Difference between revisions of "Enlil" - New World Encyclopedia

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Fertile Crescent myth series

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Primordial beings
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Tales from Babylon
7 Gods who Decree
4 primary: Anu Enlil Ki Enki	3 sky: Ishtar Sin Sama

Enlil (EN = Lord+ LIL = Air, "Lord of the Open" or "Lord of the Wind")^[1] was the name of a major Mesopotamian deity. Originally centered in the city of Nippur, he rose to more universal prominence as member of the triad of Babylonian gods together An (Anu) and Enki (Ea).

Enlil appears frequently in ancient Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Canaanite, and other Mesopotamian clay and stone tablets. The name was perhaps pronounced and sometimes rendered in as Ellil in later Akkadian, Hittite, and Canaanite literature.

Enlil was considered to be the god of breath, wind, air and space. As a member of the great triad of god, he was in charge of the wind, while Enki/Ea governed the waters, and An/Anu ruled the deep heavens.

Origins

One story names his origins as the exhausted breath of An (god of the heavens) and Ki (goddess of the Earth) after sexual union.

When Enlil was a young god, he was banished from Dilmun, home of the gods, to Kur, the underworld, for raping the his consort, the young grain goddess Ninlil (Akkadian: Belit). Ninlil followed him to the underworld where she bore his first child, the moon god Sin (Sumerian Nanna). After fathering three more underworld deities, Enlil was allowed to return to Dilmun. ^[2]

The the Lord of the Winds, Enlil had charge of both the great storms and the kindly winds of spring, which came forth at his command from his mouth and nostrils.

Enlil embodied power and authority. In several myths he is described as stern and wrathful, as opposed to his counterpart Enki/Ea, who showed more compassion and sometimes risked Enlil's disapproval in siding with mankind or other gods.

Enlil was also known as the inventor of the pickaxe/hoe (favorite tool of the Sumerians) and caused plants to grow^[3]. In another myth he is describing as dividing the heavens from the earth in order to allow for the growth of plants from their seeds. After this, he created the pickaxe/hoe and broke up earth's crust. It was this act that caused human beings to spring from the earth.

In later Babylonian religion, Enlil was replaced by Marduk the king of the gods. In the Enuma Elish, He continued to be extolled, however, as high god of Nippur until the end of the 2nd millennium B.C.E. He remained an important deity there well into the next millennium.

Cosmological role

Enlil, along with Anu/An, Enki and Ninhursag was one of the four gods of the Sumerians ^[4].

By his wife Ninlil or Sud, Enlil was father of the moon god Nanna - (Suen) (in Akkadian Sin) and of Ninurta (also called Ningirsu). Enlil is sometimes father of Nergal, of Nisaba the goddess of grain, of Pabilsag who is sometimes equated with Ninurta, and sometimes of Enbilulu. By Ereshkigal Enlil was father of Namtar.

Cultural histories

Enlil is associated with the ancient city of Nippur, sometimes referred to as the cult city of Enlil.^[5]

At a very early period prior to 3000 B.C.E.—Nippur had become the centre of a political district of considerable extent. Inscriptions found at Nippur, where extensive excavations were carried on during 1888–1900 by John P Peters and John Henry Haynes, under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania, show that Enlil was the head of an extensive pantheon. Among the titles accorded to him are "king of lands," "king of heaven and earth" and "father of the gods."

His chief temple at Nippur was known as Ekur, signifying 'House of the mountain', and such was the sanctity acquired by this edifice that Babylonian and Assyrian rulers, down to the latest days, vied with one another in embellishing and restoring Enlil's seat of worship, and the name Ekur became the designation of a temple in general.

Grouped around the main sanctuary, there arose temples and chapels to the gods and goddesses who formed his court, so that Ekur became the name for an entire sacred precinct in the city of Nippur. The name "mountain house" suggests a lofty structure and was perhaps the designation originally of the staged tower at Nippur, built in imitation of a mountain, with the sacred shrine of the god on the top.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

↑ Halloran, John A.; "Sumerian Lexicon: Version 3.0"; December 10th, 2006 at http://www.sumerian.org/sumerlex.htm
↑ [1].
↑ Hooke. S.H., Middle Eastern Mythology, Dover Publications, 2004
↑ Kramer, Samuel Noah, "The Sumerian Deluge Myth: Reviewed and Revised" Anatolian Studies, Vol. 33, Special Number in Honour of the Seventy-Fifth Birthday of Dr. Richard Barnett. (1983), pp. 115-121.
↑ Review: Enki and the Theology of Eridu William W. Hallo, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 116, No. 2. (Apr. - Jun., 1996), pp. 231-234

External links

ETCSL "Enlil and Ninlil" and "Enlil and Sud": Unicode and ASCII.
Gateway to Babylon: "Enlil and Ninlil," trans. Thorkild Jacobsen.
ETCSL "Enlil in the Ekur": Unicode and ASCII.
Houghton-Mifflin: A Hymn to the Sky-God Enlil.
"The Song of the Hoe" in ETCSL—Songs, elegies and related compositions: Unicode and ASCII.

