Editing Enlil (section)

==Etymology==
Enlil's name comes from ancient Sumerian [[EN (cuneiform)|EN]] (𒂗), meaning "lord" and LÍL (𒆤), the meaning of which is contentious,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Stone |first1=Adam |title=Enlil/Ellil (god) |url=http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/listofdeities/enlil/index.html |website=Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses |publisher=Oracc and the UK Higher Education Academy |access-date=20 December 2020}}</ref>{{sfn|Halloran|2006}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wang |first1=Xianhua |title=The Metamorphosis of Enlil in Early Mesopotamia |url=https://www.academia.edu/453890 |access-date=20 December 2020 |pages=6–22}}</ref> and which has sometimes been interpreted as meaning winds as a weather phenomenon (making Enlil a weather and sky god, "Lord Wind" or "Lord Storm"),<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Jacobsen |first=Thorkild |editor1-last=Berens|editor1-first=H. |editor2-last=Loding|editor2-first=D. M. |editor3-last=Roth |editor3-first=M. T. |encyclopedia=DUMU-É-DUB-BA-A: Studies in Honor of Åke W. Sjöberg |title=The líl of En-líl |date=1989 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology |isbn=978-0934718981 |pages=267–276}}</ref>{{sfn|Holland|2009|page=114}}{{sfn|Nemet-Nejat|1998|page=182}} or alternatively as signifying a spirit or phantom whose presence may be felt as stirring of the air, or possibly as representing a partial Semitic loanword rather than a Sumerian word at all.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Michalowski |first=Piotr |editor1-last=Prosecký |editor1-first=J. |encyclopedia=Intellectual Life of the Ancient Near East |title=The unbearable lightness of Enlil |date=1998 |publisher=The Oriental Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic |page=240}}</ref> Enlil's name is not a genitive construction,{{snf|van der Toorn|Becking|Willem|1999|page=356}} suggesting that Enlil was seen as the personification of LÍL rather than merely the cause of LÍL.{{snf|van der Toorn|Becking|Willem|1999|page=356}}

Piotr Steinkeller has written that the meaning of LÍL may not actually be a clue to a specific divine domain of Enlil's, whether storms, spirits, or otherwise, since Enlil may have been "a typical universal god [...] without any specific domain."<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Steinkeller |first=Piotr |editor1-last=Watanabe |editor1-first=K. |encyclopedia=Priests and Officials in the Ancient Near East |title=On Rulers, Priests, and Sacred Marriage: Tracing the Evolution of Early Sumerian Kingship |date=1999 |page=114, n. 36}}</ref>

Piotr Steinkeller and Piotr Michalowski have doubts about the Sumerian origin of Enlil.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Marcus |first1=David |title=Encyclopedia of Religion |last2=Pettinato |first2=Giovanni |publisher=MacMillan Reference USA |year=2005 |editor-last=Jones |editor-first=Lindsay |edition=2nd |pages=2799 |chapter=Enlil |quote=Piotr Steinkeller (1999) and Piotr Michalowski (1998) have cast doubt upon the Sumerian nature of the god Enlil. They discuss the actual meaning of the name, equating the Eblaite I-li-lu with Enlil. Just how at variance this is with other Sumerian myths has been shown by Manfred Krebernik and M. P. Streck, and the epithet of Enlil in Sumerian literature is kur-gal (great mountain), suggesting origins in eastern Mesopotamia.}}</ref> They have questioned the true meaning of the name, and identified Enlil with the [[Eblaite language|Eblaite]] word ''I-li-lu''.<ref name=":0" /> As noted by Manfred Krebernik and M. P. Streck; Enlil being referred to as ''Kur-gal'' (the Great Mountain) in Sumerian texts suggests he might have originated in eastern Mesopotamia.<ref name=":0" />