Manungal

Template:Short description Template:Template otherTemplate:Wikidata imageTemplate:Compare image with Wikidata Nungal (Template:Langx ^dNun-gal, "great princess"), also known as Manungal and possibly Bēlet-balāṭi, was the Mesopotamian goddess of prisons, sometimes also associated with the underworld. She was worshiped especially in the Ur III period in cities such as Nippur, Lagash and Ur.

Her husband was Birtum, and she was regarded as a courtier and daughter in law Enlil. Texts also associate her with deities such as Ereshkigal, Nintinugga and Ninkasi.

Much of the available information about her role in Mesopotamian beliefs comes from a Sumerian hymn which was a part of the scribal curriculum in the Old Babylonian period.

Name

Nungal's name means "Great Princess" in Sumerian.Template:Sfn A plural form of the name attested in some documents can be regarded as analogous to one of the collective terms for Mesopotamian deities, Igigi.Template:Sfn

An alternate form of the name, Manungal, was possibly a contraction of the phrase ama Nungal, "mother Nungal."Template:Sfn It is first attested in documents from the Ur III period, while in later times it commonly appears in place of the base form in texts written in Akkadian or in the Emesal dialect of Sumerian.Template:Sfn A number of variant spellings of the name are attested in sources from Ugarit, for example ^dNun-gal-la, ^dMa-ga-la, ^dMa-nun-gal-la or ^dMa-nun-gal-an-na.Template:Sfn

In the hymn Nungal in the Ekur, and in a fragment of an otherwise unknown composition, Ninegal functions as an epithet of Nungal.Template:Sfn This name is otherwise attested either as an epithet of various goddesses, especially Inanna,Template:Sfn or as an independent minor deity, associated with royal palaces.Template:Sfn

It is possible that Bēlet-balāṭi, "mistress of life," a goddess known from sources from the first millennium BCE, was a late form of Manungal.Template:Sfn

Character

Jeremiah Peterson describes punishment and detention as the primary domain of Nungal.Template:Sfn Her character is described in the hymn Nungal in the Ekur, known from a large number of Old Babylonian copiesTemplate:Sfn thanks to its role in the scribal school curriculum.Template:Sfn Miguel Civil proposed that it was originally composed by a scribe accused of a crime which would warrant a severe penalty.Template:Sfn It describes the fate of those who find themselves under the auspice of Nungal.Template:Sfn According to this composition, the prison maintained by this goddess separates the guilty from the innocent, but also gives the former a chance to be redeemed, which is metaphorically compared to refining silver and to being born.Template:Sfn The text likely reflected views about the idealized purpose and results of imprisonment, a punishment well attested in Mesopotamian records.Template:Sfn The use of temporary imprisonment as part of the judicial process meant to help with determining if a person is guilty is also attested in the Code of Ur-Nammu.Template:Sfn

Despite being the goddess of prisons, Nungal was regarded as a compassionate deity.Template:Sfn Imprisonment was presumably viewed as compassionate compared to the death penalty,Template:Sfn and it is likely that the goddess was regarded as capable of reducing the most severe punishments.Template:Sfn She was also portrayed in various less fearsome roles, for example as a goddess of justice or as one associated with medicine and perhaps birth.Template:Sfn

Nungal was also an underworld goddess, as evidenced by her association with Ereshkigal and by the epithet Ninkurra, "lady of the underworld," applied to her in incantations.Template:Sfn

Worship

Wilfred G. Lambert proposed that originally Manungal and her spouse Birtum were worshiped in a presently unknown city which declined in the third millennium BCE, leading to the transfer of its tutelary deities to Nippur.Template:Sfn An analogous process likely occurred also when it comes to other deities, such as Nisaba, whose cult was transferred from Eresh, which disappears from records after the Ur III period, to Nippur.Template:Sfn

While Nungal is already attested in the Early Dynastic god list from Fara,Template:Sfn worship of her is best attested in the Ur III period, when she was worshiped in Lagash, Nippur, Umma, Susa, Ur and possibly Uruk.Template:Sfn In Nippur she was worshiped as one of the deities belonging to the court and family of Enlil,Template:Sfn while in Ur she received offerings as one of the members of the circle of Gula instead.Template:Sfn A single attestation of Nungal receiving offerings in an Inanna temple, alongside Anu, Ninshubur, Nanaya, Geshtinanna and Dumuzi is known too.Template:Sfn There are also records of offerings being made to her alongside Inanna, Ninegal and Annunitum.Template:Sfn

According to Miguel Civil, it is unlikely that the Ekur mentioned in the Hymn to Nungal was one and the same as the temple of Enlil in Nippur, contrary to early assumptions in scholarship.Template:Sfn Other locations proposed for it include the Egalmah temple in Ur, or the city of Lagash.Template:Sfn

In the Old Babylonian period she was also worshiped in Sippar, where she had a temple, as well as a city gate named in her honor,Template:Sfn and possibly in Dilbat.Template:Sfn In the last location there was a temple known as Esapar, "house of the net," dedicated to Ninegal.Template:Sfn However, in a document listing various temples Esapar is instead said to be the name of a temple of Nungal, with no location listed.Template:Sfn Due to the existence of a well attested association between these two goddesses it is possible that there was only one Esapar.Template:Sfn

Under the name Bēlet-balāṭi Nungal continued to be worshiped in Nippur in the first millennium BCE, for example in the temple of the local goddess Ninimma.Template:Sfn She is also attested in sources linked to Babylon, Borsippa, Der and Uruk.Template:Sfn According to an economic document from the late first millennium BCE, in the last of those cities she was worshiped in the temple Egalmah (Sumerian: "exalted palace"), which instead appears in association with Ninisina in an inscription of king Sîn-kāšid from the Old Babylonian period.Template:Sfn In the so-called "Standard Babylonian" version of the Epic of Gilgamesh it is described as a temple of Ninsun.Template:Sfn According to Andrew R. George, it is possible to reconcile the different accounts by assuming all three of these goddesses were connected with Gula and possibly functioned as her manifestations.Template:Sfn

Theophoric names invoking Nungal are known from records from the Ur III period, one example being Ur-Manungal.Template:Sfn

Associations with other deities

Nungal's spouse was Birtum, whose name means "fetter" or "shackle" in Akkadian.Template:Sfn While the word is grammatically feminine, the deity was regarded as male.Template:Sfn Birtum also appears among underworld gods linked to Nergal in god lists.Template:Sfn As Nungal is called a daughter in law of Enlil, Birtum was likely his son.Template:Sfn Nungal was also called the "true stewardess of Enlil," agrig-zi-^dEn-lil-lá.Template:Sfn In the god list An = Anum the deity Dullum, whose name has been translated as "serfdom" ("Frondienst") by Antoine Cavigneaux and Manfred Krebernik, appears as Nungal's son.Template:Sfn According to the Hymn to Nungal, her mother is Ereshkigal,Template:Sfn while her father is Anu, though it is possible the later statement is not literal.Template:Sfn

Various courtiers of Nungal are attested in Sumerian and Akkadian texts. Her sukkal (attendant deity) was Nindumgul ("lady/lord mooring pole"Template:Sfn), possibly regarded as a female deity.Template:Sfn She appears to play the role of a prosecutor in the Hymn to Nungal.Template:Sfn Another of her courtiers was Igalimma, a god who originated as a son of Ningirsu in the pantheon of Lagash.Template:Sfn The deity Eḫ (Akkadian: Uplum), a deification of the louse, also appears in her circle, for example in the Nippur god list.Template:Sfn It is also assumed that the goddess Bizila, associated with the love goddess Nanaya, occurs in the court of Nungal in some sources too,Template:Sfn though Jeremiah Peterson considers it possible that there might have been two deities with similar names, one associated with Nungal and the other with Nanaya.Template:Sfn

In the Isin, An = Anum and Weidner god lists Nungal is classified as one of the underworld deities.Template:Sfn A fragmentary literary texts associates her with Nintinugga and Ereshkigal.Template:Sfn With the exception of Nungal in the Ekur and this fragment she is very rare in known works of Mesopotamian literature.Template:Sfn The Weidner god list places the beer deities Ninkasi and Siraš between Maungal and Laṣ, the wife of Nergal, who was also a deity associated with the underworld.Template:Sfn Similarly, the goddess ^dKAŠ.DIN.NAM, most likely to be read as Kurunnītu,Template:Sfn who is assumed to be a late form of NinkasiTemplate:Sfn appears in association with Bēlet-balāṭi.Template:Sfn It has been proposed that the possible connection between beer and underworld deities was meant to serve as a reflection of negative effects of alcohol consumption.Template:Sfn

The text Nin-Isina and the Gods appears to syncretise Nungal with the eponymous goddess.Template:Sfn Similarly, Bēlet-balāṭi is attested as a form or member of the entourage of another medicine goddess, Gula.Template:Sfn

Nungal appears in the description of a cultic journey of Pabilsag to Lagash.Template:Sfn It has been proposed that he was associated with her as a judge deity, but it is also possible that he acquired a connection to the underworld because of her.Template:Sfn

External links

• A hymn to Nungal in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
• Nin-Isina and the Gods in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature