Ninisina

Ninisina
Divine physician
A healing goddess with a dog on a kudurru
Major cult center	Isin
Symbol	dog, scalpel
Personal information
Parents	Anu and Urash
Spouse	Pabilsag
Children	Damu, Gunura and Šumaḫ
Equivalents
Sippar and Terqa equivalent	Ninkarrak
Umma equivalent	Gula
Nippur equivalent	Nintinugga

Ninisina (Sumerian: "Mistress of Isin"^[1]) was a Mesopotamian goddess who served as the tutelary deity of the city of Isin. She was considered a healing deity. She was believed to be skilled in the medical arts, and could be described as a divine physician or midwife. As an extension of her medical role, she was also believed to be capable of expelling various demons. Her symbols included dogs, commonly associated with healing goddesses in Mesopotamia, as well as tools and garments associated with practitioners of medicine.

While Ninisina was initially considered to be an unmarried and childless goddess, the god Pabilsag eventually came to be viewed as her husband. Her children were Damu and Gunura, like her considered to be healing deities, as well as Šumaḫ, who also served as her sukkal, a type of divine attendant. Further members of her court included Ninarali, a goddess associated with the underworld, harpist goddesses Ninigizibara and Ninḫinuna, and sometimes Ninshubur. Ninisina also developed associations with various other goddesses of similar character, including Ninkarrak, Gula and Nintinugga. However, while they were often considered analogous, they originated in different areas of Mesopotamia and their individual traits differed. A further goddess connected with her was Bau, who might have developed into a healing goddess because of the association between them. For political reasons, Ninisina also acquired some traits originally belonging to Inanna when the kings of Isin lost control over the cult center of the latter goddess, Uruk.

The oldest evidence of the worship of Ninisina comes from Isin from the Early Dynastic period. She is also attested in a number of texts from the Sargonic period, including an inscription of Manishtushu. Many references to her appear in the archives of the Third Dynasty of Ur. In addition to Isin, she was also worshiped in Larak, Nippur and Lagash in these periods. In the following Isin-Larsa period, she served as the royal goddess of the dynasty of Isin, and was invoked in the titles of kings belonging to it. They also patronized temples dedicated to her. Furthermore, she was introduced to Larsa, Uruk and Ur at this time. In the Old Babylonian period, the construction of temples dedicated to her is mentioned in texts attributed to kings of Babylon and Kish. However, Isin was eventually abandoned during the reign of Samsu-iluna, and was only rebuilt by Kurigalzu I. Not much is known about the veneration of Ninisina after that, though she appears in inscriptions of Adad-apla-iddina and continued to be worshiped as late as in the Neo-Babylonian period.

Many works of Mesopotamian literature mention Ninisina. One of them, Ninisina's Journey to Nippur, which had both monolingual and bilingual (Sumero-Akkadian) versions, is considered unique due to its detailed description of a divine procession. Many hymns were dedicated to her, including some connected to specific rulers, such as Ishbi-Erra of Isin. Multiple laments in which she mourns either the loss of her city, her son Damu, or both are known too. She is also attested in other types of texts, such as prayers and god lists.