Ningishzidda

[Naomi]

this thread is for my art of Ningishzidda feel free to join. this is part of a WIP based on the Lagashian "Ningishzidda Leading Gudea" carving. also partly inspired by the Angak design.

http://www.dazimua.com/images/paintings/sumerianningishzidda.jpg

ningishziddas serpents cloaked in darkness and blackened earth
caress then penetrate the earth and bring forth sweet water
sinuous coils of last serpents kiss five thousand
years
ago
in this pit of hatred and despair
your seductive strength and calm drawing us down into the world of blackness and purity
wickedness has no place in this world of ecstasy and love
i sense your presence in my mind
like a ripple of shark's fin through night waters
don't be afraid....you say
like something soft
but with the stark power off a thousand suns on one golden scale lit
no one sees you
not even the gods

[Luke Saint]

Brought into focus
The anterior of speech bequeaths me with another.
Lover,
The association points to abjected feelings and wanton lust
Nowhere near your mark.
Or too close.
It makes me want to get away
Then an embrace takes my mind.
I have spoken your name over one thousand times
With my wind;
My soul as known in other words.
Repeating forever until I could see,
I saw in that name something unknown.
Something unusual, made of psychic stone?
Close but not in so many words,
Others will burn in your willed light.

Ningishzidda after a eleven day recitation as mantra...

(Forgive me, just my impression that I wrote now about my experiences in January of this year, 2008e.v.)

[Naomi]

updatin the portfolio, here's a style sheet for one version of the Mûš-ruššû (http://forums.abrahadabra.com/showthread.php?t=2741)

this one obviously has Ngian upgrades.

http://www.dazimua.com/images/paintings/mushushustylesheet.jpg

[Naomi]

I finally finished this, it's Nukua and an underwater version of Ningishzidda. In the Gulf of Mexico. It's where the summit was held. Last year. Oh you didn't get an invite?

http://www.dazimua.com/images/paintings/nukua-ningishzidda.jpg

[Naomi]

This is a modification of the ancient Lagashian cup from Sumer, the one commissioned by the king Gudea.

I triangulated with m1 and MM on this one, the colors on the background, lightning, metaphysical elements and the tridosha were all mushed together through mindstuff...if I make any more versions they will be done from the ground up, this one is done.

http://www.dazimua.com/images/paintings/ningishzidda-m3dium.jpg

[Amur]

Neat ones. I'm looking forward to your work :)

[Naomi]

Thanks Amur, I'm collaborating with this cool dude over at Enenuru he's feeding me a bunch of cool Sumerian shit from authentic sources and letting me have some gallery space so I'd like to do a good Nergal pic as well and a few million more Ng pics...

For now I need some new Sumerian critters to round out my concept art for creatures...I'd like to make it a part of my style...style isn't just a natural thing, it's more of an osmosis process, you have some control over.

[Catalytic Subterfuge]

Great stuff Naomi! I trust you made it hom with no catastrophies?

[us4-he2-gal2]

Naomi:


You certainly have some talent hum. I particularly like the glow and the shadow and deity in the first painting, and the rear view of the Mûš-ruššû - that's really something to depict a view you've never seen with finesse.

I have a number of Mesopotamia art suggestions that have to do with visions no one has ever seen to pass on to you (zaqiqu/spi. summoning) Naomi, if I should you down a little longer next time.

Oh - I have a book here that says something on Mûš-ruššû (in this work the same name is rendered Muš-huššu and as this probably a more recent reading I will use it below.) The book in question is called "Civilizations of the Ancient Near East" and is actually part of a 4 volume series. The relevent article contained therein is called "Ancient Mesopotamian Religious Iconography" by A. Green. Green also produced a book which has become staple of ANE studies called "God's, Demons, and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia" in conjunction with Jeremy Black - Who I think you're already aquainted with.


Green first comments: "Perhaps the most striking thing in ancient Mesopotamian religious art is was the symbol. Generally, its significance was simple and direct. Certain relativly uncomplicated images - such as phenomena in the sky, tools of the land, animals, animal hybrids or animal-headed and other standards- were used as direct substitues for individual gods and goddesses. Occasionally a single deity might have more than one such symbol or a particular symbol might in exceptional circumstances stand for more than one deity or as a general attribute of any one deity. Generally, however, there is a one-to-one, often straightforward relationship between the image and the god or goddess thereby represented."




I myself don't have a good familiarity with the Muš-huššu as although known textually from early sources (loosely), scholarly sources give its first physical attestation as the Kassite period (1500 BC) and last attestation in the Seleucid period (305 BC). This is later in Mespotamian history then I usually focus. However, from Green, we get the description of the Muš-huššu as a '(snake-)dragon, with lion's forlegs and bird's hindlegs".

Some god symbols, Green says, are easy enough to understand and interpret - Utu the sun god is symbolised by a sun disk, Nanna the moon god by a crescent moon, Inanna a star (the planet Venus). Some were less clear. Some were plan complicated.. And, you have asked about the very example Green using to illustrate how it sometimes got complicated with god images! His explaination is as follows:

"An excellent example of how a symbol might be transferred between gods in the wake of theological and political developments is provided by the dragon called [Muš-huššu] (Furious Snake) in Akkadian (No.30). The complex mythologies and associaitons of various gods that involved the creature have been collected and explained by F.A.M Wiggermann. The origin of the dragon was apparently as as the beast of the underworld snake god Ninazu, who in the Third millennium BCE [2900 down] was worshiped in the city Eshnunna (Eshnunnak, modern Tell Asmar). When, in the Akkadian [2400] or early in the early Old Babylonian [1900] period, Ninazu was replaced as city god by Tishpak (probably in origin the Hurrian storm-god Teshubb), the latter took over the [Muš-huššu] his animal, which in Lagash (modern Tell al-Hiba) the beast became associated with Ninazu's son, the underworld god Ningishzida."

