Enlil

Enlil by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin

### Titles

The Great Mountain, The shepherd who decides all destinies, Lord of heaven and earth, The determiner of destinies

## Family & Relationships

### Children

Ninurta, Nannar, Nergal, Ninazu, Enbilulu

### Counterparts

Zeus, Baal, Dagon, Kumarbi, Horus, Shu, Ahura Mazda

**Enlil**, also known as **Ellil**, was the Mesopotamian god of the wind, air, earth, and storms, as well as the patron of the city of Nippur and King of the Gods.

## Mythology

### Family

Enlil was usually seen as the son of An, the personification of the sky, and Ki, the personification of the Earth, as well as the brother of the god Enki. He was paired with either the goddess Ninlil or Ninhursag, and was the father of several gods, including Ninurta, Nanna, Nergal, Ninazu, and Enbilulu.

Sometimes Utu, the god of the sun and justice, Iškur, the god of storms and divination, Zababa, a minor god of war, and Inanna, the goddess of love, war and political power, are also listed among his children and the god Nusku is seen as his minister.

He is one of the great gods in the Mesopotamian pantheon.

### The myth of Enlil and Ninlil

The young and strong god Enlil became enamoured with the young and beautiful Ninlil and slept with her, impregnating her with Nannar, the god of the Moon. The impure act angered the other gods and they condemned Enlil to Irkalla, the Mesopotamian underworld, as a punishment. Despite everything, Ninlil decided to follow Enlil to the realm of the dead.

In the underworld Enlil disguised himself as the gate keeper of the realm, and in this form slept again with Ninlil, who was unaware of that it was the god. From this new union came Nergal, a god of the underworld who is also associated with war, plague, death, disease, and the scorching sun.

Enlil disguises himself again, this time as the man of the Id-kura, the man-eating river of the underworld, and again seduces the unknowing Ninlil. This union brings forth Ninazu, a god associated with both the underworld and healing. The last form of Enlil is that of Urshanabi, the ferryman of the underworld, and he once again seduces Ninlil, resulting in the birth Enbilulu, a god associated with rivers and canals, notably the Tigris and Euphrates.

The myths ends with praising both Enlil and Ninlil as the divine parents.

### Flood myths

Enlil would eventually be seen as the king of the gods, and he became also seen as a destructive god of the storms, being responsible for the Sumerian flood in the myth of Atra-Hasis which resembled the one mentioned in the Book of Genesis of the Old Testament of the Bible. Enlil order the creation of the humanity in order, so that they could take work-load of the shoulders of the lesser gods. Everything seemed fine in the world, but the population of humans grew too quickly and they started to disturb Enlil's sleep at night, so he decided to try to control the population. He used plagues and famines to kill the humans, bu the god Enki would help the humans and teach them how the survive.

Eventually Enlil decided to flood the entire world to get some rest, hoping it would kill the humans off. Enki approached the wiseman Atra-Hasis, and instructed him to built a ship, which he, his family and enough animals could use to survive the flood. Atra-Hasis complied and built the vessel, which withstand the the seven-day and seven-night flood caused by an angry Enlil (or sometimes the storm-god Adad). Enlil was angered by the survival of the humans, but remembered that the humans were necessary for bringing the gods sacrificial food. He ordered that the length of human-life of would be lowered and that child-mortality would be more common in order to keep the human-population down.

## Worship & religion

Enlil was seen as the patron god of the Sumerian city of Nippur, where he was worshipped in the temple called Ekur (or mountain house), who also held a cult centre in the kassite capital city Dur-Kurigalzu. He, alongside his father An and brother Enki, were seen as the most important deities of Mesopotamian religion, and presided over the northern constellation of Boötes.

## Enlil in other cultures

### Other Mesopotamian cultures

Enlil and his role as the king of the gods and ruler over the fates would later be transplanted to Marduk, the patron god of Babylon. This was likely inspired by real-world events, where the city of Babylon eclipsed the city of Nippur in importance of Mesopotamian politics and religion. Enlil does barley feature in the Babylonian creation myth of Enuma Elish, while his father Anu and brother Ea play major suppporting roles in story. The same would also happen later with the rise of Assyria, where aspects of both Marduk and Enlil were grafted unto their patron deity, Ashur.

### Hurrians

The Hurrians worshipped the god Ellel, some times also known as Ellilus, who was likely inspired by the Enlil. Sometimes Enlil was also connected to the god Kumarbi, who overthrew Anu, which would later also inspire the Greek myth of Cronus overthrowing his father Uranus.

### Enlil & YHWH

Enlil, alongside other high-gods, such as Anu, Marduk, Ashur, El or Baal, share common imagery with the Israelite god YHWH, such as being the most high god, who has dominion over all other gods, spiritual beings and humans, as well as the Heavens and the Earth.

## Gallery

Enlil (or Ahura Mazda) on a Cylinder Calendar
## Pop Culture

* Within the *Nephlim Chronicles*-book series by author Brian Godawa, Enlil, alongside all other pagan deities of the world, was a Watcher-angel who rebelled against the God of the Bible. Within the book *Enoch Primordial* he is connected to Baraqiel, who is connected with evil spirits and abortion.
* Enlil is featured as a demon in the dungeon crawler role-playing video game *Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth*.
* Enlil is connected to SCP-4002 within the universe of the *SCP Foundation*.

## Links

* Enlil - Wikipedia
* Enlil - Mythology Wiki
* Enlil - Ancient pages
* Enlil - Global mythology Wiki
* Enlil - Deities Wiki
* Enlil - New World Encyclopedia
* Enlil - Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses
* Enlil - Chronicles of the Nephilim Wiki
* Enlil - Deity of the Week
* Enlil - Occult World
* Enlil - The Legends of History

## References

1. ↑ Leick, Gwendolyn. *A Dictionary Of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology*
2. ↑ Cotterell, Arthur. *The Macmillan Illustrated Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends*
3. ↑ Enlil and Ninlil. *The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature*
4. ↑ Black, Jeremy A. & Anthony Green. *Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary*
5. ↑ Wiggermann, Frans. *The Mesopotamian Pandemonium A Provisional Census*
6. ↑ Enlil and Ninlil. *The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature*
7. ↑ Enlil and Ninlil. *The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature*
8. ↑ Enlil and Ninlil. *The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature*
9. ↑ Enlil and Ninlil. *The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature*
10. ↑ Cotterell, Arthur. *The Macmillan Illustrated Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends*
11. ↑ Cotterell, Arthur. *The Macmillan Illustrated Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends*
12. ↑ Black, Jeremy A. & Anthony Green. *Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary*
13. ↑ Katz, Dina. *Reconstructing Babylon: Recycling Mythological Traditions Toward a New Theology*
14. ↑ Lurker, Manfred. *The Routledge Dictionary Of Gods Goddesses Devils And Demons*
15. ↑ Smith, Gary V. *The Concept of God/The Gods as King in the Ancient Near East and the Bible*