Английская Википедия:Gula (goddess)
Шаблон:Short description Шаблон:Infobox deity Gula (Sumerian: "the great"Шаблон:Sfn) was a Mesopotamian goddess of medicine, portrayed as a divine physician and midwife. Over the course of the second and first millennia BCE, she became one of the main deities of the Mesopotamian pantheon, and eventually started to be viewed as the second highest ranked goddess after Ishtar. She was associated with dogs, and could be depicted alongside these animals, for example on kudurru (inscribed boundary stones), and receive figurines representing them as votive offerings.
While Gula was initially regarded as unmarried, in the Kassite period she came to be associated with Ninurta. In Babylon his role could also be fulfilled by Mandanu, while the god list An = Anum links Gula with Pabilsag and Abu. The circle of deities closely associated with her also included Damu and Gunura, who eventually started to be regarded as her children, as well as her sukkal (divine attendant) Urmašum, who might have been imagined as a dog-like being. Through various syncretic processes she could be equated with other goddesses of similar character, including Ninisina, Ninkarrak, Nintinugga, Bau and Meme, though all of them were originally separate, and with the exception of the last of them did not entirely cease to be worshiped separately, even though their individual cults did decline. A well known composition dedicated to describing Gula's syncretic associations is the Gula Hymn of Bulluṭsa-rabi, which seemingly was copied by Mesopotamian practitioners of medicine during their formal training.
It is conventionally assumed that Gula originated in Umma, where she is well attested in the Ur III period, though possible older references are present in texts from Adab. In the following centuries, her cult spread to other cities, including Nippur, which eventually came to be regarded as her primary cult center, as well as Uruk, Babylon, Ur and Lagash. After the conquests of Hammurabi, she was also introduced to Larsa, Sippar and Isin. In the Kassite period she started to be worshiped in the newly established royal city of Dur-Kurigalzu. In Assyria Gula only appears for the first time in the Middle Babylonian period. She had temples in Assur, Kalhu, Tabetu and Mardaman. Attestations from outside Mesopotamia, for example from Emar and Ugarit, are largely limited to scholarly texts.
Name
Gula's name has Sumerian origin and is usually understood as "the great."Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn Based on context the common word gula could also mean "greater," "greatest," "former," "capital" or "main."Шаблон:Sfn In sources from the Ur III period, the word "gula" was sometimes used simply as an epithet added to names of various deities: references to "Inanna-gula," "Ninhursag-gula" or even "Alla-gula" are known.Шаблон:Sfn It was also applied to the medicine goddess Ninisina, for example in an offering list from Lagash and in a hymn from the reign of Ishbi-Erra.Шаблон:Sfn It has been proposed that the goddess Gula was herself initially an epithet, but gradually morphed into a separate deity.Шаблон:Sfn A well known comparable example of a Mesopotamian deity who developed this way is Annunitum,Шаблон:Sfn who was initially an epithet of Ishtar.Шаблон:Sfn
Gu2-la2
Jeremiah Peterson states that Gula (𒀭𒄖𒆷) and Gu2-la2 (𒀭𒄘𒇲), who frequently appears in god lists in association with Abu, were most likely understood as two orthographies of a single theonym, though he accepts the possibility that they were originally separate deities, and notes they might have continued to be recognized as such as late as in the Old Babylonian period.Шаблон:Sfn Researchers who support this proposal include Marcos Such-Gutiérrez,Шаблон:Sfn Joan Goodnick WestenholzШаблон:Sfn and Irene Sibbing-Plantholt.Шаблон:Sfn Evidence in favor of this possibility includes the location of the respective cult centers of Gula and Gu2-la2 in different parts of Mesopotamia in the Ur III period, lack of any indications that the writing gu2-la2 ever corresponded to the term gula, and separate placement in god lists, though it is not unambiguous.Шаблон:Sfn It is also possible that the name of Gu2-la2 had a different etymology, with the verb gu2-la2, "to lean over" or "to embrace," being suggested by Sibbing-Plantholt.Шаблон:Sfn
Gu2-la2 is first attested in the Early Dynastic period in the Fara and Abu Salabikh god lists, as well as in theophoric names.Шаблон:Sfn However, she is absent from literary texts, and evidence of her cult is not present in any texts postdating the Old Babylonian period.Шаблон:Sfn There is no indication that she was a healing goddess in known sources,Шаблон:Sfn and her character is unknown.Шаблон:Sfn In the later god list An = Anum Gula, rather than Gu2-la2, appears as the spouse of Abu.Шаблон:Sfn
A third goddess who due to her name being homophonous could be connected to or confused with Gula and Gu2-la2 was Ukulla, the spouse of Tishpak.Шаблон:Sfn Furthermore, Wilfred G. Lambert has identified examples of confusion between the name of Gula and that of the male bricklayer deity Kulla.Шаблон:Sfn
Ninnibru
