Enki (deity)
Enki is a prominent deity from Sumerian mythology, recognized as the son of the sky god An and the goddess of creation Nammu. His name translates to "lord of the earth," but he is often referred to as the Lord of Apsu, representing the freshwater ocean beneath the earth that is crucial for fertility and life. Enki is known for his wisdom and problem-solving abilities, often invoked in magic and incantations, which highlights his association with water as a source of both fertility and supernatural power.
In various myths, Enki plays foundational roles, such as creating humanity to alleviate the burden of labor from the gods and establishing irrigation to transform barren lands. He is depicted as a creative force, linked to artists and craftsmen, but also has a reputation for excessive drinking and a robust sexual appetite, which leads to complex narratives involving other deities. Notably, Enki's interactions with the goddess Inanna often depict him as a trickster figure who is outmaneuvered yet remains central to the cultural and spiritual life of Mesopotamia.
The main center of Enki's worship was in Eridu, where the earliest known temple was dedicated to him, serving as a focal point for community rituals and feasts. Over time, as the worship of Enki evolved, many of his attributes were absorbed into the worship of his Akkadian counterpart, Ea, influencing religious practices across the broader Mesopotamian region.
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Subject Terms
Enki (deity)
Symbols: Goat-fish; scepter with a ram’s head
Culture: Sumerian
Mother: Nammu
Father: An
Siblings: Adad
Children: Ninmu; Ninkurra; Uttu; Marduk; Asarluhi; Enbilulu
Enki was the son of the sky god, An, and the goddess of creation, Nammu. He had a twin brother named Adad. Enki literally means "lord of the earth." He was, however, known as the Lord of Apsu, the ocean world below the earth that was the source of all fertility and organic life. Enki was often called upon to solve difficult problems because he was considered to be the wisest god. According to the Sumerian myth recounted in Enki and the World Order, the god performed the function of determining national borders and assigning the gods their roles. In Mesopotamia, water was associated with magic. Therefore, he was also considered to be the god of magic and incantations. Enki was often invoked in magical spells and rituals.
In Sumerian texts, Enki was associated with fertility, and these texts contained portraits of his virile masculinity. His immense sexual appetite and weakness for drink accounted for less than perfect conditions for life on Earth. Because some stories show him as the form-giving god, he was thus acknowledged to be the patron deity of artists and craftsmen. He was known as the bearer of culture. He was not warlike; his adversaries were mostly female deities in general and Inanna in particular. It was Inanna who tricked him into giving away some of his divine powers.
In Mythology
Nothing much is known of Enki’s birth except that he was the son of An and Nammu. He played a very prominent role in several Sumerian myths. Numerous stories about him have been collected from several sites that stretch from southern Iraq to the Levantine coast. He appears in the earliest cuneiforms found in the region. He was the most popular Sumerian god from the third millennium BCE until the Hellenistic period (323 BCE to 31 BCE).
One of the most popular folktales about this god tells the story of Enki and Ninmah, the mother goddess. The myth says that when the world was first created, all the gods were assigned tasks relating to the maintenance of the land. They had to work hard in order to irrigate their separate domains. The hard labor led to complaints, and the other gods demanded that Enki find a solution to save them from this ordeal. Enki then instructed his mother, Nammu, to create humans from Apsu’s fertile clay. She was helped by another goddess, Ninmah, in this task. Ninmah forced a sentence of hard work upon this creation. As the gods celebrated, praising Enki for forcing humans to perform the hard labor that had previously been their own fate, he and Ninmah drank too much beer and entered into a contest. In the contest, one god had to create beings, and the other one had to find a suitable social role for them. Ninmah began by creating six creatures, each one with some physical defect. Enki assigned each one a different fate. Some were made priests, and the rest were made other officials. When it was Enki’s turn to create a being, he produced one that was completely disabled; it was unable to sit, walk, or stand, and it could not feed itself either. Enraged that Enki had created a creature so disabled that it could not be given any role in society, Ninmah condemned her opponent in the contest to an eternity in Apsu. That would be his curse. The disabled creature that Enki had created, an infant human being, was to be held on her lap.
Another folktale related to Enki is the tale of Enki and Ninhursag. It is also known as Enki on Dilmun. Dilmun is a place that is fertile but barren due to the absence of fresh water. The mother goddess asks Enki to solve the problem of the land’s infertility. He creates rivers, canals, and cisterns. These additions help to irrigate the land so that it can produce grains. The waterways allow profitable trade to be established. After Enki copulates with a goddess in the marshland beyond the city, she gives birth to a goddess nine days later. This new goddess is also impregnated by Enki. He then enters into sexual relations with his great granddaughter Uttu, who was the daughter of yet another one of Enki’s lovers. However, Ninhursag removed the seed from Uttu’s womb and created eight plants that were eaten up by Enki. Angered by Enki’s act, Ninhursag cursed him with a disease that would afflict eight parts of his body. Near death, he was saved by the intervention of a fox that persuaded the goddess to restore the ailing god to health. She took him on her lap and gave birth to eight divine beings, one for each diseased part.
Ea was the Akkadian equivalent of Enki. He was one of the three important Akkadian deities along with Anu and Enlil. Most of Enki’s legends over time evolved into tales associated with Ea instead. Ea was commonly represented as a half-goat, half-fish figure from which the present day symbol for the astrological sign Capricorn has been derived. The two-faced god Isimud was the messenger of Enki.
Origins and Cults
The main shrine dedicated to Enki was located in Eridu. The temple of Enki was known as E-abzu or E-gur. It was the earliest known temple to have been built in southern Iraq. Originally, Enki was a local deity worshipped in the ancient Sumerian city of Eridu; this city was located south of modern Ur. Excavations at the site revealed that the temple had been in existence for 6,500 years. Over a period 4,500 years, around eighteen expansions had led to the enlargement of the shrine, but it was eventually abandoned. There was a pool of fresh water at the entrance of the temple when it was in use. Excavations at the site unearthed numerous carp bones, which suggested that the place was used for community feasts.
Many rituals that belonged to the cult of Enki were subsequently adopted by the inhabitants of other places in Mesopotamia. The incantations originally composed for Enki were later repeated by Babylonian priests as they worshipped this god’s son, Marduk. Similarly, the pool of fresh water found at the entrance of Enki’s temple was named Apsu after the world that Enki ruled over, and this pool later served as the model for a similar pool at the moon temple at Ur. Eventually, the practice of constructing a pool at the entrance of temples spread throughout the Middle East. The so-called bronze sea at the entrance of the temple in Jerusalem is also believed to have had its roots in the tradition of Apsu associated with the worship of Enki.
Bibliography
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Cotterell, Arthur. Encyclopedia of World Mythology. New York: Parragon, 2000. Print.
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Lassieur, Allison. Ancient Mesopotamia. Mumbai: Scholastic, 2012. Print.
Mayfield, Christine. Mesopotamia. Huntington Beach: Teacher Created Materials, 2007. Print.
Woolley, Leonard. The Sumerians.3rded. New York: Norton, 1965. Print.