Enlil and Ninlil

Anonymous / tradition · c. 18th century BC (Old Babylonian copies of an older Sumerian composition) · Nippur (Iraq) · epic

A young god's banishment from Nippur for a sexual offense becomes, through his pursuit by the goddess Ninlil in three successive disguises, the origin story for the moon god Suen and two underworld deities, arguing that exile itself can be generative rather than merely punitive.