Ninkasi is asteroid #4947 and also known as 1988 TJ1. Ninkasi was discovered by the American astronomer Carolyn Jean Spellmann Shoemaker at the Palomar Observatory. Ninkasi is a Near Earth Asteroid and a Mars-orbit-crosser of the group Amor.

Ninkasi is named after the Sumerian goddess of first beer and then also wine. Most characters from Sumerian mythology aren’t represented in the sky. At least not yet. So Ninkasi appearing in some tales assisting other mythological characters can’t be of much relevance. Such tales are only known in fragments anyway. A hymn to Ninkasi has survived on a clay tablet. This hymn explains how beer was brewed. A Fritz Maytag and a Solomon H. Katz were able to recreate Sumerian beer by using this recipe. Ninkasi is the daughter of Enki (frugality god and creator of mankind) and Ninki (most likely only a female form of Enki). A variant states that Ninkasi is the daughter of the king of Uruk and of the high-priestess of the temple of Inanna. Another variant claims that Ninkasi is a minor goddess, who was created by the goddess Nihursanga. She created her as a kind of medicine goddess and the beer, which Ninkasi brews daily, shall have healing powers. In another variant Ninkasi is a beautiful goddess, who existed already before Enki and has the task to teach manners and the rules of civilization to men. Enki was human and the first to be taught by her. Ninkasi controlled who got how much beer. Ninkasi’s name shall mean “who fills the mouth”.

Ninkasi was known in Egypt too and there she gradually became the Egyptian goddess Tejenemit. Other goddesses, who are seen as her counterpart in other mythologies are Mayahuel, Nantosuetta, Habondia, and Ceres. Mayahuel is a frugality goddess of the Aztecs and ferments agave plants. Habondia is a Celtic earth goddess. Nantosuetta is a Gaulish frugality goddess and presides over all liquids. The Spanish word for beer is cerveza and derived from the Latin word for beer, which is cervisia. This word is derived from the name of the Roman goddess Ceres. Among these counterparts only Ceres and Tejenemit are as much as Ninkasi connected with inventing and brewing beer.

Ninkasi is connected with food, drugs and a kind of administration. She could be the patroness of the FDA. Because the Egyptian Tejenemit actually is Ninkasi too, so Ninkasi is an opposing force to Sekhmet. Both share the theme of healing. While Sekhmet went out of control, Ninkasi is in charge of controlling who gets how much. So Ninkasi and Sekhmet together could show an appropriate dose of a drug and in this case Ninkasi prevents overdosing. Ninkasi is from the eldest still known mythology and a counterpart of Ceres, while their Greek counterpart Demeter is different because she also fulfills tasks of Saturn. Differences between Ninkasi and Ceres decide on the exact meaning of Ninkasi and these differences must also explain why both goddesses are represented in the sky. Ninkasi is connected with medical drugs and Ninkasi shall have brought civilization. Ninkasi seems not to create like deities of frugality do, but to nourish and sustain life. Ninkasi is an opposing force to every force, which tries to terminate life. Ninkasi lets humanity exist. So Ninkasi is an indicator of sustainability. Ninkasi of course also presides over breweries. But she presides over regulations of drug control as well. Beer is not only popular because people like to get drunk, but a culture of beer consumption got established in Europe during many centuries when water wasn’t believed to be potable because European waters were really so dirty that people got sick from drinking it. So beer was directly connected with sustaining life. These meanings of Ninkasi don’t contradict each other, but are complementing each other.