Enki

Enki

Enki or Enkil (in Sumerian: 𒀭𒂗𒆠 ^DEN-KI) was a god of Sumerian mythology, later known as Ea and thus known in Akkadian and Babylonian mythologies. He means The lord of the earth , he was half-brother of the god Enlil, and son of Anu. His mission was to create men and encourage other divinities to create them. He endows humans with the arts, crafts, and technical means for agriculture.

Description

"Enki is represented on Assyrian tablets as a god who receives from three lower gods, one cuckold, another of the wind and another of the vegetation, the water that will transmute into a mortar the life that circulates in the body of two snakes. »

“Enki” (from En = Lord, ki = earth), or “Ea” (perhaps it is a name composed of the signs E = “temple » or «house» and A = «water»), as the Akkadians and Babylonians called it, perhaps associating it with an ancient Akkadian god perhaps named «Ia».^{[citation required]}

He is associated with the watery world and reigns in the Apsu, a place located in the depths of the earth, where "the primordial waters" flow. Enki Nudimmud (one of the most used epithets for him, something like "maker") is the god of wisdom, lord of magic, construction, arts, design and creation. He is one of the three most important gods (with Enlil and Anu) of the Mesopotamian culture, which arose in the valley of the Tigris and the Euphrates. ^{[citation needed ]}

According to the Akkadian epic legend of Atrahasis, the great gods sacrificed to the lesser god Geshtu-E and created humanity, mixing the god's flesh and blood with the clay. There are different versions of the creation of humanity in the Mesopotamian sphere and in each one the sacrificed god is different. Enki then instructed them on purification rituals for the first, seventh, and fifteenth days of each month. After the mother goddess (also varies) mixes the clay, the entire host of gods spit saliva on it. Then the mother goddess and Enki perform a magical ritual and Enki collects 14 pieces of clay, from which he created seven men and seven women.^{[citation needed]}

He is also the creator of the apkallu (ab-gal-lu, "great man of the sea" or "man of the great sea", in Sumerian), wise half-man half-fish spirits who exercised of priests of Enki and advisers of the first mythological kings.^{[citation needed]}

Their main temple was the "É-engur", located in the city of Eridu. Enki was the holder of the "Me", the immutable foreordained decrees of the gods or impersonal force that underlies the social institutions, religious practices, technologies, behaviors, customs and human conditions that make civilization possible, just as the Sumerians understood it.^{[citation needed]}

His symbols were the goat and the fish, which were later merged into a single beast called the capricorn. Hence, astronomically, it is associated with the constellations of Aquarius and Capricorn, although it is also related to the planet Mercury. He is depicted as a male figure carrying or pouring water.^{[citation needed]}

Myth

In Atrahasis, Enlil attempts to destroy mankind three times, annoyed by their noisy habits. In the last of these attempts, he devastates the Earth with a Flood. Humanity manages to save itself thanks to the intervention of his half-brother, Enki, who will order Atrahasis to build a huge ship in which he will have to load seeds and animals. Then Enlil floods the Earth opening the floodgates of heaven. The other gods rebuke Enlil since they need the sacrifices that humans make to feed themselves. When the waters recede, Ziusudra offers a sacrifice to the gods, who receive it hungry. Finally Enki requests the mother goddess to create new human beings.^{[citation needed]}