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Ninshubur (,; Ninšubur, "Lady of Subartu" or "Lady of servants"), also spelled Ninšubura, was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as the sukkal (divine attendant) of the goddess Inanna. While it is agreed that in this context Ninshubur was regarded as female, in other cases the deity was considered male, possibly due to syncretism with other divine messengers, such as Ilabrat. No certain information about her genealogy is present in any known sources, and she was typically regarded as unmarried. As a sukkal, she functioned both as a messenger deity and as an intercessor between other members of the pantheon and human petitioners.
Due to the belief that she could intercede with higher ranking deities, Ninshubur was popular in everyday religion, and many invoking her and other references to personal worship are known. Her original cult center was Akkil, but in the Early Dynastic Period she was already worshiped in nearby Uruk. She was also introduced to the pantheon of the state of Lagash, where her cult center was Girsu. Multiple kings of this area regarded her as their personal deity. In the Ur III period she was also introduced to Ur. Further cities where Ninshubur was worshiped include Adab, Nippur, Malgium, and more.
In myths, Ninshubur is portrayed as a companion of Inanna and helps her during various exploits. In Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld, she is responsible for securing Inanna's return by pleading with Enlil, Nanna and Enki. After being resurrected, Inanna protects her from the gallu demons sent to find someone to replace her in the land of the dead. Ninshubur's mourning is contrasted with Dumuzi's attitude which leads to his death in this composition. In Inanna and Enki, Ninshubur helps Inanna escape from Enki's servants after theft of the me.
The Sumerian term Shubur or Subir (Subartu) originally designated areas north of Mesopotamia. Both in ancient documents and in past scholarship the terms "Subartu" and "Subarians" usually refer to Hurrians. Ninshubur is described as a resident of the "mountain-lands of Subartu ( kur šubur)" brought to Mesopotamia by Utu in the Early Dynastic UD.GAL.NUN text CUT 4, a narrative dealing with the sun god traveling to various mountainous areas to bring deities or animals from them. It is possible that echoes of Ninshubur's association with Subartu survived as late as in the Neo-Assyrian period in texts pertaining to Papsukkal.
While dnin-šubur was the standard writing of Ninshubur's name in cuneiform, a variant with a Genitive case suffix ( -ak) is attested in a variety of sources as well, including personal names from the Ur III period and Old Babylonian literary texts. Wiggermann additionally argues that sometimes the name was rendered simply as Shubur, but this assumption is not universally accepted. Additionally, two forms of Ninshubur's name in the Emesal dialect are known, Gashanshubur, referring to the female form of this deity, and Umunshubur, referring to the male one, though the latter is only known from a single source.
Additional names of Ninshubur can be found in An = Anum ša amēli (lines 61-69), an explanatory god list focused on epithets of major deities, in which her section appears between Shala's and Ninurta's. In addition to the primary name they include dSukkal (a Sumerogram writing of the name), Papsukkal, Papgal, Iggalla, Gandu, Gangu, dLAMMA and Dukuga. The names Gandu and Gangu are likely variants of each other and might be related to a term referring to a part of a door; Dukuga is derived from the Du-Ku, a mythical location after which a type of seat located in temples was named.
In addition to her usual title, Ninshubur could also be called sukkal anna, "heavenly attendant". An inscription of Rim-Sîn I refers to her as a sukkalmaḫ. According to Wiggermann, while this term is attested as an administrative rank and in this context refers to an official responsible for managing the activities of multiple people holding the rank of sukkal, there is no indication that it had a similar meaning when applied to deities, and in this context its use is most likely only meant to exalt the bearer. Ninshubur was also referred to as sukkalmaḫ in Malgium, though according to Raphael Kutscher in this case the use of this title should be considered the result of cultural influence. Ninshubur could also be referred to as SAL.ḪÚB2. This term is sparsely attested overall, and it assumed that it referred to a deity considered to be a sukkal who was viewed as emotionally close to their lord or lady. In most of cases SAL.ḪÚB2 appears in literary texts in parallel with "sukkal". Ninshubur is the only deity referred to as SAL.ḪÚB2 in more than one or two sources, with seven instances known as of 2014. dNIN.AB.KID.KID, who might be identical with Ninshubur, is already described as the SAL.ḪÚB2 of Inanna in the thirty ninth of the Zame Hymns. Ninshubur is also referred to with this title in an Old Babylonian dedicatory inscription from the reign of Samsu-iluna. In another text, she is described as the "beloved SAL.ḪÚB2 of Inanna", and appears in a short list of members of her family right after Dumuzi.
A number of references to Ninshubur as the "mother of the land" are known. A theological text composed during the reign of the Third Dynasty of Ur states that "Ninshubur occupies the land" and includes her among the highest ranking gods, alongside Enlil, Ninlil, Nanna, Inanna, Enki, Nergal, Ninurta and Nuska. The deified hero Gilgamesh appears in it as well, seemingly to elevate his standing among gods due to his role in the royal ideology of that time period. Gábor Zólyomi notes that a hymn focusing on Ninshubur in the role of "mother of the land" (BL 195, known from the tablet Ash. 1911.326 from the Ashmolean Museum) employs multiple Literary topos related to abundance in Sumerian literature, for example building of cattle pens and sheepfolds under her command, otherwise not associated with her. Another hymn (CBS 14073) mentions both her role as a divine attendant and that of "mother of the land". In addition to this metaphorical role, Ninshubur was also referred to as a "mother" in personal names. However, references to her as an actual "birth mother" are uncommon and unusual according to Julia M. Asher-Greve. It is possible that this aspect of her character was responsible for her unusual and unparalleled placement in the Old Babylonian Mari god list, where she occurs after Ninhursag and Nintur and before Aruru.
Some hymns indicate that the role of a divine healer was occasionally ascribed to Ninshubur.
In most Akkadian texts Ninshubur was regarded as male, though it is possible exceptions did exist. According to Raphael Kutscher, Ninshubur might have been viewed as female in Malgium when worshiped alongside Ulmašītum, though Douglas Frayne treats this deity as male in his translation of an inscription from this location. In the Old Babylonian and Kassite period periods in Nippur Ninshubur was also considered female. However, whether her name on Kassite seals refers to a god or a goddess is presently unknown.
Uri Gabbay proposed that Ninshubur's identity was a mirror of the gala clergy, but this view is not supported by other researchers, as regardless of gender Ninshubur was never described as a gala, and the only similarity between her and this class of clergy was their shared ability to appease specific deities. Wolfgang Heimpel suggested another solution, namely that three separate deities shared the same name, one female (according to him found for example in association with Inanna in Ur) and two male (one associated with Anu and yet another worshiped in Girsu), with no ambiguity of gender in any case. However, the matter of Ninshubur's gender was in some cases already unclear to ancient scribes, with one Old Babylonian hymn (CBS 15119+) possibly being an attempt at reconciling conflicting accounts by describing Ninshubur (identified as female in this context by Frans Wiggermann) as dressed in both feminine (left side) and masculine (right side) robes.
The view that Ninshubur was male as a servant of An in Sumerian texts from the third millennium BCE relies on the widely accepted assumption that a deity's sukkal matched their gender. However, Amasagnudi, regarded as a goddess in known sources and in one case equated with female Ninshubur, was also said to be a sukkal of Anu in an Old Babylonian document. Ninshubur herself appears as the sukkal of Nergal instead of Ugur or Ishum (both of them male) in a Sumerian text dated to the Old Babylonian period.
Ninshubur was not the only Mesopotamian deity whose gender varied in ancient sources, other examples include Ninkasi (the deity of beer, female in earlier sources but at times male later on), the couple Ninsikila and Lisin, whose genders were in some instances switched around, Uṣur-amāssu, described as a son of Adad in the god list An = Anum but as his daughter in sources from Uruk from the first millennium BCE, and the Venus deity Ninsianna, whose varying gender might be connected to dual role as personification of both the morning star and the evening star.
Ninshubur was additionally syncretised with Papsukkal, originally the sukkal of Zababa, tutelary god of Kish. Papsukkal's rise to prominence at the expense of other similar figures, such as Ninshubur, was likely rooted in the presence of the word sukkal in his name. While an association between the two is attested in the god list An = Anum already, the conflation was only finalized in the Seleucid period in Uruk. Papsukkal was not worshiped in that city in earlier periods, and in contrast with Ninshubur appeared only infrequently as a family deity or in personal names, but in the context of the so-called "antiquarian theology" relying largely on god lists, which developed in Uruk under Achaemenid rule, he was fully identified with Ninshubur and thus became Anu's sukkal and one of the eighteen major deities of the city. The late syncretic Papsukkal was not regarded as the sukkal of Anu and Ishtar, but rather Anu and Antu as a pair instead.
