Editing Enki (section)

===Enki and Inanna===

The myth ''Enki and Inanna''<ref>"Inanna: Lady of Love and War, Queen of Heaven and Earth, Morning and Evening Star", consulted 25 August 2007 [http://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/gods/ladies/ladyinanna1.html]</ref><ref name="gfixkf">{{cite book |last1=Wolkstein |first1=Diane |last2=Kramer |first2=Samuel Noah |title=Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer |year=1983 |publisher=Harper & Row |isbn=978-0-06-090854-6 }}</ref> tells the story of how the young goddess of the [[E-anna|É-anna]] temple of [[Uruk]] feasts with her father Enki.<ref>{{cite book |first=Kim |last=Echlin |title=Inanna: A New English Version |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z3jJrQEACAAJ |date=2015 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-14-319458-3 |page=55}}</ref> The two deities participate in a drinking competition; then, Enki, thoroughly inebriated, gives Inanna all of the ''[[Me (mythology)|mes]]''. The next morning, when Enki awakes with a hangover, he asks his servant [[Isimud]] for the ''mes'', only to be informed that he has given them to Inanna. Upset, he sends [[Gallu|''Galla'']] to recover them. Inanna sails away in the boat of heaven and arrives safely back at the quay of Uruk. Eventually, Enki admits his defeat and accepts a peace treaty with Uruk.

Politically, this myth would seem to indicate events of an early period when political authority passed from Enki's city of Eridu to Inanna's city of Uruk.

In the myth of ''Inanna's Descent'',<ref name="gfixkf"/> Inanna, in order to console her grieving sister [[Ereshkigal]], who is mourning the death of her husband [[Gugalana]] (''gu'' 'bull', ''gal'' 'big', ''ana'' 'sky/heaven'), slain by [[Gilgamesh]] and [[Enkidu]], sets out to visit her sister. Inanna tells her servant Ninshubur ('Lady Evening', a reference to Inanna's role as the [[Venus|evening star]]) to get help from [[Anu]], [[Enlil]] or Enki if she does not return in three days. After Inanna has not come back, Ninshubur approaches Anu, only to be told that he knows the goddess's strength and her ability to take care of herself. While Enlil tells Ninshubur he is busy running the cosmos, Enki immediately expresses concern and dispatches his Galla (Galaturra or Kurgarra, sexless beings created from the dirt from beneath the god's finger-nails) to recover the young goddess.
These beings may be the origin of the Greco-Roman ''[[Galli]]'', androgynous beings of the [[Third gender|third sex]] who played an important part in early religious ritual.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Enheduanna |first2=Betty De Shong |last2=Meador |title=Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart: Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess Enheduanna |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B45PvLlj3ogC |year=2000 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-292-75242-9}}</ref>

{{anchor|Inanna and Shukaletuda}}In the story ''[[Inanna and Shukaletuda]]'',<ref>Lishtar "The Avenging Maiden and the Predator Gardener: a study of Inanna and Shukaletuda" [http://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/essays/shukaletuda.html]</ref> [[Shukaletuda]], the gardener, set by Enki to care for the date palm he had created, finds Inanna sleeping under the palm tree and rapes the goddess in her sleep. Awaking, she discovers that she has been violated and seeks to punish the miscreant. Shukaletuda seeks protection from Enki, whom Bottéro believes to be his father.{{sfn|Bottéro|1992}} In classic Enkian fashion, the father advises Shukaletuda to hide in the city where Inanna will not be able to find him. Enki, as the protector of whoever comes to seek his help, and as the empowerer of Inanna, here challenges the young impetuous goddess to control her anger so as to be better able to function as a great judge.

Eventually, after cooling her anger, she too seeks the help of Enki, as spokesperson of the "assembly of the gods", the Igigi and the Anunnaki. After she presents her case, Enki sees that justice needs to be done and promises help, delivering knowledge of where the miscreant is hiding.