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Updated: May 22, 2025
For Ma-ma and Me-me, as names of Gula, see chapter viii. Gudea manifests a fondness for giving to his pantheon as large a compass as possible.
From the manner in which she is associated with Nin-girsu, aiding the latter in guarding his temple E-ninnu, and uniting with the god in granting the sceptre to Gudea, one is tempted to conclude that the two towns, Girsu and Ninâ, were amalgamated before their absorption into Lagash, so that the god and goddess acquired the relationship to one another of husband and consort.
Near to Ningirsu and under his orders Gudea also established the god Dunshaga, whose function it was to sanctify the temple and to look after its libations and offerings, and to see to the due performance of the ceremonies of ablution.
Such is a summary of the account which Gudea has left us of his rebuilding of the temple E-ninnû, of the reasons which led him to undertake the work, and of the results which followed its completion.
The statues were placed in the temples, and from Gudea we learn of the elaborate ceremonies connected with the dedication of one of the king's colossal blocks of diorite. For seven days all manual labor was interrupted in Lagash. Masters and slaves shared in the festivities.
Gudea makes mention in one of his inscriptions, by the side of Nin-gish-zida, of a god Dun-shagga, whose name signifies the 'chief hero, but the phonetic reading of which it is impossible to determine. Like Nin-gish-zida, he is a warlike god, and from that one might suppose that he too is only another form of Nin-girsu-Ninib. At all events, he did not differ materially from the latter.
Gudea meanwhile had sprinkled the ground with oil, and set out offerings of honey and butter and wine, and grain mixed with milk, and dates, and food untouched by fire, to serve as food for the gods; and the gods themselves had assisted in the preparations for the reception of Ningirsu. The god Asaru made ready the temple itself, and Ninmada performed the ceremony of purification.
At the same time, the loyalty of the rulers to the gods, peculiar to their own district, is manifested by the prominent place assigned in the several cases to gods who otherwise play an insignificant rôle, and who eventually are absorbed by others; and lastly, as between Lugal-zaggisi and Gudea, the observation may be made of the disposition to emphasize local gods, less for their own sake, than because of the éclat furnished by the enumeration of a large pantheon, which shall be coequal in extent and dignity to the district claimed by the rulers and to the rank assumed by them.
Ninâ added that if the patesi carried out her instructions and made the offerings she had specified, Ningirsu would reveal to him the plan on which the temple was to be built, and would also bless him. Gudea bowed himself down in token of his submission to the commands of the goddess, and proceeded to execute them forthwith.
May he proclaim the name of this temple! May that man be my friend, and may he proclaim my name! Gudea hath made the statue, and 'Unto Gudea the builder of the temple hath life-been-given hath he called its name, and he hath brought it into the temple."
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