Nikkal
Sign in to saveAlso known as Nikkal wa Ib
Nikkal (logographically dNIN.GAL, alphabetically 𐎐𐎋𐎍 nkl) or Nikkal-wa-Ib (nkl wib) was a goddess worshiped in various areas of the ancient Near East west of Mesopotamia. She was derived from the Mesopotamian goddess Ningal, and like her forerunner was regarded as the spouse of a moon god, whose precise identity varied between locations. While well attested in Hurrian and Hittite sources, as well as in Ugarit, she is largely absent from documents from the western part of ancient Syria.
Key facts
- Deity.type
- Hurrian
- Deity.name
- Nikkal
- Deity.other_names
- Nikkal-wa-Ib
- Deity.image
- File:Yazilikaya52-55.jpg
- Deity.caption
- Nikkal (second from the left) on the Yazılıkaya procession relief
- Deity.deity_of
- Spouse of the moon god
- Deity.cult_center
- Ugarit
- Deity.father
- possibly ḫrḫb (Ḫiriḫibi)
- Deity.children
- Sun god of Heaven (in Hittite sources)
- Deity.equivalent1_type
- Mesopotamian
- Deity.equivalent1
- Ningal
via Wikipedia infobox
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Article
9 sectionsContents
- Name and character
- Association with other deities
- Worship
- Ugaritic reception
- Miscellaneous attestations
- Mythology
- Notes
- References
- Bibliography
Nikkal (logographically dNIN.GAL, alphabetically 𐎐𐎋𐎍 nkl) or Nikkal-wa-Ib (nkl wib) was a goddess worshiped in various areas of the ancient Near East west of Mesopotamia. She was derived from the Mesopotamian goddess Ningal, and like her forerunner was regarded as the spouse of a moon god, whose precise identity varied between locations. While well attested in Hurrian and Hittite sources, as well as in Ugarit, she is largely absent from documents from the western part of ancient Syria.
==Name and character== Nikkal was derived from the Mesopotamian goddess Ningal (Sumerian: "great lady"), wife of the moon god Nanna. Similarly to deities such as Ea, Damkina, Aya or Pinikir she was introduced from Mesopotamia to Hurrian areas possibly as early as in the third millennium BCE. Alfonso Archi assumes that the presence of Ningal in the pantheon of the kingdom of Mari in particular was in part responsible for her adoption by the Hurrians and her later prominence in their religion. He stresses that Ningal she was already known in the west in the Ur III period.