Despite the syncretism leading to perception of Ninshubur as a male deity, it is possible that the goddess Amasagnudi, worshiped alongside Papsukkal in Seleucid Uruk, was originally an epithet of female Ninshubur, a manifestation of her or at least a similar goddess sharing the role of sukkal of Anu. Frans Wiggermann translates this name as "mother who cannot be pushed aside".
Julia Krul suggests that the conflation between two deities from the court of Enki, male Isimud and female Ara, might have been influenced by the similar process involving Ninshubur. In An = Anum (tablet II line 275) Ninshubur is also equated with another deity associated with Enki, Gadala-abzu, "linen-clad of the abzu", though in this case both figures are understood as male.
Very few depictions of female Ninshubur have been identified with certainty, though it is possible she is the deity on seals of Lugal-ushumgal, governor of Lagash during the reigns of Naram-Sin of Akkad and his son Shar-Kali-Sharri. It is also known that during building rituals figures of Ninshubur were buried under temples of other gods in some cases. A "letter-prayer" possibly referring to a statue of Ninshubur mentions that the deity had a "face exuding allure", and describes Ninshubur's physique in terms similar to these sometimes applied to Inanna.
It has been proposed that in Girsu, where Ninshubur was regarded as the wife of Meslamtaea (in this context a name of Nergal), she can be identified as a goddess accompanied by his symbolic composite animal, the "lion-griffin", similar to how Geshtinanna was accompanied by mušḫuššu, a symbol of her husband Ningishzida, and that on Old Babylonian seals the double lion-headed mace associated with Nergal might represent Ninshubur in the role of a deity related to him.
The constellation Orion, known in ancient Mesopotamia as Sipazianna, "the true shepherd of heaven", was regarded as the astral symbol of Ninshubur, as well as Ilabrat and Papsukkal.
An = Anum contains lists of five daughters (tablet I, lines 48-52) and fourteen sons (tablet I, lines 53-66) of the male Ninshubur, who are not attested anywhere else. According to Frans Wiggermann it cannot be automatically assumed that they were associated with the female Ninshubur in earlier periods, though due to her greater importance it is nonetheless possible at least some of the information pertaining to family and courtiers mentioned in An = Anum originated in texts focused on her rather than any of her male counterparts. The daughters include dPAP.PAP, Ḫedu, Ninḫedubi, Ninkita and Munus-saga. The reading of the first name is uncertain, with both Kurkur and Papa, a widespread hypocoristic name in the third millennium BCE, being considered possible. Ninḫedubi is also attested alongside Papsukkal in a ritual dealing with the restoration of a door. The names of this goddess, as well as her sister Ḫedu, likely were originally derived from the term ḫé-du7, literally "may it befit", metaphorically "adornment", but later came to be reinterpreted as references to architectural terms, since ḫé-du7 (loanword into Akkadian as ḫittu) could also mean "architrave". It is also possible that Ninkita's name can be interpreted as "lady of the doorstep".
An = Anum refers to Māgiru ("obedient") as the "herald" ( gu-za-lá) of Ninshubur's sanctuary in Akkil (tablet I, line 255), though the same deity is also mentioned alongside Šeri as one of the two bulls of Adad (tablet III, lines 233-234), which according to Wilfred G. Lambert should be considered unusual. states the latter attestation is likely to be a scribal mistake, as Šeri was conventionally paired with Ḫurri, not Māgiru. Both the Old Babylonian forerunner of An = Anum and An = Anum itself (tablet I, line 48) also provide Ninshubur with an udug (in this context a type of minor protective deity) named Egubidugga ("who lets the house resound pleasantly").
The role of a mediator between a major deity and worshipers played by Ninshubur in the cult of Inanna has been compared to that played by the spouses of other major gods, for example Aya in the relation to Shamash or Shala in relation to Adad.
Sumerian literary catalogs list at least 7 hymns dedicated to Ninshubur which based on surviving described her lamenting over something that happened to Inanna.
