Gugal

Back when a certain search engine became mainstream, people mused about the origins† of its name. Something about a phonetic or misspelled word from mathematics which means “a very large number” is the accepted answer.

That precise number, by the way, is 1 with a hundred zeros following it.

That may apply, yes.

The name of their campus appeared roughly two decades earlier as one of the supercomputers in Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

So much for originality.

But maybe there’s another, less discussed connection.

Thirdly, let them praise Enbilulu as GUGAL (‘canal-controller’) of the gods’ irrigated land. Lord of abundance and the luxuriance of great grain-piles. Responsible for riches, who gives surplus to homes, Giver of cereals, producer of grain.

[Dalley, Stephanie. Myths from Mesopotamia. New York, Oxford University Press, 1989; p.270 from reprint edition, 2000.]

The above passage comes from the Epic of Creation (Enûma Elish, tablet VII), which recorded one of the earliest legends known to humanity at time of writing.

This is among recited fifty names for Marduk.

Differences in spelling are meaningless when reading a translation such as this one, so the name could have easily used different vowels and ‘ol’ or ‘le’ in place of ‘al’ for the ending, depending upon your accent or pronunciation preferences.

Of particular note is the “canal-controller” translation, especially since the Internet has become the contemporary canal providing the life-giving waters to various aspects of western civilization.

Another source associates Enbilulu with Enkimdu:

The god Enkimdu is “lord of dike and canal” or, in the disputation between him and the shepherd god Dimuzi, “of dike, canal and furrow; cultivator”. A son of Enki, he is closely identified with Enbilulu, the “canal inspector”, regarded as form of Adad (Iskur) or, in the Babylonian Epic of Creation, as one of the names of Marduk. A third god, Ennugi, is also “lord of dike and canal” and “canal inspector of the great gods” but has extra associations with the underworld.

And:

Ennugi is the god who has special care over dikes and canals, and he is the “canal inspector of the great gods.” He is regarded as a son of Enlil, or else Enmesarra; and his wife is Namibgal. He may be identical to Gugal-ana, and may be first husband of Ereskigal. He is also associated with the underworld. See also Enkimdu.

[Gods, demons, and symbols of ancient Mesopotamia by Jeremy A. Black, Anthony Green, Tessa Rickards; pp.76,77]

If in the twenty-first century abundance and luxury are no longer associated with grain-piles (because as every western school child is taught that modern civilization has “mastered production and agriculture”), what then would the gods' irrigated land be today?

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Notes:

† Apparently, their original name was BackRub when still utilizing University resources– named as such because it checked “backlinks” to determine a website’s importance, which was the essence of the original PageRank algorithm.