Ningishzida

The Lord of the Tree of Life

Domain: Underworld, Vegetation & Healing
Alignment: Neutral Good
Element: Earth
Relics of Power: Staff of Entwined Serpents

Speak with Ningishzida

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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

Ningishzida (spelled Ninĝišzida in ETCSL) is a Sumerian god whom open sources show in two different places: beside the ruler Gudea of Lagash, whose personal god he is, and among the inhabitants of the underworld, where he receives gifts and where his word serves as a measure of weight for verdicts. This study gathers five ETCSL texts that name him, with exact lines. It does not confirm that he was a god of healing, that his emblem gave rise to the caduceus, or that he led souls: none of these claims appears in the texts read.

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

Sacred symbols

The entwined serpents, the tree, the serpent-dragon and the roots

Family

Siblings

Ama-shilama (sister, per ETCSL t.1.7.3)

Ningishzida

Unions

Ninazimua (spouse, ETCSL t.2.4.1.1, lines 123-128)

Genealogy according to Neto de An; Gudea é chamado filho de Ningishzida (ETCSL t.2.1.7, linhas 1337-1354); irmã em t.1.7.3, linhas 38-44; esposa em t.2.4.1.1, linhas 123-128. Pais não confirmados.

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Anonymous (ETCSL), The Building of Ningirsu's Temple, Gudea Cylinders A and B (t.2.1.7). translation: ETCSL translation (Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature). read
Anonymous (ETCSL), The Death of Gilgamesh (t.1.8.1.3). translation: ETCSL translation. read
Anonymous (ETCSL), The Journey of Ningishzida to the Netherworld (t.1.7.3). translation: ETCSL translation. read
Anonymous (ETCSL), Lament for Sumer and Ur (t.2.2.3). translation: ETCSL translation. read
Anonymous (ETCSL), The Death of Ur-Namma, Ur-Namma A (t.2.4.1.1). translation: ETCSL translation. read

Studies

ETCSL, University of Oxford, . open

Name and epithets

Ningishzida, personal god of Gudea and lord among the dead Ninĝišzida: the spelling of the name in ETCSL; the app uses the reading Ningishzida.

In the ancient sources

The building of Ningirsu's temple, Gudea Cylinders A and B (ETCSL t.2.1.7), about 2100 BC, period of Gudea in Lagash.

The myths

Gudea's dream: the god as daylight. Cylinder A tells how Gudea, ruler of Lagash, receives in a dream the order to rebuild the temple of Ningirsu, the E-ninnu.

Worship and archaeology

The sources read give signs of worship tied to two contexts. In Lagash, Gudea names Ningishzida as his personal god and as the divine father of the king, so devotion was part of the ruler's legitimacy.

How the god was depicted

None of the passages read describes the god's appearance: ETCSL gives the god as daylight, as a guiding hand, as a warrior and as a passenger on a barge.

What scholars debate

A vegetation god or an underworld god. The app presents him as a god of vegetation, healing and the underworld. The five texts read support only the last: he is called the ruler's personal god, a warrior and one of the…

After antiquity

On later reception, the ETCSL corpus only witnesses continuity in lament and funerary texts up to the early second millennium BC.

Did you know?

In Gudea's dream, the god is not even described with a body: Nanshe identifies him with daylight (Cylinder A, lines 132-133).

Codex relic

Staff of Entwined Serpents. A staff with two coiled serpents, symbol of healing and power over life and the earth.

The rest of this scroll is sealed

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