33 Facts About Enlil

Enlil, later known as Elil, is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with wind, air, earth, and storms.

Enlil is first attested as the chief deity of the Sumerian pantheon, but he was later worshipped by the Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Hurrians.

Enlil is sometimes referred to in Sumerian texts as Nunamnir.

Enlil rose to prominence during the twenty-fourth century BC with the rise of Nippur.

Enlil's cult fell into decline after Nippur was sacked by the Elamites in 1230 BC and he was eventually supplanted as the chief god of the Mesopotamian pantheon by the Babylonian national god Marduk.

Related searches

Enlil plays a vital role in the Sumerian creation myth; he separates An from Ki, thus making the world habitable for humans.

Enlil was regarded as the inventor of the mattock and the patron of agriculture.

Enlil's name is not a genitive construction, suggesting that Enlil was seen as the personification of LIL rather than merely the cause of LIL.

Enlil who sits broadly on the white dais, on the lofty dais, who perfects the decrees of power, lordship, and princeship, the earth-gods bow down in fear before him, the heaven-gods humble themselves before him.

Enlil was the patron god of the Sumerian city-state of Nippur and his main center of worship was the Ekur temple located there.

People worshipped Enlil by offering food and other human necessities to him.

Enlil's epithets include titles such as "the Great Mountain" and "King of the Foreign Lands".

Enlil was known as "Nunamnir" and is referred to in at least one text as the "East Wind and North Wind".

Enlil was said to be supremely just and intolerant towards evil.

Enlil first rose to prominence during the twenty-fourth century BC, when the importance of the god An began to wane.

Enlil remained the supreme god in Mesopotamia throughout the Amorite Period, with Amorite monarchs proclaiming Enlil as the source of their legitimacy.

Enlil's importance began to wane after the Babylonian king Hammurabi conquered Sumer.

Enlil is invoked alongside Ninlil as a member of "the mighty and firmly established gods".

From around 1300 BC onwards, Enlil was syncretized with the Assyrian national god Assur, who was the most important deity in the Assyrian pantheon.

Enlil was represented by the symbol of a horned cap, which consisted of up to seven superimposed pairs of ox-horns.

Enlil was part of a triad of deities, which included An and Enki.

The path of Enlil's celestial orbit was a continuous, symmetrical circle around the north celestial pole, but those of An and Enki were believed to intersect at various points.

Enlil separated An from Ki and carried off the earth as his domain, while An carried off the sky.

Enlil marries his mother, Ki, and from this union all the plant and animal life on earth is produced.

Ninlil goes to the river, where Enlil seduces her and impregnates her with their son, the moon-god Nanna.

Related searches

Ninlil demands to know where Enlil has gone, but Enlil, still impersonating the gatekeeper, refuses to answer.

Enlil then seduces Ninlil and impregnates her with Nergal, the god of death.

When Enlil sees that Utnapishtim and his family have survived, he is outraged, but his son Ninurta speaks up in favor of humanity, arguing that, instead of causing floods, Enlil should simply ensure that humans never become overpopulated by reducing their numbers using wild animals and famines.

Enlil goes into the boat; Utnapishtim and his wife bow before him.

Enlil, now appeased, grants Utnapishtim immortality as a reward for his loyalty to the gods.

Enlil gives the tool over to the humans, who use it to build cities, subjugate their people, and pull up weeds.

The disturbance causes a flood, which forces the resident gods of Nippur under the leadership of Enlil to take shelter in the Eshumesha temple to Ninurta.

Enlil is enraged at Marduk's transgression and orders the gods of Eshumesha to take Marduk and the other Anunnaki as prisoners.