Right. You've decided to disturb my quiet by asking about an ancient Mesopotamian god. Let's get this over with. Don't expect me to hold your hand. If you're looking for the fictional character from those video games, The Conduit and Conduit 2, you're in the wrong place. See Enlil (The Conduit). And if you're here for an album, see Elil (album). Now, if you're quite finished being lost, we can begin.
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Enlil
God of the Wind, Air, the Earth, and Storms
| Statuette of Enlil sitting on his throne from the site of Nippur, dated to 1800–1600 BC. It now resides, probably unimpressed, in the [Iraq Museum](/Iraq Museum). |
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Enlil,^[a] who later answered to the names Elil and Ellil, stands as one of the more consequential figures in the pantheon of ancient Mesopotamian gods. His portfolio was a chaotic mix of wind, air, earth, and storms, essentially all the elements that could ruin your day.[4] He first clawed his way to the top as the chief deity of the Sumerian pantheon,[5] a position he later held with the Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Hurrians, because power, even divine power, is rarely original.
The nerve center of Enlil's worship was the Ekur temple in the city of Nippur. This place was supposedly built by Enlil himself—a bit of divine vanity, perhaps—and was poetically regarded as the "mooring-rope" of heaven and earth. In Sumerian texts, he's sometimes saddled with the name Nunamnir. According to one particularly reverent Sumerian hymn, Enlil possessed a holiness so potent that even the other gods couldn't bear to look at him directly, which must have made divine council meetings awkward.
Enlil's star rose during the twenty-fourth century BC, coinciding with Nippur's ascent. His cult, however, proved as mortal as any other. It began its terminal decline after the Elamites sacked Nippur in 1230 BC. In the grand cosmic reshuffle, he was eventually pushed aside as the headliner of the Mesopotamian pantheon by the Babylonian national god, Marduk. Sic transit gloria mundi, even for the gods.
In the scheme of ancient near eastern cosmology, Enlil was something of a cosmic bouncer. He was credited with separating An (heaven) from Ki (earth), a violent act of celestial engineering that made the world habitable for humans. Whether that was a gift or a curse is still up for debate. In the Sumerian flood myth, the Eridu Genesis, he plays the benevolent king, granting Ziusudra immortality for surviving the deluge. But in the Babylonian version, found in the Atra-Hasis cuneiform tablets, Enlil is the one who unleashes the flood in the first place. His reason? The human race made too much noise and kept him awake. A relatable grievance, if you ignore the genocidal overreaction.
The myth of Enlil and Ninlil reads like a divine scandal sheet, detailing Enlil's serial seduction of the goddess Ninlil in a variety of unconvincing disguises. This sordid affair resulted in the conception of the moon-god Nanna and a trio of Underworld deities: Nergal, Ninazu, and Enbilulu. On a more practical note, Enlil was considered the inventor of the mattock and the patron of agriculture, proving that even cosmic tyrants can have a hobby. He also features heavily in several myths centered on his son Ninurta, including the tales of Anzû and the Tablet of Destinies and the epic known as Lugale.
Etymology
The name Enlil is a composite of ancient Sumerian. EN (𒂗) translates simply to "lord." The second part, LÍL (𒆤), is where the scholars start arguing.[6][1][7] Some have interpreted it as "winds," casting Enlil as a weather god, a "Lord of the Storm."[8][2][3] Others lean toward something more ethereal, suggesting it signifies a spirit or phantom, a presence felt only as a stir in the air. A third, less romantic theory posits it might just be a partial Semitic loanword that crashed the Sumerian party.[9]
His name isn't a genitive construction,[10] which is a grammatical clue suggesting he wasn't merely the cause of LÍL, but its actual personification.[10] He was the storm, the air, the unseeable force.
Piotr Steinkeller threw a wrench in the works by writing that the meaning of LÍL might be a red herring altogether. He suggested Enlil's domain wasn't specific at all; he could have been "a typical universal god [...] without any specific domain,"[11] making him the divine equivalent of a jack-of-all-trades.
To complicate matters further, Piotr Steinkeller and Piotr Michalowski have expressed doubts that Enlil was even Sumerian to begin with.[12] They've questioned the name's true meaning and pointed to a potential link with the Eblaite word I-li-lu.[12] As Manfred Krebernik and M. P. Streck noted, the fact that Sumerian texts refer to Enlil as Kur-gal ("the Great Mountain") might hint at origins in eastern Mesopotamia, a land of mountains, not Sumerian flatlands.[12] So, he may have been an import, a foreign power who took over the local pantheon. It happens.
