Evil Gods: Enki

Key Facts

Other names
Year of origin
Location
Parent(s)
Partner(s)
Children
Aspect(s)
Major Centre(s)	Eridu
Period of worship

Background

Enki (Sumerian: dEN.KI(G) ) was a deity in Sumerian mythology, later known as Ea in Babylonian mythology, originally chief god of the city of Eridu. He was the deity of crafts (= gašam), water (=a, ab ), intelligence (= gestú (literally = "ear")) and creation (Nudimmud, from dim mud, "to engender", "to shape").

The exact meaning of his name is uncertain: the common translation is "Lord of the Earth": the Sumerian en is translated as a title equivalent to "lord"; it was originally a title given to the High Priest; ki means "earth";

The name Ea is allegedly Hurrian and possibly of Semitic origin as a derivation from the West-Semitic root *hyy meaning "life" in this case used for "spring", "running water." In Sumerian E-A means "the house of water", the original name for the shrine to the God at Eridu.

The main temple of Enki was called é-engur-a, the "house of the lord of deep waters"; e-unir or é-abzu, the "house of Abzu" (the house of far waters), the underground area of sweet waters (most probably the Sumerians' explanation of groundwater) marshlands that surrounded the mound on which the temple to Ebki at Eridu was built. It was in Eridu, which was then in the wetlands of the Euphrates valley not far from the Persian Gulf. He was the keeper of the holy powers called Me, the gifts of civilized living.

Enki is also the master shaper of the world, god of wisdom and of all magic. He is the lord of the Apsu (Akkadian, Abzu in Sumerian, hence perhaps the Greek and English word "abyss"), the freshwater ocean of groundwater under the earth.

In the later Babylonian "Enuma Eliš" Abzu, the "begetter of the gods", is inert and sleepy but finds his peace disturbed by the younger gods so sets out to destroy them. His grandson Enki, chosen to represent the younger gods puts a spell on Abzu "casting him into a deep sleep" confining him deep underground. Enki subsequently sets up his home "in the depths of the Abzu. Enki thus takes on all of the functions of the Abzu including his fertilising powers as lord of the waters and lord of semen.

Mythology

as god of water he had a penchant for beer and as god of semen he had a string of incestuous affairs. In the epic Enki and Ninhursag, he and his consort Ninhursag had a daughter Ninsar. When Ninhursag left him he came upon and then had intercourse with Ninsar (Lady Greenery) who gave birth to Ninkurra (Lady Fruitfulness or Lady Pasture).

A second time, he had intercourse with Ninkurra, who gave birth to Uttu (= Weaver or Spider).

A third time Enki succumbs to temptation, and attempts seduction of Uttu. Upset about Enki's reputation, Uttu consults Ninhursag, who, upset at the promiscuous nature of her spouse, advises Uttu to avoid the riverbanks. In another version of this myth Ninhursag takes Enki's semen from Uttu's womb and plants it in the earth where seven plants rapidly germinate.

With his two-faced servant and steward Isimud, Enki finds the plants and immediately starts consuming their fruit. Consuming his own semen he falls pregnant (ill with swellings) in his jaw, his teeth, his mouth, his throat, his limbs and his rib. The gods are at a loss to know what to do, as Enki lacks a womb with which to give birth, until Ninhursag's sacred fox fetches the goddess.

Ninhursag relents and takes Enki's Ab (water, or semen) into her body, and gives birth to gods of healing of each part of the body. The last one - Ninti, Sumerian = Lady Rib, is also a pun on Lady Life, a title of Ninhursag herself. The story symbolically reflects the way in which life is brought forth through the addition of water to the land, and once it grows, water is required to bring plants to fruit. It also counsels balance and responsibility, nothing to excess.


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