Ninsikila (or Ninsikil, 𒀭𒎏𒂖) was a

Mesopotamian deity 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 spouse of

Lisin Lisin was a Mesopotamian deity initially regarded as a goddess and addressed as ''ama'', "mother," who later came to be regarded as a god and developed an association with fire. The name was also applied to a star associated with Nabu. Lisin's s ...

. Early sources refer to him as male, but later on the name came to refer to a goddess instead. The change in gender might have been influenced by an association with the

Dilmun Dilmun, or Telmun, ( Sumerian: , later 𒉌𒌇(𒆠), ni.tukki = DILMUNki; ar, دلمون) was an ancient East Semitic-speaking civilization in Eastern Arabia mentioned from the 3rd millennium BC onwards. Based on contextual evidence, it was l ...

ite goddess

Meskilak Meskilak or Mesikila was one of the two main deities worshiped in Dilmun. The other well attested member of the pantheon of this area was Inzak, commonly assumed to be her spouse. The origin of her name is a subject of scholarly dispute. She is a ...

, also called Ninsikila in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

, or by Lisin's placement before her spouse in god lists. Texts attesting the worship of Ninsikila include an inscription from

Larsa Larsa ( Sumerian logogram: UD.UNUGKI, read ''Larsamki''), also referred to as Larancha/Laranchon (Gk. Λαραγχων) by Berossos and connected with the biblical Ellasar, was an important city-state of ancient Sumer, the center of the cul ...

and a magical formula from Meturan.

Associations with other deities

Ninsikila was the spouse of

. Eight children are assigned to them in 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 ...

'': KU-anna, KU-kita, KU-ta-abzu, KU-kita-abzu (reading of the first sign in all four names is uncertain), Irḫangul, Kituš-Keš, Lalanna (or Lulalanna) and Urnuntae. It has been pointed out that while some copies of this document refer to this group of deities as the "children of Lisin," one instead calls them the "children of Ninsikila."

Gender

Initially Ninsikila was considered a god and Lisin a goddess. However, in texts postdating the

Old Babylonian period The Old Babylonian Empire, or First Babylonian Empire, is dated to BC – BC, and comes after the end of Sumerian power with the destruction of the Third Dynasty of Ur, and the subsequent Isin-Larsa period. The chronology of the first dynasty ...

, and less commonly also in older ones, their genders could be switched, and for example in the god list ''An = Anum'' the former is female and the latter male. According to

Joan Goodnick Westenholz Joan Goodnick Westenholz (1 July 1943 – 2013) was an Assyriologist and the chief curator at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem. She held positions related to academic research at the Oriental Institute (University of Chicago), Harvard Unive ...

, it is possible that the fact that in Old Babylonian god lists Ninsikila follows Lisin might have influenced the reinterpretation of their identities. An example of such a text is the

Weidner god list Weidner god list is the conventional name of one of the known ancient Mesopotamian lists of deities, originally compiled by ancient scribes in the late third millennium BCE, with the oldest known copy dated to the Ur III or Isin-Larsa period. Furth ...

, in which Lisin precedes Ninsikila. According to Piotr Michalowski the same order is attested in all the other known sources which list both of them in sequence. A second factor might have been the existence of a

homophonous A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (p ...

, though not identical, goddess Ninsikila, who was originally known as

and originated in

. While the name Ninsikila can be found in the myth ''

Enki , image = Enki(Ea).jpg , caption = Detail of Enki from the Adda Seal, an ancient Akkadian cylinder seal dating to circa 2300 BC , deity_of = God of creation, intelligence, crafts, water, seawater, lakewater, fertility, semen, magic, mischief ...

and

Ninhursag , deity_of=Mother goddess, goddess of fertility, mountains, and rulers , image= Mesopotamian - Cylinder Seal - Walters 42564 - Impression.jpg , caption=Akkadian cylinder seal impression depicting a vegetation goddess, possibly Ninhursag, sitting ...

'', it refers to the Dilmunite goddess in this context. The change in Ninsikila's gender has been compared to the case of

Uṣur-amāssu Uṣur-amāssu (also spelled Uṣur-awāssu or Uṣur-amāssa) was a Mesopotamian deity. While originally viewed as male, she later came to be regarded as a goddess. Regardless of gender, Uṣur-amāssu was considered as a child of Adad and Shala ...

, who appears as a male deity in ''An = Anum'', but later came to be viewed as female.

Worship

Thorkild Jacobsen Thorkild Peter Rudolph Jacobsen (; 7 June 1904 – 2 May 1993) was a renowned Danish historian specializing in Assyriology and Sumerian literature. He was one of the foremost scholars on the ancient Near East. Biography Thorkild Peter Rudolph Ja ...

assumed that Ninsikila was worshiped alongside Lisin in Adab. However, he is not listed among the deities attested in texts from this city from the third millennium BCE in a more recent survey of the local pantheon compiled by Marcos Such-Gutiérrez. A

diorite Diorite ( ) is an intrusive igneous rock formed by the slow cooling underground of magma (molten rock) that has a moderate content of silica and a relatively low content of alkali metals. It is intermediate in composition between low-silic ...

bowl from

has been dedicated by a certain Ṣālilum for the life of king

Rim-Sîn I Rim-Sîn I ( akk, , Dri-im- Dsuen) ruled the ancient Near East city-state of Larsa from 1758 BC to 1699 BC (in short chronology) or 1822 BC to 1763 BC (middle chronology). His sister En-ane-du was high priestess of the moon god in Ur. Rim-Sin I ...

jointly to Ninsikila and Lisin, according to Douglas Frayne with the former to be interpreted as a goddess and the latter as a god. However, according to Gabriella Spada it is also possible that the opposite interpretation is true. Ninsikila appears in a magical text from Meturan which also mentions Lisin, but the passage is considered difficult to explain and might contain references to unknown mythical situations.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * {{refend Mesopotamian gods Mesopotamian goddesses