Enkimdu

Template:Short description Template:Template otherTemplate:Wikidata imageTemplate:Compare image with Wikidata Enkimdu (𒀭𒂗𒆠𒅎𒁺) was a Mesopotamian god associated with agriculture and irrigation. He is best known from the poem Dumuzi and Enkimdu, but in laments he was instead connected with the god Martu, who like Dumuzi could be described and depicted as a shepherd.

Character

Enkimdu was an agricultural god.Template:Sfn He was called the "lord of embankments and ditches".Template:Sfn The theonym Lugal-epara, "lord of ditch and dyke", attested in the god list An = Anum without an explanation provided, might be another name of Enkimdu due to analogous meaning to said epithet.Template:Sfn An Akkadian form of the title is also attested, bēl iki u palgi.Template:Sfn In the same god list, Enkimdu appears as one of the "cultivators" (ab-ším) of Nabu.Template:Sfn However, in the Old Babylonian forerunner of this text he is instead placed among deities representing various professions in a section focused on Enki and his entourage.Template:Sfn His character has been compared to Enbilulu's.Template:Sfn It has been proposed that he was worshiped in Umma as the personification of the irrigation system, though the evidence is scarce.Template:Sfn

In laments, Enkimdu could be associated with Amurru.Template:Sfn One bilingual text of this genre which enumerates exactly a hundred deities places him near the end of the list alongside the likes of Šumugan, Mesanga-Unug, Martu (Amurru), Gubarra (Ašratum) and Latarak.Template:Sfn Another, dated to the [Old Babylonian period, lists Enkimdu, Martu, Šumugan, Numušda and Ištaran.Template:Sfn

Mythology

Enkimdu and Dumuzi

File:Inanna prefers the farmer. Enkimdu and Damuzi were mentioned. Terracotta tablet from Nippur, Iraq. 1st half of the 2nd millennium BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul.jpg

A copy of the tale of Dumuzi and Enkimdu from Nippur (Nuffar), Iraq. First half of the second millennium BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul.

Enkimdu appears in the myth Enkimdu and Dumuzi.Template:Sfn The text has originally been published under the title Inanna prefers the farmer by Samuel Noah Kramer in 1944.Template:Sfn Initially it was assumed that it would end with Inanna choosing Enkimdu, but this interpretation was abandoned after more editions were compiled.Template:Sfn In the beginning Inanna's brother Utu urges her to choose Dumuzi, but she is not convinced.Template:Sfn Enkimdu mentions many gifts he can give her connected with his sphere of influence, but Dumuzi counters each offer with one of his own.Template:Sfn Eventually their argument ends, and they become friends.Template:Sfn Enkimdu's role has been described as largely passive.Template:Sfn It has been pointed out that the conclusion of this narrative, a brief praise of Inanna, bears a similarity to the genre of disputation poems common in Sumerian literature, in which the deity tasked with choosing the winner is similarly praised in the closing lines of each text.Template:Sfn However, incipits of known copies indicate it was regarded as balbale, a type of song.Template:Sfn

It has been pointed out that Dumuzi does not appear in any of the texts where Enkimdu occurs alongside Martu, which might indicate that in this case the latter was meant to serve as a shepherd god contrasted with Enkimdu in a similar way.Template:Sfn Jacob Klein also notes that similarities exist between Dumuzi's successful appeal to Inanna and Martu's victory in the myth Marriage of Martu, in which he wants to win the hand of the daughter of Numušda.Template:Sfn

Other texts

In the myth Enki and the World Order, Enkimdu is entrusted with preparing various agricultural constructions.Template:Sfn He is also addressed as the "farmer of Enlil."Template:Sfn

A hymn dedicated to the king Ur-Nammu compares him to Enkimdu.Template:Sfn In Death of Ur-Nammu, the god stops fulfilling his tasks after learning of the eponymous king's death.Template:Sfn

The text The Song of the Plowing Oxen includes a dialogue between Enkimdu and a second party, according to Miguel Civil possibly Ninurta or a king, in which the former explains to the latter how he irrigates the fields.Template:Sfn

Modern relevance

A simulation engine developed as part of Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago's MASS (Modeling Ancient Settlement Systems) project is named ENKIMDU.Template:Sfn It was based on technologies developed by Argonne National Laboratory.Template:Sfn It is meant to provide models of development of societies in the Ancient Near East between the late fourth and third millennium BCE, with a particular focus on staple crop production.Template:Sfn The project's case study was Tell Beydar in Syria.Template:Sfn

External links

• Dumuzid and Enkimdu in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
• The song of the ploughing oxen in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
• The death of Ur-Namma in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
• Enki and the World Order in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature