View source for Enkimdu

{{Short description|Mesopotamian god}}
{{distinguish|Enkidu}}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Mesopotamian
| name = Enkimdu
| deity_of = God of agriculture and irrigation
| cult_center = possibly [[Umma]]
}}
'''Enkimdu''' (𒀭𒂗𒆠𒅎𒁺) was a [[Mesopotamian god]] associated with agriculture and [[irrigation]]. He is best known from the poem ''[[Dumuzi]] and Enkimdu'', but in laments he was instead connected with the god [[Amurru (god)|Martu]], who like Dumuzi could be described and depicted as a shepherd.
==Character==
Enkimdu was an agricultural god.{{sfn|Black|2006|p=86}} He was called the "lord of embankments and ditches".{{sfn|Flückiger-Hawker|1999|p=105}} The theonym Lugal-epara, "lord of ditch and dyke", attested in the god list ''[[An = Anum]]'' without an explanation provided, might be another name of Enkimdu due to analogous meaning to said epithet.{{sfn|Lambert|1987|p=138}} An [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] form of the title is also attested, ''bēl iki u palgi''.{{sfn|Lambert|1987|p=138}} In the same god list, Enkimdu appears as one of the "cultivators" (''ab-ším'') of [[Nabu]].{{sfn|Lambert|2013|p=486}} However, in the [[Old Babylonian Empire|Old Babylonia]]n forerunner of this text he is instead placed among deities representing various professions in a section focused on [[Enki]] and his entourage.{{sfn|Lambert|Winters|2023|p=19}} His character has been compared to [[Enbilulu]]'s.{{sfn|Lambert|2013|p=486}} It has been proposed that he was worshiped in [[Umma]] as the personification of the irrigation system, though the evidence is scarce.{{sfn|Cohen|1993|p=184}}
In laments, Enkimdu could be associated with [[Amurru (god)|Amurru]].{{sfn|Klein|1997|p=104}} One bilingual text of this genre which enumerates exactly a hundred deities places him near the end of the list alongside the likes of [[Šumugan]], Mesanga-Unug, Martu (Amurru), Gubarra ([[Ašratum]]) and [[Latarak]].{{sfn|Klein|1997|p=105}} Another, dated to the [Old Babylonian period, lists Enkimdu, Martu, Šumugan, [[Numushda|Numušda]] and [[Ištaran]].{{sfn|Klein|1997|p=105}}
==Mythology==
===Enkimdu and Dumuzi===
[[File:Inanna prefers the farmer. Enkimdu and Damuzi were mentioned. Terracotta tablet from Nippur, Iraq. 1st half of the 2nd millennium BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul.jpg|thumb|A copy of the tale of Dumuzi and Enkimdu from [[Nippur]] (Nuffar), Iraq. First half of the second millennium BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, [[Istanbul]].]]
Enkimdu appears in the myth ''Enkimdu and Dumuzi''.{{sfn|Black|2006|p=86}} The text has originally been published under the title ''Inanna prefers the farmer'' by [[Samuel Noah Kramer]] in 1944.{{sfn|Mittermayer|2015|p=383}} Initially it was assumed that it would end with Inanna choosing Enkimdu, but this interpretation was abandoned after more editions were compiled.{{sfn|Mittermayer|2015|p=383}} In the beginning Inanna's brother [[Utu]] urges her to choose Dumuzi, but she is not convinced.{{sfn|Black|2006|p=87}} Enkimdu mentions many gifts he can give her connected with his sphere of influence, but Dumuzi counters each offer with one of his own.{{sfn|Mittermayer|2015|p=387}} Eventually their argument ends, and they become friends.{{sfn|Black|2006|p=86}} Enkimdu's role has been described as largely passive.{{sfn|Mittermayer|2015|p=395}} It has been pointed out that the conclusion of this narrative, a brief praise of Inanna, bears a similarity to the genre of disputation poems common in Sumerian literature, in which the deity tasked with choosing the winner is similarly praised in the closing lines of each text.{{sfn|Ayali-Darshan|2020|p=87}} However, [[incipit]]s of known copies indicate it was regarded as ''balbale'', a type of song.{{sfn|Ayali-Darshan|2020|pp=87-88}}
It has been pointed out that Dumuzi does not appear in any of the texts where Enkimdu occurs alongside Martu, which might indicate that in this case the latter was meant to serve as a shepherd god contrasted with Enkimdu in a similar way.{{sfn|Klein|1997|p=105}} Jacob Klein also notes that similarities exist between Dumuzi's successful appeal to Inanna and Martu's victory in the myth ''Marriage of Martu'', in which he wants to win the hand of the daughter of Numušda.{{sfn|Klein|1997|p=109}}
===Other texts===
In the myth ''[[Enki]] and the World Order'', Enkimdu is entrusted with preparing various agricultural constructions.{{sfn|Vanstiphout|1997|p=117}} He is also addressed as the "farmer of [[Enlil]]."{{sfn|Cohen|1993|p=184}}
A hymn dedicated to the king [[Ur-Nammu]] compares him to Enkimdu.{{sfn|Flückiger-Hawker|1999|p=46}} In ''Death of Ur-Nammu'', the god stops fulfilling his tasks after learning of the eponymous king's death.{{sfn|Flückiger-Hawker|1999|p=105}}
The text ''The Song of the Plowing Oxen'' includes a dialogue between Enkimdu and a second party, according to [[Miguel Civil]] possibly [[Ninurta]] or a king, in which the former explains to the latter how he irrigates the fields.{{sfn|Civil|2017|p=396}}
==Modern relevance==
