| NINLIL: Chaldaean and Sumerian grain goddess, daughter of NUN-BARSHEGUNU and wife of Enlil. One version says she was raped by Enlil, who was then banished to the Underworld; but she insisted on following him and gave birth to the Moon god Nanna and later to three Underworld deities. May originally have been identical with Nunbarshegunu (which sometimes occurs as her title) and mother of Enlil (but see KI). Later considered the wife of the Assyrian war god Assur. Often a designation of ISHTAR. See also NINHURSAG. NINMAH: Chaldaean, Sumerian. Mother goddess and goddess of childbirth. In some accounts, mother of Enlil. NINSAR, NINMU: Sumerian goddess of plants, 'the Lady who Makes Live'. Daughter of Enki and NINHURSAG . NINSUN, SIRTUR: Sumerian. Named as (1) mother of Gilgamesh and (2) mother of Dumuzi and GESTINANNA; but these may be two distinct goddesses. The mother of Gilgamesh is described as being 'strong as a wild ox' and 'wise with deep knowledge'. In the Lament for Dumuzi, his mother merely appears as mourning along with his sister Gestinanna and his wife INANNA. NINTI: ('Lady of the Rib', also 'Lady of Life') Sumerian. One of eight goddesses created by NINHURSAG to cure the various bodily parts of Enki after she had cursed him; Ninti was responsible for healing his rib. May be the source of the Genesis account of the creation of Eve (Hebrew Chavah, 'Life') from Adam's rib. NINTU: see ARU. NINTUD: see BELIT-ILl. NIRRITI: Hindu. With her husband Nirrita, Vedic deities of death. NISABA (1): Chaldaean architect goddess, sister of NINA. She appeared to the King Gudea in a dream and drew the plans for a temple he wanted to build, and he followed her instructions. (Some of Gudea's artefacts have been excavated.) NISABA (2): Chaldaean grain goddess, apparently distinct from NISABA (1). Sister of NANSHE. Sometimes a title given to NINLIL. NISACHARIS, THE: ('Night Wanderers') Hindu succubi. NIX: Teutonic. Early German for undine. Nixe (the plural) women were alluringly beautiful, and LORELEI-like, would sit on river banks combing their golden hair and luring boatmen to their doom. Some who saw them, or heard them sing, went mad. The name was also used for lake, river or well priestesses. NOCTILUCA: Gaulish witch goddess. NOKOMIS: ('Grandmother') Amerindian, Algonquin. The Earth Mother who nourishes all living things. Grandmother of the culture hero Manabozho or Winabojo. NORNS, THE: Teutonic, the Three Fates - Wyrd or Urd ('Past' or 'Destiny') and Verdandi ('Present') who wove the web of fate, and Skuld ('Future') who tore it. Guardians of the sacred tree Yggdrasil. Festival: New Year's Eve. Often regarded as one goddess of destiny, Wyrd, to whom even the gods were subject. 'The Three Wyrds' were the origin of Shakespeare's 'Weird Sisters'. NORTIA: Etruscan goddess of fortune. NOTT: ('Night') Teutonic, a giantess, mother of JORD and grandmother of Thor. NOWUTSET: see UTSET. NOX: Roman goddess of night, sister of DIES (Day) (cf. NYX). NUAH: A Babylonian mother and Moon goddess. Her Flood myth was later absorbed by ISHTAR. The biblical Noah is doubtless a masculinization of her name. NU-KUA: Chinese creator goddess, sister and wife of Fu-hsi. She had a woman's body down to the waist and a dragon's tail; when she created men and women, she modelled them on her own body but gave them legs. Also known as the 'Restorer of Cosmic Equilibrium' after the world was devastated by flood and fire. Mediator between men and women, inventor of marriage, provider of children, tamer of wild beasts, and teacher of the civilized sciences such as irrigation. NUNAKAWA-HIME: Japanese. A wise and beautiful young goddess, who may be 'a mythological recollection of the diplomatic marriages between Idumo leaders and women rulers of Kosi, occasioned by Idumo's attempts to consolidate its control of the Hokuriku area, Matsumura' (Durdin-Robertson, Goddesses of India, pp.404-5). NUNBARSHEGUNU: ('Goddess of Agricultural Fertility') Sumerian and Chaldaean. Before mankind was created, she lived in the city of Nippur with her daughter NINLIL and the young mountain and storm god Enlil. She encouraged the marriage between the two younger deities (but see NINLIL). NUNGEENA: Australian aborigine, South-Eastern. The Mother-Spirit who, with Baiame the Father-Spirit, restored the world after Marmoo, the Spirit of Evil, had devastated it with swarms of poisonous and devouring insects. They created birds to eat up the insects - Nungeena starting with the most beautiful of all, the lyre-bird. They made more lovely birds, and their assistant spirits made the less beautiful ones like butcher-birds and magpies; between them they defeated the insect hordes, and plant life was able to grow again. NUT: Egyptian sky mother goddess. Daughter of Shu and TEFNUT; but sometimes called the daughter of Ra, or even his mother, as the cow who gave birth to him each morning (the pink dawn sky being the blood of this birth). In this version Ra was Kamephis ('bull of his mother'), born of her as a calf at dawn, fertilizing her as a bull at midday and dying in the evening to be reborn next day as his own son. Geb, the Earth, was Nut's twin brother and lover; but Ra ordered the air god, their brother Shu, to separate them, and ordained that they should have no children in any month of the year. Thoth, in pity for them, played draughts with the Moon and won one seventy-second part of its light, which became the five intercalary days belonging to no month. Geb and Nut were thus able to produce Osiris, Horus the Elder, Set, ISIS and NEPHTHYS on these five days. The Sun and Moon were sometimes called her children, and sometimes her eyes. A protectress of the dead, her naked starry body is often seen stretched full length on the inner lid of coffins to face the mummy. Also depicted in the same form arched over the Earth, with only her toes and fingertips touching it. Also sometimes shown as a cow. Her headdress is the hieroglyph of her name, a pot (which may be a womb). Festival: the five Egyptian intercalary days, 24-28 August, and also 25 December, when she gave birth to Ra. 777: Tarot, Twos, Star; gems: star ruby, turquoise, artificial glass; plants: amaranth, olive, coconut; animals: i man, eagle, peacock; mineral: phosphorus; perfumes: musk, galbanum; magical weapons: Lingam, Inner Robe of Glory, Censer, Aspergillus. (Note: Nut is the only goddess, of any pantheon, attributed in 777 to Path 0, the Veils beyond Kether.) David Wood's number: also O. NU-ZUCHI: see KAYA-NU-HIME. NYX: Greek goddess of night, daughter of Chaos and Erebus, and mother of HEMERA (Day) (cf. NOX). In the beginning only Nyx existed; from her came the Primeval Egg, which split in two and produced Uranus (Heaven) and GAIA (Earth). ©1987 Janet & Stewart Farrar [BACK] [NEXT] | 
