WHEN THE KING BECAME A GOD

WHEN THE KING BECAME A GOD

In Hittite texts the death of a king not only was
considered taboo word but the entire fabric of words
was designed to avoid offending the monarch. Hittites
used the expression 'the king became a god' instead of
'the king died'. As a sign of respect Hittites added
ubiquitously the suffix -ili to the name of a king to
solidify the worship of a king even while he was alive.
This particular suffix meant 'god' among Semitic people
adjacent to the Hittites. Near the ancient Wilusa in Asia
Minor lived Dardanians, an Illyrian tribe. The founders
of Ilios, Illyrians used the same practice as Hittites to
deify their own kings. The origin of Indo European suffix
-ili 'god' is in the ancient Uruk, the kingdom of
Sumerians who regularly added the title of Enlil to the
name of a king.

It  is obvious that Indo European sun god was created
after  the  Sumerian  god  Enlil.  Enlil,  lord  wind,
Mesopotamian (Sumerian) [Iraq], is god of the air.  He
was worship from 3500 BC, or before, to about 1750
BC.  The  son  of  primordial  An  and  Ki,  Enlili  was  the
tutelary deity of Nippur where, in his honor, the Ehur
sanctuary was built, not rediscovered, and he became
the  most  important  god  of  southern  Mesopotamia
during the third millennium BC. His consort was Ninlil
who was impregnated by the "waters of Emlil" to give
birth  to  the  moon  god  Nanna.  (In  the  Akkadian
pantheon his consort becomes Mulliltu.) He is depicted
in a horned headdress and a tiered skirt, or by a horned
crown on a pedestal.

According to the  Hymn to Enlil,  he works  alone and
unaided. He is said to have made the pickax, "caused
the good to come forth," and "brought forth seed from
the earth." He was invoked to bless his cities to ensure
prosperity and abundance. So great was his importance
that other tutelary deities were said to have traveled to
Nippur  to  give  Enlil  offerings.  Enlil  created  several
deities concerned with  the overseeing  of  the  natural
world. In his destructive aspect, he permitted the birth
goddess  to  kill  at  birth  and  was  responsibility  for
miscarriages in cows and ewes. His believers saw him
manifest himself  in both benevolence and destructive
violence. His natural status was gradually decreased in
the  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  pantheons,  being
superseded by Marduk and Assur. A.G.H.

Enlil
by Micha F. Lindemans
In ancient Sumero-Babylonian myth, Enlil  ("lord wind")
is the god of air, wind and storms. Enlil is the foremost
god of the Mesopotamian pantheon, and is sometimes
referred  to  as  Kur-Gal  ("great  mountain").  In  the
Sumerian cosmology he was born of the union of An
heaven  and  Ki  earth.  These  he  separated,  and  he
carried off the earth as his portion. In later times he
supplanted Anu as chief god. His consort is Ninlil  with
whom he has five  children:  Nanna, Nerigal,  Ningirsu,
Ninurta, and Nisaba.
Enlil  holds possession of the Tablets of Destiny which
gives him power over the entire cosmos and the affairs
of man. He is sometimes friendly towards mankind, but
can also be a stern and even cruel god who punishes
man and sends forth disasters, such as the great Flood
which  wiped  out  humanity  with  the  exception  of
Atrahasis. Enlil is portrayed wearing a crown with horns,
symbol of his power. His most prestigious temple was in
the city Nippur, and he was the patron of that city. His
equivalent is the Akkadian god Ellil.

Ellil
by Micha F. Lindemans
The Akkadian god of earth and wind. He is the son of
Ansar and Kisar, the primordial deities, and the father
of  the  moon  god Sin.  Together  with  Ea and Anu he
forms  a  powerful  triad  of  gods  in  the  ancient
Mesopotamian  religion.  He  is  represented  wearing  a
headband  which  is  decorated  with  horns.  He  is
equivalent to the Sumerian god Enlil.

Ellil is one of the most important gods of Mesopotamia.
Ellil is so powerful that the other gods can't even look
at him. He is therefore only shown as a horned cap. The
Hebrews called him Elohim which means basically god.
What is striking about the list of Sumerian kings is that
the kings are divided into two groups - those who ruled
before  a  great  flood  and  those  who  ruled  after  it.
Equally striking is  that the lengths of the reigns (and
life spans) of these kings drastically decreased after the
flood, as did life spans of people recorded in the Bible.
The very idea of a monotheistic god, the very fabric of
Judaism and then Christianity was actually based on the
Babylonian hierarchy of gods where Enlil was the god of
air, land, earth, and men's fates. He later became the
head of  the  gods.  He was responsible  for  the  Great
Flood. Since all Indo European languages use the same
root lemma for the sun god identical with Ellil, this is a
proof that all Indo European languages derive from the
same ancestor language spoken in Asia Minor. Illyrians
could have been the first Indo Europeans to worship a
sun god called Ellil. The simultaneous practice of Hittite
and Illyrian priestly class to call a king Enlil means that
those  people  shared  the  same  kingship,  the  same
customs and origin.

