NINHURSAG

also spelled Ninhursaga, (Sumerian) Akkadian Belit-ili in Mesopotamian religion, city goddess of Adab and of Kish in the northern herding regions; she was the goddess of the stony, rocky ground, the hursag. In particular, she had the power in the foothills and desert to produce wildlife. Especially prominent among her offspring were the onagers (wild asses) of the western desert. As the sorrowing mother animal she appears in a lament for her son, a young colt, but as goddess of birth she is not only the goddess of animal birth but the Mother of All Children, a mother-goddess figure. Her other names include: Dingirmakh (Exalted Deity), Ninmakh (Exalted Lady), Aruru (Dropper, i.e., the one who loosens the scion in birth), and Nintur (Lady Birth Giver). Her husband is the god Shulpae, and among their children were the sons Mululil and Ashshirgi and the daughter Egime. Mululil seems to have been a dying god, like Dumuzi, whose death was lamented in yearly rites.