The EL- Enki and Enlil

"RELIGION." You heard?

Most people have a shallow grasp of the realities that make up what is today considered, “religion.” In a previous post I espoused how I believe what we call modern religion is actually ancient advanced civilization contact. Most people don't know the significance of the allegories of old, and how they form the modern view of All Mighty God in the minds of people. An Omnipotent presence, that is separate from all entities described herein. Yet somehow the people cannot distinguish such. They have confused creation with Creator.

Modern Judaism is based upon teachings that are based upon other teachings that predate most Abrahamic traditions. The teachings of Babylon.

“The Story of Atrahasis, Atrahasis I: Creation of Humans

This story as we have it comes from an early Babylonian version of about 1700 BC, but it certainly dates back to Sumerian times. It combines familiar Sumerian motifs of the creation of mankind and the subsequent flood. On one of the Sumerian king-lists, Atrahasis is listed as king of Shuruppak in the years before the flood. The name Atrahasis means "Extra-wise,"and is thus, as Stepanie Dalley points out, quite similar in meaning to that of Prometheus ("Forethinker"), father of the Greek flood hero Deucalion. The story begins way before Atrahasis appears on the scene, however.”

“It starts out with the gods digging ditches. Men have not been thought of yet, so the gods had to do the work:

• The gods had to dig out the canals
  Had to clear channels, the lifelines of the land,
  The gods dug out the Tigris river bed
  And then they dug out the Euphrates. (Dalley 9)”

“After 3,600 years of this work, the gods finally begin to complain. They decide to go on strike, burning their tools and surrounding the chief god Enlil's "dwelling" (his temple). Enlil's vizier Nusku gets Enlil out of bed and alerts him to the angry mob outside. Enlil is scared. (His face is described as being "sallow as a tamarisk.") The vizier Nusku advises Enlil to summon the other great gods, especially Anu (sky-god) and Enki (the clever god of the fresh waters). Anu advises Enlil to ascertain who is the ringleader of the rebellion. They send Nusku out to ask the mob of gods who is their leader. The mob answers, "Every single one of us gods has declared war!" (Dalley 12).”

“Since the upper-class gods now see that the work of the lower-class gods "was too hard," they decide to sacrifice one of the rebels for the good of all. They will take one god, kill him, and make mankind by mixing the god's flesh and blood with clay:

• Belit-ili the womb-goddess is present,
  Let the womb-goddess create offspring,
  And let man bear the load of the gods! (Dalley 14-15)”

“After Enki instructs them on purification rituals for the first, seventh and fifteenth of every month, the gods slaughter Geshtu-e, "a god who had intelligence" (his name means "ear" or "wisdom") and form mankind from his blood and some clay. After the birth goddess mixes the clay, all the gods troop by and spit on it. Then Enki and the womb-goddess take the clay into "the room of fate," where

• The womb-goddesses were assembled
  He [Enki] trod the clay in her presence;
  She kept reciting an incantation,
  For Enki, staying in her presence, made her recite it.
  When she had finished her incantation,
  She pinched off fourteen pieces of clay,
  And set seven pieces on the right,
  Seven on the left.
  Between them she put down a mud brick. (Dalley 16)”

“The creation of man seems to be described here as being analogous or similar to the process of making bricks: tread (knead) the clay and then pinch off pieces that will become bricks. Here, the seven pieces on the right become males and the seven pieces on the left become females. The brick between the two may be a symbol of the fetus, for when the little pieces of clay are ready to be "born," their birth is described like this:

• When the tenth month came,
  She [birth-goddess] slipped in a staff and opened the womb.”

“Just as you put a wooden spatula into a beehive-shaped brick oven to remove the bricks (like getting the pizza out when it's done), the womb-goddess or midwife uses a staff to check to see if the womb has dilated enough for birth. After the seven men and seven women are born, the birth-goddess gives rules for celebrations at birth: they should last for nine days during which a mud brick should be put down. After nine days, the husband and wife could resume conjugal relations.”

Atrahasis II: Disease, Famine, and Flood- The gods' solution to their difficulties works well: men make new picks and spades and dig bigger canals to feed both themselves and the gods. But after 1200 years the population has increased so much that Enlil has trouble sleeping:

• The country was as noisy as a bellowing bull
  The God grew restless at their racket,
  Enlil had to listen to their noise.
  He addressed the great gods,
  'The noise of mankind has become too much,
  I am losing sleep over their racket.
  Give the order that surrupu-disease shall break out.' (Dalley 18)”

“The plague breaks out, but the wise Atrahasis appeals to his god Enki for help. Enki advises Atrahasis to have the people stop praying to their personal gods and to start praying and offering sacrifices the plague god, Namtar. Namtar is so shamed by this show of attention that he wipes "away his hand" and the plague ends.”

“After another 1200 years, mankind has again multiplied to the point where they are violating Enlil's noise ordinances. This time Enlil decides on a drought to reduce their numbers, and gets Adad, the thunder-rain god, to hold back the rains. Again Atrahasis appeals to Enki, and again he advises concentrating worship on the one god responsible. Adad is also embarrassed, and releases his rain. (The text does not explain how Atrahasis has been able to live for 1200 years, but many legendary Sumerian kings had incredibly long lives.)”

