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Updated: June 22, 2025
We must distinguish, then, in the case of En-lil, at least four phases: 1. His original rôle as a local deity; The extension of his power to the grade of a great 'lord' over a large district; Dissociation from local origins to become the supreme lord of the lower world; and The transfer of his name and powers as god of Nippur to Marduk, the god of Babylon.
Marduk's supremacy no longer being questioned, there was no necessity to curtail the homage paid to Shamash at Sippar or to En-lil at Nippur; hence the religious importance of the old centers is not diminished by the surpassing glory of Babylon. There was room for all. Marduk's toleration is the best evidence of his unquestioned headship.
The storm-god En-lil is set aside to make room for the solar deity Marduk. But, despite such efforts, the old tales, once committed to writing on the practically imperishable clay, survived, if not in the minds of the people, at least in the archives of the ancient temples.
The Assyrian kings are fond of mentioning foreign deities, and of adding them to their pantheon. Nergal is called 'the Marduk of warfare'; Nebo, 'the Marduk of earthly possessions'; Ninib, 'the Marduk of strength'; En-lil, 'the Marduk of sovereignty'; and so on, in a long enumeration, the gods are regarded as so many forms of Marduk.
His subordinate position, however, is indicated by his being called the 'servant, generally of En-lil, occasionally also of Anu, and as such he bears the name of Pap-sukal, i.e., 'divine messenger. Rim-Sin builds a temple to Nin-shakh at Uruk, and from its designation as his 'favorite dwelling place' we may conclude that Rim-Sin only restores or enlarges an ancient temple of the deity.
Throughout, the tablet describing the contest of Marduk with Tiâmat, Marduk is called Bel, and while this name is used in the generic sense of "lord," the transference of the name of Bel to Marduk is evidently introduced to account for his assuming the prerogatives belonging to another god. The original 'lord' was En-lil of Nippur.
Other names that describe a temple by epithets of the gods to whom they are sacred, are E-nun-makh, 'the house of the great lord, descriptive of Sin; E-me-te-ur-sagga, 'the house of the glory of the warrior, a temple sacred to Zamama-Ninib; E-U-gal, 'the house of the great lord, a temple to En-lil.
Naram-Sin and Sargon glory in the title 'builder of the temple of En-lil in Nippur. Of the rulers of the first period of Babylonian history, it so happens that we know more of Gudea than of any other. We may feel certain that he but follows the example of his predecessors, in devoting so large a share of his energies to temple building.
The Zu myth does not represent, as he supposes, an attack upon Marduk as the symbol of the early morning sun, but upon En-lil, the Bel of Nippur, as the one who, by virtue of having the tablets of fate in his possession, controls the laws of the universe and fixes the fate of the gods and of mankind.
The secondary position occupied, e.g., by Sin when compared with a god whose domain is the entire 'lower regions, would be aptly expressed by calling the moon-god the eldest son of En-lil or Bel; and, similarly, a goddess like Bau would be called the daughter of Anu. It is a mistake, however, to interpret the use of 'daughter' and 'son' literally.
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