Miscellaneous myths
This myth is one of the shortest and best preserved in the Sumerian language. The first part of the composition is devoted to the praising of Enki's temple in Eridu, while the second one is concerned with Enki's journey to Nippur.
The composition begins with a poetic description of Enki's temple, built from silver and lapis lazuli and decorated with gold. Enki's sukkal Isimud is introduced, and he praises the temple, describing its architecture and enumerating the different kind of musical instruments that play within. The temple itself is portrayed as a mountain floating upon the waters, surrounded by a garden where fruits grow and birds nest. The god then embarks on the journey to Nippur on his boat.
In preparation of the banquet that he is to hold in Nippur, Enki kills oxen and sheep, and brings musical instruments with him. When he arrives in Nippur, he enters the giguna (a sacred part of a temple) and begins to prepare the beer for the banquet. When the preparations are finished, Enki invites the gods to the banquet. An and Enlil are seated in the high place, and Nintu is seated at a place of honor. The gods drink and feast. At the end of the composition, Enlil, pleased by the banquet, gives a blessing praising Enki's temple.
In a passage of the sumerian myth Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, with relates the rivalry between Uruk and Aratta and the contests between Uruk's king Enmerkar and the king of Aratta, Enmerkar instructs his messenger to Aratta to recite "the spell of Nudimmud" (line 135). This is followed by a section that most scholars have interpreted as the evocation of this spell (lines 136–155).
The translation and interpretation of this passage is the subject of much discussion and debate. Some scholars argue that lines 136–155 are not the evocation of the spell of Nudimmud, and that they are therefore not part of Enmerkar's speech.
One subject of debate in this passage of the myth concerns the actions of Enki. One interpretation, followed by the majority of scholars, is that the passage contains an aetiological story explaining why mankind speaks different languages. According to this interpretation, the past is envisioned as a "Golden Age" where mankind spoke the same language, before Enki changed the speech in their mouths and caused the emergence of a multilingual world. The reason for his actions in this context is also debated.
Another interpretation is that the passage refers to an unification of languages. Alster Bendt and H.L.J. Vanstiphout argue that the incantation calls upon Enki to restore the unity of languages in the future, and specifically to have mankind speak in Sumerian. An unification of the languages, but taking place in the past, has also been proposed by Christoph Uehlinger.
In the standard Akkadian version of this myth, Ea devises a plan to defeat the Anzû bird, who stole the tablets of destinies from Enlil, after the gods Adad, Girra, and Shara refuse to fight him. Under his advice, the gods summon Ninurta's mother Mami, cover her with honors, name her ''Mistress of all the gods'', Belet-ili, and name her son Ninurta champion of the gods. Belet-ili orders him to go fight the Anzû bird and retrieve the tablets. Ninurta confronts the Anzû bird, however, he is able to use the powers of the tablets to deflect the arrows that Ninurta shoots at him. Ninurta sends Sharur back to Ea to ask for help. Ea instructs him to cut off the feathers of his wings and throw them around, telling him that the Anzû will call the detached feathers back to his wings with a cry, and at this moment, Ninurta's arrows will be able to reach him. Ninurta accomplishes the instructions and is able to kill Anzû.
Enki plays one of the main roles in this Sumerian text, which is the only preserved episode of a larger literary composition connected to the later Akkadian Anzû myth. It differs from this narrative in certain aspects, notably in the fact that here the Anzû bird has stolen the tablet of destinies from Enki instead of Enlil. In this composition, Enki outmaneuvers Ninurta, who, unsatisfied with the reward he received for defeating the Anzû, was plotting against him.
The beginning of the text preserves a short speech of the Anzû, who tells the victorious Ninurta that when Ninurta attacked him at the orders of an unnamed god, likely Enki, the tablets of destinies fell from his grasp and were returned to the Abzû. Ninurta regrets that he couldn't take possession of the tablets and their powers for himself. From his abode, Enki learns of Ninurta's thoughts. The Anzû bird brings Ninurta to the Abzû. Enki first flatters him, lauding him as the victor over the mythical bird, and offers him fame as a reward. Unhappy with his promises, Ninurta begins to secretly plot against Enki, who becomes aware of his plans. After Ninurta raises his hand against Enki's sukkal Isimud in an altercation, Enki fashions a turtle from the clay of the Abzû and stations it next to the gates of the Abzu. He lures Ninurta to this location, and pretends to be ignorant of the situation when he is attacked by the turtle. The turtle digs a pit and pushes Ninurta into it. He is unable to ascend from the pit and Enki taunts him. The mother of Ninurta, who appears here under the name Ninmena, comes to ask for her son's release. Ninmena is identified by Kramer as a name of Ninhursag in this context. Joan Goodnick Westenholz remarks that while in literary texts the name Ninmena was used to refer to her, they were otherwise regarded as distinct goddesses. Here Ninmena refers to Enki as "my Uruku", an unknown epithet of his, the translation of which is uncertain according to Bottéro. Kramer translates this epithet as "my plant-eater" and connects it to the myth Enki and Ninhursag.
In this Akkadian myth, which relates how Nergal became Ereshkigal's husband and the King of the Underworld, Ea helps the god elude the dangers of the Underworld. The myth is known from two slightly different versions, a shorter one attested from a Middle Babylonian Manuscript, and a much longer one known from a seventh century source and one from Neo-Babylonian Uruk.
After Nergal fails to pay his respects to the vizier of the queen of the Underworld, Ereshkigal, at a banquet where he represented her, she demands that Nergal be brought before her. In the later version, Ea gives him instructions so he can elude the dangers of the Underworld; he tells him to fashion a chair from different species of wood, and then warns Nergal not to sit, eat, drink or bathe while he is there. Stephanie Dalley proposes that the chair that Nergal takes with him to the Underworld in this version may have had the same purpose as a type of chair called a "ghosts chair", whose purpose, as described in a ritual text, was to prevent seizure by ghosts. While Nergal follows most of Ea's advice, he fails to follow the last one and has sex with Ereshkigal. On the seventh day, while Ereshkigal is asleep, Nergal leaves the Underworld. When Ereshkigal realizes that Nergal has left, she is distraught, and sends her vizier Namtar to ask the gods to send him back, threatening to raise the dead to eat the living if they do not comply. Ea has disguised Nergal, so Namtar does not recognize him, and he goes back to his mistress empty handed. Ereshkigal sees through Ea's scheme, however, and she tells Namtar to seize the disguised god. This time, for an uncertain reason, Namtar fails to identify him. At this point the text breaks. When it resumes, Nergal receives advice from a god, perhaps Ea. He returns to the underworld and reunites with Ereshkigal.
In the Middle Babylonian version, Ereshkigal plans to kill Nergal at his arrival, and Ea gives him seven plagues which he stations by each of the gates of the Underworld. While they hold the gates open, he rushes to the palace and is about to kill Ereshkigal when, to save her life, she offers him her hand in marriage and the rulership of the Underworld, which he accepts.
This myth is known from fragmentary tablets from Tell al-Amarna dating to the fifteenth or fourteenth century BCE, and from Assur dating to the late second millennium BCE.
The myth begins by introducing Adapa, a priest of Ea. He is described as a sage who expertly accomplishes the rites of Eridu and to whom Ea gave wisdom, but not immortal life. One day he embarks on his boat into the sea. The South Wind blows strongly and sinks his boat, and frustrated, Adapa curses it and breaks its wing. On the seventh day, Anu demands to his sukkal Ilabrat where the South Wind has gone, and Ilabrat answers that Adapa broke its wing. Angered, Anu demands that Adapa be brought before him. Ea, made aware of Anu's plans, instructs Adapa to go see the gods Dumuzi and Gizzida who stand before the Gate of Anu while wearing mourning garnments, and to tell them that he is mourning them and their seasonal absence from the earth. This will put them in a good mood, they will accompany him to Anu and put a good word for him. Further, Ea tells Adapa that he must not eat or drink anything that Anu gives him, because it will kill him. Adapa accomplishes the instructions, and ingratiates himself to Dumuzi and Gizzida, who bring him before Anu. Anu demands to know why he broke the South Wind's wing. Adapa answers that he was catching fish for the temple of Ea but that the South Wing created a storm and sank his boat. Dumuzi and Gizzida speak in his favour. Appeased, Anu decides to give him the water and bread of eternal life. However, following the instructions of Ea, Adapa doesn't drink or eat anything, and loses his chance to obtain immortality. Following this, there is a gap of unknown length to the end of the story. An alternate version of the ending of the story preserved on another fragment has Anu give Adapa eternal fame instead of eternal life.
