Misplaced Pages

#399600

65-582: Enlil , later known as Elil and Ellil , is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with wind, air, earth, and storms. He is first attested as the chief deity of the Sumerian pantheon , but he was later worshipped by the Akkadians , Babylonians , Assyrians , and Hurrians . Enlil's primary center of worship was the Ekur temple in the city of Nippur , which was believed to have been built by Enlil himself and

130-628: A deity's melam has on a human is described as ni , a word for the " physical creeping of the flesh ". Both the Sumerian and Akkadian languages contain many words to express the sensation of ni , including the word puluhtu , meaning "fear". Deities were almost always depicted wearing horned caps, consisting of up to seven superimposed pairs of ox-horns. They were also sometimes depicted wearing clothes with elaborate decorative gold and silver ornaments sewn into them. The ancient Mesopotamians believed that their deities lived in Heaven , but that

195-626: A deity's cult statue would be transported to the location of a battle so that the deity could watch the battle unfold. The major deities of the Mesopotamian pantheon were believed to participate in the "assembly of the gods", through which the gods made all of their decisions. This assembly was seen as a divine counterpart to the semi-democratic legislative system that existed during the Third Dynasty of Ur ( c. 2112 BC – c. 2004 BC). The Mesopotamian pantheon evolved greatly over

260-462: A disturbance. The disturbance causes a flood, which forces the resident gods of Nippur under the leadership of Enlil to take shelter in the Eshumesha temple to Ninurta . Enlil is enraged at Marduk's transgression and orders the gods of Eshumesha to take Marduk and the other Anunnaki as prisoners. The Anunnaki are captured, but Marduk appoints his front-runner Mushteshirhablim to lead a revolt against

325-445: A giant bird, slaying a lion and an eagle snatching up a sinner. The Sumerians believed that the sole purpose of humanity's existence was to serve the gods. They thought that a god's statue was a physical embodiment of the god himself. As such, cult statues were given constant care and attention and a set of priests were assigned to tend to them. People worshipped Enlil by offering food and other human necessities to him. The food, which

390-643: A god's statue was a physical embodiment of the god himself. As such, cult statues were given constant care and attention and a set of priests were assigned to tend to them. These priests would clothe the statues and place feasts before them so they could"eat". A deity's temple was believed to be that deity's literal place of residence. The gods had boats, full-sized barges which were normally stored inside their temples and were used to transport their cult statues along waterways during various religious festivals . The gods also had chariots , which were used for transporting their cult statues by land. Sometimes

455-501: A sheep in honor of Utu. At this point, the text breaks off again. When it picks back up, Enlil and An are in the midst of declaring Ziusudra immortal as an honor for having managed to survive the flood. The remaining portion of the tablet after this point is destroyed. In the later Akkadian version of the flood story, recorded in the Epic of Gilgamesh , Enlil actually causes the flood, seeking to annihilate every living thing on earth because

520-526: A shepherd and a farmer, respectively. The two gods argue and Emesh lays claim to Enten's position. They take the dispute before Enlil, who rules in favor of Enten; the two gods rejoice and reconcile. In the Sumerian poem Lugale (ETCSL 1.6.2 ), Enlil gives advice to his son, the god Ninurta , advising him on a strategy to slay the demon Asag . This advice is relayed to Ninurta by way of Sharur , his enchanted talking mace, which had been sent by Ninurta to

585-656: A warning from Damkianna (another name for Ninhursag) to the gods and to humanity, pleading them not to repeat the war between the Anunnaki and the gods of Eshumesha. List of Mesopotamian deities Deities in ancient Mesopotamia were almost exclusively anthropomorphic . They were thought to possess extraordinary powers and were often envisioned as being of tremendous physical size. The deities typically wore melam , an ambiguous substance which "covered them in terrifying splendor" and which could also be worn by heroes, kings, giants, and even demons. The effect that seeing

650-425: A weather and sky god, "Lord Wind" or "Lord Storm"), or alternatively as signifying a spirit or phantom whose presence may be felt as stirring of the air, or possibly as representing a partial Semitic loanword rather than a Sumerian word at all. Enlil's name is not a genitive construction, suggesting that Enlil was seen as the personification of LÍL rather than merely the cause of LÍL. Piotr Steinkeller has written that

715-427: Is a nearly complete 152-line Sumerian poem describing the affair between Enlil and the goddess Ninlil . First, Ninlil's mother Nunbarshegunu instructs Ninlil to go bathe in the river. Ninlil goes to the river, where Enlil seduces her and impregnates her with their son, the moon-god Nanna . Because of this, Enlil is banished to Kur , the Sumerian underworld. Ninlil follows Enlil to the underworld, where he impersonates

SECTION 10

#1732773034400

780-520: Is a text entitled An = Anum , a Babylonian scholarly work listing the names of over 2,000 deities. While sometimes mistakenly regarded simply as a list of Sumerian gods with their Akkadian equivalents, it was meant to provide information about the relations between individual gods, as well as short explanations of functions fulfilled by them. In addition to spouses and children of gods, it also listed their servants. Various terms were employed to describe groups of deities. The collective term Anunnaki

845-497: Is described as gloriously beautiful; it is made of pure gold and its head is carved from lapis lazuli . Enlil gives the tool over to the humans, who use it to build cities, subjugate their people, and pull up weeds. Enlil was believed to aid in the growth of plants. The Sumerian poem Enlil Chooses the Farmer–God (ETCSL 5.3.3 ) describes how Enlil, hoping "to establish abundance and prosperity", creates two gods Emesh and Enten ,

910-643: Is divided into seven tablets. The surviving version of the Enûma Eliš could not have been written any earlier than the late second millennium BC, but it draws heavily on earlier materials, including various works written during the Akkadian, Old Babylonian, and Kassite periods in the early second millennium BC. A category of primordial beings common in incantations were pairs of divine ancestors of Enlil and less commonly of Anu. In at least some cases these elaborate genealogies were assigned to major gods to avoid

975-465: Is first attested during the reign of Gudea ( c. 2144 – 2124 BC) and the Third Dynasty of Ur. This term usually referred to the major deities of heaven and earth, endowed with immense powers, who were believed to "decree the fates of mankind". Gudea described them as " Lamma (tutelary deities) of all the countries." While it is common in modern literature to assume that in some contexts

1040-403: Is outraged, but his son Ninurta speaks up in favor of humanity, arguing that, instead of causing floods, Enlil should simply ensure that humans never become overpopulated by reducing their numbers using wild animals and famines. Enlil goes into the boat; Utnapishtim and his wife bow before him. Enlil, now appeased, grants Utnapishtim immortality as a reward for his loyalty to the gods. Plucks at

1105-467: Is the cause of the flood himself, having sent the flood to exterminate the human race, who made too much noise and prevented him from sleeping. The myth of Enlil and Ninlil is about Enlil's serial seduction of the goddess Ninlil in various guises, resulting in the conception of the moon-god Nanna and the Underworld deities Nergal , Ninazu , and Enbilulu . Enlil was regarded as the inventor of

1170-409: The im to an (a common phonetic change) and the blending of the new n with the following d , which was aspirated as dh , a sound which was borrowed into Akkadian as z or s . It has also been argued based on contextual evidence and transliterations on cuneiform learning tablets, that the earliest, Sumerian form of the name was at least sometimes also pronounced Zu, and that Anzu is primarily

1235-453: The mattock and the patron of agriculture. Enlil also features prominently in several myths involving his son Ninurta , including Anzû and the Tablet of Destinies and Lugale . Enlil's name comes from ancient Sumerian EN (𒂗), meaning "lord" and LÍL (𒆤), the meaning of which is contentious, and which has sometimes been interpreted as meaning winds as a weather phenomenon (making Enlil

1300-607: The realm of the gods to seek counsel from Enlil directly. In the Old, Middle, and Late Babylonian myth of Anzû and the Tablet of Destinies , the Anzû , a giant, monstrous bird, betrays Enlil and steals the Tablet of Destinies , a sacred clay tablet belonging to Enlil that grants him his authority, while Enlil is preparing for a bath. The rivers dry up and the gods are stripped of their powers. The gods send Adad , Girra , and Shara to defeat

1365-486: The " Tablet of Destinies " from Enlil and hid them on a mountaintop. Anu ordered the other gods to retrieve the tablet, even though they all feared the demon. According to one text, Marduk killed the bird; in another, it died through the arrows of the god Ninurta . Anzu also appears in the story of " Inanna and the Huluppu Tree", which is recorded in the preamble to the Sumerian epic poem Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and

SECTION 20

#1732773034400

1430-402: The "man of the gate". Ninlil demands to know where Enlil has gone, but Enlil, still impersonating the gatekeeper, refuses to answer. He then seduces Ninlil and impregnates her with Nergal , the god of death. The same scenario repeats, only this time Enlil instead impersonates the "man of the river of the nether world, the man-devouring river"; once again, he seduces Ninlil and impregnates her with

1495-412: The Akkadian form of the name. However, there is evidence for both readings of the name in both languages, and the issue is confused further by the fact that the prefix 𒀭 ( an ) was often used to distinguish deities or even simply high places. an.zu could therefore mean simply "heavenly eagle". Thorkild Jacobsen proposed that Anzu was an early form of the god Abu , who was also syncretized by

1560-520: The Anunnaki as a distinct group have yet been discovered, although a few depictions of its frequent individual members have been identified. Another similar collective term for deities was Igigi , first attested from the Old Babylonian Period ( c. 1830 BC – c. 1531 BC). The name Igigi seems to have originally been applied to the "great gods", but it later came to refer to all the gods of Heaven collectively. In some instances,

1625-545: The Anzû, but all of them fail. Finally, Ea proposes that the gods should send Ninurta, Enlil's son. Ninurta successfully defeats the Anzû and returns the Tablet of Destinies to his father. As a reward, Ninurta is granted a prominent seat on the council 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

1690-694: The Netherworld . Anzu appears in the Sumerian Lugalbanda and the Anzud Bird (also called: The Return of Lugalbanda). The shorter Old Babylonian version was found at Susa. Full version in Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others by Stephanie Dalley , page 222 and at The Epic of Anzû , Old Babylonian version from Susa, Tablet II, lines 1-83, read by Claus Wilcke . The longer Late Assyrian version from Nineveh

1755-670: The Old Babylonian period, the name is more often found as 𒀭𒉎𒂂𒄷 an.im.dugud . In 1961, Landsberger argued that this name should be read as "Anzu", and most researchers have followed suit. In 1989, Thorkild Jacobsen noted that the original reading of the cuneiform signs as written (giving the name " im.dugud ") is also valid, and was probably the original pronunciation of the name, with Anzu derived from an early phonetic variant. Similar phonetic changes happened to parallel terms, such as imdugud (meaning "heavy wind") becoming ansuk . Changes like these occurred by evolution of

1820-483: The ancients with Ninurta /Ningirsu, a god associated with thunderstorms. Abu was referred to as "Father Pasture", illustrating the connection between rainstorms and the fields growing in Spring. According to Jacobsen, this god was originally envisioned as a huge black thundercloud in the shape of an eagle, and was later depicted with a lion's head to connect it to the roar of thunder. Some depictions of Anzu therefore depict

1885-408: The course of its history. In general, the history of Mesopotamian religion can be divided into four phases. During the first phase, starting in the fourth millennium BC, deities' domains mainly focused on basic needs for human survival. During the second phase, which occurred in the third millennium BC, the divine hierarchy became more structured and deified kings began to enter the pantheon. During

1950-480: The first millennium BC, which appears to be the most quoted version, with the hero as Ninurta". However, the Anzu character does not appear as often in some other writings, as noted below. The name of the mythological being usually called Anzû was actually written in the oldest Sumerian cuneiform texts as 𒀭𒉎𒈪𒄷 ( an.im.mi ; in context, the cuneiform sign 𒄷 , or mušen , is an ideogram for "bird"). In texts of

2015-597: The god Ninazu . Finally, Enlil impersonates the " man of the boat "; once again, he seduces Ninlil and impregnates her with Enbilulu , the "inspector of the canals". The story of Enlil's courtship with Ninlil is primarily a genealogical myth invented to explain the origins of the moon-god Nanna, as well as the various gods of the Underworld, but it is also, to some extent, a coming-of-age story describing Enlil and Ninlil's emergence from adolescence into adulthood. The story also explains Ninlil's role as Enlil's consort; in

Enlil - Misplaced Pages Continue

2080-607: The god alongside goats (which, like thunderclouds, were associated with mountains in the ancient Near East) and leafy boughs. The connection between Anzu and Abu is further reinforced by a statue found in the Tell Asmar Hoard depicting a human figure with large eyes, with an Anzu bird carved on the base. It is likely that this depicts Anzu in his symbolic or earthly form as the Anzu-bird, and in his higher, human-like divine form as Abu. Though some scholars have proposed that

