Ea

/ay"ah/, n.

the Akkadian god of wisdom, the son of Apsu and father of Marduk: the counterpart of Enki.

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In Mesopotamian religion, the god of water.

He formed a triad of deities with Anu and Bel. Originally a local deity in the city of Eridu, he evolved into the lord of the fresh waters beneath the earth, the god of ritual purification, and a patron of sorcery and incantations. Akkadian mythology makes him the father of Marduk. His counterpart among the Sumerians was Enki, from whose half-fish, half-goat form the astrological figure of Capricorn is derived.

Ea (seated) and attendant deities, Sumerian cylinder seal, c. 2300 BC; in the Pierpont Morgan ...

By courtesy of the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York

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▪ Mesopotamian deity

(Akkadian), Sumerian  Enki 

 Mesopotamian god of water and a member of the triad of deities completed by Anu (Sumerian: An) and Enlil. From a local deity worshiped in the city of Eridu, Ea evolved into a major god, Lord of Apsu (also spelled Abzu), the fresh waters beneath the earth (although Enki means literally “lord of the earth”). In the Sumerian myth “Enki and the World Order,” Enki is said to have fixed national boundaries and assigned gods their roles. According to another Sumerian myth Enki is the creator, having devised men as slaves to the gods. In his original form, as Enki, he was associated with semen and amniotic fluid, and therefore with fertility. He was commonly represented as a half-goat, half-fish creature, from which the modern astrological figure for Capricorn is derived.

      Ea, the Akkadian counterpart of Enki, was the god of ritual purification: ritual cleansing waters were called “Ea's water.” Ea governed the arts of sorcery and incantation. In some stories he was also the form-giving god, and thus the patron of craftsmen and artists; he was known as the bearer of culture. In his role as adviser to the king, Ea was a wise god although not a forceful one. In Akkadian myth, as Ea's character evolves, he appears frequently as a clever mediator who could be devious and cunning. He is also significant in Akkadian mythology as the father of Marduk, the national god of Babylonia.

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