“Another 1200 years goes by and the noise becomes tremendous. This time, Enlil wants to make sure that no one god can weaken his/her resolve, so he declares "a general embargo of all nature's gifts. Anu and Adad were to guard heaven, Enlil the earth, and Enki the waters, to see that no means of nourishment reach the human race" (Jacobsen 119). In addition, Enlil decrees infertility: "Let the womb be too tight to let the baby out" (Dalley 25).”

“Things get pretty bad:

• When the second year arrived
  They had depleted the storehouse.
  When the third year arrived
  The people's looks were changed by starvation.
  When the fourth year arrived
  Their upstanding bearing bowed,
  Their well-set shoulders slouched,
  The people went out in public hunched over.
  When the fifth year arrived,
  A daughter would eye her mother coming in;
  A mother would not even open her door to her daughter. . . .
  When the sixth year arrived
  They served up a daughter for a meal,
  Served up a son for food. (Dalley 25-26)”

“Though the tablets are broken and the text is fragmentary here, it seems that Enki foils the complete starvation plan by letting loose large quantities of fish to feed the starving people. Enlil is furious with Enki for breaking ranks with the rest of the gods and going against a plan that all had agreed to. Determined to wipe out mankind, Enlil decides on two things: Enki will create a flood to wipe them out and he will be forced to swear an oath not to interfere with the destruction. Enki resists creating the flood ("Why should I use my power against my people? . . . / This is Enlil's kind of work!"[Dalley 29]., but apparently he does take the oath.”

“After another break, the text resumes with Enki addressing Atrahasis (still alive after all these years!) to warn him of the impending flood. Actually, Enki speaks to the walls of Atrahasis' reed hut so as not break the letter of his oath:

• Wall, listen constantly to me!
  Reed hut, make sure you attend to all my words!
  Dismantle the house, build a boat, . . .
  Roof it like the Apsu
  So the sun cannot see inside it!
  Make upper decks and lower decks,
  The tackle must be very strong,
  The bitumen [a kind of tar] strong . . . (Dalley 29-30).”

“Atrahasis gathers the elders of Shuruppak and makes up an excuse to leave town: he says that Enki and Enlil are angry with each other and that Enki has commanded him to go down to the water's edge. Which he does, and there he builds his boat and fills it with every type of animal (the text is fragmentary here) and his family. Adad begins to thunder, and sick with impending doom ("his heart was breaking and he was vomiting bile"), Atrahasis seals up the door of the boat with bitumen (Dalley 31).”

“The storm and flood turn out to be more than the gods bargained for:

• Like a wild ass screaming the winds howled
  The darkness was total, there was no sun. . . .
  As for Nintu the Great Mistress,
  Her lips became encrusted with rime.
  The great gods, the Annuna,
  Stayed parched and famished.
  The goddess watched and wept . . . (Dalley 31-32).”

“The great mother goddess complains bitterly about Enlil and Anu's shortcomings as decision-makers, and she weeps for the dead humans who "clog the river like dragonflies." Also, "she longed for beer (in vain)." Now it is the gods' turn to go hungry: "like sheep, they could only fill their windpipes with bleating. / Thirsty as they were, their lips / Discharged only the rime of famine" (Dalley 33). After seven days and nights of rain, the flood subsides, and Atrahasis disembarks and offers a sacrifice. The hungry gods smell the fragrance and gather "like flies over the offering." In a mutilated passage, the great goddess swears by the flies in her necklace that she will remember the flood. Enlil spots the boat and is furious, knowing that only Enki could have been clever enough to come up with this new trick. Enki admits that he warned Atrahasis, "in defiance" of Enlil: "I made sure life was preserved"(Dalley 34).”

“The text is fragmentary at this point, but apparently Enki persuades Enlil to adopt a more humane plan for dealing with the population and noise problem. Enki and the womb-goddess Nintu decide that henceforth one-third of the women will not give birth successfully: a pasittu demon will "snatch the baby from its mother's lap" (Dalley 35). They also create several classes of temple women who are not allowed to have children.”

Works Cited

• Dalley, Stephanie, ed. and trans. Myths from Mesopotamia. New York: Oxford UP, 1991.

• Heidel, Alexander, ed. and trans. The Babylonian Genesis. Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1951.

• Jacobsen, Thorkild. The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion. New Haven: Yale UP, 1976.

• Pritchard, James B., ed. The Ancient Near East, Volume 1: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1958.

• - - -. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1955. Abbreviated ANET.

• Sandars, N[ancy] K. Poems of Heaven and Hell from Ancient Mesopotamia. New York: Penguin, 1971.

https://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/Atrahasi.htm

“During the summer of 1912 I examined the collections of cuneiform inscriptions in the University Museum. I was especially interested in historical and grammatical texts and of both I found quite remarkable specimens. One of the tablets of historical contents takes us, at least in the belief of the Babylonians, back to the very beginnings of history, namely to the time of the deluge, and even farther back to the time of the creation of mankind. Only the lower part of this tablet has been found; what has been recovered is, however, a priceless possession of the Museum.”