To sum - The monster was originally
a) Ninazu's creature in Eshnunna in the early period
b) Taken by Tishpak and Ningishzida in Lagash in the Akkadian or Old Babylonian periods

Green contnues: "From Middle Babylonian times [1500] , however, possibly after Hammurabi's conquest of Eshnunna, the dragon was transferred to the new Babylonian national god, Marduk , and to his son, Nabu. The Assyrian king Sennacherib destroyed Babylon in 689 BCE. Thereafter, the Muš-huššu is found in Assyrian art, usually the symbol of the national god Assur, whose cult assimilated much of the mythology and festivals associated with Marduk. On Sennacherib's rock reliefs at Maltai, the creature is seen as the mount of two deities, Assur and another god, probably Nabu. Although the "meaning" of the Muš-huššu dragon changed therefore, in terms of the specific deity or deities it represented, it remained fairly constant in terms of the types of gods it symbolized. Its distinctive reptilian iconography originated from its associations with the underworld and with an underworld god. By virtue of this god being the main deity of a particular city-state, the beast came to symbolize a succession of chief loal and national deities and their sons.

so we have:
c) Transferred to Marduk and Nabu in Middle Babylonian times
d) To Assur in the Neo-Assyrian period (at 689 BC)


P.S. Oh, and Green mentioned the work of F.A.M Wiggermann when he said " The complex mythologies and associations of various gods that involved the creature have been collected and explained by F.A.M Wiggermann." I have recently gained a few glimpse's into Wiggermann's work which I will post shortly at Enenuru, though I don't yet have the work itself, which is called "Transtigridian Snake Gods" and which is contained in a book which itself is called "Sumerian Gods and their Representations"

https://www.eisenbrauns.com/ECOM/_2D206TLSP.HTM

Transtigiridian refers to the Tigris river and Wiggermann must connect this with the cities of the Snake gods in some way. In anycase although the book is the essential for Ninazu, Ningishzida and related religion I would say, it must also error and limititation even still - while being the best in the field. Although it appears out of print at Eisenbrauns there are likely other places to obtain it, and as well I know someone who has it if he could be persuaded to review for us.. hm.

[m1thr0s]

looks like we've got a scholar in the loop! coolbeans, things are looking up. A lot of us have been trying to piece this whole thing together piecemeal based on parallels found throughout the globe and just generally rooted in a more generalized sort of knowledge. The internet is some help but heavily flooded I think with certain individuals ideas and theories, so a lot of contradiction there...

All in all we've done a pretty good job of digging out the gold but some things need the more dedicated time and energies of actual specialists...

great to have you onboard us4-he2-gal2!

note: I should probably state up front I am not a real keen fan of Marduk, personally. But it's all intuitive stuff really...it just reads all wrong and smacks of the same old zionistic bs that still plagues nations to this day. Ningishzidda is very different...seemingly coming in on a whole other channel and certainly for alchemy at least extremely relevant on many many levels...

Marduk, on the other hand, comes off like a common thug just about any way you slice the deck. I can't shake the impression that the two lineages are actually coming from completely opposing camps, though I have not been able to confirm this with any remarkable supportive evidence.

m1

[The Cove]

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r39/askblog/leronedefortune.jpg

An old lithograph I did that reminds of Naomi's last posted work.

Your work is great - but why the colors on the edge of garrish?

Different strokes... I suppose.

That is my one general critique of your work - color usage.

Of course that falls into the realm of personal taste so there you are.

Hell, in retrospect my palette has been leaning in that direction also - influenced by the workshops I have been giving children recently, in Graffiti and Comic Book Making.

[Naomi]

Your work is great - but why the colors on the edge of garrish?

Different strokes... I suppose.

That is my one general critique of your work - color usage.

Lisa Frank exposure

Ningishzidda makes me horny so I like lime green and pink those are his colors...

(In my dreams and visions)

also black

also cocks

so Lisa Frank, Cocks, Ningishzidda....etc...

now enough of because

I noticed that after I was exposed to the mirrors my palette changed from black and natural colors to super-chromatic rainbow...I was always kind of edging towards that but never got up the impetus to change my whole palette and now I'm very happy with my style.

[Naomi]

To sum - The monster was originally
a) Ninazu's creature in Eshnunna in the early period
b) Taken by Tishpak and Ningishzida in Lagash in the Akkadian or Old Babylonian periods


shit, great post, thanks us4-he2-gal2

I've been looking for that information forever...:yes: It's great to have you here too...

[us4-he2-gal2]

No problem Naomi ;] and thanks for the welcome M1thr0s . I am certainly glad to help if I can, within my limited range of focus. If particular problems related to Sumer or Mesopotamia arise, be sure to contant me if I don't otherwise see them. cheers

[Naomi]

http://www.dazimua.com/images/paintings/goldenmushushu2.jpg