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Gula/Ninkarrak (goddess)

Gula/Ninkarrak is a healing deity also known as Ninisinna, "Lady of Isin".

Functions

Neo-Assyrian stamp seal showingthe goddess Gula sitting on a thronethat rests on a dog (BM ME130814). © The British Museum.View image on the BritishMuseum's website.

Typically encountered in medical incantations as bÄ“let balÄti , "Lady of Health", Gula/Ninkarrakwas also known as the azugallatu the "great healer", an epithet she shared with her son Damu.Other epithets, such as the "great healer of the land" and "great healer of the black-headedones", point to her wide-reaching 'national ' significance. Gula/Ninkarrak was also credited as an

"herb grower", "the lady who makes the broken up whole again", and "creates life in the land",indicative of an aspect as a vegetation/fertility goddess with regenerative powers. At least in theNeo-Babylonian period, she also seems to have had an oneiric quality, being sought inincubation dreams (Reiner 1960a: 24) and appearing in nocturnal visions ( Al-Rawi 1990).Gula/Ninkarrak also had a violent side as the "queen whose 'tempest', like a raging storm, makes

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heaven [tremble (?)], makes earth quake" ( Avalos 1995: 106-7). The goddess and her dogs werefrequently mentioned in curse formulae.

Divine Genealogy and Syncretisms

She is the daughter of  Anu and wife of the various incarnations of the warrior god Pabilsag (inIsin), Ninurta (in Nippur) and Ningirsu (in Lagaš) (Lambert 1967: 10); and mother of three other healing deities: Damu, Ninazu and Gunurra. Relatively minor goddesses such as Nintinugga,

Meme and Baba are also identified with Gula/Ninkarrak. In the Old Babylonian Period, severalgoddesses are syncretised with Gula, thereby becoming healing goddesses (see Baba andNinisinna (Richter 2004: 195).

Cult Place(s)

The most prominent cult centre of Gula/Ninkarrak(/Ninisinna) was Isin, where her temple asnamed é-u-gi7-ra, "Dog Temple" (Shaffer 1974: 252). Nippur was another significant centre,

where the earliest excavated levels of the Neo-Babylonian temple of Gula/Ninkarrak are dated tothe Isin-Larsa period and presumably lie on earlier incarnations from ca. 3000 BCE. The major 

period of construction belongs to the Kassite period (Gibson 1990). Other cult centres includeUmma, Lagaš, Larsa, Uruk, Borsippa, Babylon and Assur , the latter three each boasting 3temples dedicated to the goddess (Frankena 1957-71b: 696). Texts make no reference totemples of Gula/Ninkarrak serving for the on-site treatment of patients ( Avalos 1995). Peculiar tothe petitionary and thanksgiving function of the temples of Gula/Ninkarrak ( Avalos 1995) are theterracotta votive figurines of humans holding various body parts (indicating the source of ailmentfor which the aid of the goddess was sought/received); and those of dogs, sacred animals of Gula/Ninkarrak (Gibson 1990). Dog figurines were often inscribed with a dedication or prayer tothe goddess. Particularly notable in Isin are the more than 30 dog burials discovered below theramp leading to the temple (Wapnish and Hesse 1993: 69ff).

Time Periods Attested

Gula/Ninkarrak's earliest attestation dates to the Ur III Period (Frankena 1957-71b: 695). She hasa conspicuous rise in popularity in the second half of the second millennium during the Kassiteperiod; and her cult continues well into the first millennium.

Iconography

Gula/Ninkarrak's attribute animal was the dog, both in iconography as well as in texts.Representations of Gula/Ninkarrak as a seated figure with a dog reclining at her feet emerge in

the Old Babylonian period and can be seen on terracotta plaques (Barrelet 1968). The samemotif is particularly popular on Kassite kudurrus TT (Seidl 1989) and Neo-Assyrian/Babyloniancylinder seals TT (Frankena 1957-71b: 697).

 

Name and Spellings

The meaning of Gula's name is unclear, although the ancients created a folk etymology of thisname based on the Sumerian word for 'great' (gu-la) (Frankena 1957-71b: 695). Ninkarrak'sname likely means 'Lady of Kar' (not 'Lady of Karrak') (Kraus 1951: 69).

Written forms:dgu-la, dgú-la, dgú-lá, dME.ME (logographic); dnin-kar-ra-ak, dnin-kar-ra-ak-a

Normalised forms:Gula; Ninkarrak

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