A simulation engine developed as part of [[Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago]]'s MASS (Modeling Ancient Settlement Systems) project is named ENKIMDU.{{sfn|Hritz|2014|p=242}} It was based on technologies developed by [[Argonne National Laboratory]].{{sfn|Wilkinson|Christiansen|Ur|2007|p=58}}
It is meant to provide models of development of societies in the [[Ancient Near East]] between the late fourth and third millennium BCE, with a particular focus on staple crop production.{{sfn|Hritz|2014|p=242}} The project's case study was [[Tell Beydar]] in [[Syria]].{{sfn|Hritz|2014|p=242}}
==References==
{{reflist}}
===Bibliography===
{{refbegin|35em}}
*{{cite journal|last=Ayali-Darshan|first=Noga|title=The Closing Hymn of the Ugaritic Baal Cycle (KTU 1.6 VI 42–54): A Mesopotamian Background?|journal=Die Welt des Orients|publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (GmbH & Co. KG)|volume=50|issue=1|year=2020|issn=00432547|jstor=26977754|pages=79–96|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26977754|access-date=2022-05-20}}
*{{cite book|last=Black|first=Jeremy A.|title=The Literature of Ancient Sumer|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-19-929633-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a1W2mTtGVV4C|access-date=2022-05-20}}
*{{cite book|last=Civil|first=Miguel|title=Studies in Sumerian Civilization. Selected writings of Miguel Civil|chapter=The Song of the Plowing Oxen|url=http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/handle/2445/129686|publisher=Publicacions i Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona|year=2017|orig-year=1976|isbn=978-84-9168-237-0|oclc=1193017085}}
*{{cite book|last=Cohen|first=Mark E.|title=The cultic calendars of the ancient Near East|publisher=CDL Press|publication-place=Bethesda, Md.|date=1993|isbn=1-883053-00-5|oclc=27431674}}
*{{cite book|last=Flückiger-Hawker|first=Esther|title=Urnamma of Ur in Sumerian Literary Tradition|publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht|date=1999|url=https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/152507/|access-date=2022-05-18}}
*{{cite journal|last=Hritz|first=Carrie|title=Contributions of GIS and Satellite-based Remote Sensing to Landscape Archaeology in the Middle East|journal=Journal of Archaeological Research|publisher=Springer|volume=22|issue=3|year=2014|issn=10590161|jstor=24018073|pages=229–276|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/24018073|access-date=2022-05-20}}
*{{cite book|last=Klein|first=Jacob|chapter=The God Martu in Sumerian Literature|editor1-first=I. L.|editor1-last=Finkel|editor2-first=M. J.|editor2-last=Geller|title=Sumerian Gods and their Representations |year=1997|isbn=978-90-56-93005-9}}
*{{citation|last=Lambert|first=Wilfred G.|entry=Lugal-epara|encyclopedia=Reallexikon der Assyriologie|year=1987|entry-url=http://publikationen.badw.de/en/rla/index#7145|access-date=2022-05-20}}
*{{cite book|last=Lambert|first=Wilfred G.|title=Babylonian creation myths|publisher=Eisenbrauns|publication-place=Winona Lake, Indiana|year=2013|isbn=978-1-57506-861-9|oclc=861537250}}
*{{cite book|last1=Lambert|first1=Wilfred G.|last2=Winters|first2=Ryan D.|title=An = Anum and Related Lists|publisher=Mohr Siebeck|date=2023|isbn=978-3-16-161383-8|doi=10.1628/978-3-16-161383-8}}
*{{cite journal|last=Mittermayer|first=Catherine|journal=Babel und Bibel|title=Der Wettstreit zwischen Dumuzi und Enkimdu|url=https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/files/downloads/0/0/1/2/1/8/0/0/unige_121800_attachment01.pdf|volume=8|publisher=Penn State University Press|date=2015|doi=10.1515/9781575063553-015|access-date=2022-05-20|archive-date=2022-05-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220520204807/https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/files/downloads/0/0/1/2/1/8/0/0/unige_121800_attachment01.pdf|url-status=dead}}
*{{cite book|last=Vanstiphout|first=Herman L. J.|chapter=Why did Enki Organize the World?|editor1-first=I. L.|editor1-last=Finkel|editor2-first=M. J.|editor2-last=Geller|title=Sumerian Gods and their Representations |year=1997|isbn=978-90-56-93005-9}}
*{{cite journal|last=Wilkinson|first=T. J.|last2=Christiansen|first2=J. H.|last3=Ur|first3=J.|title=Urbanization within a Dynamic Environment: Modeling Bronze Age Communities in Upper Mesopotamia|journal=American Anthropologist|publisher=American Anthropological Association|volume=109|issue=1|year=2007|issn=00027294|jstor=4496588|pages=52–68|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/4496588|access-date=2022-05-20}}
{{refend}}
==External links==
*''[https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.4.08.33# Dumuzid and Enkimdu]'' in the [[Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature]]
*''[https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section5/tr555.htm The song of the ploughing oxen]'' in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
*''[https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section2/tr2411.htm The death of Ur-Namma]'' in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
*''[https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr113.htm Enki and the World Order]'' in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
[[Category:Mesopotamian gods]]
[[Category:Agricultural gods]]