Ninhursag

Ninḫursaĝ, sometimes transcribed Ninursag, Ninḫarsag, or Ninḫursaĝa, also known as Damgalnuna or Ninmah, was the ancient Sumerian mother goddess of the mountains, and one of the seven great deities of Sumer. She is known earliest as a nurturing or fertility goddess. She is the tutelary deity to several Sumerian leaders.
Her best-known myths are Enki and Ninhursag describing her dealings with Enki resulting from his sexual exploits, and Enki and Ninmah a creation myth wherein the two deities compete to create humans. She is referenced or makes brief appearances in others as well, most notably as the mother of Ninurta in the Anzû Epic.

Name

Ninhursag means "lady of the sacred mountain" from Sumerian NIN "lady" and ḪAR.SAG̃ "sacred mountain, foothill", possibly a reference to the site of her temple, the E-Kur at Eridu. She had many names including Ninmah ; Nintu ; Mamma or Mami ; Aruru and Belet-Ili.
According to the 'Ninurta's Exploits' myth, her name was changed from Ninmah to Ninhursag by her son Ninurta. As Ninmena, according to a Babylonian investiture ritual, she placed the golden crown on the king in the Eanna temple.
Possibly included among the original mother goddesses was Damgalnuna/''Diĝirmaḫ or Damkina, the consort of the god Enki.
Nintur was another name assigned to Ninhursag as a birth goddess, though sometimes she was a separate goddess entirely.
The mother goddess had many epithets including shassuru or 'womb goddess', tabsut ili 'midwife of the gods', 'mother of all children' and 'mother of the gods'. In this role she is identified with Ki in the Enuma Elish. She had shrines in both Eridu and Kish. It has also been speculated that she was worshipped under the name Belet-Nagar'' in Mari. However, it has also been proposed that the name Ninhursag in documents from Mari should be understood as a logographic writing of the name Shalash, the wife of Dagan, who was the goddess of Bitin near Alalakh rather than Nagar in the Khabur Triangle. Belet Nagar has alternatively been identified with Hurrian deities: Shaushka or Nabarbi.

Diĝirmaḫ

Dingirmah was a very common epithet of Ninhursag. In older literature, the name was transcribed as ^dMah, but the correct reading was confirmed through the existence of a syllabically written Emesal form, Dimmermah.
Although she was originally an epithet of Ninhursag, Dingirmah eventually developed into a separate goddess at the end of the Early Dynastic period. In the Nippur god list, Dingirmah was one of the nine goddesses of birth enumerated after Šulpae, and the Isin god list similarly included her as one of six birth goddesses. Dingirmah was also present in the An = Anum god list, which listed her alongside Ninhursag, Ninmah, Aruru and Nintur. It is uncertain whether these were all regarded as variant names for the same goddess or different goddesses with similar functions.
A temple dedicated to Dingirmah, the E-maḫ, was built in Adab by a local ruler. Another temple was built at Malgium by King Ipiq-Ištar.

Ninmaḫ

Ninmah was one of the most common epithets of Ninhursag alongside Dingirmah. The name was already attested in Fara and pre-Sargonian Lagash, and primarily occurred in liturgical and literary texts. An Akkadian form, Ereshmah, was attested at Ugarit, and was either a variant or the correctly written form of the name.
Like Dingirmah, Ninmah was initially an epithet of Ninhursag who later developed into a separate goddess at the end of the Early Dynastic period. In Lagash, King Entemena built a temple that was at first dedicated to Ninhursag, and then rededicated to Ninmah.
In a text known as Archive of Mystic Heptads, Ninmah was labeled separately from Ninhursag as the "Bēlet-ilī of the Emaḫ temple" in an enumeration of seven goddesses of birth.

