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En, Ensi and Lugal We have to discuss 3 titles, Lugal [Gal-Lu2]
Sumerian for "great man", the Akkadian equivalent is read "sharrum" (king); En [En]
close to priest-lord and Ensi [pa-te-si/ensi2]
conventionally translated as city ruler
Jacobsen in his 'Toward the Image of Tammuz' (1970), p.384 n.71, explains that Ensi[g/k] when attested at all, "seems to denote specifically the ruler of a single major city with it's surrounding lands and villages, whereas both "lord" (en) and "king"(lugal) imply ruler over a region with more than one important city....the ensi[g/k] seems to have been originally the leader of the seasonal organization of the townspeople for work on the fields: irrigation, ploughing, and sowing. " The author assigns the meaning of the word as "manager of the arable lands" and comments that it would not be difficult than, to see how the ensi[g/k] could gain high political influence in Early Dynastic times.
In a JNES article Jacobsen/Kramer touch briefly on the differences between en and lugal (JNES 12, 179, n.41): "The traditional English rendering [of en] "lord" would be happier if it had preserved overtones of its original meaning "bread-keeper" (Blaford), for the core concept of En is that of the successful economic manager. The term implies authority, but not the authority of ownership, a point on which it differs sharply from bêlum (Sumerian has no term for owner but has to make shift with lugal and constructions with -t u k u) , and it implies successful economic management: charismatic power to make things thrive and to produce abundance."
and Enship (Nam-En)
(Adapted from "Fischers Weltgeschichte - Die Altorientalischen Reiche I "1965) Lugal is the royal title "par excellence", like that known from the Sumerian king-list. Nam-Lugal is the kingship as a form of ruling. Lugal connected with a name is found first in Kish and Ur (Mebaragesi, Meskalamdug), but the combination of the signs
[Gal+Lu2] is already known in UrukIII-Jemdat-Nasr-Time.
Unlike the title Lugal and Ensi, the title En as a ruler title
[with political as well as social powers] is only known from Uruk.
Enmerkar, Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh are called "En of Kulaba"
(Kulaba is a city district of Uruk) in the "hymn literature",
also Meskianggasher, ancestor of the first dynasty of Uruk, and
again Gilgameš [have the same title] in the king-list.
Epigraphically En is earlier attested then Lugal.
The cuneiform sign is found in texts from UrukIVa, at the time
of the archaic Sumerian "high culture". The personal
name "The En fills the Kulaba", from archaic Ur, shows
the high prestige of the title En outside of Uruk. Important for Uruk was that the high priest also
was the leader of the city, so he had also command over the military
forces. *A classic note on the En is in Kramer's the Sumerians pg. 141, which states that while the Sanga was the administrative head of the temple, the En was the spiritual head of the temple who: "..lived in a part of the temple known as the Gipar. The en's, it seems, could be women as well as men, depending upon the sex of the deity to whom their service were dedicated. Thus in Erech's main temple, the Eanna, of which the goddess Inanna became the main deity, the en was a man; the hero's Enmerker and Gilgamesh were originally designated en's though they may also have been kings and were certainly great military leaders. The en of the Ekishnugal in Ur, whose main deity was the moon-god, Nanna, was a woman and usually the daughter of the reigning monarch of Sumer. (We actually have the names of almost all, if not all, the en's of the Ekishnugal from the days of Sargon the Great.)
Oppenheim calls the relationship between these two functions "complex" and "ill-defined" and referring back to Jacobsen 1970, pg. 144, its explained thats the distinctions between these roles is in fact sometimes blurred. "The related tendencies of kings and lords [en's] to strengthen their position by ruthlessly suppressing all rivals may be seen as a reason why in the various regions of Mesopotamia, as we find them in the epics, only one ruler, either a "king" or a "lord," is met with. With the regional unification of power in one hand goes a gradual merging of the various functions of the two offices, for all of them were needed for a community to thrive. The general warlike conditions would, in the case of the "lord," stress his powers of maintaining order and expand his police powers to full military scope. The "king" on th other hand, could not well disregard internal administrative and economic problems in his realm and would thus naturally came to assume also the "lord's" responsibilities for fertility and abundant crops. Thus the magic and ritual responsibilities were added to his earlier military and judiciary functions to form the combination so characteristic of later Mesopotamian kingship." Ensi:
Further Perspective on En's: Why the En makes such an appearance in Jacobsen's 1970 study "Toward the image of Tammuz" because apparent in referring to his note one page 375, n.32: "The en's basic responsibility is toward
fertility and abundance, achieved through the rite of "sacred
marriage" in which the en participated as bride or bridegroom
of a deity.In cities where the chief deity was a goddess, as in
Uruk and Aratta, the en was male (akkadian enum) and attained,
because of the economic importance of his office, to a position
of major political importance as "ruler"." In cities
where the chief deity was male, as in Ur, the en was a woman,
(Akkadian enum or entum) and therefore, while important religiously,
did not attain a ruler's position. Whether male and politically
important as a ruler, or female and only cultically important,
the en lived in a building of sacred character, the Giparu. Where
the en was male and a ruler that building in time took on the
features of an administrative center, a palace (see the epics
of "Enmerker and the Lord of Aratta" and of "Enmerker
and Ensukeshdanna"). Where the en was female this did not
happen (Ur)."
The Gipar at Ur was uncovered by Woolley and was found to be a self-contained residence with kitchens, ceremonial rooms etc and even a crypt. The was the residence of the en priestesses and a bedroom was incorporated within the shrine which presumably relates to the Sacred Marriage ritual. J.N Postgate (1992 ph.130) relays: "The earliest En known to us was a daughter of Sargon of Akkad called Enheduana. She is also the most famous, since she is one of the very few authors of a Mesopotamian literary work whose name is known, but she was followed by a long line of important ladies, most if not all of whom were close relatives of the current royal family. Thus among others we find the daughters of Naram-Sin of Akkad, Ur-Bau of Lagash;, Ur-Nammu, $ulgi, (and probably subsequent Ur III kings),Ishme-dagan of Isin, and Kudu-mabuk - the last being sister of Warad-Sin and Rim-sin of Larsa. The memory lived on for well over a thousand years, when the last king of Babylon, Nabonidus, in a consciously traditional gesture made his daughter priestess of the moon-god at Ur."
The GAR.ÉNSI of Adab
gar.énsi (nig2-pa-te-si)
[1] It is tempting to use the titles of rulers
as a criterion for dating the Adab rulers, since the writing GAR.énsi
looks like an archaism. But the GAR.énsi title in Adab
was used consistently from the time of Nin-kisal-si down to that
of E-igi-nim-pa-è, who would be closest to the Akkadian
era. [1] "Adab" by Yang Zhi
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