The Mother-Goddess & the Birth of Life
The divine midwife who shapes life from clay — and the mother who weeps when her children are destroyed.
A cluster of names — Ninhursaga, Nintur, Ninmah, Aruru, and Akkadian Belet-ili ('Lady of the gods') — belongs to the great mother-goddess, the divine womb and midwife of the pantheon. It is she who, with Enki/Ea, fashions humankind from clay, who presides over birth and the forms of living things, and who appears in the creation and Flood myths as the bereaved mother grieving the destruction of the people she made. She embodies the generative power of life itself: the shaping of bodies, the bringing-forth of the newborn, and the maternal sorrow over death.
Key passages(6)
Lady Aruru of the house Keš, born in the mountains, the pure place! Nintur, supreme mother of all lands, Mother Nintur, Lady Aruru of the house Keš, born in the mountains, the pure place! Nintur, supr
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For Ninhursaĝa, the mother of the gods, Lu-Utu, governor of Umma, built a temple on her beloved square for his well-being. He made its foundation unblemished. He drove in its foundation pegs, and with
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For Ninḫursaĝa, the beloved mother of Ninĝirsu, the lady who had become one with the city, the mother of all children, Gudea, ruler of Lagaš, built her temple in Ĝirsu.
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Gudea, ruler of Lagaš, who built the E-ninnu of Ninĝirsu. For Ninḫursaĝa, the lady who had become one with the city, the mother of all children, his lady, Gudea, ruler of Lagaš, built her temple in t
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Given birth by the flowing water ……, tenderly cared for by Ninḫursaĝa! Ninkasi, given birth by the flowing water ……, tenderly cared for by Ninḫursaĝa! Having founded your town upon wax, she completed
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For Bau, the kind woman, the child of An, Ur-Bau, the child born to Ninagala, built her temple in Iri-kug.
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