Шаблон:Main Ninnibru, also known under the Akkadian form the name, Bēlet-Nippuri,Шаблон:Sfn "the lady of Nippur," was a goddess regarded as the wife of Ninurta who first appears in offering lists from the Ur III period.Шаблон:Sfn She eventually came to be understood as a form of Gula, and as such ceased to be regarded as a distinct goddess.Шаблон:Sfn It is presently uncertain if she was still worshiped as a distinct deity in the Kassite period, when Ninurta was paired with Gula.Шаблон:Sfn As Ninnibru, Gula was worshiped in the Ešumeša,Шаблон:Sfn a well attested temple of Ninurta in Nippur.Шаблон:Sfn
The epithet Ninnibru was sometimes applied to Ninimma, who was usually not the wife of Ninurta,Шаблон:Sfn though an exception can be found in the recently published Hymn to Ninimma for Nanne, Nanne being a little known king mentioned also in the Tummal Inscription.Шаблон:Sfn Ninnibru is not to be confused with the similarly named Ungal-Nibru/Šarrat-Nippuri, "the queen of Nippur,"Шаблон:Sfn as both of these names could be used in the same texts to designate distinct goddesses, with the latter understood as a form of Ishtar, rather than Gula.Шаблон:Sfn
dME.ME
Шаблон:Main While Meme was initially a separate goddess, she came to be eventually absorbed by Gula,Шаблон:Sfn and her name started to be used as an alternate writing of the latter theonym.Шаблон:Sfn As a result, dME.ME is attested as a logographic representation of Gula's name for example in the Neo-Babylonian Eanna archive from UrukШаблон:Sfn and other sources from the first millenjnium BCE, though the association might go further back, to Old Babylonian lexical list.Шаблон:Sfn
Bēlet-balāṭi
Bēlet-balāṭi is attested both as a theonym, written with the dingir sign which served as a determinative designating names of deities in cuneiform, and as an epithet of Gula.Шаблон:Sfn In the latter capacity, it can be found in incantations.Шаблон:Sfn Irene Sibbing-Plantholt argues that she should be understood either as a deity syncretised with Gula or as her epithet which came to be treated as a separate manifestation of her.Шаблон:Sfn Paul-Alain Beaulieu proposes that she might correspond to Manungal, though he also notes she could be considered a form of Gula or a member of the circle of deities associated with her.Шаблон:Sfn
Amaʾarḫuššu
Шаблон:Main The names Nin-amaʾarḫuššu ("lady merciful mother") and Amaʾarḫuššu ("merciful mother"Шаблон:Sfn) are applied to Gula in two copies of an explanatory text.Шаблон:Sfn According to Julia Krul, it is possible that the latter also served as a stand-in for Gula's name in theophoric names from Uruk from the Hellenistic period.Шаблон:Sfn However, Joan Goodnick Westenholz assumed she was a separate goddess only introduced to the local pantheon in late times, similarly as Amasagnudi or Šarrāḫītu.Шаблон:Sfn
Character and iconography
Like other Mesopotamian medicine goddesses, Gula was regarded as a divine physician.Шаблон:Sfn While the earliest sources do not directly mention that she was perceived as such, an association with healing is implied for example by the fact that offers to her were made by Nawir-ilum, Šu-kabta and Ubartum, well attested high ranking individuals from the Ur III period who worked as asû (physicians).Шаблон:Sfn Lack of early references to her character might indicate that she was chiefly worshiped as a healing deity in domestic environments at first.Шаблон:Sfn A later hymn calls her "the great doctoress."Шаблон:Sfn She could be described as equipped with a variety of tools employed by physicians in ancient Mesopotamia, including various herbal remedies, a razor, a scalpel and a number of other knives or lancets.Шаблон:Sfn Like other medicine goddesses, Gula was believed to be able to use illnesses as punishment in addition to healing them.Шаблон:Sfn However, in contrast with Ninkarrak, she was not specifically invoked to such ends in curses.Шаблон:Sfn
Gula already appears in an incantation from the Ur III period dealing with complication from birth, which states that she was responsible for cutting the umbilical cord.Шаблон:Sfn She could also be invoked to determine a favorable destiny for the newborn.Шаблон:Sfn As an extension of such roles she was regarded as capable of treating diseases of infants, and functioned as an enemy of the demon Lamashtu.Шаблон:Sfn Barbara Böck characterizes the latter as the "counter image" of Gula,Шаблон:Sfn based on their contrasting roles as respectively a demon killing infants and a divine midwife.Шаблон:Sfn Other protective functions could be assigned to Gula too, for example a Namburbi incantation invokes her in domestic context against the evil influence of a fungus (katarru).Шаблон:Sfn She was also sometimes associated with the underworld to a degree.Шаблон:Sfn The Gula Hymn of Bulluṭsa-rabi goes as far as having the goddess declare "I bring up the dead from the netherworld."Шаблон:Sfn In one incantation she is invoked to counter the harmful influence of Allatum (here a name of Ereshkigal, rather than a distinct deity) on a patient.Шаблон:Sfn
Gula's prominence in the Mesopotamian pantheon grew over the course of the second half of the second millennium BCE,Шаблон:Sfn and she came to be viewed as one of its main goddesses alongside Ishtar, surpassing Ninhursag in the process.Шаблон:Sfn She also eventually eclipsed all the other medicine goddesses.Шаблон:Sfn
