Azimua, also known as Ninazimua, was a
Mesopotamian goddess regarded as the wife of
Ningishzida.
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
Wilfred George Lambert FBA (26 February 1926 – 9 November 2011) was a historian and archaeologist, a specialist in Assyriology and Near Eastern Archaeology.
Early life
Lambert was born in Birmingham, and, having won a scholarship, he was edu ...
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, identified with
Belet-Seri
Belet-Seri was a Mesopotamian goddess who served as a scribe in the court of the underworld goddess Ereshkigal. She could be regarded as the Akkadian counterpart of Sumerian Geshtinanna, but the name could also function as a title of Ašratum, the ...
. 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 ...
of
Lagash. A god list from
Susa
Susa ( ; Middle elx, 𒀸𒋗𒊺𒂗, translit=Šušen; Middle and Neo- elx, 𒋢𒋢𒌦, translit=Šušun; Neo-Elamite and Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼𒀭, translit=Šušán; Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼, translit=Šušá; fa, شوش ...
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 underworld.
...
, 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.
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 and his sister'', ''
Dumuzi and his sisters'', ''Dumuzi and Geshtinanna'', ''Dumuzi's dream'' and ''
Inanna
Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, Divine law, divine justice, and political p ...
'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
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*{{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