The meaning of the myth is debated among scholars, and many different interpretations have been proposed. In Mesopotamia, the tale was later incorporated into incantations invoking Adapa's powers for curative purposes against illnesses caused by the South Wind.
The second section of the prologue of this Sumerian poem describes Enki's journey into the Underworld by boat, in an unnamed body of water, when he is suddenly attacked. The reason for Enki's journey is unknown, and its outcome is not told by the poet, either because it was so well known that it did not need to be told, or because it was unimportant to the narrative of this poem. At the end of the composition, when Enkidu is trapped in the Utu to open a passage so Enkidu is able to leave the Underworld.
In this Sumerian poem, Enki sends a vision to the protagonist, who lies sick on his deathbed. In the vision, he sees the assembly of the gods. They debate over his fate, as while he is a mortal, he is also the son of the goddess Ninsun. Enki says that the only man to receive immortality, Dumuzi, and that a wrestling festival should be set up in his honor. In another passage of the poem, with the advice of Enki, Gilgamesh organizes the building of his tomb with the help of the people of Uruk. The tomb is built in stone in the river bed of the Euphrates, which was diverted for the construction.
In version B of the sumerian poem Gilgamesh and Huwawa, Enki provides Gilgamesh with advice on how to defeat Huwawa, apparently speaking it through Enkidu.
In an atypical variant of the Epic of Gilgamesh preserved from the fragment of a tablet dated to the beginning of the Middle Babylonian period and perhaps originating in the realm of the First Sealand dynasty, the name of Enkidu is replaced by d40, elsewhere used to represent Ea, and the name of Gilgamesh is replaced by d30, elsewhere used to represent Sîn. Uruk is replaced by Ur in this variant. The reason for these substitutions is unclear. The preserved parts of the story are the passages relating Enkidu's initiation into human culture and the interpretation of Gilgamesh's dreams by his mother.
Enki plays a supporting role in the Sumerian literary composition on the Gudea Cylinders, which relates the building of the temple of Ningirsu by Gudea of Lagash. As a wisdom and craftsmanship god, he plays an active role in the construction process, and alongside deities of his circle, he makes the final preparations for the temple before the arrival of Ningirsu. He blesses the E-ninnu at the inauguration banquet.
Ea appears in a portion of a myth focused on Zarpānītum preserved from a small fragment of a tablet of uncertain date. He tells his son Marduk that she is suited to be his bride and that they should rule the sea together.
Ea is mentioned under the hellenized form of his name, Aos, in an extract from a text composed by Eudemus of Rhodes and preserved in the writings of Damascius. According to Eudemus, in Babylonian cosmology Aos was regarded as the brother of Anos (Anu) and Ilinos (Enlil), as well as the father of Bēlos (Marduk) with Daukē (Damkina). His parents are here Kissarē (Kishar) and Assōros (Anshar). The account given by Eudemus offers parallels to that of the Enūma Eliš, though they are not identical; Aos is notably the brother of Anos as opposed to his son. The source that Eudemus used was likely related to the Babylonian Epic.
A Babylonian text preserved from fragments dating either to the Seleucid or the Parthian period possibly attests of a succession myth between an older and a younger generation of gods involving Ea. Here he is the son of Anu and the brother of Ninamakalla. He and his sister are seemingly responsible for the murder of Anshar, a god of the older generation.