On kudurru (decorated boundary stones) Gula was depicted in an anthropomorphic form, sitting on a throne, rather than in a symbolic way like most other deities.Шаблон:Sfn Nanaya (a goddess of love) and Lamma (minor tutelary goddesses) were the only other female deities depicted similarly,Шаблон:Sfn though Gula was represented on kudurru more commonly then them.Шаблон:Sfn Many figurative depictions of her are also known from Neo-Assyrian seals, on which she is the most commonly appearing goddess.Шаблон:Sfn
The nineteenth day of the month was associated with Gula.Шаблон:Sfn
Gula and dogs
Gula was associated with dogs,Шаблон:Sfn and in art could be accompanied by these animals,Шаблон:Sfn though their depictions are relatively uncommon.Шаблон:Sfn The origin of the link between dogs and Mesopotamian healing goddesses is uncertain, but it has been proposed that it was either the result of observing that saliva of dogs has healing properties, or an extension of a belief that disease can be transferred magically to an animal if it licks the patient.Шаблон:Sfn The connection is already attested in the Ur III period,Шаблон:Sfn though the oldest evidence is limited to documents which mention meat meant for dogs alongside offerings to Gula, and she only started to receive votive offerings shaped like these animals in the Old Babylonian period.Шаблон:Sfn Depictions of the dogs of Gula Textual sources indicate that they could be invoked in oaths,Шаблон:Sfn and that they were believed to assist her in combat against Lamashtu.Шаблон:Sfn One of the incantations against this demon contains the formula "We are not just any dog, we are dogs of Gula, poised to flay your face, tear your back to pieces, and lacerate your ankles."Шаблон:Sfn One Neo-Assyrian text dealing with Babylonian customs states that a dog which crossed the Esabad (one of Gula's temples) was believed to be a messenger sent by her.Шаблон:Sfn Both a text referring to Gula being surrounded by "puppies huddled together" and archeological finds indicate she could be associated with young dogs as well, rather than just with adult animals.Шаблон:Sfn This connection is also confirmed by the theophoric name Mūrānu-Gula (from mīrānu, "young dog"), attested in the Neo-Babylonian period.Шаблон:Sfn
Other animal associations
In one ritual formula a worm, most likely a leech, is called "the daughter of Gula."Шаблон:Sfn It is unclear if this was meant to elevate it to the rank of a demonic creature (similar to how Lamashtu was usually called the "daughter of Anu" and Namtar was occasionally the "son of Enlil")Шаблон:Sfn or if it perhaps hints at an otherwise not directly attested medicinal use of leeches in ancient Mesopotamia.Шаблон:Sfn There is however no direct evidence of bloodletting being practiced, and the references to it in the Babylonian Talmud are assumed to reflect influence of Greek medicine in the Levant rather than a Mesopotamian tradition.Шаблон:Sfn A single incantation (YOS 11, 5:9-14) appears to refer to unspecified worms as "dogs of Gula."Шаблон:Sfn Describing other animals as "dogs" is not unparalleled in other Mesopotamian magical texts, as various field pests (including locusts, small birds and caterpillars) were called "dogs of Ninkilim," but no other uses of this figure of speech in relation to Gula are known.Шаблон:Sfn Based on these scattered references Nathan Wasserman suggests that a type of worm, possibly a leech, was regarded as Gula's attribute, in addition to the better known association with dogs.Шаблон:Sfn This proposal is also supported by Barbara Böck.Шаблон:Sfn
The text LKA 20, referred to in scholarship as an the "incantation of burnt material," mentions that transgressions not only against dogs, but also cats, such as refusing to break a fight between the animals or not burying their corpses, could be a taboo (ikkibu) of Gula.Шаблон:Sfn As of 2014 this reference remains unique, and no other sources mentioning the connection between Gula and cats are known to researchers.Шаблон:Sfn
Associations with other deities
In the earliest sources Gula did not have a spouse,Шаблон:Sfn and she continued to be regarded as an unmarried goddess through the Old Babylonian period.Шаблон:Sfn In documents from the Kassite period, she is addressed as the wife of Ninurta.Шаблон:Sfn However, she does not occur in association with him in texts from the archive of the First Sealand dynasty.Шаблон:Sfn The god list An = Anum designates Pabilsag as her husband.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn In Neo-Babylonian Uruk, she could be paired with Ninurta, but also with otherwise unknown deity Bēl-SA-naṣru and with dIGI.DU, whose identity is a matter of debate in scholarship.Шаблон:Sfn While dIGI.DU could function as a logographic writing of Nergal's name or apparently as an alternate name of Ninurta (the god list CT 25 explains dIGI.DU as dnin-urta ina NIM, "Ninurta in Elam"), neither explanation is plausible in the context of the Uruk archives, as all three of them could appear side by side as distinct deities.Шаблон:Sfn In Babylon in the same period Mandanu apparently fulfilled Ninurta's role in association with Gula.Шаблон:Sfn
