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Divinity · ◇ Light

Enki

Ea · Lord of the Abzu

majorattestedc. 1900–1600 BCE (tablets)Mesopotamian religion

God of wisdom, sweet waters and craft, keeper of the me — the divine ordinances of civilization. When heaven’s two greatest gods refuse to rescue Inanna from the dead, Enki cheats death’s arithmetic instead: from the dirt under his fingernails he makes two tiny mourners who slip through the seven gates and win the corpse back with sympathy.

Light83
Wisdom77
Grace76
Influence73
✦Signature powerDivine DomainHolds sovereign power over a sphere of the living world.
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Its universe

The mythic order Enki belongs to, who comes before and after in the story of this world.

Voices & connections

Figures bound to Enki, family and rivals within the myth, and the thinkers and writers who shaped how we know them.

Inannaally of

Read the story

Illustrated chapters where Enki appears. Start reading in a click.

Illustrated storyThe Descent of InannaThe oldest descent story ever written, four thousand years old: Inanna, Queen of Heaven, turns her ear to the Great Below and walks through the seven gates of the dead. At each gate a garment of her power is stripped away, until she stands naked before her sister Ereshkigal — and is hung on a hook. Her rescue costs a head for a head, and her eye falls on the consort who did not mourn her.Begin reading →