Ninildu

Template:Short description Template:Template otherTemplate:Wikidata imageTemplate:Compare image with Wikidata Ninildu (Template:Langx, ^dNin-IGI.NAĜAR.BU; also read NindulumaTemplate:Sfn) was a Mesopotamian god associated with carpentry. He was chiefly worshiped in the city of Zabalam and in its proximity. He appears in a number of literary texts, such as the Epic of Erra.

Name and character

The oldest writing of the name is ^dNin-NAĜAR.BU, attested in the god lists from Abu Salabikh and Fara and in the Zame Hymns from the Early Dynastic period, though later on ^dNin-IGI.NAĜAR.BU was employed.Template:Sfn A logographic writing, ^dNAĜAR, is attested in the god list An = Anum.Template:Sfn While the name is commonly rendered as Ninildu in Assyriological literature, the alternate reading Ninduluma has been proposed based on an unpublished incantation from Meturan, which reportedly uses a phonetic spelling.Template:Sfn Jeremiah Peterson renders the name as Ninildum due to the presence of an apparent auslaut in a number of sources.Template:Sfn It is agreed the deity was male.Template:Sfn

Ninildu was associated with carpentry.Template:Sfn One source (tablet K 3248) directly calls him ilu ša nāgarri, "the god of the carpenters."Template:Sfn He could be called the "chief carpenter,"Template:Sfn or the "great carpenter of Anu."Template:Sfn

An incantation states that Ninildu was one of the deities created by Ea with clay from the Apsu,Template:Sfn and that he was tasked with the construction of temples alongside Ninsimug and Arazu.Template:Sfn Lexical lists also attest the existence of a tradition in which he was equated with Enki (Ea), though it is agreed that it represented a secondary development.Template:Sfn A Mîs-pî ritual refers to him as "Ea of the carpenters."Template:Sfn

Attestations

The worship of Ninildu in Zabalam is well attested in sources from the third millennium BCE, such as administrative texts from Umma.Template:Sfn He also had a cult center in the direct proximity of the former of these two cities.Template:Sfn Douglas Frayne states it was named Dulum, in accordance with the reading of the name of the god he uses.Template:Sfn It might correspond to modern (Tell) Salbuḫ.Template:Sfn In the third millennium BCE Ninildu is also attested in the names of two individuals from Adab and in a list of offerings from the Old Akkadian period which might have originated in the same city. Template:Sfn

A text from the reign of Nabu-apla-iddina describing the preparation of a new statue of Shamash mentions Ninildu among the deities aiding Ea in the process, alongside Kusigbanda, Ninkurra and Ninzadim.Template:Sfn In a first millennium BCE bilingual incantation from Assur, Ninildu is invoked alongside Ninagal during the production of a new royal throne.Template:Sfn An inscription of Esarhaddon lists Ninildu among the deities connected to the rites of Ekazaginna, the temple of Ea in Babylon.Template:Sfn

Literary texts describing Ninildu's functions include the Curse of Agade and the Epic of Erra.Template:Sfn In the former, he is implored to hinder the growth of trees.Template:Sfn According to the latter, he was equipped with a "glittering hatchet."Template:Sfn In a late composition, known only from a copy found in Kuyunjik, Ninildu and Sirsir are responsible for constructing the boat of Enki.Template:Sfn

External links

• The cursing of Agade in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature