Editing Enki (section)

==Iconography==
[[File:Ea (Babilonian) - EnKi (Sumerian).jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|The Adda Seal, an ancient Akkadian cylinder seal showing (from left to right) [[Inanna]], [[Utu]], Enki, and [[Isimud]] (circa 2300 BC)<ref name="seal" />]]

Enki was the keeper of the divine powers called ''[[Me (mythology)|Me]]'', the gifts of [[civilization]]. He is often shown with the horned crown of divinity.

On the Adda Seal, Enki is depicted with two streams of water flowing into each of his shoulders: one the Tigris, the other the Euphrates.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Cartwright|first1=Mark|title=Adda Seal (Illustration)|url=https://www.worldhistory.org/image/6225/|website=[[World History Encyclopedia]]|access-date=25 March 2017}}</ref> Alongside him are two trees, symbolizing the male and female aspects of nature. He is shown wearing a flounced skirt and a cone-shaped hat. An eagle descends from above to land upon his outstretched right arm. This portrayal reflects Enki's role as the god of water, life, and replenishment.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Busby|first1=Jesse|title=Enki|url=https://ancientart.as.ua.edu/enki/|website=Ancient Art|publisher=University of Alabama|access-date=25 March 2017}}</ref>

Considered the master shaper of the world, god of [[wisdom]] and of all [[Magic (paranormal)|magic]], Enki was characterized as the lord of the [[Abzu]] (Apsu in Akkadian), the freshwater sea or [[groundwater]] located within the [[earth]]. In the later Babylonian epic ''[[Enûma 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", thereby 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]].<ref>Leick, Gwendolyn (2001), "Mesopotamia: the invention of the city" (Penguin) p. 20</ref>

Early royal inscriptions from the [[third millennium BCE]] mention "the reeds of Enki". [[Phragmites|Reed]]s were an important local building material, used for baskets and containers, and collected outside the city walls, where the dead or sick were often carried. This links Enki to the ''[[Kur]]'' or [[underworld]] of [[Sumerian religion|Sumerian mythology]]. In another even older tradition, [[Nammu]], the goddess of the primeval creative matter and the mother-goddess portrayed as having ''"given birth to the great gods,"'' was the mother of Enki, and as the watery creative force, was said to preexist Ea-Enki.<ref>{{cite book |first=Stephanie |last=Dalley |title=Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ERp_y_w1nIC&pg=PA50 |year=1998 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-283589-5 |pages=50}}</ref> Benito states "With Enki it is an interesting change of gender symbolism, the fertilising agent is also water, Sumerian ''"a"'' or ''"Ab"'' which also means "semen". In one evocative passage in a Sumerian hymn, Enki stands at the empty riverbeds and fills them with his 'water'".<ref>Benito, C.A. (1969) "Enki and Ninmah" and "Enki and the World Order" (dissertation, Uni of Philadelphia)</ref>