes, and war who was first worshipped in early Sumer. In the earliest records, he is a god of agriculture and healing, who releases humans from sickness and the power of demons. In later times, as Mesopotamia grew more militarized, he became a warrior deity, though he retained many of his earlier agricultural attributes. He was regarded as the son of the chief god Enlil and his main cult center in Sumer was the Eshumesha temple in Nippur. Ninĝirsu was honored by King Gudea of Lagash, who rebuilt Ninĝirsu's temple in Lagash.
  Later, Ninurta became beloved by the Assyrians as a formidable warrior. The Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II built a massive temple for him at Kalhu, which became his most important cult center from then on. After the fall of the Assyrian Empire, Ninurta's statues were torn down and his temples abandoned because he had become too closely associated with the Assyrian regime, which many conquered peoples saw as tyrannical and oppressive.
context_section_description: In artistic representations, Ninurta is shown as a warrior, carrying a bow and arrow and clutching Sharur, his magic talking mace. He sometimes has a set of wings, raised upright, ready to attack. In Babylonian art, he is often shown standing on the back of or riding a beast with the body of a lion and the tail of a scorpion. Ninurta remained closely associated with agricultural symbolism as late as the middle of the second millennium BC. On kudurrus from the Kassite Period (c. 1600 — c. 1155 BC), a plough is captioned as a symbol of Ninĝirsu. The plough also appears in Neo-Assyrian art, possibly as a symbol of Ninurta. A perched bird is also used as a symbol of Ninurta during the Neo-Assyrian Period. One speculative hypothesis holds that the winged disc originally symbolized Ninurta during the ninth century BC, but was later transferred to Aššur and the sun-god Shamash. This idea is based on some early representations in which the god on the winged disc appears to have the tail of a bird. Most scholars have rejected this suggestion as unfounded. Astronomers of the eighth and seventh centuries BC identified Ninurta (or Pabilsaĝ) with the constellation Sagittarius. Alternatively, others identified him with the star Sirius, which was known in Akkadian as šukūdu, meaning "arrow". The constellation of Canis Major, of which Sirius is the most visible star, was known as qaštu, meaning "bow", after the bow and arrow Ninurta was believed to carry. In Babylonian times, Ninurta was associated with the planet Saturn.
caption: Male figure in an Assyrian winged sun emblem from the Northwest Palace at Kalhu. Some authors have speculated that this figure may, in fact, be Ninurta,[8] but most scholars reject this assertion as unfounded.[8]
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