Azimua, also known as Ninazimua, was a

Mesopotamian goddess Deities in ancient Mesopotamia were almost exclusively anthropomorphic. They were thought to possess extraordinary powers and were often envisioned as being of tremendous physical size. The deities typically wore ''melam'', an ambiguous substan ...

regarded as the wife of

Ningishzida Ningishzida ( Sumerian: DNIN-G̃IŠ-ZID-DA, possible meaning "Lord f theGood Tree") was a Mesopotamian deity of vegetation, the underworld and sometimes war. He was commonly associated with snakes. Like Dumuzi, he was believed to spend a part ...

Name

Ninazimua is the original spelling of the name of this goddess, attested in sources from the Ur III period. Later the NIN sign was usually omitted. The form Ninazimua is attested in at least one theophoric name, Geme-Ninazimua. Wilfred G. Lambert proposed that the element ''a-zi'' in her name can be interpreted as "water of life."

Position in the pantheon

Azimua was regarded as the wife of Ningishzida. However, multiple traditions regarding this god's marital status existed. The god list ''

An = Anum ''An = Anum'', also known as the Great God List, is the longest preserved Mesopotamian god list, a type of lexical list cataloging the deities worshiped in the Ancient Near East, chiefly in modern Iraq. While god lists are already known from the ...

'' identifies not only Azimua, but also Ekurritum (not attested in such a role anywhere else) as his wives, while other sources favor

Geshtinanna Geshtinanna was a Mesopotamian goddess best known due to her role in myths about the death of Dumuzi, her brother. It is not certain what functions did she fulfill in the Mesopotamian pantheon, though her association with the scribal arts and dr ...

, identified with Belet-Seri. In some cases, Azimua and Geshtinanna/Belet-Seri were conflated, for example in inscriptions of king

Gudea Gudea ( Sumerian: , ''Gu3-de2-a'') was a ruler ('' ensi'') of the state of Lagash in Southern Mesopotamia, who ruled circa 2080–2060 BC ( short chronology) or 2144-2124 BC (middle chronology). He probably did not come from the city, but had marr ...

Lagash Lagash (cuneiform: LAGAŠKI; Sumerian: ''Lagaš''), was an ancient city state located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk, about east of the modern town of Ash Shatrah, Iraq. Lagash (modern Al-Hiba) w ...

. A god list from Susa treats them as two names of the same deity, identified both as the wife of Ningishzida and sister of Dumuzi. According to Wilfred G. Lambert, Azimua's name could simply function as a title of Geshtinanna in contexts where the latter was identified as Ningishzida's wife. Belet-Seri could also function as an epithet of Ashratum, the wife of

Amurru Amurru may refer to: * Amurru kingdom, roughly current day western Syria and northern Lebanon * Amorite, ancient Syrian people * Amurru (god) Amurru, also known under the Sumerian name Martu, was a Mesopotamian god who served as the divine perso ...

, or of her Sumerian counterpart Gubarra, in at least one case leading to conflation of Amurru and Ningishzida and to an association between the former and Azimua. Azimua could serve as the scribe of the

underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underwor ...

, a role also assigned to Geshtinanna.

Worship

It is likely that Ninazimua appears for the first time in a text from Early Dynastic Tell Fara, though the full name of the deity in mention is not preserved. A further early uncertain attestation comes from a ''zami'' hymn. She was worshiped in Ur, where she had a temple, and in

Umma Umma ( sux, ; in modern Dhi Qar Province in Iraq, formerly also called Gishban) was an ancient city in Sumer. There is some scholarly debate about the Sumerian and Akkadian names for this site. Traditionally, Umma was identified with Tell J ...

Mythology

Ninazimua appears in the myth ''Ningishzida and Ninazumua'', which describes an exchange of messages between her and her temporarily deceased husband. It is regarded as similar to other myths dealing with temporary death of deities: ''

Damu Damu ( sux, 𒀭𒁕𒈬) was a Mesopotamian god. While originally regarded as a dying god connected to vegetation, similar to Dumuzi or Ningishzida, with time he acquired the traits of a god of healing. He was regarded as the son of the medic ...

and his sister'', '' Dumuzi and his sisters'', ''Dumuzi and Geshtinanna'', ''Dumuzi's dream'' and '' Inanna's descent''. However, due to small number of known copies, possible scribal mistakes and other issues it is presently impossible to fully reconstruct its plot.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * *{{citation, first=Frans A. M., last=Wiggermann, entry=Nin-ĝišzida, encyclopedia=Reallexikon der Assyriologie, entry-url=http://publikationen.badw.de/en/rla/index#8687, year=1998, access-date=2022-04-02 Mesopotamian goddesses