The Defining Attributes Of Enki

Essentially, Enki was the supreme deity of intelligence, creation, wisdom, and all magic, at least to those within the city of Eridu. To fully appreciate this, consider the cities of that time, as the same cities we have here in the present. Consider our political structures as well. We have a mayor, commerce, county officials, etc. As did the ancient Sumerians, although unlike our own meager representation by humans, they had a higher level of officials. They varied from city to city, and one city’s beliefs of who was in charge, were different from another’s. One city might believe their higher gods to be perfect in all their flaws, avarice, and other more benign aspects. Another city, while still recognizing and appropriately worshiping that city’s token god, will instead be loyal to their own, and hold him/her higher than the other city’s deity.

Eridu may have been different, because of its age and size; to say that Enki was known and loved by all might be pushing it, but to say that he was a well-respected and well thought of deity would not. One of Enki’s major characteristics was that he was the keeper of holy powers, called “Me,” known as the gifts of civility. Another attribute, was that he was the lord of the Apsu. Apsu was the large underground ocean beneath the city of Eridu. Later on, meaning was taken from Apsu, to mean “abyss,” thus to some, Enki is known as “Lord of the Abyss.” In a later Babylonian epic, “Enuma Eliš” Apsu was recognized instead as “Abzu” as the birthplace of gods, not solely as a place, but as a fathering deity as well. In the story, Abzu is tired and basically wants to relax, having created all the gods, after all. But unfortunately, the younger gods are running around, creating havoc and causing Abzu to miss his rest. So he decides to kill them all instead. As one of the younger gods, Enki puts Abzu into a deep sleep, and confines him beneath the earth.

Enki was also known as The Lord of “a”, which is semen. Known as a sacred marriage between Enki and the Mother-Goddess of earth, Ki/Ninhursag, Enki is said to have stood at the river beds, and filled them with his “water.” As the deity of water, and fertility, he began the creation of all things by copulating symbolically with the earth.