Belili's name has no plausible etymology in Sumerian or any Semitic language, and based on its structure it has been compared to other divine names whose origin remains a mystery, such as Alala, Aruru, Bunene and Zababa.
11 Facts About Belili
1.
2.
Belili is attested as an ordinary given name, one of the so-called banana names known from both Mesopotamia and Elam.
3.
The proposal that the theonym Belili was a contracted or corrupted form of the epithet Belet-ili is regarded as baseless today.
4.
Belili appears in two distinct roles in Mesopotamian texts, as a sister of Dumuzi and as a primordial deity counted among the ancestors of Anu.
5.
Belili is described as a mourner in the incantation series Surpu, which might be a reference to her relation to Dumuzi.
6.
In lists of the sky god Anu's ancestors, Belili was typically paired with Alala, and together they occupy the final place in multiple documents enumerating such deities.
7.
Belili was worshiped in Esagil complex, in this case sharing a cultic seat with Alala.
8.
Some temples dedicated to Belili alone are known from the Canonical Temple List, but their locations are unknown.
9.
Belili is attested in a number of literary texts dealing with the death of Dumuzi.
10.
Belili agrees and offers him water, but later she has to leave, which lets the pursuers enter her house and take Dumuzi to the underworld.
11.
In Ishtar's Descent, a late Akkadian reinterpretation of an earlier Sumerian myth, Belili listens to the laments heard when Dumuzi dies and has to enter the underworld.