En (Sumer)
The Sumerian term En was originally used in its function both as an additional form of addressing God (for example Enlil ) and as a salutation for the priesthood and means: Lord, priestly lord, divine lord . In the early days of Sumer, the priests held leading positions in their offices. They were responsible for carrying out the divine instructions . The title En is therefore also a ruler title and was initially limited to Uruk .
As a priestly title, however , En appears very often in Ur . Mostly it was used there for the chief priestess of the moon and city god Nanna . The Sumerians did not know the title of priest as such; It would therefore be more appropriate to translate the term priest with cultic person or recipient of divine instructions . The ruler title En from Uruk was always used in connection with the main goddess Inanna ( heavenly mistress / mistress of heaven ). In his character, the title En was also always associated with cultic acts. In the Uruk IV layer, En is depicted as a man in a mesh skirt on cylinder seals.
In Uruk the supreme priesthood coincided with the office of city ruler. The En was thus also Supreme Commander of the Army . This function is evident in the myths of Lugalbanda and the Epic of Gilgamesh . Under En-metena von Lagaš in Girsu , on the other hand, the highest priest is called Sangu , who played a special role alongside the Ensi .
The divine title of ruler En was sometimes awarded retrospectively. An example is Me-Bar-Agesi von Kiš , who is named as En-Me-Bar-Agesi as King of Kish in the Sumerian list of kings with the addition of En .
See also
literature
- Elena Cassin , Jean Bottéro , Jean Vercoutter (eds.): The ancient oriental empires I. From the Paleolithic to the middle of the 2nd millennium (= Fischer Weltgeschichte . Volume 2). Fischer paperback, Frankfurt am Main 1965.