A single Old Babylonian letter associates Ninshubur with Lugalnamtarra, a deity possibly analogous to Namtar, and invokes both of them to bless the recipient. Lugalnamtarra, as well as a deity whose name was written as dSUKKAL, who according to Odette Boivin might be analogous to Ninshubur, both appear in association with Shamash in texts from the archives of the First Sealand dynasty in place of his usual attendants (such as Bunene). Akurduana, one of the kings of Sealand, included the title "servant of Utu and Ninshubur" in his royal titulature. In Isin, Ninshubur was seemingly instead incorporated into the entourage of the medicine goddess Ninisina. She accordingly appears in the Isin god list in the section enumerating deities linked to both Ninisina and Inanna. Other members of this group who shared this status include Ninigizibara and Ninḫinuna. Frans Wiggermann states an attestation of Ninshubur appearing alongside Alammuš in the court of Nanna is also known. In the Early Dynastic Abu Salabikh god list she appears next Nanna's wife Ningal. In Malgium in the Old Babylonian period, she seemingly fulfilled the role of a sukkal in relation to Ulmašītum. In Nippur at least in the sphere of cult she was linked to the circle of the local goddess Nintinugga.
In a greeting formula in a latter from Old Babylonian Larsa, Ninshubur is paired with the otherwise unknown goddess Mārat-ūmi, "daughter of the day" or "daughter of the storm". In a single incantation dated to the end of the third millennium BCE, possibly a part of a building ritual, she appears alongside the divine potter Nunura. She is rare in magical texts otherwise, though she is attested in an incantation from the Ur III period alongside Asalluhi, and in a late liver omen text "hand of Ninshubur" is listed one of the possible diagnoses.
In the Early Dynastic period Ninshubur's cult was already established in Uruk, as indicated by votive inscriptions, and it is considered possible that it was transferred there from Akkil. She continues to appear in sources from this city in the Ur III period, when Shulgi built a new temple dedicated to her there. A year name of either this king or his predecessor Ur-Nammu mentions the building of a "temple kitchen" of Ninshubur, which might be related to a foundation tablet dedicated to her found in Uruk, though this remains uncertain.
A document from the reign of Shu-Sin indicates that Ninshubur was also worshiped in Bad-tibira.
A later ruler of Lagash, Urukagina, regarded Ninshubur as his personal deity. In offering lists from his reign she was placed above Mesandu, who possibly had an analogous role during the reigns of earlier local kings. Puzer-Mama, who ruled Lagash around 2200 BCE, mentions Ninshubur in his royal inscriptions, possibly in reference to Urukagina's reverence for her, as it is likely that they came from the same family and thus shared the same personal goddess, though he might also have considered her a divine mediator guaranteeing Lagash its territorial rights, regained from rulers of the Akkadian Empire. Another ruler of Lagash who regarded her as his personal goddess was Nammahani, brother in law of Gudea. Gudea himself referred to Ninshubur as his nin ("mistress"). Statues dedicated for the life of a ruler to Ninshubur and to Ningishzida are also known from the periods of Nammahani's and Ur-Ningirsu's rule.
During excavations of Ur, chapels of Ninshubur and Hendursaga, as well as votive objects to dedicated to them from Isin-Larsa period have been found. It is uncertain if a statue found in the Ninshubur chapel represents any deity, or a human. for example a princess or en priestess, though it has been noted that she lacks the horned crown associated with divinity. A "letter-prayer" to Ninshubur (UET 6/1, 7) which indicates that such texts were presented to a statue of the deity, is also assumed to be from Ur, though it is regarded as likely that it was sent by a king of Larsa, possibly Rim-Sîn I. Records indicate that he built temples of both female and male Ninshubur. In an inscription commemorating the building of a temple of Ninshubur in Ur, he refers to this deity as a goddess, while in a later one commemorating the defeat of Uruk - as a god. It is likely he was particularly devoted to this deity.
Since before the Akkadian Empire, Ninshubur was also present in the pantheon of Adab. Meskigal, a ruler of this city, considered her his personal deity and dedicated a statue to her for the life of himself, his wife and children. A document dealing with distribution of bread to the Adab's temples indicates that one of them was dedicated to Ninshubur, and that its staff included a nin-dingir priestess. While Ninshubur's position in offering lists indicates she was a major deity in the local pantheon, very few theophoric names invoking her are attested.
