#enki

Enki's Journey to Nippur: A Celebration of Life

Enki's Journey to Nippur (circa 2000 BCE) is a Sumerian origin myth explaining the creation of the temple at Eridu by the god Enki and how musical instruments were ordained for use in festivals in ancient Mesopotamia. The poem formed part of the Decad (ten compositions of advanced study) in Mesopotamian education.

The piece (also known as Enki Builds E-engura and Enki's Journey to Nibru) describes Enki's creation of the E-engura (temple), praise for his work as given by his minister/servant Isimud, the finished work, and Enki's trip to Nippur (also known as Nibru) where he hosts a drinking party to celebrate his accomplishment and receives the blessings of the god Enlil. Although the title suggests the piece will focus on the journey, that part of the story only appears in the last 33 lines.

The poem was found in the ruins of the city of Nippur (in modern-day Iraq) in the mid-19th century and the ruins of Ur in the early 20th century, the later find adding to the broken tablet discovered at Nippur.

The work is important as a Mesopotamian charter myth (creation or origin myth) on the creation of Enki's temple, alcohol as part of religious celebrations, and the importance of musical instruments in religious festivals, but also for its contribution to modern scholarship concerning the curriculum of the edubba ("House of Tablets"), the Mesopotamian scribal school.

Further, the poem suggests the common motif of ancient religious literature of a god creating something from nothing and, often, through the power of speech. In Enki and the World Order, the god creates the world by speaking it into existence, and this seems to be the same with Enki's Journey to Nippur, even though it is not as explicitly stated. This motif is thought to have influenced later works, including the first chapter of the book of Genesis in the Bible.

Enki & The Edubba

Enki was the Sumerian god of wisdom, intelligence, trickery and mischief, crafts, magic, exorcism, healing, creation, virility and fertility, art, and freshwater. Although the myths in which he features cover aspects of all of the above, he was primarily associated with freshwater and wisdom, as noted by scholar Stephen Bertman:

Enki's domain was the Abzu (or Absu), an ocean of freshwater upon which the earth floated, and which served as the life-giving source of streams and rivers. Because of water's secret and potent source,

Enki was associated with arcane wisdom, embodied in both skilled crafts and sorcery. He used his cunning to save mankind before the Great Flood, and he was prayed to by those beset by crisis. His holy city was watery Eridu. (118)

The Sumerians understood Eridu as the oldest city on earth and the site where order, law, and kingship were first established. As the founder of the city, therefore, Enki was among the oldest and most revered of the Mesopotamian pantheon. He was also known by other names, including Nudimmud (as given in the poem), Ninsiku, Nissiku, Enkig, and Ea, each used to describe a different aspect of the god or a different culture's name for him.

Enki first appears in Sumerian literature in the Early Dynastic III period (2600-2350 BCE) under those names, except for Ea, which was the name used by the Akkadians from circa 2400 BCE on, and possibly Nudimmud, a Babylonian name.

He was the son of the sky god An (Anu), though sometimes referenced (as in this poem) as the son of Enlil, most likely a symbolic term meaning he acted in accordance with Enlil's will. He is usually depicted as an equal or near-equal of Enlil, as in the list of the Seven Divine Powers (the earliest Sumerian gods): Anu, Enki, Enlil, Inanna, Nanna, Ninhursag, and Utu-Shamash.

As the god of wisdom and intelligence, Enki was naturally associated with the Mesopotamian scribal schools, although of the many myths in which he features – and which would have been memorized and copied by the scribes in ancient Mesopotamia – only Enki's Journey to Nippur was included as part of the curriculum.

Students began their education with simple texts before progressing to the Tetrad (four compositions) and then the more difficult Decad. Enki's Journey to Nippur would have been included for the complexity of the text as well as its content praising Enki as a god of creation.

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So, there was a post explaining how Enki and his twin sister would have relied on each other for normalcy and affection, that would create gross emotional incest stuff, I wont go into that part nor say anything about the post, they are allowed to head canon whatever. But I am also allowed to have my own thoughts. The thing is, both routes, the twins will never speak or be close. before the accession fight they likely wouldn't even have time to develop a relationship with how extensive dark priest hood is and how it removes the persons humanity. when you choose to kill his twin, he learns necromancy and his sister becomes a lifeless drone to aid him in his learning. if you admit defeat, you're thrown into the well and then you burn down the house with your sister and parents inside. aka no matter what she dies, and they do not appear to care about each other at all. there is one thing that could tie into that idea, when you complete necromancy on his sister it says "Seeing your sister's lifeless ghoul brings a smile to your otherwise emotionless face." (or something of the sort) Okay? maybe, but a much more reasonable assumption is that Enki was proud of himself (remember he is an arrogant bastard) for completing necromancy because right after that it says that you just learned necromancy. Enki nor his sister cared about each other, they were rivals since birth. The story literally tells the player that. they didn't have a relationship other than needing to kill the other. because dark priesthood can't be accomplished with those types of relationships, both twins were clearly determined to ascend into dark priesthood, so they wouldn't like each other. whatsoever. Enki's twin sister barely hesitates in killing him, she wanted to ascend into dark priesthood too, she wouldn't want a relationship with him even familial because that's too human and stand in her way of ascending into becoming a dark priest. if you even understand a lick of dark priesthood or Enki's backstory you would know that just crumbles apart. "Oh well, Enki's sister does hesitate to kill him soooo" Probably because a lifeless ghoul cant learn or teach anything. The twins were raised with dark priest hood as all they know, they'd kill each other for it, Enki's sister probably showed mercy because a corpse wont help her as much as a living being. Maybe even she was a dick hole too, maybe she just wanted to rub it in his face, who knows? I just think with what we do know, it's very unlikely they even wanted anything to do with each other. That's my thoughts on the take, let me know what you think!