2145-423: The god list An = Anum Gula, Ninkarrak and Nintinugga all figure as separate deities with own courts. Dogs were associated with many healing goddesses and Gula in particular is often shown in art with a dog sitting beside her. Various civilizations over the course of Mesopotamian history had many different creation stories . The earliest accounts of creation are simple narratives written in Sumerian dating to

2210-408: The gods of Eshumesha and sends his messenger Neretagmil to alert Nabu , the god of literacy. When the Eshumesha gods hear Nabu speak, they come out of their temple to search for him. Marduk defeats the Eshumesha gods and takes 360 of them as prisoners of war, including Enlil himself. Enlil protests that the Eshumesha gods are innocent, so Marduk puts them on trial before the Anunnaki. The text ends with

2275-611: The gods," possibly reflecting the existence of a similar belief connected to him among his clergy too, though unlike the doctrine of supremacy of the moon god, accepted by Nabonidus , it found no royal support at any point in time. In Zabban, a city in the northeast of Babylonia, Hadad was the head of the pantheon. In the first millennium BCE Marduk became the supreme god in Babylonia, and some late sources omit Anu and Enlil altogether and state that Ea received his position from Marduk. In some neo-Babylonian inscriptions Nabu 's status

2340-537: The humans, who are vastly overpopulated, make too much noise and prevent him from sleeping. In this version of the story, the hero is Utnapishtim , who is warned ahead of time by Ea , the Babylonian equivalent of Enki, that the flood is coming. The flood lasts for seven days; when it ends, Ishtar , who had mourned the destruction of humanity, promises Utnapishtim that Enlil will never cause a flood again. When Enlil sees that Utnapishtim and his family have survived, he

2405-570: The implications of divine incest. Figures appearing in theogonies were generally regarded as ancient and no longer active (unlike the regular gods) by the Mesopotamians. Imdugud Stephanie Dalley , in Myths from Mesopotamia , writes that "the Epic of Anzu is principally known in two versions: an Old Babylonian version of the early second millennium [BC], giving the hero as Ningirsu; and 'The Standard Babylonian' version, dating to

2470-569: The late third millennium BC. These are mostly preserved as brief prologues to longer mythographic compositions dealing with other subjects, such as Inanna and the Huluppu Tree , The Creation of the Pickax , and Enki and Ninmah . Later accounts are far more elaborate, adding multiple generations of gods and primordial beings. The longest and most famous of these accounts is the Babylonian Enûma Eliš , or Epic of Creation , which

2535-736: The meaning of LÍL may not actually be a clue to a specific divine domain of Enlil's, whether storms, spirits, or otherwise, since Enlil may have been "a typical universal god [...] without any specific domain." Piotr Steinkeller and Piotr Michalowski have doubts about the Sumerian origin of Enlil. They have questioned the true meaning of the name, and identified Enlil with the Eblaite word I-li-lu . As noted by Manfred Krebernik and M. P. Streck; Enlil being referred to as Kur-gal (the Great Mountain) in Sumerian texts suggests he might have originated in eastern Mesopotamia. Enlil who sits broadly on

2600-573: The name "Elil" and the Hurrians syncretized him with their own god Kumarbi . In one Hurrian ritual, Enlil and Apantu are invoked as "the father and mother of Išḫara ". Enlil is also invoked alongside Ninlil as a member of "the mighty and firmly established gods ". During the Kassite Period ( c. 1592–1155 BC), Nippur briefly managed to regain influence in the region and Enlil rose to prominence once again. From around 1300 BC onwards, Enlil

2665-533: The other gods could not look upon him. The same hymn also states that, without Enlil, civilization could not exist. Enlil's epithets include titles such as "the Great Mountain" and "King of the Foreign Lands". Enlil is also sometimes described as a "raging storm", a "wild bull", and a "merchant". The Mesopotamians envisioned him as a creator, a father, a king, and the supreme lord of the universe. He

Enlil - Misplaced Pages Continue

2730-400: The poem, Ninlil declares, "As Enlil is your master, so am I also your mistress!" The story is also historically significant because, if the current interpretation of it is correct, it is the oldest known myth in which a god changes shape. In the Sumerian version of the flood story (ETCSL 1.7.4 ), the causes of the flood are unclear because the portion of the tablet recording the beginning of

