Enbilulu- Mesopotamian GodDeity"God of Rivers"
Titles & Epithets
Domains
Symbols
Description
When Enki organized the cosmos and assigned each god a task, he placed Enbilulu in charge of the Tigris and Euphrates, inspector of the rivers and canals that fed Mesopotamian cities. Later, Marduk claimed that name among his fifty titles, absorbing the river god's role into his own.
Mythology & Lore
Inspector of the Rivers
When Enki organized the world and assigned each deity a function, Enbilulu received the rivers. In the hymn "Enki and the World Order," Enki places Enbilulu over the Tigris and Euphrates as their inspector, responsible for ensuring that water flows where crops and cities need it. Rain fell only in winter. The rivers and the canal networks branching from them were what kept the fields alive through the long summer heat. Enbilulu was the god who kept those channels open.
His symbol was the overflowing jar, water spilling forth in abundance. The motif appeared wherever Mesopotamians celebrated the fertility their waterways made possible.
Consumed by Marduk
In the Enuma Elish, when Marduk defeated Tiamat and was proclaimed supreme god of Babylon, the assembled gods bestowed upon him fifty names. Each was the name and power of an older deity, absorbed into Marduk's authority. "Enbilulu" was among them. Tablet VII assigns the name to Marduk in his capacity as lord of the waterways, the one who maintains the canals and sustains the earth.
What had been an independent god became an attribute of the supreme one. The rivers still needed tending, the canals still needed inspection, but the god who performed that work was now called Marduk.
Relationships
- Associated with