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Nintinugga

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Nintinugga (; also romanized as Nintinuga) was a Mesopotamian goddess associated with medicine and cleansing. She belonged to the local pantheon of Nippur. While she has been compared to other similar goddesses, such as Ninisina and Gula, and in a number of ancient texts they appear to be syncretised with each other or are treated as interchangeable, she was nonetheless a distinct deity in her own right. She was associated with Enlil and Ninlil, and was worshiped in their temples, though houses of worship dedicated only to her are also attested.

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Encyclopedic overview

7 sections
Contents
  • Character
  • Associations with other deities
  • Nintinugga and other healing goddesses
  • Worship
  • References
  • Bibliography
  • External links

Nintinugga (; also romanized as Nintinuga) was a Mesopotamian goddess associated with medicine and cleansing. She belonged to the local pantheon of Nippur. While she has been compared to other similar goddesses, such as Ninisina and Gula, and in a number of ancient texts they appear to be syncretised with each other or are treated as interchangeable, she was nonetheless a distinct deity in her own right. She was associated with Enlil and Ninlil, and was worshiped in their temples, though houses of worship dedicated only to her are also attested.

==Character== Nintinugga's name is conventionally translated from Sumerian as "Mistress who revives the dead". However, Barbara Böck notes this interpretation might only reflect an "ancient scholarly etymology." It is possible it initially had a different meaning, with one proposal being "lady of the lofty wine," and only from the reign of Uruinimgina onward it started to be written with the cuneiform sign ug5, "to die." An epithet sometimes applied to her was "the lady of life and death," nin til3-la ug5-ga, attested both in royal inscriptions and in various god lists.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Nintinugga” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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