“The preserved portion of the first column begins with instructions concerning the building of cities, which, it seems, were given by the gods to the first men, whose creation must have been related in the now missing preceding lines. Still we are fortunate enough to read at the end of the first column at least the following reference to their creation. “After Enlil, Enki and Ninharsagga had created the black headed” (thus the Babylonians designated humankind) “they called into being in a fine fashion the animals, the four-legged, of the field.” Up to the present time there has been, among Assyriologists as well as among Biblical scholars, considerable speculation as to whom the Babylonians, in the older times, credited with having created the first of the human race. Here we are told that it was the two gods Enlil and Enki and the goddess Ninharsagga. From Greek writers we know of a very queer late Babylonian account of the creation of man which was transmitted to them by the Babylonian priest Berosus, a younger contemporary of Alexander the Great. According to him the god Bel, i.e., Marduk of Babylon, cut off his head and the other gods mixed the blood that flowed from his head with the earth and fashioned man who thus became a rational being. This story has not come to us directly from Berosus; it first passed into a book by the Greek scholar Alexander Polyhistor and from there has been quoted by Eusebius, the writer of the history of the Christian church, and it may therefore have reached us somewhat disfigured. But assuming its general correctness and considering it in the light of our new text as well as what we know from other cuneiform sources, we may perhaps reconstruct the older Babylonian story of the creation of man in this way. When Enlil, the creator of heaven and earth, wished to people the earth with living beings, the god Enki, the god of wisdom and knowledge, devised the image of man after the image of the gods, and the goddess Ninharsagga moulded it in clay, while the blood of Enlil gave it life and intellect. From the Old Testament we know that the blood was considered to be the seat of life, but whether or not the idea that Enlil cut off his head to obtain this life-giving blood will be corroborated from cuneiform sources we cannot tell at the present time.”

“Turning now to the second column of our tablet we read of some of the antediluvian cities of Babylonia, which Enlil bestows upon certain gods. Here again our tablet settles a disputed question; it mentions the city of Larak, and it is therefore this city that must be identified with the city of Laranche, which according to Berosus was the seat of several of the prediluvian kings of Babylonia.

The third, fourth, fifth and sixth columns then contain the story of the deluge. “At that time,” we read in column 3, “Ziugiddu was king, a pashish-priest of Enki; daily and constantly he was in the service of his god.- In order to requite him for his piety Enki, in column 4, the first of the reverse, informs him that at the request of Enlil it has been resolved “in the council of the gods to destroy the seed of mankind,” whereupon Ziugiddu—this part of the story, however, is broken away—builds a big boat and loads it with all kinds of animals. For seven days and seven nights a rainstorm, as we read in column 5, rages through the land and the flood of water carries the boat away; but then the sun appears again and when its light shines into the boat Ziugiddu sacrifices an ox and a sheep. Lastly, in column 6, we find Ziugiddu worshiping before Enlil, whose anger against men now has abated, for he says: “Life like that of a god I give to him,” and “an eternal soul like that of a god I create for him,” which means that Ziugiddu, the hero of the deluge story, shall become a god.

A Babylonian story of the deluge has been known to us for a long time from a poem that is imbedded in the famous Gilgamesh epic. There exist also several fragments of other versions of the story, and the Museum possesses a small fragment of thirteen partially preserved lines, which was published by Prof. Hilprecht some years ago. Our new text, however, is an entirely different account, as will be seen from the fact that the hero bears a name different from that found in the other deluge stories. But what makes the new account especially important is that it is not, like the other versions, written in the Semitic Babylonian language, but in Sumerian, that is, the old tongue of the non-Semitic race which, in the earliest days of history, held sway over Babylonia. As will be seen from some of the quotations the text is a kind of poetical composition, and as such was originally not intended to be merely an historical record, but served some practical, ritualistic or other purpose. For various reasons it seems to me that our tablet was written about the time of king Hammurabi (2117-2075), thus being the oldest Babylonian record we have at the present time, of the creation as well as the deluge. The text itself, however, may go back to even a much earlier time.”

“Judging by the color of the clay, the shape of the tablet and the script, our text belongs with another tablet that contains a list of kings. It even seems to me that there were three tablets of about equal size measuring about 5½ by 7 inches, on which an historically interested scribe wrote the world’s history, or at least its outlines. The first of these tablets, I believe, contained the Babylonian theogony and then related the famous fight between the younger generation of the gods and the deity of the primeval chaos, which ultimately resulted in the creation of heaven and earth out of the two parts of Chaos. Here the tablet which I have just described comes in and gives the history of the world as far as the deluge. Then a third tablet gave a complete list of the kings of Babylonia from the time of the deluge to the king under whom the tablets were written. A portion of this third tablet or, to be more accurate, the reverse of this portion, which contains about an eighth of the whole text, was published six years ago by Prof. Hilprecht. It contained two of the last dynasties of this list of kings. I succeeded in copying also the much effaced obverse which contains the names of kings of the period immediately after the deluge, and, in addition to this, I also found larger and smaller fragments of three other and older lists of kings. I need hardly emphasize the great historical and chronological value of these new lists since they give us not only the names of the kings, but the length of their respective reigns, and in some few instances even add some short historical references relating to these kings. The first part of these lists leads us, it is true, into quite legendary times. We find there kings whose names are familiar to us from myths and legends and heroic epics, as, e.g., Gilgamesh, the hero of the famous Gilgamesh epic; Dumuzi, the unfortunate lover of the goddess Ishtar; Etana, who, under the wings of an eagle, made a daring ascent to heaven. etc. Moreover, remarkably long reigns are assigned to the first kings of the lists. Etana, e.g., is said to have ruled 625 years; another king, called the “Scorpion,” 840 years, and Lugalbanda of Erek 1200 years. But very soon the lists become entirely historical; the kings rule only 36, 20 or 7 years, etc.”

