Editing Enki (section)

==Influence==
[[File:God Ea.jpg|upright|thumb|God Ea, a statue from Khorsabad, late 8th century BCE, Iraq, now in the Iraq Museum]]
[[File:God Ea, seated, holding a cup. From Nasiriyah, southern Iraq, 2004-1595 BCE. Iraq Museum.jpg|upright|thumb|God Ea, seated, holding a cup. From Nasiriyah, southern Iraq, 2004–1595 BCE. Iraq Museum]]
Enki and later Ea were apparently depicted, sometimes, as a man covered with the skin of a fish, and this representation, as likewise the name of his temple E-apsu, "house of the watery deep", points decidedly to his original character as a god of the waters (see [[Oannes (mythology)|Oannes]]). Around the excavation of the 18 shrines found on the spot, thousands of [[carp]] bones were found, consumed possibly in feasts to the god. Of his cult at Eridu, which goes back to the oldest period of Mesopotamian history, nothing definite is known except that his temple was also associated with Ninhursag's temple which was called ''Esaggila'', "the lofty head house" (''[[É (temple)|E]]'', house, ''sag'', head, ''ila'', high; or Akkadian goddess = Ila), a name shared with Marduk's temple in Babylon, pointing to a staged tower or [[ziggurat]] (as with the temple of [[Enlil]] at [[Nippur]], which was known as ''E-kur'' (''kur'', hill)), and that incantations, involving ceremonial rites in which water as a sacred element played a prominent part, formed a feature of his worship. This seems also implicated in the [[epic poetry|epic]] of the [[hieros gamos]] or sacred [[marriage]] of Enki and Ninhursag (above), which seems an [[etiology|etiological]] myth of the fertilisation of the dry ground by the coming of irrigation water (from Sumerian ''a'', ''ab'', water or semen). The early inscriptions of [[Urukagina]] in fact go so far as to suggest that the divine pair, Enki and Ninki, were the progenitors of seven pairs of gods, including Enki as god of [[Eridu]], [[Enlil]] of [[Nippur]], and Su'en (or [[Sin (mythology)|Sin]]) of [[Ur]], and were themselves the children of An (sky, heaven) and Ki (earth).<ref name="Espak 2006">{{cite thesis |last=Espak |first=Peeter |title=Ancient Near Eastern Gods Ea and Enki; Diachronical analysis of texts and images from the earliest sources to the Neo-Sumerian period |type=masters thesis |institution=Tartu University, Faculty of Theology, Chair for Ancient Near Eastern Studies |date=2006 |url=http://dspace.utlib.ee/dspace/bitstream/handle/10062/958/espakpeeter.pdf |hdl=10062/958}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=March 2021}} The pool of the Abzu at the front of his temple was adopted also at the temple to Nanna ([[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] [[Sin (mythology)|Sin]]) the Moon, at [[Ur]], and spread from there throughout the Middle East. It is believed to remain today as the sacred pool at [[Mosques]], or as the holy water font in Catholic or Eastern Orthodox churches.{{sfn|Bottéro |1992}}{{page needed|date=September 2020}}

Whether Eridu at one time also played an important political role in Sumerian affairs is not certain, though not improbable. At all events the prominence of "Ea" led, as in the case of Nippur, to the survival of Eridu as a sacred city, long after it had ceased to have any significance as a political center. Myths in which Ea figures prominently have been found in [[Assurbanipal]]'s library, and in the [[Hattusas]] [[archive]] in [[Hittites|Hittite]] [[Anatolia]]. As Ea, Enki had a wide influence outside of Sumer, being equated with [[El (god)|El]] (at [[Ugarit]]) and possibly [[Names of God in Judaism#Yah|Yah]] (at [[Ebla]]) in the [[Canaanite mythology|Canaanite]] [[Elohim|'ilhm]] [[Pantheon (gods)|pantheon]]. He is also found in [[Hurrian]] and [[Hittites|Hittite]] mythology as a god of contracts, and is particularly favourable to humankind. It has been suggested that etymologically the name Ea comes from the term ''*hyy'' (life), referring to Enki's waters as life-giving.<ref name=Opening>{{cite book|author1=Alfonso Archii|editor1-last=Melville|editor1-first=Sarah|editor2-last=Slotsky|editor2-first=Alice|editor2-link= Alice Slotsky |title=Opening the Tablet Box: Near Eastern Studies in Honor of Benjamin R. Foste|date=2012|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-18652-1|pages=15–16, 25|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2aq43z3at0wC&pg=PA35|access-date=19 June 2014|chapter=The God Hay(Y)A (Ea / Enki) At Ebla}}</ref> Enki/Ea is essentially a god of civilization, wisdom, and culture. He was also the creator and protector of man, and of the world in general. Traces of this version of Ea appear in the Marduk epic celebrating the achievements of this god and the close connection between the Ea cult at Eridu and that of Marduk. The correlation between the two rises from two other important connections: (1) that the name of Marduk's sanctuary at Babylon bears the same name, ''Esaggila'', as that of a temple in Eridu, and (2) that Marduk is generally termed the son of Ea, who derives his powers from the voluntary abdication of the father in favour of his son. Accordingly, the incantations originally composed for the Ea cult were re-edited by the priests of Babylon and adapted to the worship of [[Marduk]], and, similarly, the hymns to Marduk betray traces of the transfer to Marduk of attributes which originally belonged to Ea.

It is, however, as the third figure in the triad (the two other members of which were [[Anu]] and [[Enlil]]) that Ea acquires his permanent place in the pantheon. To him was assigned the control of the watery element, and in this capacity he becomes the ''[[bêlu|shar]] apsi''; i.e. king of the Apsu or "the abyss". The Apsu was figured as the abyss of water beneath the earth, and since the gathering place of the dead, known as Aralu, was situated near the confines of the Apsu, he was also designated as [[EN (cuneiform)|En]] [[En-Ki|-Ki]]; i.e. "lord of that which is below", in contrast to Anu, who was the lord of the "above" or the heavens. The cult of Ea extended throughout Babylonia and [[Assyria]]. We find temples and shrines erected in his honour, e.g. at [[Nippur]], [[Girsu]], [[Ur]], [[Babylon]], [[Sippar]], and [[Nineveh]], and the numerous epithets given to him, as well as the various forms under which the god appears, alike bear witness to the popularity which he enjoyed from the earliest to the latest period of Babylonian-Assyrian history. The consort of Ea, known as Ninhursag, Ki, Uriash [[Damkina]], "lady of that which is below", or [[Damgalnunna]], "big lady of the waters", originally was fully equal with Ea, but in more [[patriarchy|patriarchal]] Assyrian and [[Neo-Babylonian]] times plays a part merely in association with her lord. Generally, however, Enki seems to be a reflection of pre-patriarchal times, in which relations between the sexes were characterised by a situation of greater [[gender equality]]. In his character, he prefers persuasion to conflict, which he seeks to avoid if possible.