Introduction
Ningal is the goddess of reeds, wife of the moon god Nanna and mother, with him, of the sun god Utu and the goddess Inanna.
Family
- Spouse: Nanna (Sin) (married)
- Children: Utu (Shamash), Inanna (Ishtar)
Consort at Ur
Ningal was worshipped alongside her husband Nanna at his major cult center of Ur, and appears in several Sumerian laments and hymns mourning the destruction of that city, reflecting her close identification with Ur's fate and fortunes across Sumerian religious literature.
Mesopotamian religion spans Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian sources composed and recopied across nearly three thousand years, so names, genealogies, and even a deity's role often shift between traditions (Sumerian An/Enki/Inanna alongside their Akkadian/Babylonian forms Anu/Ea/Ishtar); the account above follows the most widely attested version, usually as consolidated in the Babylonian Enuma Elish or the standard Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh.