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. As Anu’s ‘chief-of-staff’ and heir to the throne went by the name ‘Lord of the Air,’ or ‘Enlil.’ He was the principal deity of the city of Nippur. Enlil was designated heir over his elder brother, Ea or Enki because Enlil’s mother was both an actual wife of Anu and was also of royal blood; whereas Ea’s mother was just a concubine of Anu. ^[3] ‘Enlil’ was pronounced and sometimes rendered as ‘Ellil’ or ‘El’ in later Akkadian, Hittite and Canaanite literature. The name evolved into ‘Illah’ in Aramaic scripts by 380 AD; which, in turn, became ‘Allah,’ a term widely used for ‘God’ on the Arabian Peninsula, even before Mohammed traveled to Medina in 622 AD to launch the Muslim faith. ^[4] The plural form of this name, ‘Elohim,’ is common in Hebrew texts and the Bible’s book of Genesis. However, Christians typically prefer to use the name ‘El Shaddai.’ Nonetheless, both gospels of Mark and Matthew report that Jesus Christ himself, at the most crucial point of his ministry, calls out to the heavens by saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani (why have you abandoned me)?” ^[5] According to one ancient Shumerian tablet, when Enlil was young, he was banished from Dilmun, home of the gods, to Kur, the underworld for sleeping with his sister Ninlil. Ninlil followed him to the underworld where she bore his first child, the moon god Sin (Sumerian Nanna - Suen). After fathering three more underworld deities (subtitutes for Sin), Enlil was allowed to return to Dilmun. ^{[6] [7]} Enlil was also known as the inventor of the pickaxe/hoe (favorite tool of the Sumerians) and caused plants to grow^[8].

Cosmological role

Enlil, along with Anu/An, Enki and Ninhursag were gods of the Sumerians ^[9]. 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.^[10] At a very early period prior to 3000 BC—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. Enlil was also the God of weather. According to the Sumerians, Enlil helped create the humans, but then got tired of their noise and tried to kill them by sending a flood. A mortal known as Utanapistim survived the flood, and he was made immortal by Enlil.

References

1. a winged disc with horns, enclosing four circles revolving round a middle circle; rippling rays fall down from either side of the disc;
2. a circle or wheel, suspended from wings, and enclosing a warrior drawing his bow to discharge an arrow;
3. the same circle; the warrior’s bow, however, is carried in his left hand, while the right hand is uplifted as if to bless his worshippers (see picture above).

An Assyrian standard, which probably represented the “world column”, has the disc mounted on a bull’s head with horns. The upper part of the disc is occupied by a warrior, whose head, part of his bow, and the point of his arrow protrude from the circle. The rippling water rays are V-shaped, and two bulls, treading river-like rays, occupy the divisions thus formed. There are also two heads—a lion’s and a man’s—with gaping mouths, which may symbolize tempests, the destroying power of the sun, or the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates. Jastrow regards the winged disc as “the purer and more genuine symbol of Ashur as a solar deity”. He calls it “a sun disc with protruding rays”, and says: “To this symbol the warrior with the bow and arrow was added—a despiritualization that reflects the martial spirit of the Assyrian empire”.