Ninurta
Mesopotamian · deity · mythic · Recorded classification
Ninurta was missing, which for the Mesopotamian pantheon is a serious hole: he is Enlil's son, the champion the gods send when something has to be killed, and the power behind the spring floods. Lugal-e — 'Ninurta's Exploits' — has him make war on Asag, a demon of the mountain whose name means disorder, destroying cities and crushing skulls; and then, in the part that matters to a farming civilisation, reorganising the mountain's stones so that the Tigris flows again. He also hunts Anzu after the thunderbird steals the Tablet of Destinies. This registry already held two Assyrian kings named after him; now it holds him.
Parentage
- parent: Enlil
Domains
- war
- agriculture
Powers
- to set the Tigris flowing again after the mountain has blocked it
Relations
- spouse: GulaMarried to Gula at Nippur; under his Lagash name Ningirsu the wife is Bau, who is one of the goddesses absorbed into Gula.Oracc, Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses, s.v. Gula/Ninkarrak: Gula is the wife of the warrior god Ninurta at Nippur. (secondary)
- equated with: NingirsuIdentified with Ningirsu, the god of Girsu and chief god of the state of Lagash; the two are recorded separately because the Lagash cult has its own long history and its own consort.Reference treatment of Ninĝirsu as the tutelary deity of Ĝirsu and chief god of Lagash, widely identified with Ninurta. (secondary)
- enemy: AsagKills Asag, the mountain demon of disorder, in Lugal-e.Lugal-e, on the war against Asag. (primary)
- enemy: AnzuHunts down Anzu after the theft of the Tablet of Destinies, in the version of the myth in which Ninurta is the champion.Reference treatment of the Anzu myth, in which the thunderbird steals the Tablet of Destinies and is hunted down. (secondary)
Sources
- Ninurta is the Mesopotamian warrior god, son of Enlil, god of spring thundershowers and floods, who in Lugal-e destroys the mountain demon Asag and restores the flow of the Tigris.: Lugal-e (Ninurta's Exploits). (primary); Reference treatment of Ninurta, of Lugal-e and of the Anzu myth. (secondary)