Talk:Ningishzida

The Biblical Serpent and the Eden Story
I would welcome informed and sourced comments in this article about whether or not Ningishzida is believed to be an origin for the Biblical serpent. --Tediouspedant (talk) 22:16, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Hiya, please add references to the historical roots section based on the following: http://www.lessing-photo.com/dispimg.asp?cr=2&i=08021238+&d=3&p=1&a=d&hr=0 That is the libation cup in question. Found it while researching something i may get permanently etched in to my dermis tomorrow. And a further reference to cite is Cirlot's Dictionary of Symbols second edition pages 35 and 6. 76.169.100.117 (talk) 04:49, 23 May 2010 (UTC)


 * Hebrew equivalent? I heard that the Sumerian "Ningishzida" might be related to the Hebrew: דָּ֫עַת עֵץ דָּ֫עַת - "nachash ets daath" meaning "serpent (of the) tree (of) knowledge". Can any expert comment? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.71.43.37 (talk) 15:47, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Ningishzida literally means like "Lady Fertile/Growth Tree". Since she is the one who gives the first man Adapa the fruit that would make him immortal I would boldly say it means "Lady of the Tree of Life". That would fit depictions of her as a serpent winding around a tree, which was later the symbol of healing.

This article needs help
I'll be back to fix it, but before I did come back to, I just made sure I fixed the sumerian syllabic spelling of it from nin-ngish-zi-da to nin-ngish-zid-da, in which you will find on the index of proper nouns at ETCSL for the name. Abdishtar (talk) 10:09, 13 August 2010 (UTC)

spelling
It is correct that the ETCSL spells nin-ngish-zid-da but if you take a cuneiform sign list the sign is not ZID but ZI (you can check on the official sign list on Enenuru catalog)

Alex Demontis —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.21.239.155 (talk) 20:03, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

Weasel words
Where it is implied that "some say" the intertwining snakes are copulating, this is repeated in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caduceus, only there it is given as a proper citation. 28.Apr 2011 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.191.87.254 (talk) 11:52, 28 April 2011 (UTC)


 * I just restructured the part of the article where that sentence occurs. Originally, it was a parenthetical within another parenthetical, and quite awkward for reading. Something I noticed is that it had a bracketed number (as plain text, not a live reference link) so I suspected someone had cut and pasted the sentence from the Caduceus article. Just looked at that article and it is pretty much word for word in that article. In the edit summary I mentioned that that particular sentence probably doesn't belong in this article. Does anyone have any problem with it just being removed? It is, after all, speaking more of the supposed origins (from the ancient Greek perspective) of the caduceus, which does not touch on Ninğišzida in anyway. — al-Shimoni  (talk) 04:21, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

Whoever put this was implying that the "some" is Walter Burkert, Greek Religion London: Cambridge University Press, 1985: p. 158. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.236.60.181 (talk) 18:34, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

Princeton University professors Arthur Frothingham and Allan Marquand, 'American journal of archaeology'. p. 189.
This is the current reference #6 - " Princeton University professors Arthur Frothingham and Allan Marquand, 'American journal of archaeology'. p. 189. " but that's not actually a reference to anything specific. Which volume or article? I can't find it. Asdjk48 (talk) 23:38, 10 February 2021 (UTC) I looked at page 189 of every volume of that journal, on jstor, "The American Journal of Archaeology and of the History of the Fine Arts", 1885-1896, and found nothing about this. Asdjk48 (talk) 23:46, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

I believe I found the source: A. L. Frothingham, Babylonian Origin of Hermes the Snake-God, and of the Caduceus I, 20(2) American Journal of Archaeology 175, at 189--90 (1916) ("In some magical texts where Ningishzida is among the minor solar deities invoked, it is not as a male but as a female deity and as the wife or consort of the sun-gods Nusku or Ninib or even of Gibil the primitive fire-god").--Mighose (talk) 23:28, 5 June 2021 (UTC)

Nice, thanks! Asdjk48 (talk) 00:39, 8 June 2021 (UTC)