Ningikuga

{{short description|Mesopotamian goddess}}

Ningikuga was a Mesopotamian goddess. Her name can be explained as nin-gi-kug-a(k), "lady of the pure reed".{{sfn|Jacobsen|1978|p=124}}

A tradition according to which Ningikuga was a wife of Enki is known.{{sfn|Jacobsen|1978|p=124}} In the Old Babylonian An = Anum forerunner she occurs in his circle after Damgalnuna, while in An = Anum itself she is outright equated with her.{{sfn|Cavigneaux|Krebernik|1998|p=361}} In the latter list she appears in line 178 of tablet II, before Ninti.{{sfn|Litke|1998|p=88}}

In two sources, an Old Babylonian balbale composition and in a love song, Ningikuga is the name of Ningal's mother.{{sfn|Cavigneaux|Krebernik|1998|p=361}} By extension, she functioned as the grandmother of Inanna.{{sfn|Jacobsen|1992|p=4}} While Thorkild Jacobsen assumed that the mother of Ningal and the spouse of Enki were the same goddess,{{sfn|Jacobsen|1978|pp=124-125}} Antoine Cavigneaux and Manfred Krebernik keep the two uses of the name separate.{{sfn|Cavigneaux|Krebernik|1998|p=361}} Jacobsen also argued that based on the meaning of Ningikuga's name it can be assumed that both she and her daughter were associated with reeds and marshes.{{sfn|Jacobsen|1978|pp=124-125}}

Line 28 of tablet III of An = Anum explains Ningikuga as a name of Ningal.{{sfn|Litke|1998|p=120}} A single hymn to Inanna also uses the name Ningikuga to refer to a manifestation of this goddess, and describes her as "the mistress of all, the pure one, who purifies the earth".{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=109}}