Gula

Gula is the doctor. She is shown as a physician and a midwife, and the sick prayed to her by name; her emblem is the dog, and excavation at her Isin sanctuary turned up dog burials in quantity, which nobody has satisfactorily explained. Several originally separate healing goddesses — Ninisina of Isin, Ninkarrak, Nintinugga — had largely merged into her by historical times, and they are carried here as her aliases with that noted rather than split into records the evidence cannot keep apart.

Variant accounts

• Gula absorbs several originally distinct healing goddesses.Ninisina of Isin, Ninkarrak and Nintinugga were separate goddesses whose cults converged on Gula's; scholarship treats them as distinguishable in origin and largely merged in practice. They are carried here as aliases rather than as separate records, since the merging was already ancient, with this note recording that they began apart.Reference treatment of the syncretism of Mesopotamian healing goddesses. (secondary)

Domains

• healing
• childbirth

Relations

• spouse: NinurtaHer marriage at Nippur. The pairing is a consequence of the same syncretism that gave her her aliases: as Bau she is the wife of Ningirsu at Lagash, and Ningirsu and Ninurta are one god by the historical period, so the healer of Isin ends up married to the champion of Nippur.Oracc, Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses, s.v. Gula/Ninkarrak: Gula is the wife of the warrior god Ninurta at Nippur. (secondary)

Sources

• Gula is the Mesopotamian goddess of healing, a divine physician and midwife, syncretised with Ninisina, Ninkarrak and Nintinugga, with cult centres at Isin, Umma and Nippur.: Reference treatment of Gula, her role in medicine and her cult centres. (secondary)