Ningal As Goddess of Stars
Sorry for using images with words without alt text it does not render correctly.
So, Ningal is Nanna's, the moon Diĝir, wife. That got me thinking: does she have any historical astral attributes?
Wikipedia said yes, but I'd prefer to rely on much more than just Wikipedia. And I did find some albeit it comes from a Neo-Assyrian lexical list so not exactly Sumerian times but it is in the Sumerian language.
🔹Iminbi 𒐌𒁉🔹
First, we have "Iminbi" which means "The Seven" usually referring to The Pleiades stars.
Handbook of Gods and Goddess of The Ancient Near East by Frayne page 309:
Sibittu(m) (Akk.), Iminbi (Sum.): The Divine Heptad, literally "The Seven." Astrally, the group of seven stars known as the Pleiades. The Sumerians called them "the Stars." Their sister was Naruda. The Seven Gods were understood as both helpful and dan-gerous. Their good aspects could be invoked through incantations against destructive demons. In iconography they wore long robes and tall feathered head-dresses and carried weapons. They were normally symbolized by seven dots or seven stars. They were appealed to in a treaty as "the Seven Gods, the warrior gods" and requested to destroy treaty breakers "with their fierce weapons." [...] There were temples to these gods in the Assyrian cities of Nimüd, Khorsabad, and Nineveh. Sibittu(m) referred also to the Seven Demons, who belonged to the category called udug or utukku. They were mainly malevolent, though they could also be beneficent. The good ones were all offspring of En-mesara, whereas the bad ones were, like the female demon Lamastu(m), children of Anu(m) and the earth goddess Uras. In "Erra and Bum," the malevolent Seven were helpers of the violent and rampaging god Erra. In a work dealing with an eclipse of the moon, the Seven Demons were agents of destruction who were attacking the moon. On Assyrian steles, the Seven Demons commonly stood beside the king to indicate the destructive and
Gods Demons and Symbols by Black, Dictionary Entries page 162:
Seven (demons): The Akkadian word sebittu is a singular noun meaning a 'group of seven'; Sumerian iminbi corresponds to it. "The Seven' is a name given to a group of demons, the offspring of An and Ki, who act as assistants to the god Nergal (Erra). One collection of magical incantations seems to identify the Seven with seven named evil udugs, sometimes also called 'Seven and seven' or 'Seven times seven'.
Seven (gods): As well as for a group of demons (see Seven (demons)), Sebitu (Sumerian Iminbi), 'the Seven', is a name given to a group of beneficent gods whose power can be harnessed against evil demons by means of magical incantations. "The Seven' operate together with their sister Narūdu, probably in origin the Elamite goddess Narunte (see Elamite gods), and so may themselves be of Elamite origin. They should be distinguished from the Babylonian Seven Sages (apkallu). They may be identical with the seven children of Ishara. They are sometimes named (as 'Seven and seven' together with another group, who may be the seven sons of Enmesarra. There were temples to these Seven at the Assyrian capital cities of Kalhu (Nimrud), Dür-Sarken (Khorsabad) and Nineveh. Astrologically they were identified with the star-group Pleiades. The standard iconography of the Seven in the Neo-Assyrian Period is known. They wear tall cylindrical hats with feathered upper borders, and long open robes. Each carries an axe and a knife, as well as a bow and quiver. These are the attributes prescribed for the Seven in rituals concerning the placement of protective figurines at set locations about a house. In practice, when in forms other than plastic art, this iconography could, it seems, pose problems, for on a stone relief slab from the palace of Assurbanipal [...] at Nineveh, the long bows have been carved first then erased in favour of the axes and knives. At least in Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian art, the Seven were symbolised by the seven dots, sometimes substituted by seven stars (probably an allusion to the identification with the Pleiades).
Sevent Dots: With possible antecedents dating back to prehistoric times, the symbol of the seven dots (or globes) is first known in unequivocal form in Mitannian glyptic art, and became common in the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Periods. On Mitannian seals the dots are usually arranged as six dots around a central dot, forming a kind of rosette. Thereafter, however, the dots are normally shown simply in two rows of three, with the seventh dot placed between the rows at the far end. From early on (at least from Middle Assyrian times), the seven dots appears as a symbol in close association with other clearly astral symbols such as the solar disc and the crescent. In Assyrian, Babylonian and later art, they were regarded as a representation of the Pleiades: a new, though less popular, version of the symbol showed seven stars rather than dots. Inscriptions also identify the symbol as that of the Sebittu or Seven (gods), with whom the Pleiades were evidently associated.