Damu, and Gunura, whose mother was initially Ninisina, were sometimes regarded as Gula's children.Шаблон:Sfn In sources from Ur from the Ur III period, Gula appears alongside both of them, though in the same period these two deities were associated with Ninisina in Isin and with Nintinugga in Nippur.Шаблон:Sfn According to Irene Sibbing-Plantholt evidence for a familial relation between Damu and Gula is not yet present in any Old Babylonian texts.Шаблон:Sfn The proposal that Ninazu was viewed as a son of Gula, while repeated in Assyriological publications as recently as in the 1990s, is now regarded as unsubstantiated.Шаблон:Sfn
According to the god list An = Anum, Gula's sukkals (divine attendants) were Urmašum (Urmaš in the Old Babylonian forerunner), dUR (equated with the former) and Uršabiduga.Шаблон:Sfn Urmašum is also attested in this role in a late astrological text,Шаблон:Sfn where he is equated with the star mulLam-mu, representing the divine attendant of Bau.Шаблон:Sfn The latter role in earlier sources belonged to the goddess Lammašaga.Шаблон:Sfn This astral body was also known as Lamma, and most likely corresponds to Vega.Шаблон:Sfn A further attestation of Urmašum has been identified on an Old Babylonian seal.Шаблон:Sfn Andrew R. George additionally argues that a temple dedicated to him might have been mentioned in a missing section of the Canonical Temple List dedicated to Gula and her court.Шаблон:Sfn It has been proposed that Urmašum was a canine being, as his name starts with the cuneiform sign ur, also present in the words urgi (dog), urmaḫ (lion) and urbarra (wolf).Шаблон:Sfn Manfred Krebernik suggests that since his name also contains the element maš, "twin," it is possible that Gula's sukkals were envisioned as a pair of dogs, perhaps represented by a pair of figures guarding a gate.Шаблон:Sfn Jeremiah Peterson notes that a handful of possible instances of Urmašum being regarded as female are known.Шаблон:Sfn A deity named Urmašum, presumably associated with the underworld, appears in the Weidner god list alongside Malik and Laṣ, but his relation to Gula's sukkal is uncertain.Шаблон:Sfn Latarak was regarded as Gula's doorkeeper, possibly due to his ability to ward off illness attributed to him.Шаблон:Sfn
Gula was also seemingly believed to be able to mediate with Marduk, the city god of Babylon, on behalf of human supplicants.Шаблон:Sfn Odette Bovin tentatively suggests that she was also counted among the deities belonging to the circle of Marduk and his wife Zarpanit in the local tradition from the Sealand.Шаблон:Sfn An association between Gula and Adad is also attested.Шаблон:Sfn An inscription of Nebuchadnezzar I refers to him as the ummatu of these two deities, though the meaning of this term remains uncertain.Шаблон:Sfn Proposed translations include "offspring" or "member of a group of cultic personnel."Шаблон:Sfn As late as during the Achaemenid period, Gula received offerings alongside Adad and his wife Shala in Sippar.Шаблон:Sfn
The goddess Ninĝagia, "mistress of the cloister,"Шаблон:Sfn is equated with Gula in an emesal lexical list.Шаблон:Sfn Ninĝagia is mentioned in offering lists from the Ur III period, and it has been proposed she had her own sanctuary in Nippur in this period.Шаблон:Sfn However, a deity also named Ninĝagia who is described as the "chief housekeeper" (agrig-maḫ) in a temple hymn is instead likely to be Nin-MAR.KI,Шаблон:Sfn the daughter of Nanshe.Шаблон:Sfn Occasionally Ninazu's spouse Ningirida could be seen as an aspect of Gula,Шаблон:Sfn as did Imzuanna, the spouse of Lugal-Marada.Шаблон:Sfn A similar association between Gula and Ninsun is also attested, and might have also been the reason behind equating Ninurta with Lugalbanda, though according to Alhena Gadotti the latter development was secondary, and it is implausible to assume that Gilgamesh, the son of Ninsun and Lugalbanda, was ever regarded as a child of Gula and Ninurta.Шаблон:Sfn
Two bilingual Akkadian-Kassite lexical lists explain the Kassite goddess Ḫala, otherwise only known from theophoric names from Nippur, Nuzi and possibly Assur, as analogous to Gula, which might indicate she was understood as a healing deity.Шаблон:Sfn Luwians seemingly regarded the Anatolian goddess of magic, Kamrušepa, as analogous to Gula, and sometimes magical formulas attributed to the former were direct translations of Mesopotamian ones.Шаблон:Sfn
Gula and other Mesopotamian healing goddesses
While Mesopotamian medicine goddesses (Gula, Ninisina, Ninkarrak, Nintinugga, Bau and Meme) formed an interconnected network, they were initially fully separate from each other,Шаблон:Sfn as evidenced by the fact that in the so-called Weidner god list Gula, Ninisina and Ninkarrak occur in separate places.Шаблон:Sfn Furthermore, references to medicine goddesses traveling to meet each other are known from various texts.Шаблон:Sfn All of them initially had separate cult centers.Шаблон:Sfn While Gula was worshiped in Umma, Nintinugga was associated with Nippur, Ninisina with Isin,Шаблон:Sfn and Ninkarrak with SipparШаблон:Sfn and Terqa.Шаблон:Sfn
