Damu
Damu | |
---|---|
God of medicine | |
Major cult center | Isin |
Symbol | scalpel |
Personal information | |
Parents | Ninisina (or another medicine goddess) and Pabilsaĝ |
Siblings | Gunura and Šumaḫ |
Damu (
Damu is also a theophoric element in many personal names from Ebla. It has been proposed that in this context the term should be understood as a deified kinship group rather than a deity, and it is assumed it is not connected to the Mesopotamian god.
Character
It is assumed that Damu was originally regarded as a
From the
As a deity linked to healing, Damu could be called an asû,
Damu's attribute in the role of a medicine god was a karzillu knife, identified as a scalpel by Barbara Böck.[17] Sibbing-Plantholt tentatively suggests that other symbols associated with him might have been a dog and a crook, as they are depicted on a seal with an inscription mentioning him.[18]
In
Associations with other deities
It is not possible to determine with which deity or deities Damu was originally associated.
Despite Pabilsaĝ's status as Ninisina husband, there are no sources which would explicitly identify him as Damu's father.[29] He is nonetheless identified as his father by modern authors.[30] His sister was Gunura, and according to Katz they were possibly regarded as siblings even before the development of the tradition in which they were children of Ninisina.[6] A third deity regarded as a child of Ninisina and thus Damu's brother was Šumaḫ.[31]
Irene Sibbing-Plantholt notes that in some cases, when perceived as a son of Ninisina, Damu could be also linked to Enlil, for example healing on behalf of his mother as the "azu-gal of Enlil" in texts from the reign of Sin-Iddinam, and suggests he might have been occasionally perceived as a healing aspect of this god.[15][a] In the Lament for Nippur, he is also addressed as the kindagal of this god, literally "barber" or "hairdresser," though it has been noted this term might have designated a type of healer as well.[33] However, it is known chiefly from lexical lists and literary compositions, and it is also possible that it represented a title, rather than a name of a profession.[34] It is possible that the development of a connection between Enlil and Damu was meant to strengthen political ties between Nippur and Isin.[35]
Damu was also associated with
An association between Damu and the sparsely attested goddess Kurunnītu has also been noted.[38] They occur as a pair in a kudurru inscription, in parallel with Bau and Zababa and Ninkarrak and Ninurta.[39]
Worship
The original cult center of Damu remains unknown.
A
Many medical formulas end with an invocation of the medicine goddess (either Gula or Ninisina), Damu, and deities connected with incantations:
This is not my incantation, it is the incantation of Ea and Asaluḫi,
It is the incantation of Damu and Gula, It is the incantation of Ningirim, lady of incantation.
They have told it to me and I repeat it.[53]
An example from Ugarit links him with another medicine goddess, Ninkarrak.[54] Other incantations pairing them together are known too:
Let Ninkarrak bandage you with her gentle hands, Let Damu make your suffering pass from you.[55]
It has also been noted that a number of historical asû were apparently involved in the cult of Damu and other deities connected with medicine, though there is no evidence that they functioned as his clergy or that they performed their professional activities in temples.[56]
Mythology
Myths involving Damu deal with his death, and have been compared to compositions such as Ningishzida and
In one lament, Damu's mother offers to walk the road to the underworld with him.[62] A neo-Assyrian copy of this text contains the names of nine deities rather than just Damu, even though the original composition is only about him.[62] The other eight deities listed are Ninazu, Ningishzida, Alla, Umunshudi, Ishtaran, Mulusiranna, Amaushumgalanna and "brother of Gesthinanna."[63] Damu himself is placed between Ninazu and Ningishzida in this version.[63] A further difference is the identification of the dying god himself as the narrator.[64]
The death of Damu could also be mentioned in laments related to the cult of Ninisina or Gula, alongside the destruction of the city of Isin and temples located in it.[65] Next to Inanna laments related to the death of Dumuzi, Ninisina laments are the most common among known literary texts of this genre.[65] In one such text, the goddess directs her lamentation over the death of her son to the Eanna temple.[58]
A composition focused on Ninisina referred to in modern literature as Ninisina A deals with the eponymous goddess teaching Damu medical arts.[66] It relays how he was taught by her how to use medical implements and diagnose illnesses:
Ninisina has made perfect the divine powers of medicine, and hands them over to her son, the king of Girsu, the kindly Damu.