“The long reigns assigned to the earlier kings involve, of course, that a very long duration must be assumed for the whole period from the deluge to the time when the tablets were written; and indeed one of the tablets that was written under the 134th king, the eleventh king of Isin, counts 32,175 years, while another list reckons from the deluge to the 139th king, the last king of Isin, 32,234 years.

This is, by the way, a new corroboration, at least to some extent, of the Greek tradition which, as we saw, goes back to the priest Berosus. For we are told by Greek writers that from the deluge to the first invasion of Babylonia by the Medes—this invasion is, of course, not identical with that of the later Medes and Persians —86 kings ruled over Babylonia for 33,091 years. There must, of course, be some slight mistake in these numbers. On the whole, the great similarity of the two traditions is striking.”

“In order fully to appreciate the bearing of the new chronological data, it may be well to say a little more on the chronological system of the Babylonians as it has been transmitted to us by the Greeks, and as we can now partially confirm it from cuneiform sources.

At the beginning of all time there were three immense periods. In the first there existed only Chaos and her husband, the Ocean; then, after a long time, the primeval gods Lakhmu and Lakhamu were born, and after similar long intervals Anshar, the upper world, and Kishar, the lower world, came into existence. This primeval period came to an end when the younger generation of gods vanquished Chaos and created Heaven and Earth. Then follows, from the creation to the deluge, the period of the ten primeval kings which lasted 432,000 years. After that the present still lasting period begins, for which, till about 2400 B.C., the Babylonians counted 32,234 years. From the creation to the time of Berosus (ca. 300 B.C.) we would therefore have to count about 466,500 years, but in the introduction to his book on Babylonia he states that the written records of the Babylonians reached back to about 2,150,000 years before this time, i.e., long before the creation of the earth, to the time when Chaos still reigned the universe.”

“Some of the earlier kings we meet again in a number of fragments of chronicles and poetical compositions, which I have copied. I mention here only the epics referring to king Lugalbanda and king Dumuzi. If we combine all the facts that we are able to gather from the new tablets as well as from the older material, the story of the two kings is about the following.”

“Lugalbanda began his career as a shepherd; at his time the bird-god Zu stole from Enlil, the king of the gods, the tablets of fate, which gave to their owner supreme power over the whole world, over men and gods alike. Enlil used to wear them on his breast, but one day when he was sitting on his throne, the bird-god Zu snatched the tablets away and flew to a distant mountain rock. None of the gods dared to do anything to recover the tablets, for all power now rested with Zu, but the shepherd Lugalbanda, thus we must conclude, succeeded in recovering them by a trick which he played on Zu, and Enlil requited this service by making him king of Erek and, after a reign of 1200 years, even made him a god. As such he was worshipped even in the latest times of Babylonian history.”

“King Dumuzi was originally a fisherman, but the goddess Ishtar fell in love with him and made him king of Erek. Concluding from certain allusions in the Gilgamesh epic it seems that Ishtar after some time killed her lover, though afterwards she seems to have repented of her deed, for in order to bring him back from the dead, she herself descends into Hades. A tablet that I found among the collections of the Museum depicts the famous scene when Ishtar enters the realm of the dead. She passes through the first gate and the crown is taken from her head. “Why do you take this away from me?” she asks, and the answer is given,” Go on, 0 Ishtar, such are the laws of the nether world!” She passes through the second gate and the rings of her fingers are taken from her. Again she asks, “Why do you take these away from me?” and again the answer, “Go on, O Ishtar, such are the laws of the nether world!” And so she walks through all the other gates until finally she passes naked through the seventh and last gate. It would lead us too far from our subject if I would here describe how Ishtar herself now was kept a prisoner in Hades, but was rescued by the gods; and it seems her lover Tammuz was rescued too, for later, at the time of Adapa, we find him as a god in the heavenly palace of Anum, the father of the goddess Ishtar.”

“These legends, it is true, have mostly been known to us already from late Babylonian and Assyrian texts, and besides, the texts which I found in the Museum, are very fragmentary. And yet an inestimable value attaches to them, for first of all they are written like almost all of the literary texts that were found at Nippur, in Sumerian, and then they date from a time almost two thousand years earlier than many of the known legends which mostly came from the library of king Ashurbanapal (about 630 B.C.).”

“Let us now turn to the really historical times. There is, e.g., avery large clay tablet that contains the copies of a whole series of inscriptions of king Lugalzaggisi of Erek and of the three first kings of Agade in northern Babylonia, Sharrukin, Rimush and Manishtusu, whose time is placed by a late Babylonian statement about 3750 B.C. A short statement on the edge of the tablet tells us that these are all the inscriptions of the just mentioned kings that were extant in Ekur, the temple of Enlil at Nippur, which the University of Pennsylvania has partially excavated. These texts contain a wealth of important historical information. We learn from them, e.g., that Sharrukin on an expedition to southern Babylonia made Lugalzaggisi a prisoner and led him triumphantly in fetters through the gate of the temple of Enlil at Nippur. He then proceeds farther south until he reaches the Persian Gulf, where he washes his weapons in the sea. Then he subdues the various kingdoms in the West and along the shore of the Mediterranean as far as the “cedar forest” and the “silver mountains,” i.e., the Lebanon and the Taurus in Asia Minor. Likewise he leads his victorious armies to the East as also do his two successors, Manishtusu and Rimush, the former of whom crosses the Persian Gulf and vanquishes a coalition of thirty-two kings who had assembled to do battle with him, and then subdues the lands as far as the silver mines or, as the inscription says, the “silver holes.”