The association between Gula and Ninisina is considered particularly close.Шаблон:Sfn Opinions of experts regarding the time at which the process of partial syncretism between these two goddesses started vary.Шаблон:Sfn It is agreed that the Old Babylonian period, the worship of Ninisina declined, and that at this point she was already syncretised with Gula.Шаблон:Sfn Earlier the medicine goddess of Umma, Gula, was sometimes referred to as "Ninisina of Umma," though likely mostly because scribes in Puzrish-Dagan were more familiar with the goddess of Isin and as a result preferred applying her name to other healing deities.Шаблон:Sfn Ninisina herself never occurs in texts from Umma.Шаблон:Sfn Barbara Böck argues she was eventually fully absorbed by Gula,Шаблон:Sfn but Irene Sibbing-Plantholt instead concludes that the only goddess who met such a fate was Meme,Шаблон:Sfn and lists a number of texts from the first millennium BCE which still present Ninisina as a distinct deity, among them a Neo-Babylonian inscription in which she and Gula are mentioned separately from each other.Шаблон:Sfn
Documents from Sippar mention individuals serving as sanga priests of Ninkarrak and Gula, Ninisina or Gula, or just Gula alone.Шаблон:Sfn The merging of their respective cults in that location was likely caused by an influx of immigrants from Isin in Hammurabi's times.Шаблон:Sfn The identification between the goddesses was so close in some cases that an individual called Puzur-Ninkarrak in one document but Puzur-Gula in another, though it is not certain which writing reflects how the name was pronounced.Шаблон:Sfn Since the worship of Ninkarrak was well established locally, Irene Sibbing-Plantholt suggests Gula was only understood as her cognomen.Шаблон:Sfn No similar phenomenon is attested from any other cities.Шаблон:Sfn Additionally, in later sources from Sippar Gula and Ninkarrak were seemingly kept apart from each other.Шаблон:Sfn
Two further goddesses associated with medicine, Bau and Nintinugga, were not yet associated with Gula in the second millennium BCE.Шаблон:Sfn Irene Sibbing-Plantholt proposes that when syncretised with Gula, Nintinugga functioned as an embodiment of her ability to revive the dead.Шаблон:Sfn Her name was used as late as during the reign of Cyrus the Great, though at that time it was most likely just an epithet of Gula according to Paul-Alain Beaulieu.Шаблон:Sfn Bau might have functioned as an alternate name of Gula in the Middle Assyrian period, for example in colophons and in a local version of the Weidner god list, but they were not always equated, and the former maintained a distinct role as the wife of Zababa.Шаблон:Sfn It has been proposed that the phrase Bau ša qēreb Aššur was used to differentiate between Bau as a name of Gula from Bau as a separate goddess.Шаблон:Sfn An incantation explicitly refers to them as two separate deities, and states that Gula owed her status to Bau, credited with elevating her to her position.Шаблон:Sfn Separation between Bau and Gula is also attested in sources from Hellenistic Uruk.Шаблон:Sfn
There is some evidence that Gula and Ninkarrak could both be treated as analogous to Ninisina in bilingual Sumero-Akkadian texts.Шаблон:Sfn Bilingual texts where Nintinugga appears in Sumerian and Gula in Akkadian are attested too.Шаблон:Sfn Other deities who could serve as the Sumerian translation of Gula include Damu and Meme, though she could also appear under her own name in both versions of a bilingual text.Шаблон:Sfn
Gula Hymn of Bulluṭsa-rabi
The phenomenon of syncretising other deities with Gula is documented in a hymn describing various identities assigned to her which has been composed by Bulluṭsa-rabi (also spelled Bullussa-rabiШаблон:Sfn) at some point between 1400 BCE and 700 BCE.Шаблон:Sfn Based on the initial study of the text undertaken by Wilfred G. Lambert it is assumed it cannot be older, as no similar syncretic hymns are known from the Old Babylonian period, and Ningirsu's description as an agricultural deity included in one of the passages is similarly typical only for later times.Шаблон:Sfn Known fragments come chiefly from between the Neo-Assyrian and Seleucid periods, though some might date to Arsacid times.Шаблон:Sfn It is considered the best known example of an aretalogy in Mesopotamian literature.Шаблон:Sfn
The text consists of 200 lines of cuneiform text, divided into 20 strophes,Шаблон:Sfn and it is written in first person, with Gula praising herself and identifying herself with other goddesses.Шаблон:Sfn They include Nintinugga, Nanshe, Bau, Ninsun, Ninkarrak, Ungal-Nibru, Ninmadiriga, Ninigizibara, and Ninlil.Шаблон:Sfn However, Ninisina is not included among them.Шаблон:Sfn The presence of Nanshe and Ninsun has been described as "unexpected" by Joan Goodnick Westenholz, though she also noted both of them are described as fulfilling their distinct roles known from other sources, rather than as medicine goddesses.Шаблон:Sfn Irene Sibbing-Plantholt states that the reasons behind presenting Ninlil and Ningizibara as healing goddesses are difficult to explain, as neither is otherwise attested in a healing role,Шаблон:Sfn while according to Westenholz the former might be treated as such due to the association between Gula and Sud,Шаблон:Sfn and the latter, while chiefly associated with Inanna and described as a harpist rather than a healer, was also connected with Gula in Umma.Шаблон:Sfn Furthermore, the strophe focused on the theonym Ungal-Nibru appears to describe temples associated with Ninnibru instead.Шаблон:Sfn The goddess' spouse, Ninurta, is identified with various gods too.Шаблон:Sfn They include Ningirsu, Zababa, Utulu, Lugalbanda,Шаблон:Sfn Pabilsag,Шаблон:Sfn as well as Ninazu,Шаблон:Sfn whose inclusion might depend on the identification between Gula and Ukulla rather than between him and Ninurta.Шаблон:Sfn The number of male theonyms is smaller than that of female ones, since Ninurta and Lugalbanda appear in more than one strophe.Шаблон:Sfn Both the names of the goddesses and the spouses were all originally individual theonyms, rather than epithets.Шаблон:Sfn
