Adapa of the Southwind Myth as a Fish-man,
Healer of Wind-borne Disease, and
a Prototype of Genesis' Adam and Jesus 'the second Adam'
08 October 2006
Revisions through 03 September 2007
I understand that Adapa is one of several mythic prototypes of Genesis' Adam. My research suggests that Adapa appears in Mesopotamian artforms as a fish-man (mer-man). The men (below) appearing dressed in fish-robes or garments _I suspect_ are probably intended to represent Adapa in his role of apkallu or "Sage" who knows powerful spells, curses, incantations that can overpower wind-demons who spread disease. Thus the scenes of bed-ridden individuals attended by men in fish-garments are of priests emulating Adapa who was an Apkallu (The 'seven Apkallu' are also called paradu fish and are associated with Eridu). For more details on Adapa being a prototype of Adam please click here.
Leick understands that Berossus' fish-man, Oannes, who imparted "wisdom and knowledge" to mankind (rather like Adam imparts knowledge of good and evil to mankind), is Sumerian U-an, Adapa's Sumerian name:
"...Adapa, one of the Seven Sages...They often appear in magic texts and incantations as the abgal (Akkadian apkallu), fish-like creatures under the command of Enki/Ea. The masks worn by some priests represented on seals and a number of Assyrian reliefs are connected with the power of the Apkallu to ward off evil. They were personified as traditionally seven 'culture heroes', sent by Ea to teach mankind the arts of civilization. In the late Babylonian compositon known as the Erra epic. they are called 'the seven sages' of the Apsu, the pure paradu fish, who, just as their lord Ea, have been endowed with sublime wisdom. They were the councilors of the antediluvian kings, also seven in number, and responsible for the invention and the building of cities. The city is therefore the product of divine intelligence. For some reason the Apkallu also stand for hubris. A bilingual text from Nineveh records how each one managed to annoy an important god so that they were banished to the Apsu for ever. Just as in the other Eridu cosmologies referred to earlier, the creative potential and the wisdom of the Apsu and its creatures are seen as dangerous and subversive...A Babylonian priest of Marduk, who lived during the reign of the Seleucid king Antiochus I (third century BCE), was the author of a volume called Babyloniaca. He wrote it in Greek, under the name Berossus...One of the fragments concerns the fish-like monsters that Ea sent after the flood to teach mankind. One of them is called Oannes, the Greek form of Adapa's Sumerian name
U-an." (pp. 25-26. "Eridu Stories." Gwendolyn Leick. Mesopotamia, The Invention of the City. London. Penguin Books. 2001. paperback)
Professor George on Adapa being a fish-man (sent by Ea, Sumerian: Enki) of Eridu who rose from the sea to introduce civilization to mankind:
"The civilization of mankind, according to Babylonian mythology, was the work of the gods...especially of the god Ea, who dispatched the Seven Sages to Eridu, and other early cities, and with them all the arts and crafts of city life. These were the beings who, according to the epic's prologue, founded Uruk with its wall: 'Did the Seven Sages not lay its foundations?' Foremost among these Sages was the fish-man Oannes-Adapa, who rose from the sea."
(p. xli. "Introduction." Andrew George. The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian. London. Penguin Books. 1999, 2003)
Langdon (1931) noted that Adapa's failure to consume the bread and water of life offered him in Anu's heavenly abode in the Adapa and the Southwind myth resulted in makind being cursed with diseases and eventual death. The myths ends with a priest making an incantation over a sick person, invoking Adapa as responsible for the afflicted's disease but also able to heal him. Adapa's ability to curse the Southwind demon who overturned his fishingboat made him a "healer" or physician of sorts because the Southwind demon in _other myths_ had the power to bring disease and death to man. In seeking out Adapa's practioners dressed in fish garments, the Mesopotamians saw Adapa as not only responsible for man's disease and affliction (because he failed to eat the bread and water of life), but he also having the power to overpower with curses wind-demons who brought disease.
Below, a fish-man in a sea from a bas-relief in the palace of the Assyrian king Sargon II, ca. 721-705 BCE at Dur-Sharken, modern Khorsabad. (p. 131. fig. 107. "merman and mermaid." Jeremy Black and Anthony Green. Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia, An Illustrated Dictionary. London, British Museum, in association with the University of Texas Press. Austin. 1992. ISBn 0-292-70794-0. paperback)
Below, fish-men figurines, the so-called "seven sages"
(apkallu), sun-dried clay, from the foundations of a priest's house in Asshur ca. 721-705 BCE (p. 18. Jeremy Black and Anthony Green. Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia, An Illustrated Dictionary. London, British Museum, in association with the University of Texas Press. Austin. 1992. ISBN 0-292-70794-0. paperback).
