Nanshe- Mesopotamian GodDeity"Lady of Nina"

Judge of the Marshlands

Nanshe's domain lay where the Tigris and Euphrates met the Persian Gulf, a world of reeds and channels, seasonal floods and pelicans. Her cult center at Nina served the fishing communities that worked the waterways. Fish offerings filled her temple, the catch returning a portion of itself to the goddess who provided it. The pelican was her sacred bird, a fisher like her people.

Each New Year, Nanshe judged the conduct of those in her domain. The Nanshe Hymn names the wrongs she punished: cheating in business with false weights and oppressing the weak while favoring the strong. She knew the orphan. She knew the widow. She knew the oppression of man over man. Her temple offered sanctuary to the persecuted.

The Dreams of Gudea

Nanshe's oracular powers appear in the Gudea Cylinders. The pious ruler Gudea of Lagash received an elaborate dream: a giant figure with a divine crown, wings like a storm bird, and a lion at each side commanded him to build a temple, but the vision's meaning was impenetrable. Gudea traveled to Nanshe's temple at Nina to seek her interpretation.

Nanshe decoded each element. The giant was the god Ningirsu. The rising sun meant the god Ningishzida would accompany Gudea. The tablet of lapis lazuli held the temple's plan. Detail by detail, she translated the dream's obscure imagery into precise instructions, and Gudea returned to Lagash to build the temple Ningirsu had commanded.