Enbilulu

Enbilulu (Template:Langx ) was a Mesopotamian god associated with irrigation, and by extension with both canals and rivers. The origin of his name is unknown, and there is no agreement among experts in which way he was related to the similarly named deities Bilulu and Ninbilulu. While originally an independent deity, he eventually came to be seen as a name of Marduk and is mentioned in this role in the Enūma Eliš.

Character

The meaning of the term bilulu is not known, but it appears in two other names of deities as well, Ninbilulu, known from Early Dynastic sources (including the Zame Hymns), and Bilulu, known from the myth Inanna and Bilulu.Template:Sfn It has been proposed that there was originally only one deity, Bilulu, who was female and later split into male Enbilulu and female Ninbilulu.Template:Sfn However, the identification of Enbilulu and Bilulu is "problematic" according to Wilfred G. Lambert, as "the character of the goddess (...) is not sufficiently similar to that of Enbilulu for the matter to be sure."Template:Sfn Another possibility is that Ninbilulu and Enbilulu were the same deity, whose gender either changed after the Early Dynastic period from female to maleTemplate:Sfn or who was regarded as male all along.Template:Sfn The sign NIN, while conventionally translated as "queen" or "mistress", did not necessarily denote name as belonging to a female deity.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

It has been argued that the theoretical original Bilulu was a personification of the storm or of rain clouds.Template:Sfn However Enbilulu only rarely is mentioned in association with rain.Template:Sfn Frans Wiggermann instead proposes the word bilulu refers to rushes.Template:Sfn

Enbilulu was chiefly associated with irrigationTemplate:Sfn and with the water of both canals and rivers.Template:Sfn He could be called the "canal inspector of heaven and earth."Template:Sfn He has been described as a "purely agricultural deity".Template:Sfn Lambert compared him to Enkimdu.Template:Sfn

Worship

Ninbilulu, who according to Antoine Cavigneaux and Manfred Krebernik might be the same deity as Enbilulu, appears in the Early Dynastic Fara and Abu Salabikh god lists and in a zame hymn from the same periodTemplate:Sfn in relation with Tigris, Euphrates and other sources of water, but without a cult center listed.Template:Sfn Daniel Schwemer proposes that Enbilulu originally belonged to the pantheon of Eridu.Template:Sfn Wilfred G. Lambert considered him to be a deity associated with the city of Babylon.Template:Sfn In the Esagil temple complex, a seat was dedicated to him jointly with Enmesharra.Template:Sfn It bore the name du₆.ki.sikil, "mound, pure place."Template:Sfn

An exorcistic text from the late first millennium BCE assumed to originate in Der lists Enbilulu alongside multiple other agricultural deities, such as Urash, Ennugi and Ningirsu, and implores all of them to protect a field.Template:Sfn

A Hittite scribe named Ḫanikkuili, son of a man bearing the Mesopotamian name Anu-šar-ilan, described himself as a servant of Enbilulu in a colophon of a text about Naram-Sin he copied.Template:Sfn

Mythology

In the myth Enlil and Ninlil Enbilulu's parents are the eponymous deities, Enlil and Ninlil, while his brothers are Nanna, Nergal and Ninazu,Template:Sfn In other sources he could instead be considered as a son of Ea.Template:Sfn

In the myth Enki and the World Order, Enbilulu is entrusted with taking care of the Euphrates and the Tigris by the eponymous god.Template:Sfn Enki himself is apparently responsible for their debit in the same narrative, though it is Enbilulu who regulates them.Template:Sfn

A single incantation credits Enbilulu with being responsible for the creation of the order of days, week and months, a role usually attributed to the moon god Sin (Nanna).Template:Sfn Linguistic analysis indicates it was composed in the Middle Babylonian period, but the only known tablet might be a late copy.Template:Sfn

Enbilulu as a name of Marduk

In the Enūma Eliš, Enbilulu is one of the names bestowed upon Marduk.Template:Sfn Wilfred G. Lambert noted that Enbilulu appears to be one of the names among the fifty which can be considered "major," as it originally belonged to a fully distinct deity.Template:Sfn He considers Asalluhi, Tutu and Šazu to be the other names belonging to this category.Template:Sfn It is uncertain how Enbilulu came to be absorbed by Marduk.Template:Sfn It has been proposed that Marduk was first equated with Adad of Babylon, mentioned as a distinct deity in year names of Hammurabi and Samsu-iluna, and then by extension with Enbilulu.Template:Sfn There is however no direct evidence that Adad was ever called Enbilulu in Babylon,Template:Sfn and Daniel Schwemer notes that the only source suggesting an equation between them is late and only offers an explanation of Enbilulu's character as Adad-like.Template:Sfn

Enūma Eliš describes Enbilulu as a deity who is responsible for the distribution of water and thus for the preservation of pastures and crops.Template:Sfn The variant name Enbilulu-Epadun is specifically connected with irrigation canals.Template:Sfn Two further names, Enbilulu-Gugal and Enbilulu-Hegal, are linked with abundance.Template:Sfn The enumeration of variant Enbilulu names is followed up by Sirsir.Template:Sfn

Identification of Marduk and Enbilulu is also known from other sources, such as the incantation series Udug Hul, the oldest examples of which are known from the late second millennium BCE.Template:Sfn The god list An = Anu ša amēli refers to him as Marduk ša patati, "Marduk of the canals."Template:Sfn He is also listed as the Sumerian counterpart of Marduk in an Emesal vocabulary.Template:Sfn

In a single hymn, Enbilulu occurs as a name of Nabu rather than Marduk.Template:Sfn

External links

• Enki and the World Order in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature