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The cult of Ninurta can be traced back to the oldest period of Sumerian history. In the inscriptions found at Lagash he is appears under his name Ningirsu, that is, "the lord of Girsu", Girsu being the name of a quarter within Lagash.
Ninurta appears in a double capacity in the epithets bestowed on him, and in the hymns and incantations addressed to him. On the one hand he is a farmer and a healing god who releases from sickness and the ban of the demons in general and on the other he is the god of the South Wind, as the son of Enlil, who was the angry, jealous god of Air. While Enlil was the father of Ninurta, Enlil's brother, Enki, was Ninurta's mentor.
He remained popular under the Assyrians. Two of the kings of Assyria bore the name Tukulti-Ninurta. Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BCE) built him a temple in the new capital city of Calah (now Nimrud). In Assyria Ninurta was worshipped along with Assur and Mulissu.
In the astral-theological system Ninurta was associated with the planet Saturn, or perhaps as offspring or an aspect of Saturn, yielding more Martian attributes. In his capacity as a farmer-god, the Greeks equated Ninurta with their harvest-god Kronos, whom the Romans in turn identified with their fertility-god Saturn -- hence the current name of the planet.
The consort of Ninurta was Gula in Nippur and Bau when he was called Ningirsu. Many see Ninurta as the equivalent of Mars in Leo.
Parts of this article were originally from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article on Ninib.
Ninurta vehemently requests that Samurai do not don his Sash in battle.