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Enlil ^history

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History of "Enlil"

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[1] Halloran, John A.; "Sumerian Lexicon: Version 3.0"; December 10th, 2006 at http://www.sumerian.org/sumerlex.htm

[2] [1].

[3] Hooke. S.H., Middle Eastern Mythology, Dover Publications, 2004

[4] Kramer, Samuel Noah, "The Sumerian Deluge Myth: Reviewed and Revised" Anatolian Studies, Vol. 33, Special Number in Honour of the Seventy-Fifth Birthday of Dr. Richard Barnett. (1983), pp. 115-121.

[5] Review: Enki and the Theology of Eridu William W. Hallo, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 116, No. 2. (Apr. - Jun., 1996), pp. 231-234

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@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 One story names his origins as the exhausted breath of [[An (mythology)|An]] (god of the heavens) and [[Ki (goddess)|Ki]] (goddess of the Earth) after sexual union.
-When Enlil was a young god, he was banished from [[Dilmun]], home of the gods, to [[Kur]], the underworld, for raping a maiden named [[Ninlil]]—Lady Air. Ninlil followed him to the underworld where she bore his first child, the moon god [[Sin (mythology)|Sin]] (Sumerian Nanna). After fathering three more underworld deities, Enlil was allowed to return to Dilmun. <ref>[http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr121.htm].</ref>
+When Enlil was a young god, he was banished from [[Dilmun]], home of the gods, to [[Kur]], the underworld, for raping the his consort, the young grain goddess [[Ninlil]] (Akkadian: Belit). Ninlil followed him to the underworld where she bore his first child, the moon god [[Sin (mythology)|Sin]] (Sumerian Nanna). After fathering three more underworld deities, Enlil was allowed to return to Dilmun. <ref>[http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr121.htm].</ref>
-Enlil was also known as the inventor of the [[pickaxe/hoe]] (favorite tool of the Sumerians) and caused plants to grow<ref>Hooke. S.H., Middle Eastern Mythology, Dover Publications, 2004</ref>.
+The the Lord of the Winds, Enlil had charge of both the great storms and the kindly winds of spring, which came forth at his command from his mouth and nostrils.
-Enlil meant Lord Wind: both the hurricane and the gentle winds of spring were thought of as the breath issuing from his mouth and eventually as his word or command. He was sometimes called Lord of the Air.
+Enlil embodied power and authority. In several myths he is described as stern and wrathful, as opposed to his counterpart Enki/Ea, who showed more compassion and sometimes risked Enlil's disapproval in siding with mankind or other gods.
-Although An was the highest god in the Sumerian pantheon, Enlil had a more important role as the embodiment of energy and force and authority. Enlil's cult centre was Nippur. Enlil was also the god of agriculture. The Myth of the Creation of the Hoe describes how he separated heaven and earth to make room for seeds to grow. He then invented the hoe and broke the hard crust of earth; men sprang forth from the opening. Another myth relates Enlil's rape of his consort Ninlil (Akkadian: Belit), a grain goddess, and his subsequent banishment to the underworld. This myth reflects the agricultural cycle of fertilization, ripening, and winter inactivity.
+Enlil was also known as the inventor of the [[pickaxe/hoe]] (favorite tool of the Sumerians) and caused plants to grow<ref>Hooke. S.H., Middle Eastern Mythology, Dover Publications, 2004</ref>. In another myth he is describing as  dividing the heavens from the earth in order to allow for the growth of plants from their seeds. After this, he created the pickaxe/hoe and broke up earth's crust. It was this act that caused human beings to spring from the earth.
-Enlil was eventually replaced by Marduk as the executive of the Babylonian pantheon. He continued to be extolled, however, as high god of Nippur until the end of the 2nd millennium B.C.E. He remained an important deity there well into the next millennium.
+In later Babylonian religion, [[Enlil]] was replaced by [[Marduk]] the king of the gods. In the Enuma Elish, He continued to be extolled, however, as high god of Nippur until the end of the 2nd millennium B.C.E. He remained an important deity there well into the next millennium.
 ==Cosmological role==