Worship
| Modern photograph of the ruins of the Ekur temple at Nippur. Not much of a "Mountain House" now. |
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| Floor plan of the Ekur temple in Nippur. |
Enlil who sits broadly on the white dais, on the lofty dais, who perfects the decrees of power, lordship, and princeship, the earth-gods bow down in fear before him, the heaven-gods humble themselves before him...
— Sumerian hymn to Enlil, as translated by Samuel Noah Kramer[13]
| A cuneiform inscription on a diorite mortar from Nippur, stating it was an offering from Gudea to Enlil (c. 2144–2124 BC). Even gods appreciate a good mortar. |
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Enlil was the patron deity of the Sumerian city-state of Nippur,[14] and his primary cultic center was the Ekur temple situated there.[15] The name of this temple literally translates from ancient Sumerian to "Mountain House,"[16] a rather grand title. The Ekur was believed to have been constructed by Enlil himself, a divine architectural project.[16] It was considered the "mooring-rope" of heaven and earth,[16] a single, vital tether preventing the cosmos from drifting apart—or, put another way, "a channel of communication between earth and heaven."[17] A hymn from the reign of Ur-Nammu, founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur, describes the E-kur in obsessive detail, noting that its gates were intricately carved with scenes of Imdugud—a lesser deity sometimes depicted as a giant bird—slaying a lion, and an eagle seizing a sinner.[16] Divine security, Mesopotamian style.
The Sumerians operated under the belief that humanity's sole purpose was to serve the gods.[18][19] A bleak outlook, but it simplified career choices. They thought a god's statue was a physical vessel for the deity itself,[20][21] which meant these cult statues received more care and attention than most living beings.[22][20] An entire class of priests was tasked with their upkeep.[23] Worshippers would offer food and other human necessities to Enlil,[18] laid out in a ritual feast before his statue.[22][20] This was considered Enlil's daily meal,[18] and after he had his spiritual fill, the leftovers were distributed among the priests.[18] These priests also had the honor of changing the statue's clothes, a divine valet service.[21]
In their hymns, the Sumerians painted Enlil as a benevolent, fatherly figure, watching over humanity with care.[24] One text describes him as so glorious that even his divine peers couldn't look directly at him.[25][26] The same hymn insists that without Enlil, civilization itself would crumble.[26] His epithets were suitably grand: "the Great Mountain," "King of the Foreign Lands."[25] He was also, paradoxically, described as a "raging storm," a "wild bull," and a "merchant."[25] The Mesopotamians saw him as a creator, a father, a king, and the supreme lord of the universe—a being of profound contradictions.[25][27] He was also known as "Nunamnir"[25] and is referred to in at least one text as the "East Wind and North Wind."[25]
Kings saw Enlil as the ultimate role model and tried to emulate his rule.[28] Enlil was said to be supremely just[13] and utterly intolerant of evil,[13] a standard few mortal rulers could ever hope to meet. Rulers from every corner of Sumer would make a pilgrimage to his temple in Nippur to have their authority legitimized.[29] In return for his divine stamp of approval, they would shower his temple with offerings of land and precious objects.[30] Nippur was the only Sumerian city-state that never constructed a palace;[18] this was a deliberate statement, meant to symbolize that Enlil himself was the city's true king.[18] Even during the later Babylonian Period, when Marduk had usurped Enlil's position, Babylonian kings still traveled to the holy city of Nippur to seek validation for their right to rule.[30] Old habits die hard.
Enlil's rise to prominence began in the twenty-fourth century BC, as the influence of the sky god An started to fade.[31][32] During this era, inscriptions frequently invoked Enlil and An together, a divine power couple.[31] Enlil maintained his top-god status throughout the Amorite Period,[33] with Amorite monarchs citing him as the source of their legitimacy.[33] His influence began to wane after the Babylonian king Hammurabi conquered Sumer.[34] The Babylonians worshipped him under the name "Elil,"[4] and the Hurrians syncretized him with their own god, Kumarbi.[4] In one Hurrian ritual, Enlil and Apantu are invoked as the "father and mother of Išḫara."[35] He is also invoked with Ninlil as a member of "the mighty and firmly established gods."[35]
During the Kassite Period (c. 1592–1155 BC), Nippur experienced a brief resurgence, and Enlil's cult enjoyed a revival.[34] From around 1300 BC onward, Enlil was syncretized with the Assyrian national god Aššur,[36] who was the most important deity in the Assyrian pantheon.[37] Then, in 1230 BC, the Elamites attacked Nippur. The city fell into decline, and the cult of Enlil went down with it.[34] Roughly a century later, the role of head of the pantheon was officially handed over to Marduk, the national god of the Babylonians.[34] The universe, it seems, has a high turnover rate for management.
