Ea

The third member of the primary triad of the Sumero-Akkadian pantheon of ANU or AN, and BEL or ENLIL. EA’s chief centre of worship was the city of Eridu in southern Babylonia. Also known to the Sumerians as ENKI, or Lord of the Earth, or, more accurately, the depths of the earth rather than its surface or materialism. His name may be a conflation of An and KI (heaven + earth). In texts from 2400BC he is also called king of the apsu, or 'sweet' freshwater deeps, and is known as an oracular god. His consort is DAMKINA. His offspring include ASHALLUHA, NIN-SAR (by NINHURSAG), NINIMMA (by NINKURRA) and UTTU (by NINMAH). Hammurabi calls Enki the wisest of the gods, the all-knowing, with the power to deprive men of their understanding. Semitic stories of Ea, the ‘organiser of the earth’ can have him behave very foolishly. The name Ea is written as two signs meaning ‘house’ and ‘water’ and a common symbol is of a man covered with the body of a fish, with two streams of water, the Tigris and Euphrates, issuing from his shoulders. He is the patron of artists and craftsmen, exorcists and the god of physicians, a creator god. In the deluge he saves UTNAPISHTIM, the Babylonian Noah. He is later relegated and becomes father of the chief god MARDUK. Synonyms include LUGAL-ID(AK), 'lord of the river'; LUGALABZU(AK), 'lord of the deep'; and NUDIMMUD, 'image fashioner'

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