Ningal

The Great Lady

Domain: Moon, Marshes & Motherhood
Alignment: Neutral Good
Element: Light
Relics of Power: Reed of the Marshes

Speak with Ningal

The full Codex

5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Sumerians, Akkadians & Babylonians

Region

Mesopotamia (modern Iraq)

Period

c. 3500 – 500 BC

The Mesopotamian gods were worshipped by the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians in the land between the Tigris and Euphrates, the cradle of writing and cities. Each city raised a ziggurat to its patron god, served by a powerful priestly caste. Their myths, such as the Enuma Elish and the Epic of Gilgamesh, are among the oldest in the world.

The Akitu festival opened the new year with processions along Babylon's Sacred Way, and the sacred marriage rite symbolically united Inanna and Dumuzi to ensure fertility. Lamentations, hymns, and divination by animal livers marked daily religious life.

At a glance

Ningal is the Sumerian goddess of Urim (Ur), wife of the moon god Nanna-Suen. In the open texts consulted, she appears as the wife of Suen in the Lament for Urim, as the mother of Inana in Inana and Bilulu and in the Exaltation of Inana, and she is evoked in Inana's Descent through the house of Utu. The longest source has her speaking: in the Lament for Urim, Ningal begs An and Enlil to spare the city, is not heard, and leaves Urim like a frightened bird. In the Lament for Sumer and Urim, she departs with Nanna and returns with him when the city is restored. Leonard Woolley's excavations at Ur record bricks and cones with dedications to Nin-gal, tied to a temple on the ziggurat terrace, in periods running from the Third Dynasty to the Neo-Babylonian era.

11 min read · Reviewed on October 14, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

The crescent moon, the reed, the herd and the milk

Family

Ningal

Unions

Nanna

Children

Inana (Inana and Bilulu, lines 31-45)Utu (inferred from Inana's Descent, lines 368-375)

Genealogy according to A lamentação por Urim (ETCSL 2.2.2); Inana e Bilulu (ETCSL 1.4.4); A descida de Inana (ETCSL 1.4.1); Woolley, Ur Excavations V

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

ETCSL, University of Oxford, The lament for Urim (2.2.2). read
ETCSL, University of Oxford, The lament for Sumer and Urim (2.2.3). read
ETCSL, University of Oxford, Inana and Bilulu: an ulila to Inana (1.4.4). read
ETCSL, University of Oxford, Inana's descent to the nether world (1.4.1). read
ETCSL, University of Oxford, The exaltation of Inana (Inana B) (4.07.2). read
ETCSL, University of Oxford, Nanna-Suen's journey to Nibru (1.5.1) — text consulted; the name Ningal does not occur in it. read

Studies

C. Leonard Woolley, Ur Excavations V: The Ziggurat and its Surroundings. open

Name and epithets

ETCSL spells the name Ningal; Woolley, in Ur Excavations V, writes Nin-gal. Neither the ETCSL translations nor Woolley’s Ur Excavations V explains the name with an ancient gloss, so this study proposes no etymology.

In the ancient sources

The lament for Urim (ETCSL 2.2.2), manuscript date not verified in the open sources. Main source: Ningal speaks in the first person, reports her pleas to An and Enlil, and leaves the city.

The myths

Ningal in the Lament for Urim. The Lament for Urim opens with a list of gods who abandoned their shrines and let the breezes haunt their sheepfolds.

Worship and archaeology

The open literary sources do not describe rituals of Ningal. The texts treat her inside the sanctuary of Nanna in Urim (E-kiš-nu-ĝal, Agrun-kug). Woolley's report adds material evidence.

How the god was depicted

The sources I opened contain no description of Ningal's appearance. The poems use images of herd, bird and cow to speak of her and of the city, but do not say how she was represented.

What scholars debate

The absence of Ningal in Nanna-Suen's Journey to Nibru. I opened the text of Nanna-Suen's journey to Nibru (ETCSL 1.5.1) in the ETCSL translation and searched the goddess's name through all of it.

After antiquity

In the open modern literature I consulted, the name appears under two spellings: Ningal in the ETCSL translations and Nin-gal in Woolley's reports.

Did you know?

According to Woolley, the well in the courtyard of the last temple of Nin-gal has an upper part by Nabonidus, a section by Sin-balatsu-iqbi, another by Kuri-Galzu, another by a king of Larsa, and its original foundation…

Codex relic

Reed of the Marshes. The sacred reed of her origin, linking her to the fertile marshes and the herd she protects.

The rest of this scroll is sealed

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