Iconography
| A Gudea dedication tablet to the god Ningirsu: "For Ningirsu, Enlil's mighty warrior, his Master, Gudea, ensi of Lagash". A bit of divine brown-nosing. |
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Enlil's primary symbol was the horned cap, a piece of divine headwear consisting of up to seven superimposed pairs of ox-horns.[38] Such crowns were not subtle; they were a clear symbol of divinity,[39][40] worn by gods in Mesopotamian art since the third millennium BC.[39] The horned cap remained a consistent emblem of divine power from the dawn of Sumerian prehistory all the way to the Persian conquest and beyond.[39][21]
The Sumerians employed a complex numerological system where certain numbers held sacred significance.[41] In this system, Enlil was associated with the number fifty, which was considered holy to him.[42] He was also a member of a divine triad that included An and Enki.[43][44][45][46] Together, these three gods were the embodiment of all the fixed stars in the night sky.[47][45] An was identified with the stars of the equatorial sky, Enlil with those of the northern sky, and Enki with those of the southern sky.[47][45] The path of Enlil's celestial orbit was described as a continuous, symmetrical circle around the north celestial pole.[48] The orbits of An and Enki, however, were believed to intersect at various points,[49] a bit of celestial untidiness. Enlil was also associated with the constellation Boötes.[25]
Mythology
Origins myths
The primary source for Sumerian creation mythology is the prologue to the epic poem Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld (ETCSL 1.8.1.4).[50] It offers a brief, almost clinical, account of creation: in the beginning, there was only Nammu, the primeval sea.[51] Nammu then gave birth to An, the sky, and Ki, the earth.[51] An and Ki mated, which resulted in Ki giving birth to Enlil.[51] In a foundational act of cosmic violence, Enlil separated An from Ki. He carried off the earth as his domain, while An took the sky.[52] Enlil then marries his mother, Ki, and from their union, all plant and animal life on earth is produced.[53] A tidy, if unsettling, family affair.
The myth of Enlil and Ninlil (ETCSL 1.2.1) is a nearly complete 152-line Sumerian poem that chronicles the deeply problematic courtship between Enlil and the goddess Ninlil.[54][55] The story begins with Ninlil's mother, Nunbarshegunu, instructing her to bathe in the river.[56] Ninlil complies, and it is there that Enlil seduces her, impregnating her with their son, the moon-god Nanna.[55] For this transgression, Enlil is banished to Kur, the Sumerian underworld.[55] Ninlil, for reasons of her own, follows him. Down in the underworld, Enlil impersonates the "man of the gate."[57] When Ninlil demands to know where Enlil has gone, he, still in character as the gatekeeper, refuses to answer.[57] He then seduces her again and impregnates her with Nergal, the god of death.[58] This bizarre scenario repeats itself twice more. Enlil first impersonates the "man of the river of the nether world, the man-devouring river," seducing Ninlil and conceiving the god Ninazu.[59] Finally, he takes on the guise of the "man of the boat," seduces her one last time, and impregnates her with Enbilulu, the "inspector of the canals."[60]
This story is primarily a genealogical myth, a convoluted explanation for the origins of the moon-god and various chthonic deities.[54] Yet, it can also be read as a twisted coming-of-age story, documenting Enlil and Ninlil's transition from adolescence to adulthood through a series of poor decisions and divine impersonations.[61] The story also cements Ninlil's role as Enlil's consort, as she declares in the poem, "As Enlil is your master, so am I also your mistress!"[62] Historically, the myth is significant because, if the interpretation holds, it is the oldest known story in which a god is a shapeshifter.[54]
Flood myth
In the Sumerian version of the flood story (ETCSL 1.7.4), the reasons for the flood are lost to time, as the part of the tablet detailing the beginning of the myth has been destroyed.[63] A mortal man named Ziusudra somehow survives the cataclysm, likely with a tip-off from the god Enki.[64] The surviving text begins mid-deluge.[64] The flood rages for seven days and seven nights before the waters recede.[65] When it's over, Utu, the Sun god, makes an appearance.[65] Ziusudra opens a window in his boat and prostrates himself before the god.[65] He then sacrifices an ox and a sheep to Utu.[65] At this point, the text breaks off again.[65] When it resumes, Enlil and An are in the process of granting Ziusudra immortality as a reward for surviving their little apocalypse. The rest of the tablet is, predictably, destroyed.[65]
In the later, more famous Akkadian version of the flood story, recorded in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Enlil is explicitly the cause of the flood.[66] He seeks to annihilate all life on earth because the humans, having become overpopulated, were making too much noise and disturbing his sleep.[67] In this telling, the hero is Utnapishtim,[68] who is warned of the impending disaster by Ea, the Babylonian equivalent of Enki.[69] The flood lasts for seven days. When it ends, the goddess Ishtar, who had mourned humanity's destruction,[70] promises Utnapishtim that Enlil will never cause such a flood again.[71] When Enlil discovers that Utnapishtim and his family have survived, he is furious,[72] but his son Ninurta speaks up for humanity. He argues that instead of floods, Enlil should just manage human population levels with wild animals and famines.[73] A modest proposal. Enlil, now appeased, boards the boat, and Utnapishtim and his wife bow before him.[73] He then grants Utnapishtim immortality as a reward for his loyalty.[74] Apparently, genocide is forgivable if you're sufficiently impressed by the survivors.