The author's identity is not confirmed by the text itself, where the name is only mentioned in the final lines, which implore Gula for a blessing, but the Catalogue of Texts and Authors from Nineveh attributes not only this hymn but also further, presently unidentified, compositions to this person.Шаблон:Sfn The name Bulluṭsa-rabi means "her curing is good,"Шаблон:Sfn implicitly referring to Gula.Шаблон:Sfn Wilfred G. Lambert assumed that the author of the hymn was male,Шаблон:Sfn but Zsombor J. Földi notes that subsequent discoveries indicate that while Bulluṭsa-rabi was presumed to be a man in sources from the first millennium BCE, in earlier sources from the Kassite period this name was seemingly only used by women, which depending on the exact date on composition might also mean this specific individual was a woman.Шаблон:Sfn
It is assumed that copying the Gula Hymn of Bulluṭsa-rabi was a part of formal training of professional healers in the first millennium BCE.Шаблон:Sfn The fact that Gula attributes her medical knowledge to EaШаблон:Sfn according to Irene Sibbing-Plantholt might reflect the fact that in royal courts, the position of asû (physicians) was lower than that of the āšipu, who were associated with this god.Шаблон:Sfn
Worship
Earliest attestations
It is conventionally assumed that Gula appears for the first time in sources from the reign of the Third Dynasty of Ur,Шаблон:Sfn and that the initial center of her cult was Umma.Шаблон:Sfn In early documents she is often designated as "Gula of Umma" or "Gula of KI.AN," a nearby settlement.Шаблон:Sfn However, according to Irene Sibbing-Plantholt the fact she was not one of the tutelary deities of the city of Umma, unlike Shara and his wife Ninura, might indicate that she originated elsewhere.Шаблон:Sfn Gula's cult in Umma in the Ur III period has nonetheless been characterized as "thriving."Шаблон:Sfn A festival which took place there was centered on her mourning the temporary death of Damu.Шаблон:Sfn
Marcos Such-Gutiérrez suggests that an older reference to Gula might be present in a text from Adab from the Old Akkadian period.Шаблон:Sfn Her presence in this source is also accepted a possibility by Joan Goodnick WestenholzШаблон:Sfn and Irene Sibbing-Plantholt in more recent publications, though the latter author concludes that "the evidence (...) does not allow for clear conclusions."Шаблон:Sfn
Uruk
Gula is already attested in Uruk in sources from the Ur III period.Шаблон:Sfn However, she is absent from texts from the Old Babylonian period, possibly because kings from the dynasty of Isin introduced Ninisina into the local pantheon, leading to the disappearance of Gula,Шаблон:Sfn though she was later reintroduced.Шаблон:Sfn A temple dedicated to Ninisina, the Egalmaḫ, is mentioned in an inscription of the local king Sîn-kāšid.Шаблон:Sfn According to Andrew R. George it is possible that it was later understood as dedicated to a manifestation of Gula, as according to him it instead belongs to Bēlet-balāṭi in a document from the late first millennium BCE.Шаблон:Sfn He also notes that the fact in the Epic of Gilgamesh it is the name of the temple of Ninsun might have been influenced by a version of the Weidner god list which equates this goddess with Gula.Шаблон:Sfn However, Paul-Alain Beaulieu has questioned George's assumption that the temple name É.GAL.EDIN is simply a scribal mistake for Egalmaḫ, and pointed out that Bēlet-balāṭi was apparently understood as a separate goddess from Gula in Uruk.Шаблон:Sfn The assumption that the Egalmaḫ was a temple of Gula is accepted by Julia Krul.Шаблон:Sfn
In the Neo-Babylonian period, three manifestations of Gula were worshiped in Uruk: Gula, Gula ša kisalli ("of the courtyard") and Gula of Bīt-Gula, apparently associated with a small settlement located nearby.Шаблон:Sfn Her temple was apparently a part of the Eanna complex.Шаблон:Sfn Among the offerings she received according to administrative texts were salt, dates, barley (in some cases meant for brewers or bakers in her service), beer and various sacrificial animals (oxen, sheep, ducks, geese and turtledoves).Шаблон:Sfn
In Seleucid Uruk Gula was one of the divine participants in a parade held during a New Year festival as a member of entourage of Antu, alongside deities such as Shala, Aya, Amasagnudi, Sadarnunna and Ashratum.Шаблон:Sfn However, for uncertain reasons she is entirely absent from theophoric names from the same period.Шаблон:Sfn Julia Krul points out that while some deities, for example Nabu, ceased to be invoked in them due to change in political relations between individual cities, it is unlikely that Gula is an example of this phenomenon, as the connection between Uruk and Nippur, her primary cult center in this period, remained close.Шаблон:Sfn