Ninshubur is also attested in Early Dynastic texts from Shuruppak, the cult center of Sud. In Umma, she was worshiped alongside Inanna of Zabalam.
According to Jennie Myers, Ninshubur is also attested in Sippar, where the theonym according to her should be read phonetically in Sumerian names, and as "Ilabrat" in less common Akkadian ones. The worship of Ninshubur in this city is no longer attested after the reign of Sin-Muballit. The reasons behind this are unknown.
In Malgium, a kingdom located to the south of Eshnunna, Ninshubur was worshiped in a temple built by the local king Takil-ilissu in the Old Babylonian period. An inscription states that various festivals dedicated to this deity were held in the courtyard of the temple of Ulmašītum, which bore the ceremonial name Emaš (possibly erroneous writing of Eulmaš). In the same text Ninshubur is invoked in a curse formula alongside Anu, Ulmašītum, Annunitum, and the divine lions Dan-bītum and Rašub-bītum to guarantee that nobody removes Takil-ilissu's name from the foundation of the temple.
In Tell Ishchali a sanctuary of Ninshubur was a part of the temple complex of the local goddess Kitītum. Its staff might have included an en priest.
Other cities where Ninshubur was apparently worshiped include Akkad (in the Sargonic period), Isin, Larsa, Mari and in the Old Babylonian period, and later on Babylon and Kish, but it is difficult to tell if the deity in mention was female Ninshubur, male Ninshubur, or Ilabrat.
Before Inanna embarks on her journey to the land of the dead, seemingly motivated by a desire to take over it, she instructs Ninshubur what to do if she will not return after three days. It is assumed that this scene is supposed to establish that she is not going to be trapped in the underworld permanently. After this period time passes, Ninshubur, following her mistress' instructions, mourns her death by lamenting and wearing rags and pleads with the gods Enlil, Nanna and Enki in an effort to persuade them to rescue Inanna. In all three cases, she repeats the same formula:
Victor Hurowitz considered it possible that the terms which Ninshubur uses to illustrate the possible dreadful fate of Inanna in the netherworld during her attempts to persuade other gods to help her might be a mythical reflection of a ritual of renewal of a damaged statue. While the first two gods Ninshubur approaches, Enlil and Nanna, refuse to help her, she eventually manages to secure the aid of Enki. He creates two beings, galatura and kurĝara, who subsequently bring Inanna back.
After Inanna returns to the world of the living, Ninshubur, who was waiting at the gates of the underworld, throws herself at her feet. The gallu demons accompanying Inanna suggest they can take Ninshubur to replace her in the underworld, but she protests:
Since Ninshubur is a faithful servant who mourned her properly, the demons are not allowed to take her. Inanna also does not allow them to take two further servants they meet, Shara and Lulal. Eventually they reach Dumuzi's city Bad-tibira, where it turns out that he did not mourn Inanna's death, which angers her. His behavior, contrasted with Ninshubur's (as well as Shara's and Lulal's), is meant to justify his eventual fate. Inanna lets the galla take him away. Ninshubur is not mentioned in the surviving lines of the remaining section of the narrative, which is focused on Dumuzi's attempt at escaping his fate and his confinement in the underworld.
Alhena Gadotti notes that an "inverted parallelism" exists between the role of Ninshubur in Inanna's Descent and that of Gilgamesh in another composition dealing with similar themes, Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Underworld: in the former, a servant seeks help on behalf of her mistress, while in the latter text the roles are reversed, and it is Gilgamesh who wants to bring his companion Enkidu back. Dina Katz suggests that since Inanna's Descent was a widely circulated text, it is plausible that this part of the latter narrative was in part inspired by it.
Papsukkal takes Ninshubur's role in an Akkadian adaptation of Inanna's Descent focused on the counterpart of Inanna, Ishtar, but he is not directly designated as her personal servant, and the text states that he was serving "the great gods" as a group.
After Inanna's theft of the me, Enki's monstrous servants attack the boat six times, but each time she repeats the formula "water has not touched your hands, water has not touched your feet" to Ninshubur, which according to Bendt Alter is meant to indicate that as long as the stay out of water they are out of the reach of Enki. After successfully escaping, they reach Uruk, and Ninshubur asks Inanna where she plans to unload the stolen items. The rest of the myth is poorly preserved.
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