2795-557: The roots, tears at the crown, the pickax spares the... plants; the pickax, its fate is decreed by father Enlil, the pickax is exalted. A nearly complete 108-line poem from the Early Dynastic Period ( c. 2900–2350 BC) describes Enlil's invention of the mattock , a key agricultural pick, hoe, ax, or digging tool of the Sumerians. In the poem, Enlil conjures the mattock into existence and decrees its fate. The mattock

2860-454: The statue actually represents a human worshiper of Anzu, others have pointed out that it does not fit the usual depiction of Sumerian worshipers, but instead matches similar statues of gods in human form with their more abstract form or their symbols carved onto the base. In Sumerian and Akkadian mythology, Anzû is a divine storm-bird and the personification of the southern wind and the thunder clouds. This demon—half man and half bird—stole

2925-483: The story has been destroyed. Somehow, a mortal known as Ziusudra manages to survive the flood, likely through the help of the god Enki . The tablet begins in the middle of the description of the flood. The flood lasts for seven days and seven nights before it subsides. Then, Utu , the god of the Sun, emerges. Ziusudra opens a window in the side of the boat and falls down prostrate before the god. Next, he sacrifices an ox and

2990-573: The symbol of a horned cap, which consisted of up to seven superimposed pairs of ox-horns. Such crowns were an important symbol of divinity; gods had been shown wearing them ever since the third millennium BC. The horned cap remained consistent in form and meaning from the earliest days of Sumerian prehistory up until the time of the Persian conquest and beyond. The Sumerians had a complex numerological system, in which certain numbers were believed to hold special ritual significance. Within this system, Enlil

3055-402: The term was applied to a class of distinct, Hurrian, gods instead. Anunnaki are chiefly mentioned in literary texts and very little evidence to support the existence of any distinct cult of them has yet been unearthed due to the fact that each deity which could be regarded as a member of the Anunnaki had his or her own individual cult, separate from the others. Similarly, no representations of

3120-460: The term was instead applied to chthonic Underworld deities, this view is regarded as unsubstantiated by assyriologist Dina Katz, who points out that it relies entirely on the myth of Inanna's Descent , which doesn't necessarily contradict the conventional definition of Anunnaki and doesn't explicitly identify them as gods of the Underworld. Unambiguous references to Anunnaki as chthonic come from Hurrian (rather than Mesopotamian) sources, in which

3185-449: The terms Anunnaki and Igigi are used synonymously. Samuel Noah Kramer , writing in 1963, stated that the three most important deities in the Mesopotamian pantheon during all periods were the deities An , Enlil , and Enki . However, newer research shows that the arrangement of the top of the pantheon could vary depending on time period and location. The Fara god list indicates that sometimes Enlil, Inanna and Enki were regarded as

3250-499: The third phase, in the second millennium BC, the gods worshipped by an individual person and gods associated with the commoners became more prevalent. During the fourth and final phase, in the first millennium BC, the gods became closely associated with specific human empires and rulers. The names of over 3,000 Mesopotamian deities have been recovered from cuneiform texts. Many of these are from lengthy lists of deities compiled by ancient Mesopotamian scribes. The longest of these lists

3315-659: The three most significant deities. Inanna was also the most important deity in Uruk and a number of other political centers in the Uruk period. Gudea regarded Ninhursag , rather than Enki, as the third most prominent deity. An Old Babylonian source preserves a tradition in which Nanna was the king of the gods, and Anu, Enlil and Enki merely his advisers, likely a view espoused by Nanna's priests in Ur , and later on in Harran . An Old Babylonian personal name refers to Shamash as "Enlil of

SECTION 50

#1732773034400

3380-570: The twenty-fourth century BC, when the importance of the god An began to wane. During this time period, Enlil and An are frequently invoked together in inscriptions. Enlil remained the supreme god in Mesopotamia throughout the Amorite Period, with Amorite monarchs proclaiming Enlil as the source of their legitimacy. Enlil's importance began to wane after the Babylonian king Hammurabi conquered Sumer. The Babylonians worshipped Enlil under

3445-458: 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... Enlil was the patron god of the Sumerian city-state of Nippur and his main center of worship was the Ekur temple located there. The name of the temple literally means "Mountain House" in ancient Sumerian. The Ekur

3510-427: Was a continuous, symmetrical circle around the north celestial pole , but those of An and Enki were believed to intersect at various points. Enlil was associated with the constellation Boötes . The main source of information about Sumerian creation mythology is the prologue to the epic poem Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld ( ETCSL 1.8.1.4 ), which briefly describes the process of creation: originally, there

