Enlil & Divine Rulership
His word, once spoken, cannot be called back — the storm that builds cities and the storm that flattens them.
Also: Enlil · Ellil · Nippur · Ekur · lord wind · the word of Enlil
Enlil, whose great temple the Ekur stood at Nippur, was for the Sumerians the working king of the gods — the one whose command (his 'word') set the world's order, granted or withdrew kingship from cities, and could not be reversed. He is awesome and dangerous as much as benevolent: his decree brings prosperity, but his anger brings the storm and the sack of cities. Much Sumerian theology is meditation on the irreversible, sometimes terrifying, authority of Enlil's word.
In short
Enlil, god of Nippur, lord of wind and the 'Tablet of Destinies,' conceived as the executive king of the older Sumerian pantheon whose word orders the cosmos.
Where it’s found
'Enlil in the E-kur' (Enlil A, ETCSL 4.05.1, in corpus); pervasive across the Sumerian corpus
How the idea developed across Sumer, Babylon & Assyria
Enlil dominates the older Sumerian and Ur III theology; in the second millennium Babylon's theologians transfer his functions (and the Tablet of Destinies) to Marduk, and Assyria to Aššur. The figure of the supreme decreeing god persists while the name at the top changes.