Serpentningishzida

Pictures of the Serpent or Snake who WALKED in the Garden of Eden

(A Later Hebrew Recasting of the Mesopotamian "Serpent-dragon gods":

An/Anu, Ningishzida/Gishzida, Dumuzi/Tammuz, Inanna/Ishtar, Enlil/Ellil and Enki/Ea)

Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld y de la Torre, M. A. Ed.

Part One

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18 December 2000

Revisions through 07 Jan. 2008

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Some scholars have expressed the opinion that Eden's serpent "might be" a later Hebrew recasting of some unknown god or demi-god in some long-lost Mesopotamian myth.

Almost 100 years ago (1910) Professor Skinner made just such an observation:

"It is more probable that behind the sober description of the serpent as a mere creature of Yahwe, there was an earlier form of the legend in which he figured as a god or a demon." (pp. 71-72. John Skinner. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis. Edinburgh, Scotland. T. & T. Clark. 1910. Revised edition 1930. Reprint 1994)

Some 50 years years later (1960) the late (1923-2006) Professor Brevard S. Childs of Yale Divinity School (as noted by Professor John Martin Evans of Sanford University) also expressed a similar notion, that Genesis' serpent was "possibly" a re-casting of some individual in an earlier Mesopotamian myth:

"In a recent study of this conflict between the story and the mythical relics it preserves B. S. Childs has remarked that 'behind the figure of the serpent shimmers another form still reflecting its former life.' A tension exists because this independent life of the original figure still struggles against the framework of a simple snake into which it has been recast." (p. 20. John Martin Evans. Paradise Lost and the Genesis Tradition. Oxford, England. Clarendon Press. 1968, citing from B. S. Childs. "Myth and Reality In the Old Testament." Studies in Biblical Theology. Vol. 27. 1960. pp. 45-48)

The above "insights" of these two Professors of Biblical Studies (Skinner and Childs) caused me to investigate the ancient Mesopotamian myths to see if I could "find" the Mesopotamian "prototype" to Eden's serpent. The surprise? I found _several_ Mesopotamian "prototypes" which apparently had been fused together, transformed and recast into Eden's Serpent. They are the Sumerian deities Enki (Akkadian Ea), An (Akkadian Anu), Dumuzi (biblical Tammuz) and Ningishzida (also rendered Gizzida).

Below, Nin-gish-zida (Gizzida) with "serpent-dragon" heads erupting from his shoulders (indicating he can alternately assume the form of a walking four-legged, winged and horned dragon), presents a human petitioner, King Gudaea of Lagash in ancient Sumer, to a seated god holding a vase of flowing waters, "the water of life" (seated on a throne of flowing waters). This god may be Enki, the Sumerian god of Wisdom and Knowledge (Akkadian: Ea), whose main temple was at Eridu (in other myths, Enki lives in the marshlands on the paradise island called Dilmun). He is the god who provides mankind with freshwaters emanating from under his throne in the "abzu" house. The Sumerians, in myths, explained the source of the Tigris and Euphrates as the abzu (Akkadian: apsu) the subterranean fresh-water sea.

Black and Green, identifying the seated god as being Enki:

"Gudea, prince of Lagash, is introduced to the god Enki by his personal deity Ningishzida, shown with horned serpents

(basmu) rising above his shoulders. Detail from Gudea's own cylinder seal, Neo-Sumerian Period."

(cf. p. 139, figure 115. showing the below seal, identifying the seated god as Enki. Jeremy Black & Anthony Green. Gods , Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia, An Illustrated Dictionary. Austin, Texas. University of Texas Press. Published in co-operation with the British Museum Press, London. 1992)

Alternately, the seated god might _not_ be Enki, but instead Gudea's god, Ningirsu, who in a dream tells Gudea that once his temple's foundation has been laid, he will provide an abundance of water for the crops Lagash is dependent upon. That is to say, this story suggests Ningirsu is the god providing water for Lagash rather than Enki.

Campbell:

"Gudea offered sacrifical beasts, burned aromatic woods, and flung himself before his god in prayer, to be given a sign.

"O my King and Lord, Ningirsu, tamer of the raging waters, begotten of Enlil...Like the heart of the sea, you burst forth, like the world tree you stand firm,,,Said the god: "The day that Gudea, my shepherd true, sets hand to the building of my temple, Eninnu, there will be heard in the sky a wind of rain. And there will fall upon you abundance. The realm will swell with abundance. When the ground-work of my temple has been laid, abundance shall appear. The great fields shall produce bounteously. Water shall rise in ditches and canals: from the cracks of the earth water shall gush. There shall be oil in Sumer in abundance, to be poured; wool in abundance, to be weighed...I will send a wind, so that it may bring to your land the breath of life." (pp. 118-119. "Gods and Heroes of the Levant." Joseph Campbell. The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology. New York. Viking Penguin Inc. 1964. Reprint 1991 by Arkana).

Enki is usually portrayed in glyptic art (cylinder seals) as having two streams of water erupting from his shoulders (the Tigris and Euphrates rivers?), in hymns he fills the beds of these rivers with sperm from his penis and these two streams are described as "falling from his sides". The seated god approached by Gudea and Ningishzida does _not_ have two streams of water erupting from his shoulders, so this might be Gudeas's god, Ningirsu.