3575-489: Was also known as "Nunamnir" and is referred to in at least one text as the "East Wind and North Wind". Kings regarded Enlil as a model ruler and sought to emulate his example. Enlil was said to be supremely just and intolerant towards evil. Rulers from all over Sumer would travel to Enlil's temple in Nippur to be legitimized. They would return Enlil's favor by devoting lands and precious objects to his temple as offerings. Nippur

3640-417: Was associated with the number fifty, which was considered sacred to him. Enlil was part of a triad of deities, which also included An and Enki. These three deities together were the embodiment of all the fixed stars in the night sky. An was identified with all the stars of the equatorial sky , Enlil with those of the northern sky , and Enki with those of the southern sky . The path of Enlil's celestial orbit

3705-477: Was believed to be the planet Venus , Utu was believed to be the Sun, and Nanna was the Moon. However, minor deities could be associated with planets too, for example Mars was sometimes called Simut , and Ninsianna was a Venus deity distinct from Inanna in at least some contexts. Eventually Gula became the preeminent healing goddess, and other healing goddesses were sometimes syncretised with her, though in

3770-483: Was believed to have been built and established by Enlil himself. It was believed to be the "mooring-rope" of heaven and earth, meaning that it was seen as "a channel of communication between earth and heaven". A hymn written during the reign of Ur-Nammu , the founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur , describes the E-kur in great detail, stating that its gates were carved with scenes of Imdugud , a lesser deity sometimes shown as

3835-459: Was equal to that of Marduk. In Assyria, Assur was regarded as the supreme god. The number seven was extremely important in ancient Mesopotamian cosmology. In Sumerian religion , the most powerful and important deities in the pantheon were sometimes called the "seven gods who decree": An , Enlil , Enki , Ninhursag , Nanna , Utu , and Inanna . Many major deities in Sumerian mythology were associated with specific celestial bodies: Inanna

3900-431: Was eventually supplanted as the chief god of the Mesopotamian pantheon by the Babylonian national god Marduk . Enlil plays a vital role in the ancient near eastern cosmology ; he separates An (heaven) from Ki (earth), thus making the world habitable for humans. In the Sumerian flood myth Eridu Genesis , Enlil rewards Ziusudra with immortality for having survived the flood and, in the Babylonian flood myth, Enlil

3965-404: Was only Nammu , the primeval sea. Then, Nammu gave birth to An , the sky, and Ki , the earth. An and Ki mated with each other, causing Ki to give birth to Enlil. Enlil separated An from Ki and carried off the earth as his domain, while An carried off the sky. Enlil marries his mother, Ki, and from this union all the plant and animal life on earth is produced. Enlil and Ninlil (ETCSL 1.2.1 )

SECTION 60

#1732773034400

4030-459: Was regarded as the "mooring-rope" of heaven and earth. He is also sometimes referred to in Sumerian texts as Nunamnir . According to one Sumerian hymn, Enlil himself was so holy that not even the other gods could look upon him. Enlil rose to prominence during the twenty-fourth century BC with the rise of Nippur. His cult fell into decline after Nippur was sacked by the Elamites in 1230 BC and he

4095-439: Was ritually laid out before the god's cult statue in the form of a feast, was believed to be Enlil's daily meal, but, after the ritual, it would be distributed among his priests. These priests were also responsible for changing the cult statue's clothing. The Sumerians envisioned Enlil as a benevolent, fatherly deity, who watches over humanity and cares for their well-being. One Sumerian hymn describes Enlil as so glorious that even

4160-520: Was syncretized with the Assyrian national god Aššur , who was the most important deity in the Assyrian pantheon. Then, in 1230 BC, the Elamites attacked Nippur and the city fell into decline, taking the cult of Enlil along with it. Approximately one hundred years later, Enlil's role as the head of the pantheon was given to Marduk , the national god of the Babylonians. Enlil was represented by

4225-499: Was the only Sumerian city-state that never built a palace; this was intended to symbolize the city's importance as the center of the cult of Enlil by showing that Enlil himself was the city's king. Even during the Babylonian Period, when Marduk had superseded Enlil as the supreme god, Babylonian kings still traveled to the holy city of Nippur to seek recognition of their right to rule. Enlil first rose to prominence during

#399600