Ea/Enki is also known as, "Lord of the sweet waters that flow under the earth", he is the god of wisdom and water. "The third of the Sumerian dieties was Enki, the god in charge of the abyss, or, in Sumerian, the abzu. Enki was the god of wisdom, and it was primarily he who organized the earth in accordance with the decisions of Enlil, who only made the general plans." (Kramer, “The Sumerians”, pg. 122.) The symbols associated with Ea/Enki are: ram's head, goat-fish, and sometimes the serpent.

Eridu was the seat of Ea/Enki. Eridu is thought to be the oldest city of Sumer. It was one of the first five cities before the flood. Eridu lies 196 miles southeast of Baghdad, Iraq and south of Ur, near the Euphrates. It is thought that the city was founded around the 5th millennium BC and was occupied until about 600 BC. Eridu was built near a mound called, Abu Shahrain.

In very early days, Ea was the only name heard in Eridu. The priests of this city wanted to make him the supreme diety of all of Sumer. They pressed his claim to world domination by giving him the epithet en - ki which translates to “Lord of the Earth”. This then became his Sumerian name, but their plans failed. Although Enki did manage to usurp Ninhusag’s (the Mother Goddess) place in the panthenon, moving from fourth to third, he could not take the place of Enlil. He had to settle for second best, becoming a “Junior Enlil” (Enlil-banda). This may be a great cause for the continuing rivalry between the two deities.

Enki took part in the Creation of Man, with the assistance of the Mother Goddess, Ninhursag (Nintu). We can read his part in this creation here:

THE CREATION OF MAN

SBV Ea made his voice heard
And spoke to the gods his brothers,

'Why are you blaming them?
Their (the Igigi) work was hard, their trouble was too much.
Everyday the earth (?) [resounded (?)].
The warning signal was loud enough, [we kept hearing the noise.]
There is [ ]
Belet-ili the womb-goddess is present----
Let her create a mortal man
So that he may bear the yoke [( )],
So that he may bear the yoke, [the work of Ellil],
Let man bear the load of the gods!'

OBV Nintu made her voice heard
And spoke to the great gods,

'It is not proper for me to make him.
The work is Enki's;
He makes everything pure!
If he gives me clay, then I will do it.'

Enki made his voice heard
And spoke to the great gods,

'On the first, seventh, and fifteenth of the month I shall make a purification by washing.
Then one god should be slaughtered.
And the gods can be purified by immersion.
Nintu shall mix clay
With his flesh and his blood.
Then a god and a man
Will be mixed together in clay.
Let us hear the drumbeat forever after,
Let a ghost come into existence from the god's flesh,
Let her proclaim it as his living sign,
And let the ghost exist so as not to forget (the slain god).'

They answered 'Yes!' in the assembly,
The great Anunnaki who assign the fates.

Enki goes through the "purification by washing" on the first, seventh and fifteenth of the month. Nintu mixes the clay in the flesh and blood of the slain god. The clay was pinched off into fourteen pieces (for the fourteen birth goddesses). She created seven males and seven females. Then, when the time came, the tenth month, Nintu began her midwifery. She performed her tasks and was rewarded with the birth of fourteen humans, created to ease the toils of the Igigi.

*Translations from "Oxford World's Classics" pg.14-17

Enki and the Flood

According to the Mesopotamian's account of the Great Flood, the God of Earth, the Supreme God, Enlil/Ellil, wanted to wipe mankind out because of their growing numbers. With the growth of people came a lot of noise, and it kept Enlil up at night, it was so loud. He called an assembly of the gods and addressed his annoyance:

'The noise of mankind has become too much.
I am losing sleep over their racket
Cut off food supplies to the people!
Let the vegetation be too scant for their hunger!
Let Adad wipe away his rain.
Below (?) let no flood-water flow from the springs.
Let wind go, let it strip the ground bare,
Let the clouds gather (but) not drop rain,
Let the field yeild a diminished harvest,
Let Nissaba stop up her bosom.
No happiness shall come to them.
("Myths from Mesopotamia", translated by Stephanie Dalley, pg 20, Oxford World's Classics paperback, 1989)

He tried famine, and disease, but the people did not diminish, (his brother Enki, the God of Wisdom and Water, and one of the creators of mankind, was helping the masses via his man, Atrahasis), so he called another assembly of the gods...the God of Earth was in a devine temper. This time, the assembly made Enki swear not to tell mankind what they planned and eventually he swore. What did they plan? They planned to use Enki's own waters to destroy his creation, they decided to wipe mankind out with a flood!

But, Enki, Lord of the Waters and Lord of Wisdom, could not let mankind die, nor could he break his oath. What did the sly God do? He summoned Atrahasis and had him stand next to a wall (screened wall?). With Atrahasis on one side and Enki on the other, Enki started "talking to himself". He told Atrahasis, via his one-sided conversation, about the flood. Not only did he tell him about the flood, but he told Atrahasis how to make a boat strong enough to survive the Great Flood.

He opened the sand clock and filled it,
He told him the sand (needed) for the Flood was
Seven night's worth.
("Myths from Mesopotamia", translated by Stephanie Dalley, pages 29 & 30, Oxford World's Classics paperback, 1989)

Atrahasis listened carefully and did as he was told. The Flood came and many people died, but Atrahasis and his friends and family, (there were quite a few, plus the animals that he saved), were tucked safely aboard the boat.

Up in the heavens, the gods had fled. They watched the destruction from up high and soon grew frantic. Many did not like what they had done, what they had voted to do, not knowing of Atrahasis and thinking that mankind was going to be wiped out. They raged at Enlil and the Great God Anu, God of the Heavens, for allowing such a thing to happen. Not only that, but they were hungry and thirsty, having been denied the fruits of the earth. The Heavens were not a happy place that week.

The Flood's torrent lasted for seven days and seven nights. When it was over, and the earth dried a bit, Atrahasis and his companions landed. He sacrificed some sort of animal (goat? sheep? cow?) and raised it up as an offering to the gods. They smelled the wonderful smell of the offering and descended. They ate the food, for they were starving, and then, after they were hungry no more.

Enlil and Anu were not present, but they spotted the boat. He became furious with the lesser gods and reminded them of the oath they all took. Anu then pointed the finger of blame at Enki, saying none but he would have defied the decision of them all. Enki did not deny this and must have swayed Enlil to his way of thinking (the text breaks and lines are missing), because Enlil allows man to live, under his conditions. Many of these conditions are missing, but what is there is not very promising. Basically Enlil creates a way to control the human numbers by having restrictions:

In addition let there be one-third of the people,
Among the people the woman who gives birth yet does
Not give birth (successfully);
Let there be the pasittu-demon among the people,
To snatch the baby from its mother's lap.
("Myths from Mesopotamia", translated by Stephanie Dalley, pg 35, Oxford World's Classics paperback, 1989)

But, in the end, it is agreed that mankind should continue and Atrahasis is raised above them all. His greatness was recorded and Atrahasis was praised. He turns up later in the Gilgamesh Epic, still alive many years later, with his wife.

Enki was not always the best of deities and as stated above, had an on-going rivalry with the Supreme God, Enlil. As in the story of the Flood, Enki took every chance he could find to give Enlil grief. But, it was not always for the benefit of mankind that he stirred up trouble with Enlil. Enki, it turns out, was the original cause of the “confusion of tongues” from which we are still recovering from today! We find reference to this from a “Golden Age” passage, which one can find in Samuel Noah Kramer’s book, “Sumerian Mythology” on page 107, note 2. It reads:

Once upon a time, there was no snake, there was no scorpion,
There was no hyenna, there was no lion,
There was no wild dog, there was no wolf,
There was no fear, no terror,
Man had no rival.
In those days, the land Shubur-Hamazi,
Harmony-tongued Sumer, the great land of the me of princeship,
Uri, the land having all that is appropriate,
The land Martu, resting in security,
The whole universe, the people well cared for,
To Enlil in one tongue gave speech.
(But) then, the lord defiant, the prince defiant, the king defiant,
Enki, the lord defiant, the prince defiant, the king defiant,
The lord defiant, the prince defiant, the kind defiant,
Enki, the lord of abundance, whose commands are trustworthy,
The lord of wisdom, who scans the land,
The leader of the gods,
The lord of Eridu, endowed with wisdom,
Changed the speech in their mouths, put contention into it,
Into the speech of man that (until then) had been one.