Enki

Enki (Sumerian: 𒀭𒂗𒆠 ^DEN-KI) is the Sumerian god of water, knowledge (gestú), crafts (gašam), art, intelligence, trickery, mischief, magic, fertility, virility, healing, and creation (nudimmud), and one of the Anunnaki. He was later known as Ea (Akkadian: 𒀭𒂍𒀀) or Ae in Akkadian (Assyrian-Babylonian) religion, and is identified by some scholars with Ia in Canaanite religion. The name was rendered Aos within Greek sources (e.g. Damascius).

He was originally the patron god of the city of Eridu, but later the influence of his cult spread throughout Mesopotamia and to the Canaanites, Hittites and Hurrians. He was associated with the southern band of constellations called stars of Ea, but also with the constellation AŠ-IKU, the Field (Square of Pegasus). Beginning around the second millennium BCE, he was sometimes referred to in writing by the numeric ideogram for "40", occasionally referred to as his "sacred number". The planet Mercury, associated with Babylonian Nabu (the son of Marduk) was, in Sumerian times, identified with Enki, as was the star Canopus.

Many myths about Enki have been collected from various sites, stretching from Southern Iraq to the Levantine coast. He is mentioned in the earliest extant cuneiform inscriptions throughout the region and was prominent from the third millennium down to the Hellenistic period.

The meaning of the names Enki and Ea is uncertain. It is presumed that they were originally separate deities, though it is unclear when they were fully equated with each other. Alfonso Archi argues that syncretism between them likely already existed at least from the mid third millennium BCE in parts of Babylonia.

The name Enki is usually translated as “Lord of the Earth” in Sumerian. This explanation is not universally accepted. Several scholars argue that it does not seemingly fit the functions of the god. It has been proposed that Enki could have been an epithet of the deity that eventually replaced his original name. Samuel Noah Kramer argued that the epithet ''Lord of the Earth'' was given to the god by the theologians of Eridu in order to elevate his position in the pantheon and make him a rival of Enlil.However, Thorkild Jacobsen points out that there is no conclusive evidence of a rivalry between Enki and Enlil in Sumerian texts. Jacobsen interpreted Enki as a personification of the power of sweet waters. He explained his name ‘’Lord (productive manager) of the Earth’’ as a reflection of the role of water in the fertilizing of the earth. He proposed that Enki’s original name was Abzû, later regarded as his under-earth sweet water domain and living place. However according to Peeter Espak there is no conclusive proof that Enki was regarded as a water god in the available sources of the old sumerian period. Despite the similarity between their names, Enki of Eridu and the primordial god Enki were separate figures. Jacobsen proposed that their names had slightly different meanings and he translated the name of the primordial god as “Lord Earth”.The forms of their names in the Emesal dialect are different; the name of Enki of Eridu is written Amanki, while the name of the primordial god is written Umunki.

Edmond Sollberger and Wilfred G. Lambert have proposed a different translation for the name of Enki of Eridu. It has been remarked that an omissible g appears at the end of the second element of his name, which does not appear in the name of the primordial god.For this reason they interpret this second element not as ki, ‘’earth’’, but as ki(g) of unknown meaning. Sollberger understood an element ki(g) meaning ‘’favour, benevolence, love’’ in Sumerian. Therefore he translated Enki(g) as ‘’Lord Love’’,or ‘’Lord Benevolence’’. He argues that this translation reflects Enki’s well attested role in myths as a friend of mankind. However, this explanation is not generally accepted. It has been remarked that it is possible that the omissible g developed via dissimilation, though similar examples of dissimilation are so far not attested in Sumerian.

The name Ea first occurs in personal names from the Old Akkadian period. Earlier translations interpreting Ea as a sumerian name meaning ‘’House of Water’’ or ‘’House of the Moon, Moon station’’ are regarded as implausible by modern scholarship. In a few modern publications, the interpretation ‘’House of Water’’ is sometimes presented as a scribal popular etymology. However, according to Lambert, there is no evidence for such a reinterpretation.

Due to the fact that the name appears associated with Semitic elements in the sources of the Old Akkadian Period, it has been suggested that Ea is most likely a Semitic name. It has been proposed that the etymology of the name is connected to the Semitic root ḥyy, ‘’to live’’. This explanation has not been proved with certainty, though it is considered plausible. Miguel Civil proposed that the name of the god Haya was originally an alternative spelling of Ea. Margaret W. Green proposed that the names Ea and Haya were both derived from the name of a pre Sumerian deity that was integrated into the pantheons of the Sumerians and of the Semitic peoples, and that Haya persisted as a separate deity after Ea was syncretized with Enki. The hypothesis of a connection between the names Ea and Haya is considered to be credible, but it is not proved, and it is not accepted by all scholars.