So "The Seven" is often synonymous with the Pleiades Stars. As Diĝir they would have divine determinative added to the writing so:
𒀭(divine) — Link
𒐌 (seven) — Link
𒁉(determiner ... essentially "the" in the translation) — Link
I will note in Babylonian star catalogues the Pleiades were MUL.MUL 𒀯𒀯
🔹Ningal 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒃲 Connection🔹
I found Ningal's connection via Reallexikon of Assyriology. On page 352 of Volume 9 we get Ningal's entry. — Link
Google Translate was required so I put the original and translation side by side
Under §3.4 (page 354) of her entry we find "ᵈSi-imin-bi" is listed as an astral epithet of the Diĝir.
Under §2 of her entry we see the translation of "ᵈSi-imin-bi"
🔹Whats The Origin🔹
I then went looking for sources outside the Reallexikon.
And found this entry in Orrac's Digital Corpus of Cuneiform Texts — Link
Clicking "instance" brings you to its location (shown in the lower right corner. — Link
Clicking for the full context brings you to this
The very bottom showing Si'iminbi = Ningal.
This text is a Neo-Assyrian Lexical Tablet uncovered in Nineveh dating to around 911-612 BCE (Upper Mesopotamia) — Link
Interestingly I couldn't find it on the Sumerian Epithet database but thats not entirely surprising since its Neo-Assyrian Lexical List
🔹"Sevenfold Lamp/Horn"🔹
The translation in the Reallexikon confused me a little so I went on a manhunt for cuneiform "si" since I already had cuneiform of "iminbi." I found the cuneiform for "si" is 𒋛
Which according to Wiktionary means "horn" — Link but I couldn't figure out how that translated to "lamp"
In the ePSD2 I was able to find that in Old Babylonian Period the Sumerian word also included "light"
Which Old Babylonian and Neo Assyrian are not the same time period, but its finally how I found the connection to "lamp".
🔹Conclusion🔹
This is synthesizing information across a vast span of time and locations within Mesopotamian religions to come to a conclusion. I'm not saying this is 100% historical. I'm especially not claiming that my conclusion was the case in the third millennium BCE "Sumerian Times." However, Ningal did have an astral aspect at some point in history. When that point arose is unknown.
Nanna was highly regarded in Sumerian Times due to being the city Diĝir of Ur one of the most powerful City States, and Ningal was worshipped with him frequently. Enheduana herself took a role as Ningal during rituals to Nanna as she was Nanna's En Priestess. Thus I worship her with her husband and I like this astral connection rather than being "just" Nanna's wife.
My Brain's Train of Thought
Si'iminbi the Diĝir was either another name for, or an epithet of, Ningal
It combines si= "light" with iminbi = "The Seven [Gods]"
The Seven Gods = the Pleiades
Thus a modern view of Si'iminbi (sevenfold lamp/light) can poetically mean "light (si) [of] The Pleiades (iminbi).
The Pleides are seven stars, with stories going back to potentially 100,000 years ago — Link
The Seven (Six) Stars themselves could be representative of the beauty of stars in general. They are among the closest star clusters to Earth, they potentially have an oral story going back to the dawn of humanity, and are very luminous even in some places with light pollution.
So Ningal being a Diĝir with some connection to the Pleiades and a historical attestion as an astral Diĝir to some degree. I like to think of her as a
Diĝir of the Stars. "Light of The Pleiades" being the epithet.
I could use "Mul" meaning stars in Sumerian for the modern epithet, but I wanted a historical Epithet/Name with an added modern meaning. To connect it to her historical astral qualities.
[Pleiades From Digital Sky Survey — Link]
Ningal Cuneiform: 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒃲
Si'iminbi Cuneiform: 𒀭𒋛𒐌𒁉
As an epithet "Ningal Si'iminbi"
𒀭𒊩𒌆𒃲𒋛𒐌𒁉
Ningal Light [of] The Pleiades
Ningal Light [of] The Seven
Cuneiform wouldn't exactly translate this way, since I don't factor in "of" so its poetic interpretation not 100% grammatically correct.