Enki (Sumerian: dEN-KI), also known as Ea (Akkadian: dE₂-A), was the Mesopotamian god of wisdom, crafts, fresh subterranean waters, magic, and incantations. He was believed to rule the Abzû. In Mesopotamian astronomy, he was associated with the stars of the southern band of the sky. Enki's wife was Damgalnuna, and their children included Nanshe, Asalluhi, Marduk and Enbilulu. His sukkal (attendant deity) was Isimud. Servants of the god included lahmu, kulullû, and the Seven Sages.
Enki was first worshipped in Sumer. The earliest sources associate him with the city of Eridu, which was his main cult center, and regarded as his home. His temple there was the E-Abzû. He was already a major deity at the time of the earliest written sources, and the influence of his cult spread outside of Southern Mesopotamia early on. It is uncertain when Enki was fully assimilated to Ea, a god whose name is of unknown, but possibly semitic origin. They were already syncretized with each other in parts of Babylonia in the second half of the third millennium BCE.
The cult of Enki/Ea was particularly influential in the Ur III and Old Babylonian Periods, where he became part of a triad at the top of the pantheon consisting of Anu, Enlil and himself. In the latter period, his cult is attested in almost all of the important cities of Babylonia.
Enki/Ea was also incorporated into Hurrian religion as a major god, with identical character and functions as in Mesopotamia. His cult spread into Anatolia, possibly as early as the third millennium BCE, and he became part of the Hittite pantheon. With the rise of Babylon and its patron god Marduk, Enki/Ea's cult lost importance, though he still remained a major god in first millennium BCE Babylonia. His cult is also attested in Assyria during this period, in the cities of Assur, Nineveh and Kalhu.
Enki/Ea's primary symbols included the goat-fish, the ram-headed staff and the turtle. In art, he was commonly depicted with water streams flowing from his body, or holding a vase from which water flows.
Enki/Ea frequently appears in Mesopotamian myths in the role of a crafty counsellor who finds solutions to difficult problems. Mesopotamian tradition regarded him as the creator of mankind from clay. Several Mesopotamian myths deal with the story of the creation of mankind. In Enki and Ninmah, Enki comes up with the plan to fashion the new being, meant to take over the labour of the gods. In Atra-hasis, Enki works with Belet-ili to create man from clay and divine blood. The advice he gives to his human protegee later allows humanity to survive Enlil's attempts to wipe it out, which culminate in the sending of the flood. In the later Babylonian Epic of Creation, the creation of man is instead explained as a collaboration between Ea and his son Marduk.
Enki/Ea is a supporting character in the Kumarbi cycle, where he plays the role of a problem solver and kingmaker.
Names The meaning of the names Enki and Ea is uncertain. It is agreed that they were originally separate deities, though it is unclear when they were fully equated with each other. According to Alfonso Archi, syncretism between them already existed in the pre-Sargonic period in parts of Babylonia.
Enki
The name Enki is usually translated as "Lord of the Earth" in Sumerian. This explanation is not universally accepted. Some scholars argue that it does not seemingly fit the functions of the god, and have proposed that Enki could have been an epithet of the deity that eventually replaced his original name. Despite the similarity between their names, Enki of Eridu and the primordial god Enki were separate figures. Thorkild Jacobsen proposed that their names had slightly different meanings and he translated the name of the primordial god as "Lord Earth". The forms of their names in the Emesal dialect are different; the name of Enki of Eridu is written Amanki, while the name of the primordial god is written Umunki.
Edmond Sollberger and Wilfred G. Lambert have proposed a different translation for the name of Enki of Eridu. It has been remarked that an omissible g appears at the end of the second element of his name, which does not appear in the name of the primordial god. For this reason they interpret this second element not as ki, "earth", but as ki(g) of unknown meaning. Sollberger understood an element ki(g) meaning "favour, benevolence, love" in Sumerian. Therefore, he translated Enki(g) as "Lord Love" or "Lord Benevolence". He argues that this translation reflects Enki's well-attested role in myths as a friend of mankind. However, this explanation is not generally accepted. It has been remarked that it is possible that the omissible g developed via dissimilation, though similar examples of dissimilation are so far not attested in Sumerian.
Ea The name Ea first occurs in personal names from the Old Akkadian period. Earlier translations interpreting Ea as a Sumerian name meaning "House of Water" or "House of the Moon" are regarded as implausible by modern scholarship. In a few modern publications, the interpretation "House of Water" is sometimes presented as a scribal popular etymology. However, according to Lambert, there is no evidence for such a reinterpretation.
Due to the fact that the name appears associated with Semitic elements in the sources of the Old Akkadian Period, it has been suggested that Ea is most likely a Semitic name. It has been proposed that the etymology of the name is connected to the Semitic root ḥyy, to live. This explanation has not been proved with certainty, though it is considered plausible. Miguel Civil proposed that the name of the god Haya was originally an alternative spelling of Ea. Margaret W. Green proposed that the names Ea and Haya were both derived from the name of a pre Sumerian deity that was integrated into the pantheons of the Sumerians and of the Semitic peoples, and that Haya persisted as a separate deity after Ea was syncretized with Enki. The hypothesis of a connection between the names Ea and Haya is considered to be credible, but it is not proved, and it is not accepted by all scholars.
