Nisaba’s duties were probably, at first, the maintenance of the grain crops. Already
from the earliest texts in the third millennium they extended to the protection of
the art of writing (Michalowski 2001 : 577 – 578 ). It is notable that this important
intellectual skill was at first connected with a goddess; she consequently also became
the transmitter of wisdom. The reason must have lain with the idea that writing was
a precise manual craft which at that time was honoured as an intellectual skill. During
the second millennium the god Nabû gradually took over as the god of scribes.
Nevertheless, Nisaba’s functions, as well as those of the therapeutic goddesses, and,
as we shall see below, the various powerful aspects of Ishtar, give rise to the assumption
that, prior to the middle of the second millennium BC, women were respected for
accomplishments that go beyond their roles as mothers or housekeepers. The Middle-
Assyrian legal texts that depict women as being completely subjugated to their
husbands and which relegate women to their role in the household do not paint the
full picture (Groneberg 2000 a: 10 – 14 ) or reflect a situation that differed markedly
from the Ur III period.
GODDESSES IDENTIFIED THROUGH
THEIR SPOUSESAnother group of goddesses that had cult status in Nippur had a clearly circumscribed
practical function but their main role was being the wife of an important god. At
the same time it is clear that they were being worshipped in their own honour. Queen
Shulgi-simti seemed to prefer to worship goddesses rather than gods. But as a queen,
she addressed herself to the more important goddesses – Inanna, for example – whose
role was to support royalty. But also other women of higher standing are known to
have had their own festivities (Sallaberger 1993 : 189 , 217 ff., 307 ). This, in itself, is
of interest, for it indicates that women of the elite had the opportunity, the ability
and the means to practise religion and that they did so sometimes without men.
Women’s religion was characterised by its own calendar and they sacrificed their own
animals. This we find not just in old Nippur, but in the whole of the Ur III empire.
We do not know enough, however, to extend the cult of women from the upper class
to the religious habits of ordinary women during the Ur III period. In general it
seems that especially those goddesses who functioned as partners of gods were chosen
by women to fulfil their own religious needs.
Among this group of goddesses we must count Ninlil. Her name was already
known in analogy to Enlil, her husband’s name (Krebernik 2000 – 2001 : 452 – 461 ).
During the third millennium she occupied the high office of spouse of Sumer’s chief
god Enlil. In this role she received an excellent endowment. In her role as mistress
of the state and chief grain-goddess (Such-Gutiérrez 2003 : 113 ) she obtained at least
as many grain-offerings as Enlil. Her temples in Nippur, ‘Levelled place’ and ‘Exalted
palace’, comprised a warehouse, a grain store, a brewery, at least one large kitchen,
weaving mills and a treasury. Among her property we find a building ‘for the plough’
and one ‘for the footstool’, various unspecified cult rooms and an Apsû water-cleansing-
basin. In addition there were rooms for Enlil’s and Ninlil’s lyres, symbols that
may have served as deities in their own right, as their representatives. The lyres had
their own administrator, a Nindingir-priestess (the highest priestess in the land),
a gate-keeper and a herald (Such-Gutiérrez 2003 : 131 – 138 ). Her temple shared the
— The role and function of goddesses in Mesopotamia —