Utu or Enki

Today I was told about this incredible book called "Seal cylinders of Wester Asia". And while flicking through it, I came across this page  and on it, I saw these 5 images which basically blew my mind...

These five details from cylinder seals basically depicted everything I have been writing about the relationship between Utu/Shamash, the Mesopotamian sun god, and Enki/Ea, the Mesopotamian god of sweet flowing water and annual flood...

So from right to left:

Enki sitting on his throne, holding a jar which represents Abzu, the source of Tigris and Euphrates. The two rivers are represented by the two flowing streams emerging from the jar...

Enki sitting on his throne, actually being Abzu, the source of Tigris and Euphrates. The two flowing streams representing Tigris and Euphrates are actually emerging from Enki's sides...

The fish depicted swimming towards Enki (they always swim towards Enki) are giant Mesopotamian carps, who migrate up the river during the annual flood, and mate in the upper reaches of Tigris and Euphrates during the peak of the flood (Apr/May)...

I talked about this in my post about the origin of the goat fish symbol

So far so normal...Enki, the god of flowing water, with water flowing out of him...But then we come to the middle image, and things get "weird"...In a good way...

This image depicts Utu/Shamash, the sun god, sitting on a throne. 

He is identifiable by the sun heat rays emanating from his shoulder and the serrated reed cutting knife he is holding in his hand. More about this in my post "Canal"...

But weirdly, on the above seal we also see fish swimming towards Utu/Shamash...Which is only seen on depictions of Enki/Ea...Why? Well because, it is Utu/Shamash who releases Enki/Ea, the sweet water, from his icy prison on top of the sacred mountains, Abzu...

Over 70% of all the water flowing down Tigris and Euphrates comes from the snowmelt. Snowmelt which is caused by Utu/Shamash. I talked about this in my post "Shamash young and old"

The snowmelt peaks at the beginning of summer, Apr/May, in Taurus... 

Which is why Tigris and Euphrates flood also reaches its peak in Apr/May, in Taurus... 

Which is why Utu/Shamash was depicted as a golden bull (Sun in Taurus) with flowing lapis lazuli beard (flowing water)...

I talked about this in my posts "Solar bull", "Elamite water bull", "Butt chewing", "Killing of the bull of heaven"...And many others...

By the way, this is the old Taurus, the original Taurus, which has nothing to do with constellations. The old animal calendar marker, marking the beginning of the calving period of the wild Eurasian cattle. I talked about it in my posts "Ram and bull", "Cow and calf ivory"...And many others...

Anyway, I talked about this "strange" Mesopotamian belief that Utu/Shamash is the provider of sweet water and filler of wells, which turned out to be exactly what happens every year in spring, in my post "When Utu steps up into heaven"...

And it is during that exact time when Utu/Shamash is releasing Enki/Ea, that the giant Mesopotamian carp are swimming upstream towards Abzu...Which is why we see fish swimming towards Utu/Shamash, who is at that time in Abzu with Enki/Ea...

As I said above, the flood peaks when Utu/Shamash climbs to the top of the mountains...When the heat of the sun melts the snow there. At the beginning of summer...And the next picture shows Shamash sitting on top of a mountain...

The holy mountain, which is Abzu, which is Enki/Ea, which is the source of Tigris and Euphrates

Finally, the last picture shows a composite god, sitting on a chair, with both sun heat rays emanating from one of his shoulder (Utu/Shamash) and a stream of water pouring out of his side (Enki/Ea)...

This last image basically tells us that Sun is the source of flowing water...Which sounds very very strange, but it is actually true. At least in Mesopotamia...

I am actually still in shock that someone had collected these 5 pics, put them in exactly correct order to describe all this, without knowing what they were doing or what they were looking at...

And that I have found it today by pure fluke (thanks to @ourtown2 and our talk about chariots)...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...