ENKI

ENKI . Despite the name "lord of the earth," Enki is the god of the Abyss and is known as the "king of the Abyss." He is the poliad god of Eridu and the guardian god of Eengurra, which is built in the Abyss. Along with An and Enlil, he is part of the most powerful triad in the Sumerian pantheon and a permanent member of the assembly of the gods. He is third, after An and Enlil, and creates and organizes the world. Well-liked by Enlil, and An's favorite, he is the son of the king of heaven and earth and is Enlil's younger brother as well as the lord of plenty of the Anunna, their elder brother, and their leader. In the myth of Enki and Ninhursaga, Ninsikil is his wife, while later it is Ninhursaga or Nintu. In the myth The Assault of the Demons on the Moon Enki's close connection with magic and his incantations against the demons are emphasized.

Sumerian Myth Making

The prologue of the Debate between Bird and Fish provides a different cosmogony from that given in many other texts. Although the three most powerful gods of the Sumerian pantheon are present, their respective roles are clearly defined. An and Enlil are the creators of the universe, but Enki, the god of wisdom, is its real organizing power.

Enki begins by creating the Tigris and the Euphrates, filling them with water, and providing irrigation channels. He then establishes the raising of livestock and a sedentary way of life with the foundation of cities, providing a king as ruler of the black-headed people. Finally, he organizes the marshy area, creating flora and fauna, which will be a blessing to humanity and the gods themselves. The text ends with the allocation of different tasks to the new creatures.

The myth Enki and the World Order describes the systematic organization of earthly life as the work of Enki. A thorough reading of the text makes it clear that Enki's actions have been requested by the god Enlil and that the god of wisdom has done everything to satisfy Enlil and his city Nippur. The text opens with the scribe's description of the god, in which the god is praised in terms of his relations with the other gods, with the earth, and with the human race, and as the provider of prosperity. A description immediately follows, set forth by Enki himself, praising the god's knowledge, which is fully appreciated in the divine world, and a second eulogy describes in a nutshell the role of the god in civilization and the surrounding environment. Enki decides to cross the sea in his boat and visit every country, but he especially wants to go to Sumer. After he has performed the rituals of purification, the god sails. In Sumer, Ur, Meluææa, Dilmun, and Martu, the land of nomads, he bestows his blessing and praises the progress already made. Enki addresses the natural environment and reforms human activities by putting a particular divinity in charge of each activity to oversee it and guarantee its future well-being. There follows a list of the spheres of activity and the divinities appointed.

Merely listing the activities mentioned in the myth is enough to understand and appreciate the work of the god of wisdom. But any change, by its very nature, produces some discontent, especially among those convinced that things were better as they were. This is the case with Inanna, who is displaced from her established functions. She is immediately critical of Enki's work and tries to ensure greater importance for the female goddesses of childbirth. Except for Nanshe, these goddesses were completely forgotten by Enki, and in a way Inanna completes Enki's task. Inanna continues her speech, however, stressing that her name has been totally ignored in the list given by Enki, and she asks him for a specific role. Enki answers her, listing all her spheres of activity and thus denying her a specific role in the new world order he has devised.

The events preceding the Flood are described next, starting from the observation that the human race in primordial times was not doing well. This explains the need to create the Sumerians and allow them to raise livestock and then to bestow the gifts of kingship and agriculture. When the text resumes after a lacuna, some of the gods seem perplexed by the decision. Enki broods over it and definitely does not agree. Devising a plan, he gives King Ziusudra advance warning of the Flood. The passage concerning the construction of the ship has been lost. When the text resumes, there is a description of the storm, which lasts for seven days and seven nights. At the end of the Flood, Ziusudra disembarks from the ship and offers a sacrifice to the gods. The final part of the story describes the decision of the gods to grant immortality to Ziusudra and his wife because they were the means by which the human race was saved.

Akkadian Developments

An Akkadian incantation text is directly linked to the ritual of water purification and is directed at the river, whose waters must carry away every ill that afflicts humankind. The river bears the epithet "creator of everything" but is itself the work of the gods. In fact it is the work of the "major gods," who set all good things on its banks when they dug it out. Ea and Marduk bestowed its purifying qualities, together with "fire and rage, horror and terror" (Kramer, 1989, pp. 516–517). Because of its sacred nature, and because it runs through the innermost parts of sanctuaries, the river alone has the power of judgment over people, a privilege most often exercised in the form of trial by ordeal. After a request for quiet, it is exhorted to free humankind from sins and evil.

In another text the act of creation is attributed to two gods, Anu and Ea, with Enlil apparently not present, although he must appear in the second part of the document, which is now lost. Anu is only mentioned as the creator of the heavens and has no involvement in subsequent creative acts, leaving this to Ea alone. The title preferred by scholars, therefore, is "Ea the Creator." Ea, the main player, after creating Apsu, his home, uses a handful of clay to create Kulla (the architect god), building materials (reeds and wood), and divinities connected with the construction of sacred buildings. After making arrangements for the construction and adornment of these buildings, Ea takes care to ensure that the gods will be provided for through the production and collection of regular offerings. He thus assigns cult functions to a priestly class and entrusts the king with the provision of supplies. After establishing the divine organizational structure (building of temples, supplies for the gods, allocation of ritual and administrative responsibilities) the god finally proceeds with the creation of humankind, whose task is to carry out the work of the gods. The stress of the entire creative work is quite unique, even understanding that the theme of the passage concerning the gods and their temples, with all that it implies, was of primary importance in Babylonian religion. Hence the god of wisdom Enki carries out his creative work in an unusual order.

Various myths illustrate Enki/Ea in the role of benefactor, including the Flood narratives mentioned above and those concerning the journeys to the underworld by Inanna/Ishtar and Nergal. One text, however, seems at odds with the familiar theme of the kindness of Enki/Ea, and it tells how the god gave deceitful advice to his servant Adapa. The manuscripts that reconstruct the story of wise Adapa and how he opposed the South Wind belong to two periods of Mesopotamian civilization, the El Armana period (fifteenth century bce and the neo-Assyrian period (seventh century bce).

The story of Adapa is told in a Sumerian manuscript found at an Iraqi excavation at Meturan (Tell Haddad) in 1993. The text describes Adapa's normal everyday occupation as a pious, devout fisherman, his conflict with the South Wind, the summons by Anu to account for what he has done, and the advice of Ea not to accept any gifts from Anu but to curry favor with the two doorkeepers, Dumuzi and Ningizzida, at the gates of the pantheon. Finally, the ending leaves a sour taste when Anu does not intend to punish Adapa but rather to give him divine status. Adapa's refusal (as suggested by Ea) to accept the offer of divinity robs the wise man of a brighter future. At the end of the story Ea bestows a new destiny upon his favorite. Some scholars, brought out the supposition that the nature of Enki was ambiguous and supposed the figure of Enki as a trickster (Kristensen, 1947). Scholars have examined the problem of this myth and the difficulty of its interpretation, but the majority of them, despite extensive analysis from numerous angles, have not reached a satisfactory solution.

The direct link between the god Enki and water is clear in several myths. His emblem, as befits a god of water, is a fish, the mullet. But the so-called myth of Dilmun should not be ignored.

See Also

Mesopotamian Religions, overview article; Ninhursaga; Tricksters, overview article; Water.

Bibliography

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Giovanni Pettinato (2005)

Translated from Italian by Paul Ellis