“Similar copies of royal inscriptions of quite a number of other kings were found in the Museum collections, e.g., of Naram-Sin of Agade, 3750 B.C., of Ur-Engur of Ur, about 2700 B.C., Ishbi-Urra, Idin-Dagan, Ishme-Dagan, Ur-Ninib, Damik-ilishu of Isin, copies of letters to and from king Idin-Dagan of Isin, between 2600 and 2300, the copy of a building inscription of Samsuilana, about 2050, etc. Among the collections that were bought from antiquity dealers I found a very important historical inscription of king Lugal-anna-mundu of Adab, a Babylonian kingdom of which we did not know much up to the present time, presumably before 2700 B.C. It comprised not only Babylonia but the surrounding countries also. In the introduction the king speaks of his conquest of the Elamitic city of Markhalim, and then describes a temple which he built and its seven gates. But I must not forget to make mention of a short Sumerian history of a temple of Ninlil, which incidentally also furnishes information of the great temple of Enlil at Nippur. We learn, e.g., that when this temple had fallen to ruin for the second time, king Gilgamesh rebuilt a certain part of it, while his son (……..)-lugal rebuilt the temple of Ninlil.”

“Another treasure of the Museum is a copy of the famous code of laws of king Hammurabi (about 2100 B.C.). To be precise I ought to say that up to this time only one of probably three very large and bulky clay tablets that contained the full text of the code has been found; it is very much broken, as will be seen from the accompanying photograph. But nevertheless it remains a great treasure, since the better preserved obverse supplements a part of the great lacuna on the stele of the code in the Louvre, supplying some laws concerning the merchant and his undermen.”

“The second class of tablets on which I worked during the last summer, the grammatical texts, are very numerous; they mostly came from the temple school, and the greater part of them contain grammatical exercises of pupils. They all deal with the Sumerian language, which the young scribes of those days had to acquire as at the present time boys of the higher schools are instructed in Latin and Greek. These linguistic tablets, which partly date from 2500 and partly from 1300 B.C., can, of course, claim a greater interest only from Sumerian scholars; for them, however, their value will be immense; for they give not only a good many new readings of cuneiform signs, but a few of them contain paradigms of the most difficult and so far only imperfectly known parts of the Sumerian language, namely the personal pronouns and the verbal forms. These new tablets will form the first sure basis for a Sumerian Grammar.”

Arno Poebel

Poebel, Arno. "The Babylonian Story of the Creation and the Earliest History of the World." The Museum Journal IV, no. 2 (June, 1913): 41-50. https://www.penn.museum/sites/journal/199/

https://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/journal/04-2/babylonian_creation.pdf

“Enki and Enlil are two important deities in Mesopotamian mythology, particularly in the religious beliefs of the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. They were central figures in their pantheon of gods and played significant roles in the creation and governance of the world. They had complex relationships with each other and with the rest of the pantheon. They were sometimes in conflict, and their interactions reflected different aspects of divine authority and power. Despite their differences, both deities were essential to the functioning of the cosmos as understood by the ancient Mesopotamians.”

“Enki, later known as Ea by the Akkadians and Babylonians, was the Sumerian deity of wisdom, intelligence, tricks and magic, fresh water, healing, creation, and fertility. Originally, he was worshiped as the patron god of Eridu, which the Sumerians considered to be the first city created when the world began. According to myth, Enki gave birth to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers from the streams of water flowing off his body. Enki’s waters are considered life-giving and his symbols are the goat and the fish, both of which symbolize fertility.”

“The Sumerian ‘En’ translates roughly into ‘lord’ and ‘ki’ means ‘earth’. Thus, the commonly accepted meaning of his name is ‘Lord of the Earth.’ But this might not be the exact meaning. A variation of his name is Enkig. However, the meaning of ‘kig’ is unknown. Enki’s other name is Ea. In Sumerian, the two syllables E-A put together mean ‘Lord of Water.’ It is also possible that the original deity at Eridu was named Abzu and not Enki. ‘Ab’ also means ‘water,’ thus giving credence to the god Enki as the god of fresh water, healing, and fertility, the latter two also being associated with water.

It is intriguing that Enki is known as a trickster god by the Sumerians given that in all the myths that we come across this god, his motivation is to actually help both human beings and other gods. The meaning behind this is that as the god of wisdom, Enki works in ways that do not always make sense to anyone else. He helps to enlighten people, but not always in a direct manner. Enki’s manner of trickery appears to be for the purpose of helping humanity, albeit in a roundabout manner.”

“It was Enki who came up with the idea of the creation of man, a servant of the gods, made of clay and blood. He was helped in this by Ninhursag, the mother goddess. It was also Enki who gave mankind the ability to speak one language to communicate with each other. Samuel Noah Kramer provides a translation of a Sumerian poem that speaks of this.”

“Eventually, as the humans grew in number and became louder and more difficult, they caused great disturbance to Enlil, the King of the Gods. He sent down several natural disasters, ending in a flood that wiped out humanity. Time and time again, Enki saved humanity from the wrath of his brother. Finally, Enki instructed the hero Atrahasis to build a ship to save life on Earth.”

