Gula (Sumerian: "the great") was a Mesopotamian goddess of medicine, portrayed as a divine physician and midwife. Over the course of the second and first millennia BCE, she became one of the main deities of the Mesopotamian pantheon, and eventually started to be viewed as the second highest ranked goddess after Ishtar. She was associated with dogs, and could be depicted alongside these animals, for example on kudurru (inscribed boundary stones), and receive figurines representing them as votive offerings.

While Gula was initially regarded as unmarried, in the Kassite period she came to be associated with Ninurta. In Babylon his role could also be fulfilled by Mandanu, while the god list An = Anum links Gula with Pabilsag and Abu. The circle of deities closely associated with her also included Damu and Gunura, who eventually started to be regarded as her children, as well as her sukkal (divine attendant) Urmašum, who might have been imagined as a dog-like being. Through various syncretic processes she could be equated with other goddesses of similar character, including Ninisina, Ninkarrak, Nintinugga, Bau and Meme, though all of them were originally separate, and with the exception of the last of them did not entirely cease to be worshiped separately, even though their individual cults did decline. A well known composition dedicated to describing Gula's syncretic associations is the Gula Hymn of Bulluṭsa-rabi, which seemingly was copied by Mesopotamian practitioners of medicine during their formal training.

It is conventionally assumed that Gula originated in Umma, where she is well attested in the Ur III period, though possible older references are present in texts from Adab. In the following centuries, her cult spread to other cities, including Nippur, which eventually came to be regarded as her primary cult center, as well as Uruk, Babylon, Ur and Lagash. After the conquests of Hammurabi, she was also introduced to Larsa, Sippar and Isin. In the Kassite period she started to be worshiped in the newly established royal city of Dur-Kurigalzu. In Assyria Gula only appears for the first time in the Middle Babylonian period. She had temples in Assur, Kalhu, Tabetu and Mardaman. Attestations from outside Mesopotamia, for example from Emar and Ugarit, are largely limited to scholarly texts.

Gula's name has Sumerian origin and is usually understood as "the great." Based on context the common word gula could also mean "greater," "greatest," "former," "capital" or "main." In sources from the Ur III period, the word "gula" was sometimes used simply as an epithet added to names of various deities: references to "Inanna-gula," "Ninhursag-gula" or even "Alla-gula" are known. It was also applied to the medicine goddess Ninisina, for example in an offering list from Lagash and in a hymn from the reign of Ishbi-Erra. It has been proposed that the goddess Gula was herself initially an epithet, but gradually morphed into a separate deity. A well known comparable example of a Mesopotamian deity who developed this way is Annunitum, who was initially an epithet of Ishtar.

Jeremiah Peterson states that Gula (𒀭𒄖𒆷) and Gu₂-la₂ (𒀭𒄘𒇲), who frequently appears in god lists in association with Abu, were most likely understood as two orthographies of a single theonym, though he accepts the possibility that they were originally separate deities, and notes they might have continued to be recognized as such as late as in the Old Babylonian period. Researchers who support this proposal include Marcos Such-Gutiérrez, Joan Goodnick Westenholz and Irene Sibbing-Plantholt. Evidence in favor of this possibility includes the location of the respective cult centers of Gula and Gu₂-la₂ in different parts of Mesopotamia in the Ur III period, lack of any indications that the writing gu₂-la₂ ever corresponded to the term gula, and separate placement in god lists, though it is not unambiguous. It is also possible that the name of Gu₂-la₂ had a different etymology, with the verb gu₂-la₂, "to lean over" or "to embrace," being suggested by Sibbing-Plantholt.

Gu₂-la₂ is first attested in the Early Dynastic period in the Fara and Abu Salabikh god lists, as well as in theophoric names. However, she is absent from literary texts, and evidence of her cult is not present in any texts postdating the Old Babylonian period. There is no indication that she was a healing goddess in known sources, and her character is unknown. In the later god list An = Anum Gula, rather than Gu₂-la₂, appears as the spouse of Abu.

A third goddess who due to her name being homophonous could be connected to or confused with Gula and Gu₂-la₂ was Ukulla, the spouse of Tishpak. Furthermore, Wilfred G. Lambert has identified examples of confusion between the name of Gula and that of the male bricklayer deity Kulla.

Ninnibru, also known under the Akkadian form the name, Bēlet-Nippuri, "the lady of Nippur," was a goddess regarded as the wife of Ninurta who first appears in offering lists from the Ur III period. She eventually came to be understood as a form of Gula, and as such ceased to be regarded as a distinct goddess. It is presently uncertain if she was still worshiped as a distinct deity in the Kassite period, when Ninurta was paired with Gula. As Ninnibru, Gula was worshiped in the Ešumeša, a well attested temple of Ninurta in Nippur.