Bilulu
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| Bilulu | |
|---|---|
Deified rain cloud | |
| Other names | possibly Ninbilulu |
| Genealogy | |
| Children | Girgire |
Bilulu was a Mesopotamian goddess who most likely functioned as the deification of rain clouds. She might be related to Ninbilulu known from a number of Early Dynastic texts. She is known from the myth Inanna and Bilulu, in which she is responsible for the death of Dumuzi. This event is subsequently avenged by Inanna, who turns Bilulu into a waterskin.
Bilulu, Ninbilulu and Enbilulu
In 1953 Samuel Noah Kramer and Thorkild Jacobsen proposed that Bilulu functioned as a personified thunderstorm or rain cloud.[1] According to Daniel Schwemer this interpretation remains plausible, and finds support in the translation of the name of her son Girgire, "lightning bolt".[2] However, the precise meaning of her own name is not known.[3] She was referred to as um-ma, "old woman".[2] Manuel Ceccarelli proposes that she might have functioned as a figure comparable to Frau Holle or Perchta from German folklore.[4]
It is presumed that Bilulu might be related to the Early Dynastic deity Ninbilulu,[3] who is already attested in the Fara and Abu Salabikh god lists,[5] as well as in the Zame Hymns, in the last of these sources as a deity associated with various sources of water, including Tigris and Euphrates.[3] Julia M. Asher-Greve suggests that the theonym Bilulu is older, and the cuneiform sign nin could be added to it as a prefix.[6] Daniel Schwemer also considers Bilulu to be the original form.[2] Antoine Cavigneaux and Manfred Krebernik assume Ninbilulu might be identified with Enbilulu,[5] a deity associated with irrigation[3] consistently regarded as male.[2] However, according to Joan Goodnick Westenholz it is possible Ninbilulu was a goddess at some point, and that either she came to be viewed as male later, or that female and male derivatives of her coexisted.[3]