“In this Babylonian flood myth, Atrahasis survived a seven-day deluge and performed sacrifices to appease Enlil and the other gods after the flood. Enki explained his reasons for saving Atrahasis. Pleased, the gods agreed to repopulate the world with human beings but with certain conditions. Humans would never again be given the opportunity to become too populous and the gods would make sure that they die by natural means before they run over the earth.”

“Enlil, who was later known as Elil, was the Sumerian god of the air and wind. He was later worshiped as the King of the Gods and was much more powerful than any of the other elemental gods. In some Sumerian texts, he was also referred to as Nunamnir. As Enlil’s primary site of worship was the Ekur temple of Nippur, of which city he was the patron, Enlil rose to importance with the rise of Nippur itself. One Sumerian hymn, translated by Samuel Noah Kramer, eulogizes Enlil as being so sacred that even the gods feared to look upon him.”

“Enlil is made up of the two words ‘En’ which means ‘lord’ and ‘lil,’ the meaning of which has not been agreed upon. Some interpret it as winds as a phenomenon of the weather. Thus, Enlil is known as the ‘Lord of Air’ or, more literally, ‘Lord Wind’. But some historians think that ‘lil’ may be the representation of a spirit that is felt in the movement of the air. Thus, Enlil is the representation of ‘lil’ and not the cause of ‘lil’. This would tie in with the fact that Enlil is not given anthropomorphic form in any of the tablets where he is represented. In fact, there is some speculation that Enlil’s name is not fully Sumerian at all but may be a partial loanword from a Semitic language instead.”

“The Sumerians believed that serving the gods was the most important purpose in the life of man. There were priests at the temples to offer food and other human essentials to the gods. They would even change the clothes on the god’s statue. The food would be laid out as a feast before Enlil every day and the priests would partake of it after the ritual was completed.”

“Enlil first grew in prominence when the influence of An began to wear away. This was in the 24th century BC. He fell from prominence after Sumer was conquered by the Babylonian king Hammurabi, even though the Babylonians did worship him under the name Elil. Later, from 1300 BC onwards, Enlil was absorbed into the Assyrian pantheon and Nippur briefly became important once again. When the Neo-Assyrian empire collapsed, the temples and statues of Enlil were all destroyed. He had, by that point, become inextricably linked with the Assyrians who were widely hated by the people they had conquered.”

“It is important to note that despite being the supreme lord for hundreds of years, there is no proper image available to us of Enlil in Mesopotamian iconography. He was never depicted in human form, being represented instead as simply a horned cap of seven pairs of ox horns, one on top of the other. Horned crowns were a symbol of godhood and various gods were depicted as wearing them. This tradition continued for centuries, even till the time of the Persian conquest and the years after that. Enlil was also linked to the number fifty in the Sumerian numerological system. They believed that different numbers had different religious and ritual importance and fifty was a number that was sacred to Enlil.”

“Through the reign of Hammurabi, Enlil continued to be worshiped even though Marduk, the son of Enki, had become the new King of the Gods. The most important aspects of Enlil were absorbed into Marduk who became the chief deity for both the Babylonians and the Assyrians. Nippur remained a sacred city throughout this period, second only to Eridu. It was believed that Enlil and An had willingly handed over their powers to Marduk.”

“Even as Enlil’s role in Mesopotamian religion dwindled with the fall of Assyrian rule, he continued to be worshiped in the form of Marduk. It was only in 141 AC that the worship of Marduk declined and Enlil was finally forgotten, even under that name.

https://historycooperative.org/enki-and-enlil/

Now, go back an read the “scriptures,” with a new pair of eyes. Know, with certitude, that the masters of deception have never went away. The sickness is still here, the strife, the evil, and realize that fables have been concocted, using the words of Holy People, in order to deceive and control the souls. In order to usurp the concept of Creator, and replace him with worship of creation.

Enlil and Enki still battle and still are rivals. One from Jerusalem, the other from Yemen. It's an old battle, an old rivalry, the people just ain't figured it out yet. The following is just a small example of the blood thirsty history that surrounds this group of “physical beings” known to those of brighter lights as the “EL.” All significant events throughout “biblical history” are their handiwork.

• “Early Dynastic Period of Mesopotamia

  • c. 2500 BC Enmebaragesi of Kish subdued Elam

  • c. 2500 BC Aga of Kish, the son of Enmebaragesi of Kish, besieged Uruk

  • c. 2500 BC Enmerkar of Uruk's year-long siege of Aratta

  • c. 2500 BC Dumuzid of Uruk captured Enmebaragesi of Kish single-handed

  • c. 2500 BC Enshakushanna of Uruk conquered Hamazi, Akkad, Kish, and Nippur, claiming hegemony over all of Sumer. Enshakushanna was succeeded in Uruk by Lugal-kinishe-dudu, but the hegemony seems to have passed to Eannatum of Lagash for a time

  • c. 2500 BC Eannatum of Lagash conquered all of Sumer, including Ur, Nippur, Akshak, Larsa, and Uruk (controlled by Enshakushanna)

  • c. 2500 BC En-anna-tum I of Lagash succeeded his brother Eannatum and defended Lagash against Ur-Lumma of Umma

  • c. 2500 BC Entemena of Lagash succeeded his father En-anna-tum I and re-established Lagash as a power in Sumer. He defeated Illi of Umma, with the aid of Lugal-kinishe-dudu of Uruk (the successor to Enshakushanna)

