| Ninsianna | |
|---|---|
Personification of Venus | |
 The Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa. Ninsianna is mentioned as a name for the planet Venus.[1] | |
| Major cult center | Nippur,[2] possibly Ur[3] |
| Planet | Venus |
| Symbol | a star[4] |
| Gender | variable[4] |
| Genealogy | |
| Spouse | possibly Kabta[5] |
| Equivalents | |
| Hurrian | Pinikir[6] |
Ninsianna (Sumerian: "Red Queen of Heaven"[7]) was a Mesopotamian deity considered to be the personification of Venus. This theonym also served as the name of the planet in astronomical texts until the end of the Old Babylonian period. There is evidence that Ninsianna's gender varied between locations, and both feminine and masculine forms of this deity were worshiped. Due to their shared connection to Venus, Ninsianna was associated with Inanna. Furthermore, the deity Kabta appears alongside Ninsianna in many texts, but the character of the relation between them remains unclear.
The oldest evidence for the worship of Ninsianna comes from the Ur III period, and includes references to the construction of two temples of this deity. Many further attestations are available from the Isin-Larsa and Old Babylonian periods, including royal inscriptions, personal letters, seals and theophoric names. The use of Ninsianna's name to refer to the planet Venus declined later, though the feminine form of this deity continued to be worshiped, for example in Nippur. In the Hellenistic period, she appears in ritual texts from Uruk,
- ^ Heimpel 1998, p. 488.
- ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 101.
- ^ Stephens 2016.
- ^ a b Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 254.
- ^ Lambert 1980, p. 284.
- ^ Beckman 1999, p. 27.
- ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 86.