The first  recorded Illyrian  king  was Hyllus  (The Star)
whose death was recorded in 1225 B.C. The deification
of the first Illyrian king corresponds to the rein of the
last Hittite king. The ancient custom of king deification
was subsequently revived after  the death of  Bardylis
who  reigned  from  385  to  358  BC.  The  deification
tradition was refreshed after the death of Bardylis II  -
attested  in  295  to  290  BC.  There  was  another
deification of Mytilius- attested about 270 BC. The last
king to be deified was Skerdilaidas - who reigned from
212  to  206  BC.  In  Latin,  Albanian  and  other  Indo
European  tongues  -il  suffix  lost  its  divine  value  and
became a diminutive, marking affection.
The Illyrian King List

Hyllus  (The Star)  whose death was recorded in  1225
B.C.
Bardylis - Usurper and founder of this dynasty. Reigned
385 to 358 BC.
Grabus - Attested in 356 BC.
Pleuratus - Testified in 344 BC.
Kleitus - Son of Bardylis. Attested in 335 BC.
Glaukias -  Ruler of the Taulanti and then Illyrian king
from 317 to 303 BC.
Bardylis II - Attested in 295 to 290 BC he was the son of
Kleitus.
Monunius - Attested in 280 BC.
Mytilius- Attested about 270 BC.
Pleuratus - Founder of this dynasty. Attested in 260 BC
(?).
Agron - Son of Pleuratus. Reigned from 250 to 230 BC.
Pinnes - Reigned from 230 to 217 BC.
Skerdilaidas - Reigned from 212 to 206 BC.
Pleuratus -  Son of  Skerdilaidas.  Reigned from 205 to
180 BC.
Gentius - Son of Pleuratus. Ruled from 180 to 168 BC.

Illyrians were not the first people to identify their king
with a god.  Virtually every great civilization employed
the  device  of  deification  of  its  kings.  Other  cultures,
namely Sumerians, Egyptians based their entire fabric
of their society around a king who was believed to be
god  on  earth.  Yet  of  all  Indo  European  people  only
Hittites and Illyrians employed the -ili  suffix to denote
the sacred nature of a dead king. Since the custom of
calling a king 'god' came from Asia Minor it is natural to
believe  that  Hittites  and  Illyrians  stemmed from the
same craddle of civilization. The elevation of kings to
the  status  of  a  god  is  the  tip  of  the  iceberg  since
Illyrians (Albanians) and Hittites share their basic Indo
European  inherited  root  words.  Both  Hittites  and
Illyrians  use  the  epithet  alba  'white'  to  classify  the
white  race  of  indo  Europeans.  Illyrians  were  named
after their  kinship to Ilios,  Wilusa in Hittite texts. But
they  were  also  named  Albanians  'white  people'  in
contrast to other colored races in Mesopotamia.
ALBANIAN AN ILLYRIAN DIALECT

Ancient civilizations were organized around city states.
People who lived around those city states were often
named after the capital of their kingdom. Romans were
initially called Latin but their name changed after their
introduction of Romulus’ myth (the legendary founder
of Rome) in the Etruscan capital of Alba Longa. Hittites
were  named  after  their  capital  Hattusas  and  their
deified  king  was called  Hattus-ili.  Similarly  Athenians
were  named  the  champion  of  their  city,  goddess
Athena. Albanians (as one of innumerous Illyrian tribes)
were named after  their  city  state  Albanopolis  near a
mountain called Alp 'mountain', Hittite alpa 'white'. The
most spectacular name belonged to Dardanus (founder
of Troy) because it is related to the myth of the Great
Flood (which allegedly took place after the last ice age)
hence  it  should  be  one  of  the  oldest  tribal  names
among  Illyrians  who  like  Greeks,  Celts  and  Romans
were obsessed with their divine ancestry. The origin of
gods and myths of creation were not pure fantasy but
instruments for survival.  Ancient people were divided
into two categories - those who were condemned to be
slaves and those who were born to rule. Those people
who failed to come up with a convincing divine lineage
were  often  condemned  to  be  slain,  mutilated  and
exterminated.  There  was  no  mercy  for  godless
ancestors.  That  is  why  Greeks  embraced  Hellen,
Illyrians adored Hyllus and Romans worshiped Romulus.
People  even altered the myths,  changed the names,
ignored their real  ancestors and abandoned inherited
names to adopt new idols which were more fashionable
at  that  time. It  seems that  the name Albania 'white'
was not attractive enough to Albanians since it  didn't
carry any significant weight. Actually the descendants
of  Illyrians  preferred  another  name  -  the  imperial
double  headed eagle.  Romans had always  employed
the  single  head  eagle  as  their  military  ensign  or
standard.  When Illyrian generals  got  elevated to  the
imperial  throne  they  introduced  the  Hittite  double
headed  eagle they had inherited from their  Anatolian
ancestors.  (There  is  still  a  mountainous  region  in
Albania called Hoti similar to ancient HATTI - the capital
of Hittites.)

Hittites  together with Persians probably borrowed the
symbol  of  double  headed  eagle  from  an  older
civilization - Sumerian. Here there is the image of the
double  headed  eagle  at  Persepolis -  capital  of  the
ancient Persian Empire.

The final  proof that Illyrians had employed the double
headed eagle before they introduced that  symbol to
Roman standards exists in the city of Sirkap (Pakistan).
Along the main street of Sirkap, the ancient city, sits
the Double-Headed  Eagle Shrine.  Its original name is
lost, but is now referred to as the double-Headed Eagle
Shrine because of  the bird bas-relief that adorns the
arch (images two and three). The Double-Headed Eagle
Shrine  was  built  by  Macedonian,  Greek  and  Illyrian
soldiers.  Alexander  the  Great  employed  Illyrian  and
Greek troops in his campaign to India.
The eagle was considered to be the sacred bird of
Jupiter - the sky god among Indo Europeans.
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