The god of Wisdom and of Freshwaters, Ea or Enki of Eridu in Sumer, appears with two streams of freshwater with fish in them gushing from his shoulders on an old cylinder seal (cf. p. 27. Henrietta McCall. Mesopotamian Myths. 1990, 1993. London. The British Museum Publications, in cooperation with University of Texas Press, Austin).
The Akkadian/Babylonian Ea (Sumerian Enki) advised his human servant Adapa _not to consume_ anything to be offered him in heaven by the high god Anu, via his servants Dumuzi and Gishzida, claiming it was "the food and water of death" when in reality it would have bestowed upon him "immortality" (Ea gave Adapa great wisdom but denied him immortality). I understand that God's warning to Adam _not to eat_ of the tree of knowledge is a "reflex" of this ancient myth. In the retelling Ea (Enki) has been transformed into Yahweh, while Anu, Dumuzi and Gishzida who offered man (Adapa) forbidden food that would cause his death according to his god Ea, have been transformed into the Edenic Serpent.
