Ninurta

Ninurta, cropped picture by Katolophyromai]

**Ninurta**, also known as **Ninĝirsu**, was the Mesopotamian god of farming, healing, hunting, law, scribes, and war.

## Mythology

### Family

Ninurta was the son of Enlil, the god of wind, air, earth, and storms as well as the head of the pantheon, and his mother was either Ninlil, the goddess of the wind, or Ninhursag, fertility, mountains, and rulers.

His spouse was usually Gula, a goddess of medicine and the divine physician.

### Anzû and the Tablet of Destinies

In the myth Anzû and the Tablet of Destinies, Ninurta pursues the monstrous Anzû-bird, a former servant of the head-god Enlil, steals the powerful Tablets of Destiny, the head of the Sumerian pantheon, which causes chaos in the world: the rivers dry up and the gods themselves loose their powers.

Several gods are sent to retrieve the tablets, among them Adad, the god of the storms, Gerra, the god fire and Shara, a minor god of war, but all of them fail. Ea eventually decides that Ninurta should be sent to battle the Anzû-bird.

The Anzû-bird managed to originally avoid Ninurta's attacks. Using the Tablets of Destiny, the monster managed to turn time back and undo the weapons of the god: shafts turned back into canebrake, the feathers back into living birds, the arrowheads returned to the quarry, bow returned to the forest and the wool bowstring turned into a living sheep.

Eventually Ninurta managed to kill the Anzû-bird by ripping it's wings of with the help of the South Wind. When the bird tried to regenate himself by summoning his feather back, he also summoned Ninurta's arrows, injuring the creatrure. Ninurta takes the tablets then manages to kill Anzû by slitting it's throat. The god, now possessing the Tablets of Destiny, returns to court of the gods and is rewarded with a higher position within the pantheon.

### Lugal-e

The Lugal-e (or Lugal-e ud me-lám-bi nir-ğál) is a combat myth between Ninurta and Asag (also known as Azag), a demonic warrior that lived on the mountains, that originates from the 3rd millennium BCE.

Ninurta is informed by his talking and deified mace Sharur about Asag, a fierce demonic entity, who has taken over the highlands with the help of an army of monstrous creature known as Stone Things, and know demands proper confrontation. Ninurta agrees do this and arrives to confront the demon on his storm chariots, subjugating several nations and slaying several serpentine creatures in the process.

Overconfident, Ninurta wants to approach Asag, but is warned by his mace Sharur to not directly confront the enemy. The god approach Asag, who in the form of a dragon, proves to much for Ninurta and defeats him by chocking a massive dust storm. Sharur sees this and travels to the god Enlil for counsel. Enlil agrees to help and summons a massive rain storm to wash the dust away, freeing Ninurta.

Now free, Ninurta starts goes back to battle the Asag and defeats the monster, dismembering him and scattering his body across with the winds. After this he judges the Stone Things, and turns them into an irrigation system and bringing order to the known world. Enlil praises Ninurta and affirms his kingship.

### Ninurta and the Turtle

This myth is a re-telling of Ninurta's battle with the Anzû, though this time more humiliating for the god.

The Anzû-bird stole the Tablets of Destinies from the gods, and Ninurta goes after the monster. During the battle the tablets fall into the Abzû, the subterranean realm of the Enki, god of wisdom, and Ninurta arrives there. Enki praises Ninurta, but the warrior god becomes arrogant and threatening towards the lord of the Abzû. Feeling threatened, Enki crafts an enormous turtle out of the clay, brings it to life and, which quickly buries itself in the mud of the realm. While Ninurt boasts around the Abzû, the turtle emerges and catches him, with Enki even helping and pushing the boastful god in.

Ninurta can't get out of the pit and Enki mocks him, asking how the the great warrior and monster-slayer cannot get out. Eventually Ninhursag, the mother of Ninurta arrives, and ask Enki to release her son.

## Roles of Ninurta

### Monster-slayer

Ninurta is often seen as a the killer of several hostile supernatural beings, which can be seen as monsters or demons. Besides the Anzû and Asag, some of the monsters defeated by Ninurta are:

* Ab-dab - presumed female monsters, possibly bovine
* Am-dab-dab - presumed male monsters, possibly bovine
* Bašmu - horned sea serpent, connected to Tiamat
* Gallû - spirit of the underworld
* Girtablullû - scorpion-men, connected to Tiamat
* Gud-alim/kusarikku - bison-man, connected to Tiamat
* Ku-Ii-an-na - presumed mermaid
* Kulullû - merman, connected to Tiamat
* Lahamu - hairy creature, connected to Tiamat
* Muš-huš - serpent, possibly connected to Mušḫuššu
* Mušmahhu - serpent, connected to Tiamat
* Muš-sag-imin - seven headed-serpent
* Urud - copper monster
* Ušum - venomous serpent

### Healing god

Ninurta's connection to health and medicine was many-folded: he was married to the goddess Gula, who was a goddess of health and medicine as well as a divine physician. He also absorbed the roles and symbols of several other healing gods, who also had a connection to the underworld, such as Ninazu, Tishpak and Inshushinak.