Nippur
Gula was introduced to Nippur in the Old Babylonian period, though not much evidence of her early cult in this city exists.Шаблон:Sfn She only became a major deity in the local pantheon the Kassite period.Шаблон:Sfn At this time, she came to be the second most commonly invoked goddess in theophoric names from this city, which indicates she enjoyed popularity in the sphere of personal religion.Шаблон:Sfn In late sources, Nippur was the city she was most strongly associated with,Шаблон:Sfn though through much of her history she was not tied to a single specific cult center.Шаблон:Sfn She most likely occurs alongside the deities of Nippur, namely Enlil, Ninlil and Ninurta, in an inscription of Marduk-balassu-iqbi.Шаблон:Sfn It is possible that a temple bearing the name Egalmaḫ which formed a part of the Ekur complex was dedicated to Gula in the role of the wife of Ninurta.Шаблон:Sfn In 1990 Oriental Institute excavators identified a building in area WA as the Temple of Gula, a goddess of healing and consort of Ninurta. The earliest identified construction of the temple was in the Isin-Larsa period, with major rebuilds in the Kassite, Neo-Assyrian, and Neo-Babylonian periods.[1] It is thought that the missing temple of Ninurta is nearby.[2]
Textual sources indicate that in later periods, the temple of Gula in Nippur housed many other deities,Шаблон:Sfn including Ninurta, Damu, Kurunnam, Kusu, Urmaḫ, Nuska, Ninimma, Shuzianna, Belet-Seri, the Sebitti, Bēl-āliya, Sirash and Ninĝirzida.Шаблон:Sfn Kurunnam or Kurunnitu (dKAŠ.DIN.NAM) was a goddess associated with beer, named after kurunnu, a type of this beverage regarded as high quality, and presented as analogous to Ninkasi in lamentations.Шаблон:Sfn Kusu was a purification goddess, the personification of a type of ritual censer, already attested in texts from Lagash.Шаблон:Sfn Urmaḫ, the deified lion, was also worshiped in Assur, in this case alongside Sumuqan.Шаблон:Sfn Nuska was the divine attendant (sukkal) of Enlil.Шаблон:Sfn Ninimma was a goddess associated with writing, though also attested in a Gula-like healing role.Шаблон:Sfn Shuzianna was regarded as a secondary wife of Enlil.Шаблон:Sfn Belet-Seri was the Akkadian counterpart of Geshtinanna,Шаблон:Sfn and also appears in Gula's entourage elsewhere in the first millennium BCE.Шаблон:Sfn Sebitti were a group of seven warlike gods usually associated with Nergal.Шаблон:Sfn Bēl-āliya has been characterized by Paul-Alain Beaulieu as an "anonymous divine mayor."Шаблон:Sfn He remarks that this theonym was most likely a generic title and could designate many deities in various locations, for example Pisangunug in Kullaba.Шаблон:Sfn Lists of as many as twelve "divine mayors" are known.Шаблон:Sfn Sirash was a deity associated with brewing, often paired with Ninkasi, either as her sister or Akkadian equivalent.Шаблон:Sfn Ninĝirzida was a minor goddess whose name can be understood as "lady of the right knife," perhaps to be translated as "scalpel" in this context.Шаблон:Sfn
Babylon and Borsippa
In the city of Babylon, Gula was worshiped in a temple initially built by the king Sumu-abum for Ninisina,Шаблон:Sfn perhaps to be identified with the Egalmaḫ, "exalted palace," which formed a part of the Esagil complex.Шаблон:Sfn She had a second temple there as well,Шаблон:Sfn the Esabad, "house of the open ear," which was rebuilt by Ashurbanipal and Nebuchadnezzar II and survived as late as in the Arsacid period.Шаблон:Sfn Additionally the name Eḫursagsikila, house, pure mountain,Шаблон:Sfn which was usually assigned to a temple of Ninkarrak, is associated with Gula in a few inscriptions instead.Шаблон:Sfn
In Borsippa, considered to be interconnected with Babylon in the sphere of religion,Шаблон:Sfn Gula is attested at least since the Neo-Assyrian period.Шаблон:Sfn Nebuchadnezzar II restored her temple in this city, the Egula, "big house."Шаблон:Sfn A secondary manifestation of this goddess worshiped locally, Gula (ša) abbi, most likely to be understood as "Gula of the ancestors," might have been either a remnant of a domestic cult predating Gula's presence in royal inscriptions from Borsippa, or an unidentified local deity who came to be equated with her.Шаблон:Sfn
A late cultic calendar presumed to come from either Borsippa or Babylon connects Gula with the mourning rites of Enmesharra:Шаблон:Sfn "Gula set up weeping for Enmešarra, who had been defeated."Шаблон:Sfn
Other southern cities
Gula was already present in the local pantheon of Ur in the Ur III period, though there is no indication that she belonged to the circle of the city god, Nanna.Шаблон:Sfn It has been proposed that a temple built there by Warad-Sin, which according to an inscription was dedicated to Ninisina, in reality belonged to Gula, as the former of these two goddesses is otherwise entirely absent from sources from this city.Шаблон:Sfn According to Joan Goodnick Westenholz, sporadic early attestations of Gula are also available from Lagash as well.Шаблон:Sfn