Chief god and arbitrator
Plucks at the roots, tears at the crown, the pickax spares the... plants; the pickax, its fate is decreed by father Enlil, the pickax is exalted.
— Enlil's Invention of the Pickax, translated by Samuel Noah Kramer[75]
A nearly complete, 108-line poem from the Early Dynastic Period (c. 2900–2350 BC) details Enlil's invention of the mattock,[76][77] a crucial agricultural tool for the Sumerians that was part pick, hoe, and ax.[78][77] In the poem, Enlil brings the mattock into existence with a word and decrees its fate.[79] The tool is described as a thing of beauty, crafted from pure gold with a head carved from lapis lazuli.[79] Enlil then hands this glorious implement over to humans, who use it to build cities,[75] subjugate their enemies,[75] and pull up weeds.[75] Enlil was also believed to aid in the growth of plants,[78] a more benevolent use of his power.
The Sumerian poem Enlil Chooses the Farmer–God (ETCSL 5.3.3) describes how Enlil, in a bid "to establish abundance and prosperity," creates two gods: Emesh, a shepherd, and Enten, a farmer.[80] The two immediately begin to argue, with Emesh laying claim to Enten's position.[81] They take their dispute before Enlil, who, after hearing their cases, rules in favor of Enten, the farmer.[82] The two gods then rejoice and reconcile,[82] a rare instance of divine conflict resolution without bloodshed.
Ninurta myths
| A relief showing Ninurta with his thunderbolts in pursuit of Anzû, who has stolen the Tablet of Destinies from Enlil's sanctuary. From Austen Henry Layard's Monuments of Nineveh, 2nd Series, 1853. |
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In the Sumerian poem Lugale (ETCSL 1.6.2), Enlil provides tactical advice to his son, the god Ninurta, on how to defeat the demon Asag.[83] This divine strategy is relayed to Ninurta via Sharur, his enchanted talking mace, which Ninurta had sent to the realm of the gods to consult with Enlil directly.[83]
In the Old, Middle, and Late Babylonian myth of Anzû and the Tablet of Destinies, the story revolves around a catastrophic failure of divine security. The Anzû, a giant, monstrous bird,[84] betrays Enlil and steals the Tablet of Destinies,[85] a sacred clay tablet that granted Enlil his authority.[86] The theft occurs while Enlil is preparing for a bath.[87] The consequences are immediate: the rivers dry up and the gods are stripped of their powers.[87] The gods send Adad, Girra, and Shara to defeat the Anzû, but they all fail miserably.[87] Finally, Ea suggests they send Ninurta, Enlil's son.[87] Ninurta succeeds where the others failed, defeats the Anzû, and returns the Tablet of Destinies to his father.[87] As a reward for cleaning up the mess, Ninurta is granted a prominent seat on the divine council.[87]
War of the gods
A badly damaged text from the Neo-Assyrian Period (911–612 BC) describes Marduk leading his army of Anunnaki into the sacred city of Nippur and causing a disturbance.[88] This transgression results in a flood,[88] forcing the resident gods of Nippur, led by Enlil, to take refuge in the Eshumesha temple of Ninurta.[88] Enlil, enraged by Marduk's audacity, orders the gods of Eshumesha to capture Marduk and the other Anunnaki as prisoners.[88] The Anunnaki are captured,[88] but Marduk appoints his front-runner Mushteshirhablim to lead a revolt against the Eshumesha gods[89] and sends his messenger Neretagmil to alert Nabu, the god of literacy.[89]
When the Eshumesha gods hear Nabu speak, they emerge from their temple to find him.[90] This proves to be a fatal mistake. Marduk defeats the Eshumesha gods and takes 360 of them as prisoners of war, including Enlil himself.[90] Enlil protests, insisting that the Eshumesha gods are innocent,[90] so Marduk puts them on trial before the Anunnaki.[90] The text ends with a stark warning from Damkianna (another name for Ninhursag) to both gods and humanity, pleading with them not to repeat the war between the Anunnaki and the gods of Eshumesha.[90] A rather optimistic request, all things considered.