Analysis of the Enki and Ninhursag Myth

The Enki and Ninhursag Myth is a key myth of Sumerian Religion. It contains details about the Sumerian God Enki, one of the oldest gods in the world, and a king among the Anunnaki — being a member of the Sumerian Pantheon: The Seven Who Decree.

It is also one of the only myths that we have where Ninhursag is a central character, and the fullest description of Dilmun (a Sumerian Paradise island) that we have anywhere.

In this Analysis of the Enki and Ninhursag Myth I bring forth details that tell us something about Sumerian Culture and, ideally, are good candidates for pieces with potentially historical roots.

The main foci are:

To continue, you will need to study the Enki and Ninhursag Myth (Creation of Dilmum).

Introduction

In my opinion this myth contains parts of it that are genuinely intriguing, while others are somewhat silly, superficial, and nonsensical.

This is probably a fair gauge for what is pure Sumerian invention within myth, and that which is older, what I call ‘original myth’ — that was information passed down through the ages from their ancestors that had meaning, and in some cases, was ancient memory of past events.

(Some apparent silliness and superficiality occluding and clouding the more precise and purposeful earlier traditions. In general obviously. This cannot be the case every time.)

Part I — The Pure, Deathless Island of Dilmun

The first part deals with a description of Dilmun, which can be seen as the primordial homeland of the gods within the Sumerian worldview. It is also possible that this idea of a “pure”, deathless, and “virginal” place was a representation which they viewed as some sort of heaven, for it was a place without disease, or aging.

It was a pure place, as the ancient recorders of this myth repeated to us again and again. It may also be an original version of the later Biblical concept of heaven, as well as Greek concepts of Elysium perhaps.

All that we can really glean from it is that Enki was associated with this land, and that the Sumerians believed he in some way gave it to the people, and to Ninhursag, and made it wealthy and abundant with water and grains and food for her and her people.

Crete: A Possible Location of Dilmun

Many scholars believe that Dilmun is a reference to the island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf — which may very well be accurate. However, it might not correlate well in time with the myth. On the other hand, the Greek island of Crete ran by the Minoans aligns very well with what is described in the myth, at the right time.

Many of the details described in the Dilmun section of the myth perfectly describe ancient Crete. The description of it receiving all sorts of goods and wealth from other distant lands (some of them possibly quite distant) and loading these goods, moreover, into “large ships” brings to mind Crete. The Minoans of Crete were the merchants of this age (closely aligned with the seafaring Phoenicians of later ages).

We know that the Minoans were in contact with Old Kingdom Egypt as well as the Sumerians, and many peoples throughout the Mediterranean, Levant, and greater Near East. Moreover, the Cretan people are the descendants from populations in the Near East and Anatolia, so we can imagine that they were not too different from one another culturally, and maybe even ethnically at that time.

This compounded with the fact that the text explicitly states that the land of Dilmun was Ninhursag’s island. Ninhursag repeats over and over that while Enki had given her a city, and a land, that it did not benefit her because it had no docks yet, nor was its land cultivated. So Enki pronounces:

“May the waters rise up from it into your great basins. May your city drink water aplenty from them. May Dilmun drink water aplenty from them. May your pools of salt water become pools of fresh water. May your city become an emporium on the quay for the Land. May Dilmun become an emporium on the quay for the Land.”

All of this brings to mind ancient Crete to me, from its docks, to it’s ships, it’s trade, and, moreover, to its matriarchal nature under the control of Damkina (Ninhursaga), for Crete too was quite possibly a matriarchal society. Even the ‘Snake goddess’ images from Minoan Crete, has striking similarities to the depictions of Inanna-Ishtar in Mesopotamia.

Part II — Incest, Birth, and Healing

The second half of this myth is somewhat indecipherable and a little vile in its own way. I really do not know if there is any meaning behind it, or any actual historical reference. Nonetheless, I will include it anyways as it is important.

The second half talks of Enki who, quite literally, in the midst of sticking his erect penis into various parts of the Earth, decides that he would prefer his wife Ninhursag. So he calls her to him. They have sex, and she becomes pregnant, and 9 days later she gives birth to a daughter … whom Enki proceeds to have sex with.

It is not clear how long it takes this daughter to grow to maturity, but when she is old enough to bear a child, Enki impregnantes her too. This process repeats again and again — daughter has a daughter, who is impregnated by Enki, and so on — so it is like 7th-level incest. Daughter, to grand-daughter, to great-grand daughter, and so on.

The only meaning that I can glean from this section, is that from the Sumerian perspective, the “blood of the gods” (especially of the line from Enki and Ninhursag) runs thick on the island of Dilmun. This description tells us clearly that the blood of the gods is concentrated on this island — divine children being born to the greatest of the Anuna gods, and a preserved bloodline.

Until finally his last daughter Uttu is born, who is given some advice from her ancestress (and step-mother) Ninhursag about her coming union with Enki. Then from their union Ninhursag collects Enki’s semen from Uttu’s thighs and creates 7 plants with these. Which Enki then eats one by one in a mildly hilarious passage, but becomes deathly ill from these plants (and from the curse that Ninhursag pronounces upon him for eating her plants).

Then a clever fox comes in running to Enlil so that Enki can be saved, because Ninhursag refused to do so. Eventually, however, Ninhursag agrees to save Enki. A she gives birth to seven new plants with which to heal Enki with.

I honestly do not know if there is any real meaning to this myth. The first part is interesting as it talks about Dilmun, and is one of the few sources we have pertaining to this place. Thus it is of considerable interest. As to the second half, we have the themes of Enki and Ninhursag procreating, Enki making love to and impregnating his children, as well as Ninhursag creating plants which were alleged to have healing properties.

There are a number of possibilities of what this myth could be referring to, each of which could be wrong because the second half of this myth could be complete nonsense, we don’t really know. Nonetheless, since it was Enki who taught humanity the knowledge of agriculture and gave the arts of ancient herbology, we do at least have another example of Enki and Ninhursag both in some way being related to plants, and to plant knowledge, and to healing knowledge as well.

However, the ending is interesting. Because the fox apparently succeeds in making Ninhursag look at Enki once again with “the eye of life” which I believe is the the look in one’s eye that leads to sex, or to procreation, thus the “eye of creating life”. So if we look at the myth and extract the bones from it, from part II specifically, then I think we can say that the main theme is that Enki “created Dilmun and made it prosperous for his spouse Damgalnuna. Yet apparently he did something to arouse Ninhursag’s wrath, maybe he ate her plants, maybe she was angry that he impregnated her daughter, grandaughter, and so on, or perhaps it was purely his promiscuity that incurred her wrath. In any case she refused to spend her to look at him with life-giving eye again, and maybe even poisoned him, and refused to heal him until the clever fox convinced her to do so.

Thus at the end we have a description of 8 children born to Enki and Ninhursag, and also a description of what they will do (in the sense of be lord or deity over), or who their spouse will be, or a reference to some of their qualities.

Nonetheless, I will let you make up your mind on the topic. Whatever the case may be, this is one of the older myths that we have available to us of our early ancestors.