administrative personnel with that of Enlil’s temple, so she was not completely
independent from him. Ninlil had major functions; in particular she gave judgement.
While Ninlil was the spouse of Sumer’s chief god Enlil, there were also two
concubines, Shuzianna and Enzikalama, the first being the more important, as indicated
by her extensive possessions. Shuzianna seems to have been Enlil’s ‘travelling spouse’.
She possessed a ship on which she accompanied him when he went visiting. The
institution of a travelling spouse also existed in the human world, it was found in
the royal court (Grégoire 1979 ). Shuzianna ‘The just hand of heaven’ was well looked
after. She was worshipped not only in Nippur but also in Umma. Her temple possessed
some cattle, arable land, gardens (among them possibly date palm gardens) and reeds.
She had her own administrator, workers and servants (Such-Gutierrez 2003 : 299 – 302 ).
The goddess Nin-Nibru ‘Mistress of Nippur’, was, like Ninlil, in the first place
identified by her position as spouse, in Nin-Nibru’s case of the city god Ninurta.
Her role and identity remain rather vague, because it is questionable whether she
had her own temple in Nippur in this period (Such-Gutiérrez 2003 : 170 , but Biggs
2001 : 476 ). In contrast to Enlil’s wives she had two male children: the god Igalima
‘Bison-gate’ and Shulshagana ‘Beloved youth’. These two divine children had been
mentioned two hundred years earlier as offspring of Ningirsu and Baba, the couple
worshipped by earlier kings who served as paradigms for the Ur III kings (Selz 1995 :
144 – 146 , 277 – 279 ). This raises some questions about Nin-Nibru’s identity. Such-
Gutiérrez offers the hypothesis that she was a hypostasis of Baba (parallel to the
change from Ningirsu to Ninurta). The other possibility could be that she had become
identical with Ninlil, the leading goddess of Nippur. All this is related to the question
when exactly the god Ninurta blended with Enlil, the chief god. In later times her
name was used as an epithet for Ishtar and also for Gula.
Then there is Damgalnuna ‘Great prince’s spouse’, the wife of the creator-god Enki.
She had a shrine in the royal palace and a temple, but we have no record of a particular
cult surrounding her, except some offerings, always as Enki’s spouse (Sallaberger
1993 : 99 , 102 , 140 ). The wife of Nuska (Enlil’s mesenger god) is Sadirnuna, probably
‘Prominent prince’s net’. She possessed just as many cattle as her husband Nuska
(Such-Gutiérrez 2003 : 183 ).
A final goddess who is identified through her husband is Ningirida, the wife of
the underworld-god Ninazu. Little is known about her but she might be connected
to the gods in charge of the underworld where also her husband Ninazu was at home
(Krebernik 2000 : 362 f.).
Hitherto we have divided the goddesses as to their chief functions. However, sometimes
these overlap. Thus, Nungal is chiefly a healing goddess but in the lists of gods she
is placed quite near the gods of the underworld. In mythology, Dingirmah and
Ninhursaga are very active as creator-goddesses modelling proto-humans in assistance
to the chief creator Enki. Also we have seen that under the general name Inanna-
Ishtar many different functions are described, and in specific functions she is then
known to us under a special name.
All these important goddesses and still some more received offerings in the city
of Nippur near the end of the third millennium BC. There were, however, great
differences in the degree of support and the amount of goods that were assigned to
them. The volume of goods, the type of location as well as the nature of their
— Brigitte Groneberg —