  • c. 2500 BC Lugal-Anne-Mundu of Adab subjected the "Four-Quarters" of the world – i.e., the entire Fertile Crescent region, from the Mediterranean to the Zagros Mountains

  • c. 2355 BC – 2334 BC (middle chronology) Lugal-zage-si of Umma conquered several of the Sumerian city-states – including Kish, where he overthrew Ur-Zababa; Lagash, where he overthrew Urukagina; Ur, Nippur, and Larsa; as well as Uruk

• Akkadian Period

  • c. 2334 – 2270 BC Sargon of Akkad established a vast empire which is thought to have included large parts of Mesopotamia, and included parts of modern-day Iran, Asia Minor and Syria

    • Conquest of Elam

    • c. 2271 BC Battle of Uruk

    • Syria and Canaan campaigns

    • Akkadian conquest of Ebla

    • Magan revolt

    • Lullubi campaign of Naram-sin

• Gutian period

  • c. 2193 – c. 2123 BC Gutian attacks on the Akkadian Empire

  • c. 2123 BC – 2112 BC After defeating the Gutian ruler Tirigan in Sumer with the aid of other cities, Utu-hengal of Uruk established himself as the king of Sumer

• Ur III period

  • c. 2112 BC – 2094 BC (Short chronology) Ur-Nammu of Ur conquered Lagash

  • c. 2004 BC (Short chronology) Elamite Sack of Ur

• Isin-Larsa period

  • c. 1830 BC – 1817 BC (Short chronology) The Amorite chieftain Sumu-abum won independence from the city-state Kazallu

  • c. 1752 BC – 1730 BC (Short chronology) Damiq-ilishu of Isin, the last king mentioned in the Sumerian King List, is defeated by Sin-Muballit of Babylon

• Old Babylonian period

  • c. 1792 BC – 1750 BC (Short chronology) Hammurabi of Babylon extended Babylon's control over Mesopotamia by winning a series of wars against neighboring kingdoms

• Kassite dynasty

  • c. 1595 BC Fall of Babylon

  • c. 1507 BC (Short chronology) Kassite attacks on Babylon

Levant

Further information: History of the ancient Levant

• c. 2492 BC Battle between Haik and Nimrod

• c. 2300 BC Mari-Ebla's Hundred Years War

  • c. 2300 BC Battle of Terqa

• c. 2000 BC Battle of Siddim

• c. 1900 BC Qatna-Yamhad conflict

• c. 1770 BC Yamhad kingdom conquests

• c. 1650 BC - 1600 BC Hittite-Syrian Wars

• IsraeliteCampaigns

  • Early Israelite campaigns

    • 1400 BC Battle of Ai (legendary)

    • Battle of Hazor (legendary)

    • Battle of Jericho (legendary)

    • Lachish

    • Battle of the Waters of Merom (legendary)

• c. 14th century BC "Syrian Wars"

• c. 1247 BC Battle of Kadesh

Anatolia[edit]

Further information: History of Anatolia

• c. 1650 BC – 1600 BC Conquests of Hattusili I and Mursili I

• c. 1430 BC – 1350 BC Kaska invasions of Hatti

Early Iron Age

Note: This section is covering Iron Age I and II, Iron Age III is related as Classic Period

Main articles: Egyptian Empire, Kingdom of Judah, Neo-Assyrian Empire, Median Empire, Neo-Babylonian Empire, and Achaemenid Empire

• Ancient Egypt conflicts

  • 1279 BC – 1213 BC Ramesses II campaigns in the Near East

    • First Syrian campaign

    • Second Syrian campaign

      • 1274 BC Battle of Kadesh

    • Third Syrian campaign

  • Third Intermediate Period of Egypt

    • 925 BC Sack of Jerusalem

    • 727 BC Kushite Invasion to Egypt

    • 609 BC Battle of Megiddo – a battle between the Kingdom of Egypt and the Kingdom of Judah

• Ancient Anatolia conflicts

  • 1260 BC – 1240 BC Trojan War

• Ancient Mesopotamia conflicts

  • Kassite period

    • c. 1232 BC – 1225 BC (Short chronology) Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria defeated Kashtiliash IV, the Kassite king of Babylon and captured the city of Babylon to ensure full Assyrian supremacy over Mesopotamia

    • c. 1157 BC – 1155 BC (Short chronology) Enlil-nadin-ahi, the final king of the Kassite dynasty that had ruled over Babylon, was defeated by Kutir-Nahhunte of Elam, the successor of Shutruk-Nakhunte

  • Fourth Babylonian Dynasty

    • c. 1125 BC – 1104 BC (Short chronology) Nebuchadnezzar I of Isin's War with Elam

  • Later Israelite Campaigns

    • 1000 BC Siege of Jebus

• Assyrian campaigns

  • 853 BC Battle of Qarqar

  • 721 BC Assyrian conquest of Israel

  • Second Assyrian invasion to Southern Levant

    • 701 BC Siege of Lachish

    • 701 BC Assyrian Siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib

  • 693 BC Battle of Diyala River (Pyrrhic Assyrian victory)

  • 693 BC Siege of Babylon

  • 626 BC Revolt of Babylon (Decisive Babylonian victory; eviction of Assyrian troops)

