En‑sipad‑zid‑ana is a deity in Mesopotamian folklore, from Sumer. En‑sipad‑zid‑ana is a mytho‑historical king listed in the antediluvian section of the Sumerian King List (SKL), named as ruler of the city Larak and assigned an extraordinarily long reign (28,800 years in some versions). He is treated in modern summaries as a legendary, not historically attested, figure.
En‑sipad‑zid‑ana appears within the literary composition of the Sumerian King List as one of the antediluvian (pre‑flood) rulers. In that text he is presented as king of Larak and positioned among a sequence of early rulers whose reigns are given in implausibly long spans. The SKL blends political genealogy, ideology, and myth; within its programme of legitimating kingship by linking later dynasties to a legendary past, En‑sipad‑zid‑ana functions as one of the mythic predecessors whose inclusion helps create a continuous lineage of rulership extending back to an age before the flood (Wikipedia; Wikidata).
No physical description or iconography of En‑sipad‑zid‑ana is preserved in the supplied sources. The SKL entries for antediluvian kings are typically short catalogues giving names, cities, and regnal lengths without narrative detail or portraiture; consequently, there is no surviving evidence in the cited summaries for clothing, attributes, divine markers, or sculptural representation for this figure. The absence of descriptive material in the available secondary summaries implies that any reconstruction of appearance would require primary cuneiform manuscripts or iconographic finds not provided here (Wikipedia; Wikidata).
The only characteristic ascribed to En‑sipad‑zid‑ana in the provided material is an extraordinary regnal duration — 28,800 years in some versions of the Sumerian King List — a trait shared by other antediluvian kings in the SKL. This longevity is best understood as a mythic or symbolic feature of the SKL's portrayal of a different, pre‑flood age rather than as a catalogue of verifiable deeds or supernatural powers. The supplied sources do not attribute laws, miracles, specific acts, or cultic functions to En‑sipad‑zid‑ana; modern scholars treating the SKL view these long reigns as ideological and literary elements rather than empirical historical or magical capabilities (Wikipedia; Wikidata).
Weaknesses
- othernone attested in sources
Wards
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'Ain Samiya Goblet
Silver cup from the Middle Bronze Age I, discovered in a tomb at Ain Samiya. (Note: 1. Power tier should be "None", but add a note explaining that historical artifacts don't fit into the typical power tier classification. 2. Add a description of its appearance based on it being a sil)
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Community Record
- [1]En-sipad-zid-ana — Wikipedia summary. Wikipedia contributors, 'En‑sipad‑zid‑ana', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En-sipad-zid-anawiki
- [2]En-sipad-zid-ana — Wikidata entry. Wikidata, Q2915816, 'En‑sipad‑zid‑ana', http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q2915816wiki