Ninsianna
Ninsianna (meaning “Red Lady of Heaven” in Sumerian) was the Mesopotamian personification of the planet Venus, especially in sources from the Old Babylonian period. Functions. Ninsianna was a divine representation of the planet Venus. Many of her epithets highlight a connection to light and radiance. A text from Sippar-Amnanum addresses Ninsianna as "ilum elum", "radiant god." A late source from Uruk calls her "mistress who illuminates heaven." Due to her astral character, it has been proposed that she was depicted on cylinder seals as a goddess with a star either on her crown or above it. Ninsianna was  occasionally associated with haruspicy, like a number of other astral deities. Gender. Ninsianna’s gender varies between primary sources. Two texts appear to indicate that it is possible Ninsianna, as a personification of Venus, was viewed as female at sunset and male at sunrise. It has been proposed that she was originally a female deity, but her gender became variable due to contact between Sumerians and speakers of Semitic languages who represented the same celestial body as a male deity. It is generally accepted that in Sippar, Ninsianna was worshiped as a male deity. Similar evidence is known from Ur  and Girsu. Rim-Sin of Larsa on at least one occasion referred to Ninsianna as a male deity, referring to him as a “king” ("lugal") who helped him against his enemies. However, some evidence in favor of interpreting Ninsianna as a god rather than a goddess (for example an inscription of Iddin-Sin of Simurrum ) is uncertain, as it is possible that the Akkadian word "ilu" might be employed in inscriptions as a gender neutral term, similar to Sumerian "dingir". Sources from Kassite archives appear to present Ninsianna as a goddess, rather than a god. Association with other deities. The  god list "An = Anum" states that Ninsianna was regarded as “Ishtar of the star,” "Ishtar kakkabi". The association between Ninsianna and Ishtar/Inanna goes back at least to the late third or early second millennium BCE. In the Isin-Larsa period, Inanna was partially syncretised with Isin’s dynastic goddess Ninisina, with the justification relying partially on the similarity between the names of Ninsianna and Ninisina. However, at the same time in Larsa Ninsianna and Inanna were regarded as distinct goddesses without overlap between their cults. A deity named Kabta (“star”) or Mahdianna (“lofty one of heaven”) was frequently  associated with Ninsianna. A certain Sin-ishmeanni described himself as “servant of Ninsianna and Kabta” on a cylinder seal. However, the exact nature of the relationship between these two deities, and even Kabta’s gender, remain uncertain due to lack of sources. Wilfred G. Lambert considered it possible that the deity was male and functioned as the spouse of Ninsianna, but there is also evidence in favor of viewing Kabta as a goddess. A god list from Emar indicates that the Hurrians viewed Pinikir as an equivalent of Ninsianna. Much like Ninsianna's, Pinikir's gender varies in Hurrian religious  texts. Worship. A temple dedicated to Ninsianna, É-Eshbarzida ("House of True Decisions") is known from an inscription from Ur, but its location is uncertain. Another temple of this deity was located in Nippur. While worship of Ninsianna is already attested from the period of Third Dynasty of Ur, she only grew in prominence in the following Isin-Larsa and Old Babylonian periods. She is one of the deities most commonly mentioned in personal letters from the latter period. While less common than Ishtar, she appears with comparable frequency to Aya or Gula. In sources from the city of Babylon  itself she is one of best attested goddesses in various documents, next to Ishtar, Inanna of Zabalam, Annunitum and Sarpanit. Monarchs who left behind evidence of personal devotion to Ninsianna include Rim-Sin of Larsa and Iddin-Dagan of Isin. She continued to be worshiped in the Kassite period. In Hellenic Uruk she was regarded as one of the goddesses accompanying Ishtar during the New Year festival, alongside Nanaya and various minor goddesses of the city. Ninsianna only sporadically appears as a theophoric element in personal names. There is nonetheless a lot of evidence for personal devotion to both female  and male Ninsianna.