• Neo-Babylonian campaigns

  • 612 BC Battle of Nineveh

  • 605 BC Battle of Carchemish – a battle between the Kingdom of Egypt and Assyrian allies against the Neo-Babylonian Empire

  • Jewish–Babylonian war

    • 597 BC Siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II

    • 587 BC Siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II

• Median campaigns

  • 28 May 585 BC Battle of Halys

• Achaemenid conquests of Cyrus the Great

  • 552 BC Persian Revolt

  • 552 BC Battle of Hyrba

  • 551 BC Battle of the Persian Border

  • 550 BC Battle of Pasargadae

  • 547 BC Battle of Pteria

  • 547 BC Battle of Thymbra

  • 547 BC Siege of Sardis

  • 539 BC Battle of Opis

Classical antiquity[edit]

Greco-Persian domination

Main articles: Achaemenid Empire, Greco-Persian Wars, Alexander the Great, and Wars of the Diadochi

• Ionian Revolt 499–493 BC

• First Persian invasion of Greece 492–490 BC

• Egyptian Revolt 486 BC

• Second Persian invasion of Greece 480–478 BC

• Wars of Delian League 477–449 BC

• Wars of Alexander the Great

• Wars of the Diadochi 322–275 BC

• Syrian Wars 274–168 BC

  • First Syrian War (274–271 BC)

  • Second Syrian War (260–253 BC)

  • Third Syrian War (246–241 BC)

  • Fourth Syrian War (219–217 BC)

  • Fifth Syrian War (202–195 BC)

  • Sixth Syrian War (170–168 BC)

• Seleucid–Parthian wars 238–129 BC

• Roman–Syrian War 192–188 BC

• Maccabean Revolt 167–160 BC

Roman, Parthian and Sassanid domination[edit]

Main article: Roman–Persian Wars

• Mithridatic Wars 88–63 BC

  • First Mithridatic War 88–84 BC

  • Second Mithridatic War 83–81 BC

  • Third Mithridatic War 75–63 BC

    • Hasmonean Civil War

      • Siege of Jerusalem (63 BC)

• Roman–Parthian Wars

  • Crassus invasion to Mesopotamia 53 BCE

    • Battle of Carrhae

  • Antony's Parthian War

    • Battle of Mount Gindarus

    • Siege of Jerusalem 37 BC

    • Antropatene campaign

    • Armenian campaign

  • Roman–Parthian War of 58–63 AD

  • Battle of Nisibis (217)

• Aelius Gallus campaign in Arabia 24 BC

• Alexandria pogroms 38 AD

• Jewish–Roman wars 66–136 AD

  • Great Revolt of Judea 67–70 AD

  • Kitos War 117–119 AD

  • Bar Kokhba Revolt 132–136 AD

• Roman-Sassanid Wars

  • Battle of Antioch (218)

  • Ardashir's raid of Mesopotamia 230–232 AD

  • Ardashir's second raid of Mesopotamia 237–240 AD

  • Battle of Resaena 243 AD

  • Battle of Misiche 244 AD

  • Battle of Barbalissos

  • Battle of Edessa 259

  • Siege of Singara 344

  • Siege of Amida 359

  • Battle of Ctesiphon (363)

  • Battle of Samarra 363 AD

• Uprising of Syrian Legion 232 AD

• Palmyrene revolt 272

  • Battle of Immae

  • Battle of Emesa

• Battle of Callinicum 296

• Jewish revolt against Gallus 351–352

• Isauria rebellion of 404

• Byzantine–Sasanian wars 421–628

  • Roman–Sasanian War (421–422)

  • Anastasian War (502–506)

  • Iberian War (526–532)

    • Battle of Callinicum 531

  • Roman–Persian War of 572–591

  • Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628

    • Antioch riots 610

    • Battle of Antioch (613)

    • Jewish revolt against Heraclius 610-28

      • Siege of Jerusalem (614)

    • Shahin's invasion of Asia Minor (615)

    • Sassanid conquest of Egypt 618–621

    • Battle of Issus

    • Byzantine assault on Persia 624-25

    • Siege of Constantinople (626)

    • Third Perso-Turkic War

    • Battle of Nineveh (627)

• Samaritan Revolts 484–573

  • Samaritan revolt against Zeno 484

  • Revolt against Anastasius I

  • Third Samaritan revolt 529–531

  • Fourth Samaritan Revolt 555–572

• Mazdak revolt in Persia 524 (or 528)

• Nika riots in Constantinople 532

• Battle of Dhi Qar – tribal rebellion in Sasanian Persia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conflicts_in_the_Near_East

Everything that is hidden will be unveiled. Religion is no what people think it is, and the sooner people realize that fact the better off they will be. There is only so much that one can espouse, and those who get it, “get it.” There is no savior from the sky coming to help the people. The people have to help themselves, that is the only way to unravel the mystery.

Curiously enough, the EL,” have been quite busy throughout biblical traitions. The “EL” is everywhere:

Gabri-el, Micha-el, Rapha-el, Uri-el, Azra-el, Phanu-el, Isra-el, Zadik-el, Dani-el, Ezeki-el, Cama-el, Jeremi-el, Rami-el, Ari-el, Barachi-el, Hani-el, Jegudi-el, Jophi-el, and sundry other “things.”

If one wants to find the adherents to the “ideology,” just look for the “EL.” You heard?

Lord have Mercy