Ningirsu

A Sumerian god whose name meant “Lord of Girsu,” in reference to the city that housed his main cult temple, the Eninnu, and the greater city-state of Lagash, of which Girsu was a part. Ningirsu seems to have begun as a local protector of Girsu. He was also a deity of fertility and farming, as revealed by one of his symbols— the plow. Over time, however, his worship spread to other parts of Mesopotamia, and he adopted another symbol, the mythical bird Anzu, which stole the Tablet of Destiny in the epic poem The Defeat of Anzu. The building of the Eninnu in Girsu by Gudea, a noted ruler of the Sumerian city of Lagash, was commemorated by a long hymn, the title of which translates roughly as The Building of Ningirsu’s Temple. In the following excerpt, Ningirsu visits Gudea in a dream and tells him how the god will furnish many of the materials needed for the temple’s construction:

When you, true shepherd Gudea, really set to work for me on. . . the Eninnu, my royal house, I will call up to heaven for humid winds so that plenty comes down to you from heaven and the land will thrive under your reign in abundance. . . . When you drive in my foundation pegs for me, when you really set to work for me on my house, I shall. . . bring halub and nehan trees up from the south, and cedar, cypress and juniper together will be brought for you from the uplands. From the ebony mountains I will have ebony trees brought for you, in the mountains of stones I will have the great stones of the mountain ranges cut in slabs for you.

See Also: Defeat of Anzu, The; Girsu; Gudea