Gula - Medicine Goddess of Mesopotamia
- Sylvia Rose
- Dec 18, 2023
- 5 min read
Updated: Mar 28
Her name means 'the great' in Sumerian. Gula is a Mesopotamian goddess whose worship grows popular in the 2nd millennium BCE. Ancient world medicine includes aloe vera for burns and exorcism of disease demons.
Medicine in the ancient world is a constantly developing art. Holistic plants and recipes are noted on hundreds of clay tablets up to 5000 years old. Herbal trade with Egypt includes blackseed from the Arabian peninsula.
Mesopotamian healers give prescriptions, in the forms of health recipes, use of healing plants or mystic incantations. A sacrifice at a certain deity's temple might be required.
Gula first appears in the Ur III period (2193 - 2004 BCE) in Umman, south-east Sumer. Her cult spreads to Nippur, which becomes her center of worship. She's revered in Uruk, Babylon, Ur and Lagash.
After Hammurabi (1792 - 1750 BCE), her worship expands to Larsa, Sippar and Isin. The Kassites praise her in their capital, Dur-Kurigalzu.
She becomes popular in Mesopotamia after the Hittites sack Babylon (1595 BCE). The day of Gula is the nineteenth of the month.
When a person is ill, gods like Nergal and demons of disease may need to be placated. An oracle might be consulted as to the best course of action.
Oracles include gods like sun deity Šamaš and fertility god Adad (Ba'al). Certain practitioners (bārû) read omens from animal livers, like the haruspices of later Rome.
Other Mesopotamian healing Goddesses include Ninisina, Ninkarrak, Nintinugga, Bau and Meme. At one point, Gula attributes her healing powers to the Primordial God Ea, deity of water, knowledge and crafts.
Healing plants and herbs are often used together with mystic rites or chants. Plants growing underfoot have spiritual and medicinal properties. The common plantain (Plantago major) is both medicine and food.
Health and medicine expand scientific borders in such creatively rich regions as Mesopotamia, Egypt, Asia Minor and Greece. Goddess Gula becomes one of the most popular deities in the ancient near East.
The worship of Gula begins in folk religion, where she's a domestic deity, guardian of the household and rebuker of disease demons. She might also preside when a woman is in childbirth.
Depending on region and belief, one or more deific attendants are present at the time of pregancy, birth and infancy of the child. In Mesopotamia, the demon Pazuzu is often invoked.
Although he's a demon he will stave off the evil of his sworn enemy Lamashtu, thus protect mother and child. Deific childbirth guardian entities are the Šassūrātu (Sassuratu), Divine or Deific Midwives, and lamma goddesses.
Gula is responsible for the cutting of the umbilical cord at birth, as well as blessings of a happy fate for the child. She is considered auspicious for fighting off childhood diseases and protection against Lamashtu as well.
She's associated with dogs. In depictions she may be accompanied by one dog or several. Votive offerings of dog statuettes and canine figures are placed at her altar. Her sukkal, Umašum, is a canine or person-dog entity.
Goddess Gula enjoys unprecedented popularity. She's even mentioned in Syrian texts from Emar and Ugarit. Her travels absorb some local deities including the goddess Meme or Memešaga.
Known as a 'divine caretaker', Memešaga merges with her as worship of Gula expands. Even the Akkadian Goddess Ninnibru, an early wife of Ninurta, comes to be seen as a representation of Gula.
Originally Gula is unmarried. At some point in the Kassite period (1531 - 1155 BCE) Gula hooks up with god hero Ninurta. Ninurta is originally an agriculture and fertility deity.
In his warrior aspect she can heal his wounds, if any go so deep. He can cause beneficial healing plants to grow. Exceptionally, Gula is the wife of the god Pabilsaĝ or minor vegetation snake god Abu.
Gula has influence in a person's life, from infant to elderly. In a Mesopotamia hymn Gula is called 'the great doctoress'. Tools and techniques associated with her include herbal remedies, razor, scalpel, various knives and lancets.
Gula has the ability to use illness or disease as punishment for disrespectful mortals. A related goddess, Ninkarrak, is invoked in sickness-causing curses. Gula doesn't take on this aspect. She cannot be invoked in curses.
She's the most common figure on kudurru or boundary stones, queen of all the medicine gods, goddesses and entities. Carvings show her seated on a throne. She's the most popular goddess on Neo-Assyrian seals.
By nature she's associated with death. In one hymn Gula says she can raise the dead from the Underworld Kur. An incantation invokes her to counter the harmful effects of Ereshkigal, Mesopotamian Goddess of Death and Queen of the Underworld.
Her association with dogs is not unusual as the saliva of dogs has healing properties. Medical science observes wounds licked by dogs heal twice as fast due to antitoxins and disinfectants in canine saliva.
One Neo-Assyrian text citing Babylonian customs says a dog who crosses the Esabad, one of Gula's temples, is believed to be a messenger of Gula.
The dogs help her on her journeys and protect her from Lamashtu. An incantation against the demon states, "We are not just any dog, we are dogs of Gula, poised to flay your face, tear your back to pieces, and lacerate your ankles!"
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