Enki and Ninhursaĝa
Enki and Ninhursaĝa is a significant Sumerian creation myth that explores the themes of love, desire, and the origins of the natural world. Enki, the god of freshwater, and Ninhursaĝa, an embodiment of the earth mother goddess, meet in the mythical land of Dilmun, where they share a deep romantic connection. Their union leads to the birth of various deities, including Ninsar, the goddess of vegetation, who enriches the landscape of Dilmun. However, the story takes a tumultuous turn as Enki's desires lead him to seduce his daughters, resulting in further births and ultimately, conflict. Ninhursaĝa’s anger over Enki’s actions leads her to curse him, causing him great suffering, which reflects the consequences of unchecked desire. The narrative bears striking similarities to biblical accounts, particularly in its themes of forbidden choices and the creation of life. This myth serves as an essential part of Sumerian cultural heritage and offers insight into the ancient understanding of the relationship between gods and the natural world.
Enki and Ninhursaĝa
Author: Traditional Sumerian
Time Period: 2499 BCE–1000 BCE
Country or Culture: Mesopotamia
Genre: Myth
PLOT SUMMARY
The myth of Enki and Ninhursaĝa (Ninhursag) is a complex Sumerian creation story that illustrates the creation of the earth. The myth surrounds two key Sumerian gods, Enki and Ninhursaĝa, and their offspring, each of whom enter into carnal relations with their father god Enki to give rise to another facet of the natural world.
Ninhursaĝa, a manifestation of the Sumerian earth mother goddess, resides in the land of Dilmun, the mythical land where the Sumerians believed creation occurred. When Enki, the god of freshwater, discovers Ninhursag in Dilmun, the two fall deeply in love. Ninhursaĝa asks Enki, the god of water, to provide water for her vast lands, a request that Enki fulfills. Enki summons Utu, the sun god, to assist. The ensuing carnal relationship between Ninhursaĝa and Enki results in the birth of Ninsar (or Ninnisig in some translations), the goddess of vegetation, nine days later. Ninsar covers the rocky landscape of Dilmun with grass, leaves, and flowerbeds.
Ninhursaĝa rejoices at the birth of her daughter but professes to both her and Enki that she must depart Dilmun in order to allow spring to return so that it can dismiss the winds of winter. For nine days, Ninsar further covers the land of Dilmun with vegetation before her mother, Ninhursaĝa, departs.
In the absence of his true love and wife, Enki lusts after his daughter, Ninsar, and seduces her. Ninsar gives birth to Ninkura (Ninkurra), the goddess of mountain meadows. Despite his love for Ninsar, Enki eventually realizes she is no replacement for Ninhursaĝa. As the myth unfolds, Enki seduces Ninkura as well, but similarly comes to the realization that she cannot replace his true love, Ninhursaĝa. Ninkura gives birth to Uttu, the goddess of weaving.
Ninhursaĝa returns to Dilmun enraged at Enki’s unbridled lust. Ninhursaĝa warns Uttu to avoid Enki by staying away from the riverbanks of Dilmun. Not to be dissuaded, Enki lures Uttu with garden delicacies. Uttu falls deeply in love with Enki and vows to be bonded to him for all eternity, but like all the goddesses before, Enki eventually abandons her. Ninhursaĝa removes Enki’s semen from Uttu and deposits it into the soil of Dilmun, where eight plants grow.
Enki visits the location of the plants with his companion Isimud, who names and cuts pieces from each of the eight plants for Enki to eat. Ninhursaĝa, once again enraged, curses Enki and departs Dilmun. Shortly after, Enki falls gravely ill.
Enki’s suffering greatly saddens the Anunnaki, the great gods. Enlil, the lord of the air and Enki’s brother, along with all the healing deities, tries to help his brother, to no avail. A fox promises Enlil that she will seek out Ninhursaĝa. At the fox’s instigation, the birth goddess begrudgingly returns and brings Enki back to health by putting his head into her lap and birthing eight new gods from each of Enki’s eight ailing body parts.
SIGNIFICANCE
The myth of Enki and Ninhursaĝa is well known among mythological scholars due to its many similarities to the biblical story of Adam and Eve. The most obvious correlation is Enki’s devouring of forbidden fruit—namely, the eight plants that grow because of his affair with Uttu. Much as Adam and Eve’s devouring of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden casts them into an eternity of fallibility and suffering, Enki too is met with considerable suffering after repeatedly being unable to rein in his desires.
In interesting contrast to the biblical story, it is the goddess Ninhursaĝa who extracts a rib from the god Enki in order to spawn life. Scholars have never been able to pinpoint the influence of the myth of Enki and Ninhursaĝa on the biblical story of creation with accuracy, although the ancient Sumerian culture has been seen as a major influence on the Canaanites, an early Middle Eastern people who preceded the Jewish people in the southern Levant.
Many of the details of the myth of Enki and Ninhursaĝa remain open to speculation, both because of varying scholarly interpretation and because of physical damage to the stone that bears the text (see Kramer). For instance, some scholars speculate that there may be a connection between the biblical narrative surrounding the biblical creation of Eve from Adam’s rib and the use of the word ti (“rib”) for Ninti, the goddess of the rib, in the Sumerian myth. The existing fragments from the original text give little information regarding the whereabouts of Ninhursaĝa during Enki’s incestuous exploits, the emotions and motives of the major characters, and the exact reasons for Ninhursaĝa’s curse and return. Modern renditions, such as that given on the Gateways to Babylon website, often attempt to fill in these gaps. Such accounts sometimes also condense the number of incestuous encounters, omitting the goddess Ninimma, the daughter of Ninkura and mother of Uttu.
Despite such speculation, the myth of Enki and Ninhursaĝa bears resemblance to creation myths that have been discovered from former civilizations all over the world. Throughout world mythology, human life is derived after a continual and developing merger between the forces of the natural world, each of which are subject to the desires and betrayals with which humankind continually struggles.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Black, Jeremy A., et al., eds. “Enki and Ninhursaĝa.” Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature. Faculty of Oriental Studies, U of Oxford, 2006. Web. 21 June 2013.
Elwell, Walter A., and Philip Wesley Comfort, eds. “Sumerian Creation Myths.” Tyndale Bible Dictionary. Wheaton: Tyndale, 2001. 330–31. Print.
“Enki and Ninhursag: How Enki Surrendered to the Earth Mother and Queen.” Gateways to Babylon. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 June 2013.
Kramer, Samuel Noah. “Enki and Ninhursag: The Affairs of the Watergod.” Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millenium B.C. Rev. ed. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1972. 54–58. Print.
Leick, Gwendolyn. “Enki and Ninhursaga: A Myth of Male Lust?” Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature. London: Routledge, 1994. 30–41. Print.
Monaghan, Patricia. “Ninhursag.” Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2009. 72–73. Print.