Ninsun

Sumerian-Akkadian goddess; "Lady of the Wild Cows" (Nin-sumun(ak)); identified by extensive cow-related epithets and the Akkadian Rīmat-Ninsun ("Wild Cow Ninsun"). Wife of Lugalbanda; mother of Gilgamesh (the defining maternal relationship of Mesopotamian literature); also claimed as mother by the Ur III kings Ur-Nammu and Šulgi, by Sin-Kashid of Uruk, and by Gudea of Lagash. In the Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh she actively interprets Gilgamesh's dreams (Tablet I), petitions Shamash to protect him on his Humbaba-expedition (Tablet III), and accepts Enkidu as a member of her family. Her main cult center was at KI.KAL; Sin-Kashid built the É-KI.KAL temple for her and Lugalbanda together in Old Babylonian Uruk. Ur-Nammu built the Emah ("Magnificent Temple") for her in Ur. Some traditions equate her with the medicine-goddess Gula in syncretic hymns.

Children

• Gilgamesh
• Šulgi

Domains

• maternal protection and dream interpretation
• patron of Ur III kings Ur Nammu Shulgi

Powers

• Interpret prophetic dreams
• Petition the sun-god

Epithets

• Rīmat-Ninsun
• mūdât kalāma

Relations

• parent: Anu
• spouse: Lugalbanda
• mother of: Gilgamesh
• mother of: Šulgi

Sources

• Earliest Sumerian Gilgamesh poems (Bilgames and the Bull of Heaven, Bilgames and Akka, etc., c. 21st-c. BCE redaction); the Lugalbanda-Ninsun marriage myth (fragmentary); Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh (Sîn-lēqi-unninni redaction c. 1300-1000 BCE, preserved at Ashurbanipal's library, Nineveh); royal hymns of Ur-Nammu and Šulgi; Sin-Kashid temple-building inscription; An = Anum god lists; Ur-Ningirsu I inscription