Many devotees of the Goddess are familiar with the story of Inanna’s Descent, yet this is not the only surviving Mesopotamian myth about the underworld. Offhand, I can think of five others, and there may be more. Birth of the Moon (also known as Enlil and Ninlil) is another complex underworld myth, this one involving the goddess Ninlil.
Birth of the Moon is written in Sumerian, the oldest recorded language in Mesopotamia. It features the deities Ninlil, Enlil, Nanna, Nunbarshegunu, and Nergal, along with numerous deities that will be unnamed in this account to keep the story simple.
Enlil is a god residing in the mountain range east of the fertile valleys. “En” is translated sometimes as “lord” and other times as “producer,” while “lil” means “wind.” Enlil enters the normally arid agricultural centers seasonally embodied in winds heavy with rain. Enlil is associated with the number fifty, synonymous with the idea of “many,” reflecting Enlil’s many symbols. Mesopotamian scholars consider Enlil “chief of the gods,” though some (possibly, only me) question this title. In myth Enlil is frequently a bit of an asshat. For example, in the Mesopotamian story of the Great Flood, Enlil wipes out civilization not because the people have gone bad, like they did in the Biblical flood, but because they are becoming noisy in their growing cities. The noise interferes with his naptime.
Ninlil is the mother of the growing season. “Nin” means “lady,” and again “lil” means “wind,” so her name translates as “Mistress of the Wind.” This appellation sounds like a title rather than a real name, leading many scholars to consider her a deity “invented” as a wife for Enlil. This begs the question of why Enlil (apparently NOT a title) should need a wife. Ninlil’s worship was centered at Nippur, and early in that Sumerian city’s history she became syncretized with the cereal goddess Sud of a nearby town. Like virtually every other Mesopotamian goddess, she eventually became syncretized with the goddess Ishtar, though even at this point she was differentiated as Ishtar of Nippur. Ishtar’s number is fifteen, the day on the new moon calendar that women in former times were most likely to be fertile.
Nunbarshegunu is the mother of Ninlil, considered a “minor” goddess, because she does not appear much in literature. Already in earliest records she has been merged with divination, barley, and snake goddesses. While researching this, I learned that Nunbarshegunu is also the title of a song by the death metal band Absu, about the myth related below.
Nanna is the moon god who regulates fertility. Nergal is his underworld twin. Nanna’s number is (unsurprisingly) thirty.
Here is a summary for the Birth of the Moon.
This story takes place in the early days, when Nippur is still an undistinguished town of no importance.
Nunbarshegaunu, Ninlil’s mother, counsels her daughter not to bathe in the Ninburdu tributary, which is ruled by a spirit of ill fortune. Ninlil listens to her mother carefully, so that she knows what she must not do, and takes off to do exactly that.
While bathing in the forbidden waters, Ninlil attracts the attention of Enlil, who summons a ferry to take him to her side of the river. Enlil wishes to make love to Ninlil, but she demurs, saying she is too young. Enlil presses on and overcomes her resistance by force.
Enlil provokes the wrath of the Fifty Gods for this transgression, and he is called before a tribunal of the Powerful Seven. They banish him to the underworld, which is apparently the worst they can do to him, since he continues his errant ways.
Ninlil, learning that she is pregnant, enters the underworld seeking Enlil, for reasons that are unclear, though her behavior probably made sense to early listeners. Whatever Ninlil needs Enlil for, it’s not sex, because he disguises himself three times in order to impregnate her.
It is vital that Ninlil conceive three additional times, because the underworld does not relinquish its visitors. Ninlil must provide shadow substitutes so that she, Enlil, and her first child can leave the underworld. This is especially crucial because that first child is Nanna, the moon. A hard bargain must be made, since Nanna is a male god and cannot give birth. Ninlil, through her fecundity, is the only one who can save Enlil, Nanna, and herself.
Enlil disguises himself as the first, second, and third guardian of the gates to the underworld, seducing Ninlil at every gate. Ninlil conceives three shadow beings who will remain in the underworld while the parents and child escape. The moon, essential to the cycle of life on earth, is replaced by the underworld god Nergal. (The End)
Mythology about rape is unsettling, and it is tempting to turn away from it or to explain it as allegorical of a forceful takeover of matriarchy, as Robert Graves has done with The Greek Myths. I am not challenging Graves’s interpretation of Greek myth, but I do not believe that is what is happening in this particular myth, despite the patriarchal overlay in the story and its modern interpretation. While rape in patriarchal societies is common and usually without consequence for the perpetrator, rape in matriarchal societies was not necessarily unheard of, but rather rare and severely punished. Enlil is called before council and banished to the underworld for his transgression, which is essentially the same as saying he is tried and executed, surely about the worst the gods can do to him.
I think Enlil and Ninlil were originally brother and sister, as well as husband and wife, making this a story of incest as well as rape. This is another explanation of their matching names and would explain why Ninlil follows Enlil into the underworld. The glimpse we have of early Mesopotamian culture through myth reveals that brother-sister bonds were at one time more important than those of matrimony. Ninlil, faithful to the organizational pattern of early Mesopotamian society, believes her child must have a male guardian who is related to her.
To unravel the allegory contained in this myth, it helps to understand how early settlers in Mesopotamia viewed weather and fertility. Weather was viewed as chaotic and dangerous, reflecting the high winds, debilitating droughts, and frequent floods which characterized the region as the Ice Age retreated. Enlil as the god of the rain-laden storms of spring was necessary but poorly behaved and tricky.
Fertility was understood rather abstractly as male initiation of female potential. Life existed within the woman, but she needed moist stimulation in order to release it. The principle can be compared to a floodlight triggered by movement. The mother is the lighting apparatus itself, dark until a motion sensor is tripped. In response to this event, the light comes on and stays on for several minutes, eventually switching off and becoming dark until the sensor perceives movement again.
Enlil’s severe rainstorms, appearing on the plains from the mountains in the east, prod Ninlil to release the vegetation contained in her body. As the season progresses, storms retreat, leaving an arid landscape. Enlil, now banished to the underworld, leaves dry air behind him. Vegetation then withers, signifying that Ninlil has followed.
In Mesopotamian cosmology, the moon regulated moisture, establishing the cycle of fertility. Like every child ever born, the moon god Nanna immediately asserts control over his parents’ schedule, providing regulation of their affairs. It was essential that the moon be released from the underworld, for life to have any sense of order.
Sources:
“Ninlil (Mulliltu, Mullissu, Mylitta) (goddess),” Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses, http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/listofdeities/ninlil/index.html
Jean Bottero, Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001).
Thorkild Jacobsen, The Harps that Once…Sumerian Poetry in Translation (New Haven, CT: Yale University, 1987).
(Meet Mago contributor) Hearth Moon Rising.
Re Birth of the Moon… wonderful post – I didn’t know parts of this story.