This song addressed to the ‘mother goddess’ Nintud is a tightly structured 42-line composition divided, in the typical format of tigi songs, into sa-gida and sa-gara sections (see Group H), and is followed in the ancient sources by the subscript: ‘A tigi of Nintud’. Nintud is often referred to as the mother goddess of Mesopotamian tradition, that is to say, a goddess associated not only with human pregnancy but also with the original creation of mankind; and sometimes a mother of the gods. Throughout this song, she is referred to repeatedly as Nintud but also twice (in lines I and 4) as Aruru, evidently synonymously; the subject-matter primarily concerns her role as symbolic creator of two priestly ranks, en and lagar, and of the king. The city of Kes, which is known chiefly as the centre of the cult of the mother goddess, is also mentioned several times (see The Kes temple hymn, Group J).
In fact there were various goddesses associated with aspects of mother-
Hood. The ancient Mesopotamian lists of gods refer to them under various names, including Aruru, Digirmah (‘August Deity’), Mama/Mami, Nin-digirene and Belet-ili (both meaning ‘Lady of the Gods’), Ninhursaga (‘Lady of the Hills’), Ninmah (‘August Lady’), Ninmena (‘Lady of the Crown’), Nintud (possibly ‘Lady of Giving Birth’), and so on. There exists a vestigial tradition of Aruru as an independent powerful goddess associated with vegetation; this tradition is preserved exclusively in certain difficult songs in the Emesal register of Sumerian. However, it seems that from a relatively early date her cult was assimilated to that of the other mother goddesses.
This mainstream Sumerian composition also survived into later Mesopotamian tradition. An almost identical version of it exists from the first millennium bce, on a tablet from the library of the Assyrian king Assurbanipal (ruled 668- c.631 bce) at Nineveh.
World History
