Enmeduranki
Legendary pre-Flood king of Sippar
- City
- Sippar (Zimbir)
- Reign in king list
- 21,000 years
- Position
- 7th of 8 pre-Flood kings
- Taught by
- Shamash and Adad (later tradition)
- Compared with
- Enoch of Genesis
The seventh king before the Flood in the Sumerian King List, said to have been taught the secrets of divination by the gods.
What is Enmeduranki known for?
En-men-dur-ana, usually written Enmeduranki, appears in the Sumerian King List as a king of Sippar before the Flood, credited with a reign of 21,000 years. His name means roughly 'chief of the powers of Duranki', the 'bond of heaven and earth'. Sippar was the city of the sun god Utu, later Shamash.
A later Akkadian text says the gods Shamash and Adad brought him into their assembly and taught him divination: reading oil on water and the livers of sacrificed animals. He was regarded as the ancestor of the baru, the diviner-priests.
Scholars often compare him with Enoch, the seventh figure from Adam in Genesis, who 'walked with God' and in later Jewish books receives heavenly secrets. The parallel is widely discussed but not proven to be direct borrowing. Assyriologists regard the pre-Flood kings as legendary.
Cited as a Mesopotamian parallel to Enoch, a pre-Flood figure given heavenly secrets.
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit holeEnoch
Sources
- ETCSL, 'The Sumerian King List: translation' (University of Oxford)Primary text
- Wikipedia, 'En-men-dur-ana'Reference
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