Ningirsu

As a part of the inaugural dedication rituals, each of these deities (apparently in the form of a divine statue or in some other symbolic form) "was passing in review before the lord Ningirsu with his emblem (of office)," literally, "with his me" (Sum.

Note that, once again, the "other world" is left out even though Inanna was known for associations with the underworld (see, e.g., the composition "Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld") and she was sometimes associated with Utu or Ningirsu in defeating gods and monsters in the "other world." See the remarks in Wiggermann, "Scenes from the Shadow Side," 218, and Vanstiphout, "Why Did Enki Organize the World?" 132 n.

The present essay is not the place to develop this particular intertextual comparison in detail, but it is important to take note of the fact that Gudea Cylinder B iii 2-12 reports Ningirsu's return from a journey to Enki at Eridu in order to take up occupation in the newly completed Eninnu temple at Lagash.

EWO 154 a-ra-zu cited above), at least one of the purposes of Ningirsu's trip to Enki at Eridu was to ritually "purify" (sikil) the new Eninnu (Gudea Cylinder B iv 11; cf.

A i, Gudea does not fully understand a dream in which the god Ningirsu commands him to build the very temple whose subsequent construction and dedication is the subject of Gudea's hymn.

A i 11, the god Ningirsu tells us he will make the powers (me) of his temple manifest in the entire universe, and nine lines later, in a line beginning identically, Ningirsu reveals those powers to Gudea:

This same significance is reflected in the me ninnu "fifty powers" given by Enlil to Ningirsu in Cyl.

Collingwood chooses for discussion a Sumerian inscription written around the middle of the third millennium B.C., known as "The Cone of Entemena." It deals with a boundary dispute between two Sumerian city-states, Lagash with its god Ningirsu, and Umma, with its god Shara.

The ruler Gudea of Lagash, for example, was told in a dream to build a new temple for the god Ningirsu. To make quite sure he had understood it right he traveled to the south of his realm to have a goddess, who resided there and who was skilled in interpreting dreams, explain it to him.

To get an inkling, at least, of what such experience was like, one may consider a prayer by Gudea to the god Ningirsu, in which he seeks to be enlightened about the god's essential nature so that he can suit to it the temple he is to build.