Below, a drawing after a Cylinder Seal, showing the Sumerian god En-ki, "Lord-Earth," seated on a throne in his Abzu (Apsu) House in the depths of "the Abyss" at the city of Eridu in Sumer, in edin (Sumerian edin means either "plain" or "steppe"). A god approaches Enki with upraised hand in greeting or salutation, with flames erupting from his shoulders and wearing a helmet or crown composed of layers of bull's horns. Enki wears a similar helmet or crown of bull's horns, and his upraised hand returns the salutation or greeting. From Enki's shoulders gush two steams of freshwater with three fish frolicking in them. Enki's "Sea-house mansion" is shown as a cubicle within the depths of the imaginary freshwater ocean which lies under the earth. Note the FOUR STREAMS surrounding this cubicle, showing it lies under water, in the Abyss.
In Sumerian and later Babylonian myths, Enki was also called Ea meaning "House of Water," suggesting he was the ONE SOURCE of the ALL the freshwaters of the earth, springs, fountains, lakes and RIVERS. I understand that the two streams of water gushing from his shoulders are the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In myths, he lifts his penis and ejaculates sperm, which becomes the freshwaters filling the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. That is to say, these rivers waters come from ONE SOURCE, Enki, who dwells in the Apsu/Abzu "abyss" in the depths of the freshwater ocean atop which the earth floats. Enki's Sea-house or Abyss dwelling is located in edin, at Eridu in Sumer, where he has a fruit-tree garden by his shrine, which is worked by man which he has created to be an agriculturalist to tend and till this garden, releiving the Igigi gods of this toil at Eridu. The Euphrates at Eridu, is the source of water for the garden in actuality, NOT Enki's "mythical-imaginary" Abzu Sea-House at Eridu ! Enki's fruit-tree garden which he planted, provided food for himself, as well as the Anunnaki gods who dwelt at Eridu. The Igigi gods who also dwelt at Eridu had the onerous task of digging and clearing for thousands of years the canals and irrigation ditches which provided water for Enki's garden, until he created man of clay over the Apsu to replace the Igigi gods as laborers in his garden of the gods.
Note: Tigris is the Hellenistic Greek rendering of the Indo-Germanic Persian word Tigra, which in turn is a rendering of Sumerian id-igla (or id-igna), id means "river," igla or igna means "the encircling" perhaps the Hebrew Hiddekel preserves id-igla ? According to the late Professor Kramer, a renowned Sumerologist, the Sumerians called the Euphrates the Buranun, today the Arabs call it Firat. (For the below drawing cf. p. 27. "abzu (apsu)." Jeremy Black & Anthony Green. Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia, An Illustrated Dictionary. London. British Museum Press. 1992. Co-published by the University of Texas Press at Austin. ISBN 0-292-70794-0. paperback)
In other myths, Enki warns the pious king of Shuruppak, near Ur of the Chaldees and Eridu, that the gods intend to destroy all of mankind with a Flood. He advises the king, called variously Ziusudra, Atrahasis or Utnapishtim to save his life and that of his family and animals by building a ship. In another myth, Enki out of jealousy, changes the ONE language of mankind into a babel of languages. Enki in yet another myth, denies man immortality, by tricking him into NOT consuming the food which would confer immortality, because he wants man to remain his servant and NOT become a god. Yet another myth has man wandering edin NAKED with wild animals for companions. All this is to say, that it is Enki or Ea who "lurks" behind Genesis' presentation of Yahweh-Elohim in Genesis 1-9, the myth about man's creation and destruction in the Flood.
