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Cook, Arthur B.
Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky — Cambridge, 1914

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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14695#0663

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580 The Bull and the Sun in Syria

gathers about another Mesopotamian deity. En-lil1 or Ellil, the
Sumerian god of Nippur, bore a name which meant 'Lord of the
Storm.' He was also addressed as the ' Great Mountain.' His temple
at Nippurwas known as E-Kur,the'Mountain-House'—a term which
became the general name for a sanctuary. And his consort Nin-lil,
'Lady of the Storm,' was described as Nin-khar-sag, 'Lady of the
High Mountain.' Hence it has been inferred that he came into the
Euphrates valley from the mountainous region lying to the east or
north-east (Elam). On entering the fertile plain, where agriculture
owed so much to the sweeping rain-storm, he readily acquired the
character of a god who fostered vegetation :

O Enlil, Councillor, who can grasp thy power ?
Endowed with strength, lord of the harvest lands !
Created in the mountains, lord of the grain fields !
Ruler of great strength, father Enlil !
The powerful chief of the gods art thou,
The great creator and sustainer of life2 !

Ninib, the ancient sun-god of Nippur, was affiliated to En-lil, and
the two exercised a reciprocal influence over each other. Thus
Ninib took on the traits of the storm-god, and En-lil became solar.
In this double capacity En-lil was conceived as a mighty ox or
bull with glittering horns. ' An entire series of hymns and lamenta-
tions,' writes Dr Jastrow3, ' is recognised as addressed to Enlil from
the opening words "the Bull to his sanctuary," where the bull
designates Enlil4. In a fragment of a hymn, Enlil is described
as

Crouching in the lands like a sturdy mountain bull,
Whose horns shine like the brilliance of the sun,
Full of splendour like Venus of the heavens5.

In another composition the refrain reads, "A sturdy bull art thou."
When we see votive offerings with the figure of a bull, or repre-
sentations of a crouching bull with a human face6, we are tempted
to assert that they are symbols of Enlil ; and if this be so, further

1 On En-lil see M. Jastrow The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria Boston etc. 1898
p. 52 ff., id. Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyricns Giessen 1905 i. 52 ff., and especially
id. Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria New York and
London 1911 pp. 18 ff., 67 ff. (after A. T. Clay 'Ellil, the god of Nippur' in The
American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures xxiii. 269—279).

2 Citneiform Texts xv pi. 11 trans. M. Jastrow.

3 M. Jastrow Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria New
York and London 1911 p. 74 f.

4 Langdon Sutnerian and Babylonian Psalms no. 10, cp. pp. 85, 127, 277, etc.

5 H. C. Rawlinson A Selection from the Miscellaneous Inscriptions of Western Asia
London 1891 iv2 pi. 27, no. 2, Langdon op. cit. no. 18.

6 See L. Heuzey Catalogue des Antiquite's Chalde'ennes p. 269.
 
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