"My son, pay attention to everything medical! Damu, pay attention to everything medical!" He takes the bandages and wipes them; he treats the bandages with
embrocation, and softens the plaster that had been put on them. He mops up the blood and suppuration, and places a warm hand on the horrid wound. My lady, the midwife of the mothers of the Land, is the chief doctor of the black-headed; Nininsina, the daughter of An, hands this all over to her son, the king of Girsu, the kindly Damu:"My son, pay attention to everything medical! Damu, pay attention to everything medical! You will be praised for your diagnoses."[67]
The Eblaite Damu
References to Damu from
According to Alfonso Archi, in Eblaite context Damu should be translated as "blood", and refers to the concept of a deified
Notes
- ^ However, she speculates that Nintinugga might have been related to a healing aspect of Enlil too, as she was referred to as his šim-mu2, a type of healer associated chiefly with medicinal plants.[32]
- ^ A similar term, Lim, denoted the deified clan, and is attested in Amorite names as well, unlike Damu.[73]
References
- ^ a b Katz 2003, p. 22.
- ^ a b Delnero 2020, p. 71.
- ^ a b Katz 2003, p. 318.
- ^ Katz 2003, p. 18.
- ^ Katz 2003, pp. 4–5.
- ^ a b Katz 2003, p. 5.
- ^ a b c d e Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 47.
- ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 9.
- ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 1.
- ^ a b Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 132.
- ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 133.
- ^ Böck 2014, p. 27.
- ^ Böck 2014, pp. 26–28.
- ^ Böck 2014, p. 100.
- ^ a b c Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 59.
- ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 60.
- ^ Böck 2014, p. 21.
- ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 62.
- ^ Hunger & Pingree 1999, p. 60.
- ^ Hunger & Pingree 1999, p. 275.
- ^ Katz 2003, p. 383.
- ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, pp. 46–47.
- ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, pp. 60–61.
- ^ a b Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 61.
- ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 87.
- ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 118.
- ^ Westenholz 2010, p. 383.
- ^ a b c Katz 2003, p. 3.
- ^ a b Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 124.
- ^ a b George 1993, p. 36.
- ^ Wagensonner 2008, p. 286.
- ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 148.
- ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, pp. 59–60.
- ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 185.
- ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 130.
- ^ Katz 2003, p. 81.
- ^ Katz 2003, p. 7.
- ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 92.
- ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 143.
- ^ Katz 2003, pp. 3–4.
- ^ Katz 2003, p. 315.
- ^ George 1993, p. 163.
- ^ Wagensonner 2008, p. 279.
- ^ Beaulieu 1995, p. 91.
- ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 151.
- ^ a b Black & Green 1992, p. 57.
- ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 31.
- ^ George 1993, p. 6.
- ^ George 1992, p. 105.
- ^ George 1992, p. 107.
- ^ George 1992, p. 304.
- ^ Böck 2014, p. 98.
- ^ Böck 2014, p. 114.
- ^ del Olmo Lete 2014, p. 45.
- ^ Westenholz 2010, p. 388.
- ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 45.
- ^ Black 2004, pp. 215–216.
- ^ a b Delnero 2020, p. 208.
- ^ Katz 2003, pp. 8–9.
- ^ Katz 2003, p. 433.
- ^ Katz 2003, p. 272.
- ^ a b Katz 2003, p. 24.
- ^ a b Katz 2003, p. 319.
- ^ Katz 2003, p. 320.
- ^ a b Delnero 2020, p. 65.
- ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 128.
- ^ Krecher & Jagersma 2000.
- ^ a b Archi 2015a, p. 21.
- ^ a b Archi 2015, p. 647.
- ^ a b Archi 2015, p. 367.
- ^ a b Archi 2015a, p. 22.
- ^ Archi 2015a, pp. 21–22.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 646.
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