Alternative names and epithets Nudimmud Nudimmud, one of the most frequently attested alternative names and epithets of Enki/Ea, was almost exclusively used in literary texts. In Akkadian sources, it could also appear in royal inscriptions, prayers, and incantations. It already appears in the Zame Hymns under the form den-nu-te-mud. The standard writing was dnu-dím-mud. Earlier spellings include nu-te-me-nud from the Fāra period or nu-da-mud from the Ur III period. The verbal elements dím and mud in the standard orthography respectively mean "to build, create", and "to bring forth". The god list An=Anum ša ameli explains Nudimmud as Ea in his aspect as the god of creation. Jacobsen interpreted the name as "Image fashioner", "God of shaping", reflecting Ea's role as the god of crafts and as the god who creates figures from clay. The meaning of Nudimmud in the older periods is unclear. Antoine Cavigneaux and Manfred Krebernik remark that the standard orthography with dím and its translation likely reflect a later etymological reinterpretation of the name.
Nagbu Nagbu, "Source, spring", was an alternative name of Enki/Ea which reflected his role as the lord of the springs and subterranean waters. In this aspect he was not only connected to irrigation and fertility, but he was also associated with the art of incantation, as subterranean water played an important role in Mesopotamian magic and incantation rituals. Nagbu is attested chiefly in sources from Babylonia, and in the Neo Babylonian period, the name often appears in incantation texts. It was written with the logogram dIDIM. This logogram already appears as a theophoric element in Akkadian and Neo Sumerian names. Starting from the second millennium BCE it often appears in Babylonian personal names. In the god list An=Anum, Nagbu is equated with Ea. It is unclear whether Nagbu was originally an independent deity or an aspect of Ea.
Niššīku Niššīku was an alternative name and epithet of Enki/Ea of uncertain meaning. It is first attested in literary texts of the Old Babylonian period. Wilfred G. Lambert and Alan R. Millard propose that the name was derived from the Semitic element nasīku, "chieftain", reflecting Enki's Sumerian epithet nun, ''prince'', ''leader''. Hannes D. Galter considers that a connection between an Old Babylonian expression and a loanword from Aramaic is implausible. Alternative spellings of the name include Naššīku and Ninšīku. Ninšīku is likely a later folk etymology from Sumerian. It is attested from the Middle Babylonian period onwards. One god list explains Ninšīku as Ea in his aspect as god of wisdom. In this interpretation, -šiku was likely equated with Sumerian kù-zu, "wise".
DIŠ The logogram DIŠ often designates Enki/Ea in Assyrian texts. In Neo Assyrian sources, it chiefly appears in royal inscriptions and incantation literature. It is sometimes attested as a theophoric element in personal names of the first millennium. In Neo Babylonian Uruk it designates Anu instead. The reading of DIŠ in akkadian is unknown. Galter suggests that DIŠ was possibly a numeral symbolizing the number 60, a number associated with Anu, and that its use for Ea could have been a way to equate him with the supreme god of the pantheon.
Other names and epithets Enki/Ea had a variety of other names and epithets reflecting his different functions and his association with his abode, Abzû, and his cult center, Eridu. Galter remarks that the majority of other names of Ea are only documented from sources from the late second millennium, and therefore he presumes that they represent an effort to fully encompass and describe all of the aspects of the god. Craftsmanship deities such as Uttu and Ninagal could be regarded as alternative names of Ea in late sources.
The majority of Akkadian epithets of Ea reflect his role as the god of wisdom. Such epithets include for example, bēl nēmeqi ("Lord of wisdom"), bēl tašīmti ("Lord of understanding"), and apkal ilī ("Sage of the gods"). Bēl nagbi ("Lord of the subterranean waters") was a frequently attested epithet of Ea in his aspect as a water god. He could be referred to as bēl tenēšēti, "Lord of mankind". His association to the arts of incantation was reflected in his epithets mašmaš ilī, "Exorcist of the gods", and bēl išīputti ("Lord of the purification rites").
Ea could be referred to as Ea-šarru in some Akkadian texts. According to Galter, it is unclear whether Ea-šarru was simply an epithet of Ea or if a foreign deity was identified with Ea and šarru, "king", was added to distinguish them. He remarks that the earliest attestations of this name occur outside of Mesopotamia, which could indicate that the name did not originate in the region.
A common epithet of Enki/Ea in literary texts was Enlil-banda, "the junior Enlil". An early attestation of this epithet dates to the Old Babylonian Period. Several possible interpretations of this name have been suggested by scholars. It could indicate that Ea was regarded as a younger brother of Enlil, it could have been a way to equate Ea with Enlil, it could have been a way to assert that he is "like Enlil" in his domain, or it could mean that he received his functions and abode from Enlil.
The god could be referred to as the king of the Abzû and the king of Eridu. Another of his epithets was dàra-abzu, translated as Ibex or Stag of the Abzû. An early attestation of this byname is found in an Old Babylonian hymn. Several compound bynames of Enki/Ea formed with the element dàra appear in a later god list.
Character and attributes Enki/Ea was worshipped as the god of wisdom, arts, crafts, fresh subterranean waters, springs, and by extension incantations and magic. He also had the function of a creator god. He was believed to reside in the Abzû, imagined as an under-earth fresh water region.