It has been argued that in the Old Babylonian period, Gula was overall one of the most popular goddesses, as in sources such a personal letters she appears with comparable frequency to Annunitum, Aya, Ninsianna and Zarpanit, though less commonly than Ishtar.Шаблон:Sfn However, despite presumed popularity in the sphere of personal worship, she is rare in Old Babylonian theophoric names.Шаблон:Sfn
In Larsa, Gula was only introduced after the city was conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon.Шаблон:Sfn Her cult in this city is poorly documented, though her temple has been identified during excavations, and based on its size it is presumed that she was a major deity in the local pantheon.Шаблон:Sfn Furthermore, she also appears in documents from Isin for the first time after its conquest by the same king.Шаблон:Sfn While the tutelary goddess of the city, Ninisina, continued to be invoked in royal inscriptions, Gula apparently was worshiped more commonly than her after the city was rebuilt by Kurigalzu I.Шаблон:Sfn The Egalmaḫ, "exalted palace,"Шаблон:Sfn apparently came to be associated with her, despite originally being a temple of Ninisina.Шаблон:Sfn During excavations, a dog cemetery which formed a part of its complex has been discovered.Шаблон:Sfn Hammurabi also introduced the worship of Gula to Sippar, though her importance there remained minor through the Old Babylonian periodШаблон:Sfn and she is similarly scarcely attested there in the Kassite period.Шаблон:Sfn Sources dated to the reign of Nabopolassar attest that she had a temple there, the Eulla,Шаблон:Sfn "house of rejoicing."Шаблон:Sfn
While Gula is the only healing goddess mentioned in the documents of the First Sealand dynasty,Шаблон:Sfn her cult only had a marginal importance in its territories.Шаблон:Sfn
In the Kassite period, the clergy of Nippur was responsible for establishing the cult of Gula in Dur-Kurigalzu, a new city built by Kurigalzu I to act as his royal residence.Шаблон:Sfn She also appears in theophoric names from this site, such as Gula-balāṭa-ēriš and Uballiṭsu-Gula.Шаблон:Sfn Furthermore, a possible temple dedicated to her has been discovered during excavations.Шаблон:Sfn Temples of Gula also existed in Dūr-Enlilē and Ḫilpu.Шаблон:Sfn In the latter city, she was worshiped jointly with Ninurta in the Emupada, "house chosen by name."Шаблон:Sfn This city was apparently located between Dur-Kurigalzu and Sippar,Шаблон:Sfn on the Euphrates.Шаблон:Sfn She was also possibly worshiped in the temple Ezibatila in Marad.Шаблон:Sfn Additionally, Egašantina, "house of the lady of life," which is mentioned in an unpublished hymn, might have also been a temple of Gula.Шаблон:Sfn
Assyria
Gula is absent from Old Assyrian sources.Шаблон:Sfn She was only introduced to Assyria in the second half of the second millennium BCE,Шаблон:Sfn when a temple dedicated to her was built in Assur, possibly by Tukulti-Ninurta I, though the only clear evidence is a later inscription of Adad-nirari II which attributes this construction project to him.Шаблон:Sfn It bore the name Esabad.Шаблон:Sfn While the temple of Assur is also well attested in sources from the Neo-Assyrian period, a new one was also built in Kalhu by Ashurnasirpal II when he made it the new royal residence.Шаблон:Sfn A further Assyrian temple of Gula, possibly bearing the name Egalmaḫ, existed in Ṭābetu.Шаблон:Sfn
According to documents from the reign of Tukulti-Ninurta I, Mardaman also had a temple of Gula, but it cannot be presently established if it replaced the one belonging to the earlier city goddess, Shuwala.Шаблон:Sfn There is no evidence that the latter was still worshiped after the Assyrian conquest of the city.Шаблон:Sfn While earlier Old Babylonian texts from Mari indicate Mardaman was known for the presence of skilled practitioners of medicine, its tutelary goddess was not associated with healing.Шаблон:Sfn Irene Sibbing-Plantholt proposes that Gula, who was unknown in Upper Mesopotamia before the Middle Assyrian period, was introduced to the city because of the reputation of its healers.Шаблон:Sfn
Outside Mesopotamia
It is assumed that attestations of Gula from outside Mesopotamia, specifically scholarly texts from Hattusa, Ugarit and Emar, indicate that she "traveled with scholars to all the corners of the cuneiform world."Шаблон:Sfn A man bearing the theophoric name Kidin-Gula resided as a scribal school teacher in the last of these three cities, though it is presumed he arrived there from Mesopotamia.Шаблон:Sfn With the exception of theophoric names, the worship of Gula is not attested in Emar,Шаблон:Sfn and according to Gary Beckman's survey of the local pantheon the attestations come exclusively from colophons.Шаблон:Sfn In Ugarit she appears in an incantation written in Akkadian alongside the goddess Bizilla, here referred to as the "lady of relief,"Шаблон:Sfn be-let tap-ši-iḫ-ti.Шаблон:Sfn
References
Bibliography
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- ↑ [1] McGuire Gibson, "Nippur, 1990: The Temple of Gula and a Glimpse of Things to Come", Oriental Institute Annual Report 1989-90, Chicago: Oriental Inst. Press, 1990
- ↑ [2] Schneider, Bernhard, "Nippur: City of Enlil and Ninurta", Naming and Mapping the Gods in the Ancient Mediterranean, pp. 745-762, 2022, Шаблон:ISBN