Function

As evidenced by the large number of names, epithets, and areas of worship associated with her cult, Ninhursag's function in religion had many different aspects and shifted notably over time. Ninhursag was not the tutelary goddess of any major city, her cult presence being attested first in smaller towns and villages. It is possible that she was viewed originally more as a nurturing than a birth goddess. Another theory posits that, along with the goddess Nintur, she was the birth goddess of wild and domesticated animals. Her connection to the biological process of childbirth in worship is suspected to have developed later, as she began to by syncretized with other 'birth-goddesses', and took on her Bēlet-ilī name. In this birth aspect, she is called by the kings of Lagash as "the midwife who suckled them". From the third Early Dynastic Period and onward, the most common Ninhursag epithets emphasize her as the supreme "mother of the world". This term of mother, Julia Asher-Greve and Joan Westenholz argue, was analogous to the generic 'father' used for gods such as Anu and Enki, and therefore transcends the biological concept of motherhood. Later in the Neo-Sumerian Period she became more associated with the physical process of birth.. In the Old Babylonian Period some posit a decline in her worship, as she loses her high status as part of the four supreme deities of the pantheon. However Westenholz posits that her cult continued to be relevant but shifted function, as she became Bēlet-ilī.
She had a documented role in Sumerian kingship ideology. The first known royal votive gift, recovered from Kiš, was donated by a king referring to himself as ‘beloved son of Ninḫursaĝa'. Votive objects dedicated to her Diĝirmaḫ name were recovered in Adab, dating to the Early Dynastic Period.
She could also be understood not simply as affiliated with mountains, but as a personification of mountain as well. One text in Sumerian, the Disputation between Summer and Winter, describes the creation of the seasons as a result of the copulation of Ninhursag and Enlil. Another temple hymn from Gudea praising Ningirsu describes him as having been born by a mountain range. She had a connection to the wild animals, particularly deer, who dwell on or around the mountains. Stags appear in façade on the walls of her temples, as well as in works containing the lion headed eagle, a symbol of Ninurta. One composition, a dedication of Ninhursag's Kes temple, mentions deer, bison, and wild goats in connection to the building.
She and her other names could also appear in ritual incantations for a variety of functions, some of which include Damgalnunna to protect from evil demons, and Ninhursaga and Nintur in birth related incantation. As Ninmah she has appeared occasionally in medical texts, such as one from Sultantepe which describes a ritual and offerings to be performed for the goddess in order to cure bedwetting. It is suggested that her role in performing healing connects to that of her healing Enki in Enki and Ninhursag.

Association with other deities

Family

Ninhursag's parentage and ancestry is not described in any known texts. In the Hymn of Adad, the eponymous storm god is referred to as Bēlet-ilī's brother.

Consorts and children

Ninhursag's most well attested consort was Šulpae, who could be described as her "beloved spouse". They were attested as consorts in sources from Kesh, such as the Kesh Temple Hymn, and Nippur.
Deities who were regarded as the children of Ninhursag and Šulpae include Ashgi, Paniĝinĝarra, Lisin, Egime, and Lillu, who was possibly identical with Ashgi. Marcos Such-Gutiérrez suggests that Ashgi was initially Ninhursag's husband in Adab due to Šulpae being sparsely attested in sources from this city from the third millennium BCE, and was only viewed as her son in later periods. Paniĝinĝarra could appear alongside his mother in sources such as greeting formulas in letters. Although Ninhursag was generally identified as Lisin's mother, at least one text equated them with each other instead. According to the god list An = Anum, Lisin was a son of Belet-Ili. Egime resided at her mother's Emaḫ temple in Adab, and appeared alongside Ninhursag in the lament Lulil and his sister, in which the two mourned the death of Ashgi.
In the An = Anum god list, Ninhursag was assigned sixteen additional children besides Paniĝinĝarra, Lillu, Ashgi, and Lisin, named Atugula, Atutur, NIN.LA₂, NIG-gumaḫa, Burukaš, Zarzaru, Zurmuzarmu, Nin-BUR.SAL, Šazumaḫ, Ušumšasu, Naĝaršaga, Anmea, Amaea, UR-guru, Urra, and Amaniranna. NIN.LA₂ is generally accepted to be the same goddess as Egime, because NIN was glossed as e-gi, while the sign LA₂ is believed to have been derived from ME.
In Lagash, she was associated with Enlil as his wife, and the mother of Ningirsu She is Ninurta's mother as Bēlet-ilī/Mami in Anzû and other myths as well. Some Sumerian sources identify her as both Enlil's wife and sister, likely to rectify earlier traditions where she was Enlil's spouse, before later traditions had the goddess Ninlil as his wife instead. After this change Ninhursag was reassigned as Enlil's elder sister.
Enki was portrayed as Ninhursag's consort in the myth Enki and Ninhursag, in which the eponymous goddess is treated as the same deity as Damgalnuna, Enki's usual wife. However, Dina Katz points out that the goddesses were usually separate. In Enki and Ninmah, Enki instead refers to Ninmah as his sister.

Attendants

In the An = Anum god list, Dingirmah was assigned a sukkal named Ekigara.
Her chief herald was the god Urumaš, and four additional deities who served as heralds were included in her entourage. Saparnuna was the herald of Kesh, Engal-DU.DU and Nimgir-Kurra were the heralds of the underworld, and Lugaligipirig was the herald of Adab. Six deities named Saĝšutašubšuba, KA.NI-šu-KID.DU.DU, Adgigi, Gudub, Ekurabsa, and Nin-Aruru were designated as her gud-balaĝ. Additionally, Šulpaedara, Šulpaeamaš, and Tuduga served as the "standing gods" of her E-maḫ temple in Adab.
Ninhursag in her mother/birth aspects was also likely affiliated with a group of seven minor goddesses known as the Šassūrātu, "wombs", who were assistants of mother goddesses. These seven appear in Enki and Ninmah to assist in fashioning humankind from clay alongside their mistress, and are listed as Ninimma, Shuzianna, Ninmada, Ninšar, Ninmug, Mumudu, and Ninniginna.