Being the god who combats demons and monsters, Ninurta was also seen as the god of of healing. As an example his victory over the demon Asag was for example seen as a victory against disease and pestilence as well.

## History

### Appearance

Ninurta is often depicted as a bearded man with fours wings. On a plate at the monuments of Nineveh he depicted battling the Anzû-bird with two forked lighting bolts, indicating his role a god of war and battle. Ninurta also serves as the bearer/guardian of the throne (guzalu) and associated with coronation of ruler and bestowing kingship.

As a god of war, Ninurta is known to carrying many weapons, with the most famous being Sharur, a deified mace that assisted him in his battles against Anzû and Asag.

### Ninĝirsu of Girsu

Ninĝirsu was the tutelary deity of the city Girsu, where he was seen as the patron god of vegetation, fertility and war as well as the son of Ninmah. He was armed with the personified and deified mace Sharur and the symbol of him was the Anzû-bird. Ninĝirsu would later be merged with Ninurta, the son of Ellil, and the Anzû-bird would over time become the enemy of the god.

### Connection to other cultures

Much of Ninurta's iconography & imagery was later used by the Babylonian and their patron deity, Marduk. This include the forked lighting bolt and being the slayer and subjugator of various monsters and other chaotic forces. The role of coronating the king might have been adapted for the god Nabu handing the king of Babylon his sceptre during the New Year Festival (Akitu). An argument can also be made that Greek demigod Heracles (who is also a son of the chief deity, in this case Zeus) has inherited his battle with various monsters from Ninurta as well.

The god has also been connected to several figures in the Bible: Nimrod, who was seen as a greta hunter and builder of cities, and the prophetic "Son of Man" idea proposed by the Old Testament, notably in the Book of Daniel, and later applied in the New Testament to Jesus Christ.

## Gallery

Cylinder seal featuring Ninurta slaying a beast, picture by Ibolya Horvath
## Pop Culture

* The god Ninurta appears as a supporting character in the fantasy novel *Gilgamesh Immortal* by Brian Godawa. In reality he is the fallen angel Gadreel masquerading as a god, who will later take on the roles of Marduk and Ba'al.

## References

1. ↑ Cotterell, Arthur. *The Macmillan Illustrated Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends*
2. ↑ Dalley, Stephanie. *Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others*
3. ↑ Annus, Amar. Ninurta as *Healer and Helper in Misery* in *The God Ninurta in the Mythology and Royal Ideology of Ancient Mesopotamia*
4. ↑ Dalley, Stephanie. *Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others*
5. ↑ Dalley, Stephanie. *Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others*
6. ↑ Dalley, Stephanie. *Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others*
7. ↑ Dalley, Stephanie. *Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others*
8. ↑ Dempsey, Brendan Graham. *The Combat Myth According to Mark: From Ancient Near Eastern Genre to Apocalyptic Gospel*
9. ↑ Dempsey, Brendan Graham. *The Combat Myth According to Mark: From Ancient Near Eastern Genre to Apocalyptic Gospel*
10. ↑ Dempsey, Brendan Graham. *The Combat Myth According to Mark: From Ancient Near Eastern Genre to Apocalyptic Gospel*
11. ↑ Dempsey, Brendan Graham. *The Combat Myth According to Mark: From Ancient Near Eastern Genre to Apocalyptic Gospel*
12. ↑ Alster, Bendt. *Ninurta and the Turtle: On Parodia Sacra in Sumerian Literature*
13. ↑ Alster, Bendt. *Ninurta and the Turtle: On Parodia Sacra in Sumerian Literature*
14. ↑ Alster, Bendt. *Ninurta and the Turtle: On Parodia Sacra in Sumerian Literature*
15. ↑ Annus, Amar. *Ninurta and the Monsters* in *The God Ninurta in the Mythology and Royal Ideology of Ancient Mesopotamia*
16. ↑ Annus, Amar. *Ninurta as Healer and Helper in Misery* in *The God Ninurta in the Mythology and Royal Ideology of Ancient Mesopotamia*
17. ↑ Annus, Amar. *Ninurta as Healer and Helper in Misery* in *The God Ninurta in the Mythology and Royal Ideology of Ancient Mesopotamia*
18. ↑ Annus, Amar. *The God Ninurta in the Mythology and Royal Ideology of Ancient Mesopotamia*
19. ↑ Dalley, Stephanie. *Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others*
20. ↑ Dalley, Stephanie. *Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others*
21. ↑ Annus, Amar. *The God Ninurta in the Mythology and Royal Ideology of Ancient Mesopotamia*
22. ↑ Day, John. *God's Conflict with the Dragon and the Sea: Echoes of a Canaanite Myth in the Old Testament*
23. ↑ Katz, Dina. *Reconstructing Babylon: Recycling Mythological Traditions Toward a New Theology*
24. ↑ Burkert, Walter. *Oriental and Greek mythology: the meeting of parallels*
25. ↑ Annus, Amar. *Ninurta and the Son of Man*
26. ↑ Dempsey, Brendan Graham. *The Combat Myth According to Mark: From Ancient Near Eastern Genre to Apocalyptic Gospel*