Recently I wrote an article entitled "Rain and flood", about this Early Sumerian "Enki in the boat" seal. In it I tried to explain the meaning of the scene depicted on this seal through animal calendar markers...
In short: Ibex goat and Auroch bull are calendar markers marking the beginning and the end of the wet season in Mesopotamia...
You should check the above article for detailed explanation...Or you can continue reading this article...
Since then I came across more evidence that supports my interpretation...This is particularly good one...
The other day I came across an article entitled "Problems of the abzu". And in it, I found this passage: "One of the titles of Enki was Dara-abzu"...
This is very interesting, cause in the Sumerian lexicon we find that the word "duraþ, dàra, dàr" means "Mountain goat buck; Ibex"...This guy...
So why was Enki called Ibex of Abzu? Well what is Abzu? The common explanation is that it is "the underground sea of fresh water, the aquifer, which was given a religious fertilising quality in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology"...
I have already challenged this explanation in many of my articles which deal with the relationship between Utu, the sun god, and Enki, the god of fresh water: "Maran", "Utu or Enki", "Goatfish", "When Utu steps up to heaven", "Shamash young and old"...
Abzu, is the source of the fresh water that flows down Tigris and Euphrates, and the fresh water that fills the wells of Mesopotamia, but is not an underground sea of fresh water...
I mean Ibex goat of the underground sea of fresh water makes no sense...Which is why it is in the article entitled: "Problems of the abzu" 🙂
Hydrological report from Mesopotamia: "Tigris and Euphrates have two flood periods: an irregular, rain-fed rise of minor proportions lasting from November to the end of March (this is basically a slight increase in water levels) and the main snowmelt flood of April and May"...
These are the water flow charts for Tigris and Euphrates
In several of my articles I talked about the fact that the annual flood is mostly result of the snowmelt in the mountain(s), highland(s) north and north-east of Sumer, the source of Tigris and Euphrates (and their tributaries), Anatolian highlands and Zagros Mountains...
Look at the relief map of Mesopotamia and check out the sources of Tigris and Euphrates...
It was in this article, "Shamash young and old", where I fist proposed that Abzu, the source of fresh water, the source of Tigris and Euphrates, are these mountains, and more precisely, the snow that falls during the winter on these mountains and which melts during the spring and summer...
I mean, in the "Debate between Winter and Summer" we read: "By hand Winter guided the spring floods...down from the edge of the hills. He set his foot upon the Tigris and Euphrates like a big bull and released them into the fields"...
As I was writing that, I could hear pretty much every Sumerologist screaming: Abzu means "the underground waters of the Aquifer"!!!
I think that this commonly accepted meaning of the term Abzu is actually a result of a mistranslation...And not understanding the river system in Mesopotamia...
We have Sumerian ab=water and zu=knowledge, deep, far...Abzu can then mean both deep water and far away water...
Considering that the source of Tigris and Euphrates is far away from Mesopotamia, in the Anatolian highlands and Zagros Mountains, the proper translation of the term Abzu is far away water...
This is actually spelled out for us in the ancient Mesopotamian texts:
"Abzu, place that is a big mountain, princely crown of the heaven and earth. To the lord Nudimmud (Enki), (give) praise!"...
You can find the sources in the paper Ancient Near Eastern Gods Enki and Ea: Diachronical Analysis of Texts and Images from the Earliest Sources to the Neo-Sumerian Period...
The epic "Enki and the world order" tells us that Enki is the king of the Abzu...
Babylonian epic "Enûma Elish" tells us that Enki lives in Abzu...
Enûma Elish tells us that in the beginning, before anything else was created, Abzu (the source of fresh water, the Father) and Tiamat (salt water ocean, the Mother) were there mixing their waters...
It is from their intercourse that the younger gods were created...The younger gods then got so noisy and annoying, and pissed Tiamat off so much, and she complained to Abzu so much, that Abzu decided to destroy them...
But, Enki put Abzu to sleep, and then murdered him. Enki then set up his home "in the depths of the Abzu", and took on all of the functions of the Abzu. We could say that Enki became Abzu...Or that Enki is just Anthropomorphised Abzu...I will talk about this more soon...
So, here is Enki, (in) Abzu, being the source of Tigris and Euphrates...For those who say this not Enki, this Ashur, check this article about "The Great Imposter"...
Anyway, Enki became the god of fresh, fertile water. Actually, fresh water was seen as Enki's semen, as it is the fresh water that makes land fertile...
In "Enki and the world order", Enki stands at the empty riverbeds and fills them with his semen (fresh water)...
While he was filling the rivers with fresh water, Enki was "full of lust like a rampant bull"...Just like winter in the "Debate between Winter and Summer"...
Why are both Winter and Enki compared to bulls at the moment when they "fill the rivers"? Cause the annual flood of Tigris and Euphrates reaches its peak in Apr/May, which is when the Eurasian wild cattle start calving...
I talked about the link between bull and flood in my articles, like "When Utu steps up into heaven", "Butt chewing", "Green Pastures", "Shamash young and old"...
This is the reason why in a royal hymn dedicated to Enki from the times of Šulgi we read: "Great lord...Enki...Important one of the great gods, Nudimmud, great bull of the Abzu".
But why is Enki called the Ibex of Abzu? Because the first rains arrive to Mesopotamia when Ibex mountain goats start to mate, Oct/Nov...
This is such an important event in these arid lands that Ibex was basically deified. I talked about this in my article "Relief from Dur Sharrukin", "Goat carrier", "Iranian goat of rain"...and many others...
Oh, this is also the reason why Enki's sacred animal was Goat-Fish 🙂
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If you what to know why fish, check my article "Goatfish"...
The beginning of the Ibex mating season signals the beginning of the cool, wet season, Winter. And it is the rain and snow which fall during Winter (Nov-May) that are the source of all the fresh water that flows down Tigris and Euphrates...And of Enki's flood...
Sooo...Enki, who is the source of water that flows down Tigris and Euphrates, lives in (or is) Abzu, which is the source of water that flows down Tigris and Euphrates...
The true source of water that flows down Tigris and Euphrates are of course the mountains from which these rivers and their tributaries emerge...Mountains which are the home to Mountain Goat. Ibex...
Ibex, the Goat of Rain (and Snow) that fall down during winter...Rain and snow, which are the source of water that flows down Tigris and Euphrates. "Dara-abzu", Mountain goat of Abzu...Enki...
See, all this makes a lot of sense...Not so much if we are looking for Abzu underground...
I ended the article about the Enki in the boat seal with this: the Rain (and snow) which fall between Oct/Nov (when Ibex mate) and Apr/May (when Aurochs calve) are the source of the flowing water in Tigris and Euphrates (zigzag line) and Enki's flood (boat)...
In my article "Enki's little boat" explained why Enki's boat is the symbol of the flood...
Interestingly, in the article "Problems of the abzu", we find that "Dara-abzu" was also the name of Enki's processional boat, which "possibly even had a goat head at prow"...
As I explained, Enki's boat is symbol for the flood...Flood which starts with the Goat of Abzu and Peaks with the Bull of Abzu...
The Goat of Abzu leading The Bull of Abzu...Just like on the above Enki in the boat seal...
So that's it...What you think?
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