The Cult and Clergy of Ea in Babylon
In late first-millennium Akkadian names, the imperial deities of the Neo-Babylonian state were given preference over the ancient revered triad of the "great gods" Anu, Enlil, and Ea. Among these three gods, the cult of Enki/Ea is the most perplexing during this late period. On the one hand...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | German |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
[2016]
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| In: |
Die Welt des Orients
Year: 2016, Volume: 46, Issue: 2, Pages: 177-201 |
| RelBib Classification: | BC Ancient Orient; religion TC Pre-Christian history ; Ancient Near East |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | In late first-millennium Akkadian names, the imperial deities of the Neo-Babylonian state were given preference over the ancient revered triad of the "great gods" Anu, Enlil, and Ea. Among these three gods, the cult of Enki/Ea is the most perplexing during this late period. On the one hand, his importance is attested in cult and ritual: Babylon contained numerous shrines to Ea, including a temple, the E-kar-zaginna, in the precinct of Marduk's great temple, the Esagil. On the other hand, he nearly vanishes from the onomasticon of given names, with the exception of some fossilized ancient family names and the personal names of close to two hundred individuals, mostly from the city of Babylon between the accession year of Nebuchadnezzar II and the thirty-second year of Darius I. This article traces the different forms of Ea worship reflected in literary and archival sources, as well as in name-giving practices. Its first part deals with the socio-religious interplay between Sîn and Ea, which gave rise to the use of ancestral names in specific urban kinship groups that revered these deities. Beginning in the Old and Middle Babylonian periods, these families spread from Nippur and the south of Babylonia (i.e. the "Sealand") and eventually settled in Babylon and nearby cities, where we find many of them well established in the long sixth century (620?484 BCE). In the second part of the article I investigate several such families that exhibit consistent traits of Ea worship or a relation to Ea's cult across several generations. |
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| ISSN: | 2196-9019 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Die Welt des Orients
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.13109/wdor.2016.46.2.177 |