Below, p. 131. fig. 108. "merman and mermaid." Jeremy Black and Anthony Green. Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia, An Illustrated Dictionary. London, British Museum, in association with the University of Texas Press. Austin. 1992. ISBN 0-292-70794-0. paperback). Note: The 'seven sages' are associated with Eridu, where in other myths, Enki or Ea planted a wonderous tree called variously a mes-tree or kiskanu-tree whose roots were in the abyss (apsu) and whose branches were in the heavens. Perhaps this tree is intended ? Could this be a date-palm which became Eden's 'tree of life' ? In the Epic of Gilgamesh at the bottom of the sea lies a plant that can restore one to his youth if consumed, could this plant be what is presented being adored by fish-men?
There is another "surprise" here. Adapa the apkallu or "Sage" as noted earlier, was a fisherman at Eridu as well as a priest who baked bread for Enki (Ea). I have identified Adapa as an Adamic prototype, as in Mesopotamian myths it is he who looses out on a chance to obtain immortality for himself and mankind by not eating the bread of life and drinking the water of life presented him by Anu, Ningishzida and Dumuzi, just as Adam failed to eat the fruit of the Tree of Life. The "surprise" is that the New Testament identifies Jesus Christ as an Adamaic type, as all mankind dies because of Adam's sin so all man can attain immortality via Christ's sacrifice (1 Co 15:22, 45). Christ is sometimes alluded to as "the fisherman," in later Christian traditions as he fishes for men's souls. His follower Peter, another fisherman, is told he will be a fisherman of men's souls too and the fish, Greek: ichthys, becomes a code word for Jesus Christ himself as well as a symbol of the early Christians during the Roman persecutions. The drawing of a fish was another "code" image for Christians and appears in the Catacombs of Rome. The ancient Mesopotamian myth of man's (Adapa the fisherman's) lost chance at immortality has come full-circle with the Christian myths of an "ichthys" Jesus Christ, who like Adapa, is a dispenser of knowledge, a healer, and involved with the motif of man's attainment of immortality as well.
How did Adapa come to be in later ages transformed into a fish-man? In the Adapa and the Southwind myth he is in his boat fishing when the Southwind overturns his boat, tossing him into the sea. He curses the southwind causing it stop blowing. In other myths the Southwind is a demonic figure that carries disease to mankind and it is a creature of Anu's. I thus propose that Adapa's "dip in the sea" made him into a fish-man (he is a fishER-man, who prepares fish daily for his god Ea's table in Eridu and he is famed for his wisdom given him by Ea). His return to Eridu from the "sea-dip" perhaps became in later ages, a fish-man arising from the sea to give knowledge to mankind on healing arts (curses and spells over disease-carrying demons like the Southwind).
There is another surprise. I understand that Genesis' Adam is not only incorporating Adapa motifs but also motifs associated with Enkidu in the Epic of Gilgamesh. For pictures of Adam as Enkidu please click here.
Below, a cylinder seal showing "fishmen" holding pine cones (?) and pollen-buckets (?), adoring a sacred tree. Above the tree is the sun-god with eagle wings and tail (perhaps Asshur?). This tree appears in other Neo-Assyrian art forms as a highly stylized Date-palm with a vine lattice and leaves, sometimes bearing fruits such as pomengranates (?). To this day, Arabs in Lower Mesopotamia drape grapevines about Date-palms in their gardens. Could the Neo-Assyrian highly stylized grapevine tendril motif associated with the Date-palm be what is represented in this artform? In the Epic of Gilgamesh, a plant of rejuvenation lies at the bottom of the sea, could this be the plant the Fishmen are adoring? Or are they adoring the Mes-tree or Kiskanu-tree at Eridu, where Adapa and the apkallu served? (For the below picture cf. p. 15. figure 7. "Fish Gods at the Tree pf Life; Assyria, c. 700 BC." Joseph Campbell. The Masks of God: Creative Mythology. New York. Viking Penguin. 1968. Reprinted 1976)
