The Healing Goddess Gula as an Astral Goddess and Her Connection with the She-Goat and the Dog Constellations

Abstract

Gula the healing goddess is one of the best-known goddesses of Ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest mentions of Gula date back to the first half of the 3rd millennium BC. In the 2nd millennium BC the worship of Gula became widespread in Mesopotamia. Later on Gula becomes an astral goddess; she is associated with Lyra, one of the brightest constellations in the northern sky. This article discusses the astral aspects of the goddess Gula as a constellation and her connection with the Goat and the Dog constellations, located respectively in the modern Lyra and Hercules. The complicated mythological relationships that existed between Gula and these constellations changed with time. Gula was regarded as the goddess of the Goat constellation while the Dog was Gula’s sacred animal. The article reviews the main characteristics of Gula and the two above-mentioned constellations, reconstructed from cuneiform sources pertaining to different types and periods, particularly astral epithets associated with Gula and images on the glyptics and boundary stones (kudurru). The figures of the Gula, the Goat, and the Dog constellations are reconstructed. It is shown that, at the end of the 3rd millennium BC, of these three constellations only the Goat and the Dog were identified in the Mesopotamian sky. Gula acquired astral significance not before the second half of the 2nd millennium BC.