Sa-kalama, “ruler of the land.”
Šanabaku and Šanabi, the god “40.”
That the sea was the abode of the god of knowledge seems to have been the belief of the Babylonians from the earliest times. According to Berosus, whose record has been preserved by Apollodoros, Abydenus, and Alexander Polyhistor, there appeared more than once, from the Erythræan Sea (the Persian Gulf), “the Musaros Oannes, the Annedotos,” a creature half man and half fish, probably conceived in shape of the deity [pg 063] answering to this description found on certain Babylonian cylinder-seals, in a sculpture with representations of marine monsters, now preserved in the Louvre, and in the divine figures in the shape of a man clothed with a fish's skin, preserved in the form of clay statuettes and large sculptures (bas-reliefs) in the British Museum. Abydenus apparently understands Berosus differently, for he makes Annedotos and Oannes to be different personages. All those who have quoted Berosus, however, agree in the main point, that these beings, half man and half fish, came out of the sea to teach mankind. There is hardly any doubt that in some of these cases the deity that is intended is the god whose name is now read Ae or Ea, who was called Aos by Damascius. After the appearance of the fourth Annedotos, there came another person, also from the Erythræan Sea, named Odakon, having, like the former, the same complicated form, between a man and a fish. To these names Abydenus, still quoting Berosus, adds those of four more “double-shaped personages” named Euedocos, Eneugamos, Eneuboulos, and Anementos. These last came forth in the reign of Daos (probably Dumuzi (Duwuzi) or Tammuz) the shepherd, of Pantibiblon (Sippar or Sippara), who reigned for the space of ten sari (360,000 years)! “After these things was Anodaphos, in the time of Euedoreschos.”
Besides his son Merodach, who, in Babylonian mythology, became “king of the gods,”—like Jupiter, in the place of his father—Ae or Ea was regarded as having six other sons, Dumu-zi-abzu, “Tammuz of the abyss”; Ki-gulla, “the destroyer of the world”; Nira (meaning doubtful); Bara, “the revealer” (?); Bara-gula, “the great revealer (?)”; and Burnunta-sā, “the broad of ear.” One daughter is attributed to him, her name being Ḫi-dimme-azaga, “the glorious spirit's offspring,” called, in one of the incantations (W.A.I. iv., 2nd ed., col. ii., line 54), “the daughter of [pg 064] the abyss.” He had also two bull-like guardians (probably those composite creatures, winged bulls with human heads, representations of which guarded the approaches to the Assyrian palaces), one seemingly named Duga, “the good,” and the other Dub-ga, apparently meaning “he who causes (the bolt) to be raised,” giving the suppliant access to the palace of his lord. To all appearance, the gates giving access to his domain were guarded by eight porters, the names of most of whom are unfortunately broken away on the tablet that gives these details, but one of them seems to have borne the name of Eniw-ḫengala, “the bespeaker of fertility,” whilst another was named Igi-ḫen(?)gala, “the eye of fertility,” and the third had a name beginning, like that of the first, with the element Eniw, a circumstance which would lead one to ask whether this may not be the element Eneu found in the names of the two creatures Eneugamos and Eneuboulos, mentioned by Berosus.
His consort was called Damkina, “the lady of the earth,” the Dauké of Damascius, or Dam-gala-nuna, “the great princely lady.” She likewise had two bull-like attendants, A-eru and E-a-eru, of whom but little or nothing is known.
The tablet already quoted (W.A.I. iv., pl. 1, col. ii., ll. 36-39) names Engur (the deep) as being the mother of Ae or Ea, and attributes to him another daughter, Nina, with whom the name of Nineveh is apparently connected.
Down in the Abyss, in the city called Eridu, “the good city,” there dwelt Ae, with all his court. Sitting on his throne, he waited for the time when his son Merodach, the good of heart, came to ask him for those health-bringing incantations for the benefit of mankind. Sometimes, seemingly, instead of Merodach, his sixth son Burnunsia (Burnunta-sā), “the broad of ear,” would perform this office. Ae was always ready to help with his counsels, and no one whose case [pg 065] Merodach forwarded was spurned by the King of the Abyss.
Here, too, dwelt “Tammuz of the Abyss,” one of Ae's sons, but whether this was the well-known Tammuz who was the husband of the goddess Ishtar, is uncertain. Judging from the legends of the Babylonians, Ishtar's husband descended, not to the abode of the lord of the deep, but to the realms of the Babylonian Persephone, the consort of Nergal, in Hades, “the land of no return,” whither Ishtar once descended in search of him. Concerning the Babylonian paradise, where Ae dwelt, see the following chapter.
The second month of the Babylonian year, Iyyar, corresponding to April—May, was dedicated to Ae as lord of mankind, though in this the records contradict each other, for the Creation-stories of the Babylonians attribute the creation of mankind to Merodach, who has, therefore, the best right to be regarded as their lord.