Instead of being a member of the heavenly pantheon, her place is with the kingdom over which Ea presides, and whose dwelling-place is the watery deep.

In any case, Nina is originally distinct from Ishtar, Nana, and Anunit; and she retains an independent existence to a later period than most of the other great goddesses that have been discussed.

In an inscription of the days of Belnadinaplu (_c._ 1100 B.C.), published by Hilprecht,[72] Nina appears as the patron deity of Der,--a city of Southern Babylonia.

There too she is called the 'daughter of Ea,' the creator of everything.

She is 'the mistress of goddesses.' Attached to her temple there are lands that having been wrongfully wrested from the priests are returned upon royal command, under solemn invocation of the goddess.