En-men-dur-ana

En-men-dur-ana (also Emmeduranki) of Sippar was an ancient Sumerian king, whose name appears in the Sumerian King List as the seventh pre-dynastic king of Sumer (before ca. 2900 BC). He was said to have reigned for 43,200 years.

Name

His name means "chief of the powers of Dur-an-ki", while "Dur-an-ki" in turn means "the meeting-place of heaven and earth" (literally "bond of above and below").^[1]

City

En-men-dur-ana's city Sippar was associated with the worship of the sun-god Utu, later called Shamash in the Semitic language. Sumerian and Babylonian literature attributed the founding of Sippar to Utu.^[2]

Myth

A myth written in a Semitic language tells of Emmeduranki, subsequently being taken to heaven by the gods Shamash and Adad, and taught the secrets of heaven and of earth. In particular, Emmeduranki was taught arts of divination, such as how to inspect oil on water and how to discern messages in the liver of animals and several other divine secrets.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]}

En-men-dur-ana, held significance among the Pre-Sumerians as he was the ancestor from whom all priests of the Sun God had to be able to trace descent.^[9]

He is sometimes linked to the Biblical patriarch, Enoch due to cultural associations between Enoch in the Genesis genealogies and En-men-dur-ana in the Sumerian King List.^[10] Both people are the 7th name in a list of ante-deluvian patriarchs with long lifespans. En-men-dur-ana is associated with Sippar (which was associated with sun worship) while Enoch's lifespan is 365 years which is parallel to the number of days in a solar year (365 days).^[11]

See also

• Apkallu
• History of Sumer
• Mesopotamian mythology

References

1. A. R. George. Babylonian topographical texts. p 261.
2. James Pritchard. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. 3rd ed. pp 43, 164, 265, 270, 271.
3. Robert Alter. Genesis. p. 24
4. John Rogerson and Philip Davies, The Old Testament World. p 203
5. Wilfred G. Lambert. Babylonian oracle questions. p 4.
6. Wilfred G. Lambert, Enmeduranki and Related Material. Journal of Cuneiform Studies. Vol. 21, Special Volume Honoring Professor Albrecht Goetze (1967), pp. 126-138
7. J. J. Collins. The apocalyptic imagination: an introduction to Jewish apocalyptic literature. pp 44-47
8. I. Tzvi Abusch, K. van der Toorn. Mesopotamian magic: textual, historical, and interpretative perspectives. p24.
9. Isidore Singer, Cyrus Adler. The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History , Volume 5 p. 179.,
10. Hamilton, Victor. The Book of Genesis. The New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 1990. pp 257-258.
11. R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 2 volumes., tr J. McHugh (New York: McGraw-Hill, repr, 1965), 1:188.