Enlil and Ninlil: The begetting of Nanna

  Record of remote antiquity — by Unknown (2400BC?)

“Enlil and Ninlil: The Begetting of Nanna” is a Sumerian creation myth that dates back to the mid to late 3rd millennium BC. The story is set in the ancient city of Nippur, which is portrayed as a divine city inhabited by gods before humans. Enlil, a prominent god in the Sumerian pantheon, is featured as a central character in this myth.

The narrative begins with Nun-bar-ce-gunu, a goddess, warning her daughter Ninlil about the potential romantic advances of Enlil. Despite this warning, Enlil and Ninlil meet and conceive Suen-Acimbabbar, who is identified as the moon god. Following this event, Enlil is arrested and exiled from Nippur for being ritually impure. Despite his exile, Ninlil follows him.

In a series of encounters outside the city, Enlil, disguised as various characters such as the keeper of the city gate and the ferryman of the underworld, meets Ninlil. Each time they meet, Ninlil does not recognize Enlil in his disguise, and they conceive additional deities, including underworld gods Nergal and Ninazu, and Enbilulu, associated with irrigation.

The story highlights several themes, including the complexity of divine relationships and the creation of gods. The narrative is devoid of moral judgment regarding Enlil’s actions, focusing instead on the creation of deities and the establishment of their roles in the Sumerian pantheon.

Enlil’s role in Sumerian mythology extends beyond this specific myth. He is also known for separating heaven (An) from earth (Ki), making the world habitable for humans. In the Sumerian flood myth, Enlil is depicted as the one who rewards the survivor of the flood with immortality. Enlil was seen as a creator, a king, and the supreme lord of the universe, playing a vital role in the ancient Mesopotamian religious belief system.

The record

The initial discovery of the “Enlil and Ninlil” myth was made through a tablet (CBS 9205) excavated from Nippur’s temple library by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. First translated by George Aaron Barton in 1918, this tablet, measuring 6.5 by 4.5 by 1.2 inches, was part of his “Sumerian Religious Texts”. Barton noted its close agreement with an Akkadian version published earlier by Theophilus G. Pinches. Subsequent contributions to the myth’s understanding came from Edward Chiera, who restored part of Barton’s tablet, and Samuel Noah Kramer, who incorporated various CBS tablets and translations from the Nippur collection at the Museum of the Ancient Orient in Istanbul. The British Museum also houses a significant tablet (BM 38600) for this myth, with detailed studies and translations evolving over the years, leading to the latest composite text by Miguel Civil in 1989, further refined by Willem Römer and Joachim Krecher in the 1990s.

See also

Topics

Mythology Religion Sumer The Tradition
← Echoes of Eden: What secrets of human potential were buried with our ancestors' memories of ET contact?
Epic of Gilgamesh →