Ningishzida besides appearing in human form as a god (the horned headress denoting he is a god), appears again on this cylinder seal in animal form as a winged and two-horned walking "serpent-dragon." It is my understanding that the serpent in the garden of Eden is -in part- drawing from this Sumerian motif. The illustration is from a cylinder seal of King Gudaea of Lagash in Sumer ca. 2100 B.C. Other gods being recast into Genesis' serpent are Ea (Enki), Anu (An), and Dumuzi (Tammuz) all of whom appear in the Adapa and the Southwind myth, a story of how man personified in Adapa lost out on a chance to achieve immortality by being tricked into believing by his god Ea (Enki) that the "bread of life" and "water of life" to be presented him by the god Anu in heaven was "bread of death" and "water of death". Being warned by his lying patron-god of Eridu, Ea (Enki) _not_ to consume this food, he refused it when it was proffered by Ningishzida and Dumuzi on Anu's behalf and thus he _and_ mankind lostout on a chance to become immortal.

Please click here for my article which explores in depth the various gods which were fused together and recast as Eden's Serpent. In Sumerian myths Enki of Eridu bears the Sumerian epithet ushumgal, meaning "great-serpent-dragon" and it is he who plants a great fruit tree in his garden at Eridu called the Mes-tree and another wonderous tree called the Kiskanu. He is described in Sumerian hymns "as the great dragon" (ushumgal) who STANDS in Eridu." His double-meaning words that confound and ensnare an unwary mankind (Adapa) are likened in hymns to the "poisonous venom of a great viper." He is portrayed as the creator of mankind and the god of wisdom, who bestows knowledge on mankind at Eridu (and at Nippur) and he allows man (in the form of Adapa) to obtain forbidden knowledge reserved for the gods but denies him and mankind immortality (cf. the Adapa and the Southwind myth). That is to say, Enki (Ea) is not only one of several prototypes that was later transformed into Eden's serpent, he is also one of several prototypes that was transformed into Eden's God, Yahweh-Elohim.

The below drawing from a cylinder seal of King Gudea of Lagash, ca. 2100 B.C. shows Ningishzida as a human with serpent-dragon heads erupting from shoulders and as a fourlegged beast with horns and wings (cf. p. 57 for the below illustration in Sir Charles Leonard Woolley. Vor 5000 Jahren. Ausgrabungen von Ur. Stuttgart, Deutschland. Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung. 1928. [A German translation of his English edition of 1928 titled The Sumerians. The drawing appearing on p. 89, figure 21A. Oxford, England. The Clarendon Press. 1929 reprint]).

We have a "problem" regarding the translation into English of the Sumerian word Nin-gish-zida. Nin usually means "lady" while En means "lord." So Nin-gish-zida can alternately be translated "Lady of the good tree" instead of the usual "Lord of the Good Tree" as rendered by the late Professor Jacobsen, an Assyriologist of Yale University (cf. p. 7. Thorkild Jacobsen. The Treasures of Darkness, A History of Mesopotamian Religion. New Haven & London. Yale University Press. 1976). Is it possible that Adapa (a pre-biblical prototype of Adam) was offered the "bread of life" conferring immortality by the "LADY of the good tree" (Nin-gish-zida) and via this confusion, the "lady" was morphed into Eve offering a forbidden tree fruit to Adapa/Adam?

The late Joseph Campbell on the Sumerian serpent-deity being recast into a new and CONTRARY role by the Hebrews as the Garden of Eden's serpent (Emphasis mine in bold print and capitals):

"In Primitive Mythology I have employed the term "mythogenetic zone" to designate any geographical area in which such a language of mythic symbols and related rites came be shown to have sprung into being. However, when the forms of the rites and symbols are then diffused to other zones, or passed on to later generations no longer participating in the earlier experience, they lose depth, lose sense, lose heart..they are consciously reinterpreted and applied to new and even CONTRARY themes -as occurred in the case, for example, of the serpent symbol in the Near East, when it passed from Sumero-Babylonian mythology to the Bible." (p. 90. "The Word Behind the Word." Joseph Campbell. The Masks of God: Creative Mythology. New York. Viking Penguin, Inc. 1968. Reprinted 1976)

Campbell (1959) suggested that Eden's serpent was a later recasting of an earlier mythic protagonist, the Sumerian god of Wisdom who dwelt on the earth at the city of Eridu called Enki (Akkadian/Babylonian: Ea). Below, Campbell is discussing the Mesopotamian myth about Inanna's (Akkadian: Ishtar) descent into the underworld and her warning her servant that if she fails to return after three days and nights to have the great gods effect her release and restoration back to life (emphasis mine):

"Ninshubur, known too as Papsukkal, "chief messenger of the gods," and Ilabrat, "the god of wings," was told by the goddess before her departure that is she did not return he should weep before Enlil (the air-god), weep before Nanna (the moon-god), and if these failed to respond, then weep before ENKI, the lord of Wisdom (THE SERPENT), who knows the food of life and water of life. He, she said, "will surely bring me to life." (p. 416. "Thresholds of the Neolithic." Joseph Campbell. The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology. New York. Viking Penguin Inc. 1959, reprinted 1971-1976; 1991 by Arkana)

Campbell in a follow-up volume (1964) also identified the Sumerian god Ningishzida as "another" prototype for Eden's serpent (emphasis mine):

"In Eve's scene at the tree...nothing is said to indicate that the serpent who appeared and spoke to her was a deity in his own right, who had been revered in the Levant for at least seven thousand years before the composition of the Book of Genesis. There is in the Louvre a carved green steatite vase, inscribed c. 2025 B.C. by King Gudea of Lagash, dedicated to a late Sumerian manifestation of this consort of the goddess, under his title NINGIZZIDA, "Lord of the Tree of Truth." (p. 9. "The Serpent's Bride." Joseph Campbell. The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology. New York. Viking Penguin Inc. 1964. Reprint 1991 by Arkana)

Campbell suggests Yahweh-Elohim, Eden's god may be a "serpent-spouse":

"Moreover, as in the early Bronze Age seals of Ningizzida and his serpent porter, we have clear and adequate evidence throughout the biblical text the the Lord Yahweh was himself an aspect of the serpent power, and so himself properly the serpent spouse of the serpent goddess of the cauduceus, Mother Earth." (p. 30. "The Serpent's Bride." Joseph Campbell. The Masks of God; Occidental Mythology. New York. Viking Penguin Books. 1964. Arkana reprint 1991)

Most amazingly Campbell _never_ identified _the Mesopotamian name_ of the "Serpent's Bride," he suggested two Sumerian gods lurked behind the serpent: Enki (Ea) of Eridu and Ningishzida (Gizzida) of Lagash. Enki's wife's name was Damgalnuna (Damkina) meaning in Sumerian "the rightful wife" her son was Marduk the god of Babylon, the animal associated with her was a lion. Ningishzida's wife was Geshtinanna, meaning "Lady of the Grape-vine," or "Heavenly Vine-stock," and she was a scribe of the underworld; she was assimilated to the Akkadian Belit-Seri (Sumerian: Nin-Edin "the Lady of Edin"). She dwelt in a sheep stall in the edin and was the sister of Dumuzi, who also had a sheep stall in the edin. She volunteers to be her brother's annual surrogate for six months of the year in the underworld, allowing his resurrection to the earth's surface as the life-force in edin's new-growth grasses and trees. So we have _two_ Sumerian goddesses who both bore the epithet nin edin, "lady of edin,": Inanna the wife of Dumuzi and Geshtinanna his sister. All three deities, Dumuzi, Inanna and Geshtinanna were associated with the edin, all "died" and dwelt for a time in the underworld, all were resurrected back to life and the earth's surface to dwell once again in the edin by having a surrogate spend time for them in the underworld.

Campbell suggests serpent associations with Yahweh in that he made Moses' wooden staff into a serpent, and caused Moses to create a bronze serpent to heal people bitten by snakes in the Exodus wanderings, and that this bronze serpent was worshipped in the Temple of Solomon until removed by King Hezekiah (cf. p. 30. The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology).

In his final volume in his Masks of God series (The four volumes were released 1959 through 1968), Campbell again stresses that Eden's serpent is a recast of a serpent deity known in earlier Ancient Near Eastern myths (cf. above his comments on the Sumerian deities Enki and Ningishzida):

"So let us return our gaze, now, to the great creative masters of the West, bearing in mind, as a basic principle of our study, that the symbols put to use by them have come from afar. Their sources are far deeper, broader, and more ancient...like the serpent of the Garden of Eden, who had been known to the peoples of the ancient Near East long before the advent of Yahweh." (p. 170. "The Word Behind Words." Joseph Campbell. The Masks of God: Creative Mythology. New York. Viking Penguin, Inc. 1968. Reprinted 1976)

If Campbell is correct, that Eden's serpent is a recast of the Sumerian deities Enki and Ningishzida, then these two gods appear on the above seal. Enki is dispensing the "water of life" to Ningishzida, who will in turn pass it on to Gudaea, the king of Lagash, who will utilize this water to maintain the gods' garden at Lagash. Thus dear reader, you are not only holding beholding what Eden's serpent looked like in pre-biblical times, you are also beholding Yahweh-Elohim in his earlier pre-biblical form as Enki/Ea, the god who allowed man (Adapa) to obtain forbidden knowledge but denied him and mankind immortality. If, however the god dispensing water is Ningirsu, the motif of life-giving water and a serpent mediator, Ningishzida, is of note between a man, Gudea and a god, Ningirsu. Ningirsu is likened to a "world tree," and Yahweh's garden has water, trees, and a serpent.

Campbell noted that Abraham of Ur of the Chaldees was possibly a near-contemporary of Gudea who regarded Ningishzida as his patron-god, suggesting Abraham may have recast Eden's Serpent from this deity:

"For many years it was customary among certain Bible readers to assign a date of c. 1996 B.C. to Abraham, who was born, as the Book of Genesis declares, in "Ur of the Chaldeans,"...This date falls within the period of the brief restoration and flowering of Sumerian culture that took place during the reign of pious King Gudea of Lagash (c. 2000 B.C.), whose vision of Ningishzida was the inspiration of our figure 1." (pp. 115-116. "God and Heroes of the Levant." Joseph Campbell.The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology. New York. Viking Penguin Inc. 1964. Reprint 1991 by Arkana) Please click here for a picture of figure 1 (on page 10 of Campbell), apparently (?) after a similar drawing published by Langdon who identified Ningishzida as a prototype of Eden's serpent in 1931(cf. p. 285. figure 88. Stephen Herbert Langdon. The Mythology of All Races: Semitic. Volume 5. Boston. Archaeological Institute of America. Marshall Jones Company. 1931)

Professor Langdon (Assyriologist and Professor at Oxford University) on Eden being a recast of the Sumerian edin, meaning "plain" and the morphing of Ningishzida and Tammuz (Sumerian Dumuzi) into Eden's serpent in 1931 some 30 years _before_ Campbell's similar 1959 and 1964 association of Enki and Ningishzida being the Edenic serpent:

"...Yaw-Elohim planted a garden in eden toward the east. This is surely a survival of a Sumerian legend; for the word edin in Sumerian means "plain," and "Eden to the eastward," refers to some legendary part of Sumer, from the point of view of a writer in Canaan...It was the plan of Anu to keep man (amelutu) in ignorance of the secrets of Heaven and Earth, and when he found that Adapa had learned them from Ea, he had no alternative but to give him the bread and water of life. Yaw had the same intention for Adam, who became a gardener in Eden...Yaw caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam...into this garden of Paradise came the serpent, in Sumerian mythology symbol of the earth's fertility, and especially connected with Ningishzida and Tammuz...This condemnation of the serpent...rests surely upon the Babylonian theory of the jealousy of the gods of fertility, probably of Ningishzida and Tammuz, of whom the serpent was symbolic..." (pp. 183-185. "The Myth of Adapa and Adam." Stephen Herbert Langdon. The Mythology of All Races: Semitic. Volume 5. Boston. Archaeological Institute of America. Marshall Jones Company. 1931).

Did Campbell make his 1964 association of Eden's serpent with Ningishzida from Langdon's earlier 1931 identification? Campbell _does list_ Langdon's Semitic Mythology, 1931, in his reference notes under "Chapter One: The Serpent's Bride," footnote number 2, on page 527 of "Reference Notes." Joseph Campbell. The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology. (New York. Viking Penguin Inc. 1964. Reprint 1991 by Arkana)

Below, a picture of the Sumerian god Enki (Akkadian: Ea) seated on a throne with two streams of water erupting from his shoulders. A bound bird-man ("Zu-bird") is being led before him after its capture for judgement and execution of sentence. The seal is dated circa 2340-2180 B.C. (cf. p. 19. John Gray. Near Eastern Mythology. London. Hamlyn House Ltd. 1969).

The Galla (Ugalla) demons of the underworld in one scenario succeed in binding Dumuzi's hands and feet with sticks of wood. Dumuzi asks the sun-god (Sumerian Utu, Akkadian Shamash) to turn him into a serpent, the plea is granted and Dumuzi in the form of a snake slithers out of his bonds to escape the demons for a time.

Sandars:

"They [the demons] held on fast to holy Inanna and stricken with terror she gave Dumuzi into the power of the devils. They said, ' This boy, put fetters on his feet, truss him up, pinon his neck in stocks...they pinioned that boy by the arms..." (p. 156. "Inanna's Journey to Hell." N. K. Sandars. Poems of Heaven and Hell from Ancient Mesopotamia. Penguin Books. London. 1971)

"Utu, you are the brother of my wife, Inanna, I am your sister's husband...Change me, TRANSFORM MY BODY INTO A _SNAKE_ and TAKE MY HANDS AND FEET AWAY. Transform me so that my devils will not hold me and I shall escape. Utu received his tears, CHANGED HIS BODY and Dumuzi escaped." (p. 151. "Inanna's Journey to Hell." N. K. Sandars. Poems of Heaven and Hell from Ancient Mesopotamia. Penguin Books. London. 1971)

Black renders the above verse somewhat differently mentioning snake hands and snake feet:

"Utu accepted his tears. Utu turned Dumuzid's hands into SNAKE'S HANDS. He turned his feet into SNAKE'S FEET. Dumuzid escaped his demons." (p. 75. "Inana and Dumuzid." Jeremy Black, Graham Cunningham, Eleanor Robson & Gabor Zolyomi. The Literature of Ancient Sumer. Oxford University Press. 2004 hardback edition, 2006 paperback edition with corrections)

That is to say, Dumuzi in this myth is portrayed as able to take on the form of a snake or serpent. So Dumuzi is not only associated with the steppe rendered in Sumerian as the edin (alternately, arali) and able to assume a _serpent_ as well as human form, he also bears the Sumerian epithet ama-ushumgal-an-na, "the mother is a great serpent-dragon of heaven." Dumuzi who could assume the form of a serpent and who bore a serpent epithet, who "LOST HIS LEGS" like Eden's serpent, offered man (Adapa) once upon a time a chance to obtain immortality for himself and mankind with the FORBIDDEN "bread and water of life" on Anu's behalf.

Foster noted Dumuzi was A SON OF EA who bore the epithet Nudimmud meaning "creator" and Dumuzi's wife Inanna/Ishtar in one hymn is likened to being a terrifying DRAGON. So Dumuzi has connections with Eridu's principal god Ea/Enki and his wife is likened to a terrifying serpent/dragon to her enemies:

"Tammuz/Dumuzi is celebrated in various Sumerian religious poems as the shepherd boy who wooed and married the youthful Inanna/Ishtar and subsequently met a violent death. He was also known as a netherworld deity, and is here referred to as A SON OF EA (Nudimmud, line 2 is an epithet of Ea's meaning "creator of mankind").

"O lord DUMUZI, awe-inspiring shephed of Anu,

Lover of Ishtar the queen, ELDEST SON OF NUDIMMUD...

Drive away from the 'evil gazer', the worker of evil..."

(p. 222. "To Dumuzi." Benjamin R. Foster. From Distant Days, Myths, Tales, and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia. Baltimore, Maryland. CDL Press. 1995. ISBN 1-883053-09-9. paperback)

Professor Batto (1992) on the Gilgamesh serpent being recast as the edenic serpent:

"It is likely that the Yahwist derived the character of the serpent in part from Gilgamesh, as J's serpent bears some semblance to the serpent that had a part in depriving the semidivine Gilgamesh of the plant of life. In any case, the serpent of Genesis 3 is more a mythic character than an ordinary animal, as is evident from its ability to talk and to walk upright...Indeed, given the later presence of cherubim to guard the divine tree of life (3:24), one wonders whether the serpent here is not to be connected with the awesome seraphim who stand in the presence of Yahweh (Isa 6:1-7), which in turn are to be identified with the divine winged uraeus or cobra well known in Egyptian art as the protector of the deity, and thus a semidivine figure in its own right. The serpent's principal distinction, however, was its possession of wisdom." (p. 60. "The Yahwist's Primeval Myth." Bernard F. Batto. Slaying the Dragon, Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition. Louisville, Kentucky. Westminster/John Knox Press. 1992)

Professor Clifford (1994) on the edenic serpent being a recast of the Gilgamesh serpent (note: Clifford cites Batto's above work in his bibliography, did he get the notion Eden's serpent is a recast of the Gilgamesh serpent from Batto?):

"The J-storyteller takes the Gilgamesh motif of the snake's theft of the plant of life from the hero (a postflood occurrence in Gilgamesh XI) and places it before the flood (Genesis 3). As in Gilgamesh, Adam is naked when the loss takes place, the snake deceitfully steals the fruit supposed to transform life, and a tree or plant of life is involved. Such kaleidoscopic reuse of traditional details may seem strange to modern readers, but ancient authors evidently like to put familiar objects in new contexts." (p. 148. "Genesis 1-11." Richard J. Clifford. Creation Accounts in the Ancient Near East and in the Bible. Washington, D.C. The Catholic Biblical Association of America. The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series # 26. 1994)

Professors Graves and Patai understood that the motif of Eden's Serpent attempting to foil God's warning to Adam and Eve is drawing from the Adapa and the Southwind myth:

"Another source of the Genesis Fall of Man is the Akkadian myth of Adapa, found on a tablet at Tell Amarna, Pharaoh Akhenaten's capital...Ea summoned Adapa...and warned him that, having displeased Anu...the gods would offer him the food and drink of death, which he must refuse. Anu, however, learning of this indiscreet disclosure, foiled Ea by offering Adapa the bread of life and the water of life and, when he refused them at his father's orders, grimly sending him back to the earth as a perverse mortal. This myth supplies the theme of the Serpent's warning to Eve: that God had deceived her about the properties of the forbidden fruit." (p. 79. "The Fall of Man." Robert Graves & Raphael Patai. Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis. New York. Greenwich House, distributed by Crown Publishers, Inc. 1963, 1964, reprinted 1983)

I disagree with the above analysis. I understand Ea did not want Adapa to have immortality, he knew it would be offered by Anu, thus he tricked Adapa into believing he would die if he ate the bread of death and drank the water of death. I understand that Anu plays the part of Yahweh-Elohim in that he is upset to learn that man has obtained forbidden knowledge (curses taught him illegally by Ea to overpower the wind god). But Anu's reaction is not to deny man immortality because he has obtained forbidden knowledge, but rather to offer man immortality making him a full-fledged god. The Hebrews have "reversed" the story line, because man has obtained forbidden knowledge immortality has been denied him by his God.

Graves and Patai on Yahweh-Elohim as a Serpent-God:

"The Brazen Serpent made, according to Hebrew tradition, by Moses at God's command (Numbers 21:8-9) and revered in the temple Sanctuary until the reforming King Hezekiah destroyed it (2 Kings 18:4), suggests that Yahweh had at one time been identified with a Serpent-god..." (p. 32. "The Creation According to Other Biblical Texts." Robert Graves & Raphael Patai. Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis. New York. Greenwich House, distributed by Crown Publishers, Inc. 1963, 1964, reprinted 1983)

Graves and Patai on Ea being portrayed in art as a Serpent-god:

"The Babylonian Ea, as god of the Euphrates, was shown in serpent shape, or riding a serpent." (p. 87. "The Births of Cain and Abel." Robert Graves & Raphael Patai. Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis. New York. Greenwich House, distributed by Crown Publishers, Inc. 1963, 1964, reprinted 1983)

Unfortunately Graves and Patai do not give a bibliographic source for their assertion that Ea was portrayed as a Serpent in Babylonian art. I am unaware of any such representation. I am aware, however that the Akkadian god Ea in his earlier manifestation as the Sumerian god Enki bore the epithet ushumgal meaning "great serpent-dragon" and that his "double-meaning" words which entrapped sinners and the naive were likened in hymns to the "venom of a serpent."

Smith (1876) noted that some scholars had suggested that a serpent "might" be a symbol of the god Ea/Enki (Smith's Hea), but no inscription (as of 1876) bore testimony to this proposal (note: Smith was unaware of the existence of the Adapa and South-wind myth):

"A companion deity with Anu is Hea, who is the god of the sea...he is lord of the sea or abyss; he is the lord of generation and of all human beings, he bears the titles lord of wisdom...It has been supposed that THE SERPENT WAS ONE OF HIS EMBLEMS, and that he was the Oannes of Berosus; these things do not, however, appear in the inscriptions." (p. 57. George Smith. The Chaldean Account of Genesis. London. 1876. Reprinted 1977, 1994 by Wizards Bookshelf, San Diego, California)

Professor Sayce (1887) apparently thought Enki/Ea was also represented by a serpent (Perhaps Sayce is the "source" for Graves and Patai's statement Ea was a serpent?):

"Ea...was symbolised, it would seem by a serpent...the primaeval seat of the worship of Ea was the city of Eridu, now represented by the mounds of Abu Shahrein on the east bank of the Euphrates, and not far to the south of Mugheir or Ur."

(p. 134. Archibald H. Sayce. The Hibbert Lectures 1887: Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Religion of the Ancient Babylonians. London. Williams and Norgate. fourth edition, 1897. Reprinted by Kessinger Publishing. Whitefish, Montana)

Professor Sayce noted that Ea was associated with the apsu a source of freshwater in springs and rivers and that one river was called the snake river. He also noted Eridu lay near a snake marsh. So he extrapolated serpents as being associated with Ea (Enki). Of interest is that excavations at Eridu revealed clay coils modeled into serpents in Ea's temple, under its altar, suggesting serpents were worshipped in some way at this site. Hymns mention Enki/Ea delighting in punting his boat through the "snake-marsh" that lies near Eridu, and to this day snakes abound in the marshlands of Lower Mesopotamia, gliding over the waters' surface. Could these clay serpents in Ea's temple "be" Enki, to the degree that Sumerian hymns speak of him as a great serpent-dragon or ushumgal in the midst of Eridu's fruit-tree garden? If so, then Enki may have been portrayed in the form of a serpent. Note: the Sumerian word ushumgal means ushum ="serpent", gal ="great," however, scholars usually translate ushumgal not as "great-serpent" but as "dragon," hence the reason _I prefer to render_ ushumgal as "great serpent-dragon." The Greek word dragon (used by scholars to render into English the Sumerian ushumgal) means literally "great serpent."

Sayce on Ea and serpents:

"There was yet another animal with which the name of Ea had been associated. This was the serpent. The Euphrates in its southern course bore names in the early inscriptions which distinctly connect the serpent with Ea...It was not only called "the river of the great deep"...it was further named..."the river of the snake"...it is not difficult to disentangle the primitive relation that existed between the totems of the antelope, the fish and the serpent, at Eridu. Ea was the antelope as god of the river; as god of the deep he was Oannes the fish. His daughter was denoted by a compound ideograph which represented her birth from the residence of the fish-god, though she was herself one of the poisonous reptiles that swarmed in the marshes at the mouth of the Euphrates. It was in this way that the serpent connected with the god of wisdom, "more subtil than any beast of the field" which had been created in the land of Edina...Ea, the lord of wisdom...the god of the house of Eden."

(pp. 281-282, 289. Archibald H. Sayce. The Hibbert Lectures 1887: Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Religion of the Ancient Babylonians. London. Williams and Norgate. fourth edition, 1897. Reprinted by Kessinger Publishing. Whitefish, Montana)

Sayce thought the Garden of Eden was at or near Eridu:

"The fact that Tammuz was the son of Ea...the god of Eridu...But the primitive home of Tammuz had been in that "garden" of Edin, or Eden, which Babylonian tradition placed in the immediate vicinity of Eridu...Perhaps it was originally as the god of the river that Ea had been adored under the form of the wild beast of the Eden or desert."

(pp. 236-238, 281. Archibald H. Sayce. The Hibbert Lectures 1887: Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Religion of the Ancient Babylonians. London. Williams and Norgate. fourth edition, 1897. Reprinted by Kessinger Publishing. Whitefish, Montana)

Leick (2001) noted that Eridu, modern Tell Abu Shahrein, is about 24 kilometers south of Ur (where Abraham once lived according to some traditions), and that archaeologists understand it was settled circa 4900 B.C. (cf. pp. 4 & 6). Note: 10 kilometers equals about 6 miles and on a good clear day a man standing atop the Ur ziggurat can see Eridu's ziggurat.

Several snake-like clay coils were found buried beneath the altar of Ea/Enki's temple at Eridu:

"Buried beneath the pavement of the nave, directly below the 'altar', were a number of curious snake-like coils some 30 to 40 centimeters long. These may have had something to do with an underworld cult." (p. 7. "Digging up Eridu." Gwendoyn Leick. Mesopotamia, The Invention of the City. London. Penguin Books. 2001, 2002)

Naked male and female figurines were found at Eridu:

"Few objects of value were recovered: Some clay figurines of naked male and female humans, small animal figures, a model snake decorated to look like one of the serpents still common around Abu Shahrein and the buried clay snake coils mentioned above." (p. 8. "Eridu." Gwendolyn Leick. Mesopotamia, The Invention of the City. London. Penguin Books. 2001, 2002)

Leick (2001) on Eridu being the Mesopotamian equivalent of Genesis' "Garden of Eden" (Sayce in 1887 having made the same association):

"Eridu is the Mesopotamian Eden, the place of creation...the Mesopotamian Eden is not a garden but a city...mankind is created to render service to god..." (pp. 1-2. "Eridu." Gwendolyn Leick. Mesopotamia, The Invention of the City. London. Penguin Books. 2001, 2002)

Tsumura citing Sjoberg notes that there is no mention in any Sumerian or Akkadian text of a 'Tree of Life':

"However, according to Sjoberg, who recently reexamined Sumerian connections with regard to the "tree of life," there is "no evidence" for such a tree in Mesopotamian myth and cult. He says, "The identification of different trees on Mesopotamian seals as a Tree of Life is a pure hypothesis, a product of pan-Babylonianism...There is no Sumerian or Akkadian expression 'Tree of Life'."

(p. 39. footnote 70. David Toshio Tsumura. "Genesis and Ancient Near Eastern Stories of Creation and Flood: An Introduction." pp. 27-57. in Richard S. Hess & David Toshio Tsumura. Editors. "I Studied Inscriptions from before the Flood" Ancient Near Eastern, Literary, and Linguistic Approaches to Genesis 1-11. Winona Lake, Indiana. Eisenbrauns. 1994, citing A. W. Sjoberg, "Eve and the Chameleon," pp. 219-221, In the Shelter of Elyon: Essays on Ancient Palestinian Life and Litereature in Honor of G. W. Ahlstrom. Sheffield: JSOT Press. 1984.

Eden's serpent and its setting in the Garden _in_ Eden is an amalgum or fusion of motifs from several different Mesopotamian myths and characters, but primarily the Adapa and the Southwind myth and

The Epic of Gilgamesh as has been noted by several scholars over the past 100 years.

All of the following mythical protagonists are fused into Eden's serpent: Anu, Ea (Enki), Ningishzida (Gizzida) and Dumuzi (Tammuz).

Eve's association with a serpent is perhaps via Inanna the "lady of edin" (Inanna-edin-na), who was called Ama-ushumgal-an-na "the mother is a great serpent-dragon of heaven." With her brother Utu the sun-god she descends to the earth to _acquire knowledge by eating of trees and other herbs_ to perform her wifely conjugal duties with her new bridegroom Dumuzi, the "lord of edin" (mulu-edin-na), hence her connection with eating of a tree's fruit as Eve of Eden. Eve's becoming a more "fit companion" for Adam instead of animals is a recast of Shamhat (a prostitute-priestess of Inanna at Uruk), who seduces Enkidu at edin's watering hole, Gilgamesh having told her that Enkidu's animal companions will shun him after he has intercourse with her, and thus he will give up his animal companions and dwell with womankind and man in the city of Uruk (reformatted in Genesis as mankind being expelled from the garden to live in a city founded by their son Cain).

One gets the notion from Genesis's narrator that by "eating a fruit" of a tree one can "obtain knowledge." This concept appears in Sumerian myths. The Sumerian myth about "the Queen of Heaven," Inanna, has her speaking to her brother, Utu the sun-god, to the effect that she has no knowledge about love and sex, she requests that he accompany her in a descent to the earth, to the mountains, where she will eat the various plants there. It is only after having eaten these assorted, un-named herbs including, apparently, Cedar trees, that Inanna now possesses knowledge about love and sex in order to perform her wifely functions (in hymns she is "the bride" of Dumuzi and the goddess of Love and of Sex).

Inanna speaking to Utu (Emphasis mine):

"I am unfamiliar with womanly matters...I am unfamiliar with womanly matters, with sexual intercourse...kissing...Whatever exists in the mountains, let us EAT that. Whatever exists in the hills, let us EAT that. In the mountains of herbs, in the mountains of CEDARS, the mountains of cypresses, whatever exists in the mountains, let us EAT that. After the herbs have been eaten, AFTER THE CEDARS HAVE BEEN EATEN, put your hand in my hand, and then escort me to my house...Escort me to my mother-in-law, to Ninsumun..." ("A shir-namshub to Utu" [Utu F], The Electronic Texts Corpus of Sumerian Literature, Oxford University, England; http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk/section4/tr432f.htm)

It appears to me that Inanna is _EATING _OF_TREES_, Cedars, to acquire knowledge. That is to say "eating of a tree" confers knowledge. Please note the repeating refrain: "...LET _US_EAT THAT..." This refrain recalls to mind Genesis' portrayal of Eve coaxing Adam into eating, with her, the forbidden tree-fruit. Perhaps Inanna's statement to her male companion, Utu, is behind Eve's coaxing Adam to eat of a tree in order to obtain knowledge, as Inanna does seek knowledge via the eating of a tree's fruit.

Leick, alluding to the above verses, _also understands_ that Genesis' motif of knowledge being obtained by eating a fruit is indebted to earlier Sumerian myths (emphasis mine):

"Inanna and Utu is a mythical incident in a Sumerian hymn (BM 23631), which explains how Inanna came to be the goddess of sexual love. The goddess asks her brother Utu to help her go down to the kur where various plants and trees are growing. She wants to EAT THEM IN ORDER TO KNOW the secrets of sexuality of which she is yet deprived: 'What concerns women, (namely) man, I do not know. What concerns women: love-making I do not know.' Utu seems to comply and Inanna tastes of the fruit (the same motif is also employed in Enki and Ninhursag and of course in Genesis I) which brings her knowledge." (p. 91. "Inanna and Utu." Gwendolyn Leick. A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology. London. Routledge. 1991 [Leick has a Doctorate in Assyriology from the University of Graz in Austria, and lectures at Richmond College and the University of Glamorgan, United Kingdom])

Leeming (Emertius Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Connecticut) on Inanna's eating of trees being recalling Eve's eating of a tree's fruit:

"One day Inanna asks her twin brother, the sun god Utu (Shamash), son of the moon god Nanna, to go with her to earth (kur), where she will eat various plants and trees that will cause her to understand the mysteries of sex. Like Eve in the Garden of Eden, Inanna tastes the fruit and gains knowledge." (pp. 46-47. "The Mythology of Mesopotamia." David Leeming. Jealous Gods and Chosen People, the Mythology of the Middle East, A new perspective on the ancient myths of modern-day Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Yemen, the Gulf States, and Saudi Arabia. New York. Oxford University Press. 2004. ISBN 10:0-19-514789-8)

We see now, that eating of a tree does impart knowledge in the Sumerian texts about Enki and Inanna.

Some readers may be wondering just what is it that Inanna is "eating" associated with a Cedar Tree? The answer: Pine Nuts or more correctly "Cedar Nuts"! In Middle Eastern cuisine, Pine Nuts/Cedar Nuts are at times sauteed in olive oil and served as a complement or garnish to a number of different dishes in Israel, Syria, and the Lebanon. Note: You will not find much on "Cedar Nuts" on the internet as a food item, but under their alternate name, "Pine Nuts," one will find numerous ways of their being prepared in Middle Eastern dishes.

Dalley has sounded a note of caution regarding the Akkadian/Babylonian word erenu which is usually translated by scholars as a 'cedar' (tree), she suggests that it is a 'pine' (tree) instead. If she is right then Inanna who bore at Nippur the Sumerian epithet nin edin "the lady of edin" ate pine nuts rather than cedar nuts to obtain knowledge:

"The usual translation of erenu as 'cedar' is almost certainly wrong. The main grounds for a translation 'pine' are: that roof-beams thus named in texts have been excavated and analysed invariably as pine, and that the wood was obtained in antiquity not only from the Lebanon mountains, but also from the Zagros and Amanus ranges, where cedars do not grow. The Akkadian word may have covered a different and wider range of trees than the English word 'pine'."

(pp. 126-127. Note 20 to the "Epic of Gilgamesh." Stephanie Dalley. Myths From Mesopotamia: Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh and Others. Oxford & New York. Oxford University Press. 1989, 1991)

Yahweh-Elohim is a recast of Anu who expelled Adapa after he failed to consume the "bread and water of life" (Anu, like Yahweh, was also upset to realize man had obtained "forbidden knowledge"); Ea/Enki of Eridu who told Adapa NOT to eat anything or he would die; Utu/Shamash who refused to curse the naked Shamhat on Enkidu's behalf. Yahweh is also Enlil of Nippur who sought mankind's destruction in a flood and Ea/Enki who warned Ziusudra of Shuruppak of the Flood and to save the seed of man and animals by building a great boat.

As can be seen from all the above, _I understand that_ the protagonists "behind" the Garden _in_ Eden's characters are many, and are from several different literary compositions, Sumerian and Akkadian of the 3rd-2nd millenniums BCE. The Hebrews' intent in recasting these myths and their concepts and motifs is to _challenge, deny and refute them_ regarding the relationship between man and his Creator.

The Hebrew "DENIALS, REFUTATIONS and CHALLENGES" of Mesopotamian concepts and motifs:

(1) A God (Ea/Enki) did not "trick" man (Adapa) out of chance to obtain immortality; man (Adam) DISOBEYED his God's command NOT TO EAT (but Adapa OBEYED Ea, he DID NOT EAT).

(2) A Serpent tricked man, causing him (Adam) to loose a chance at immortality versus Ea/Enki who is called ushumgal, great serpent-dragon, tricking Adapa, causing him to loose a chance at immortality. Whereas other serpent-associated dieties, Anu, Ningishzida and Dumuzi urged man _contra_ Ea's command to eat the "bread of life" and "drink the water of life."

(3) Man (Adapa) is offered immortality (by Anu) because he has obtained forbidden knowledge (from Ea), vs. because a man (Adam) has obtained forbidden knowledge immortality is denied him.

(4) The event occurs on earth, in a God's garden in Eden versus the warning being on the earth at Ea's abode in Eridu of Sumer and the proffered forbidden food being in heaven at Anu's abode.

(5) Eve eats of a tree's fruit to acquire knowledge versus Inanna of edin, wife of Dumuzi, eating of a cedar/pine tree's nuts to acquire knowledge of how to fulfil her conjugal duties to her new bridegroom, Dumuzi, "the lord of edin".

(6) The serpent is cursed and looses its legs (and ability to speak to man?) versus the gods possessing human forms and thus being capable of talking and walking with man (Adapa). Only Dumuzi looses his legs when he asks Utu to change him into a serpent to slither out of the bonds of the Ugalla demons, thereby escaping them briefly.

(7) Eden's God expells man from his garden versus the Mesopotamian notion that the gods had made man to toil in their city-gardens for all time, planting, hoeing weeds, harvesting the crops and preparing them for the table to feed the gods and allow them to be at ease for all eternity from toil upon the earth. The gods needed man, if he was expelled from their city-gardens then the gods would have to tend and till their city-gardens themselves, a task they dreaded, hence the reason they made man. ThusTHE GODS WOULD NEVER EXPELL MAN FROM THEIR EARTHLY CITY-GARDENS LOCATED IN AND SURROUNDED BY THE UNCULTIVATED LAND KNOWN IN SUMERIAN AS THE EDIN.

(8) God creates the garden in Eden for man's sustenance, telling Adam he may eat of its herbs and fruit trees versus the Gods creating their city-gardens BEFORE man's creation to provide sustenance for themselves NOT man. Later when they tire of maintaining their city-gardens, they create man to toil on their behalf in the gardens that lie in the midst of uncultivated land called in Sumerian the edin.

Ea "plays the role of the serpent" in that he gives man (Adapa) forbidden knowledge as noted by Professor John Skinner in 1910.

Anu "plays the part of the serpent" in that he urges man (Adapa) to eat food forbidden him by his god (Ea). According to Black and Green some myths have Tiamat being an ancestress of An/Anu (p. 177 "Tiamat." 1992) and she is portrayed in the Enuma Elish as taking on the form of a serpent-dragon who is slain by Marduk, the son of Enki/Ea. So, although An/Anu has no direct serpent-dragon association, he not bearing the epithet ushumgal, he is mythically "descended" from a serpent-dragon ancestress and some of his descendants like Enki and Enlil bear serpent-dragon epithets.

Ningishzida and Dumuzi, who are identified as alternate forms of each other, are Eden's serpent according to Professor Stephen Herbert Langdon in 1931 (They, like Anu, urge Adapa to eat food forbidden him by his god Ea, and thus "play the part" of the Edenic Serpent).

Enki (Ea) (1959) and Ningizzida (1964) are understood to be Eden's serpent according to Professor Joseph Campbell.

The Gilgamesh serpent has been recast as the Edenic serpent according to Professors Bernard F. Batto (1992) and Richard J. Clifford (1994) in that it consumes the food which would have renewed youthful vigor for Gilgamesh.

Below two gods who's bodies are half-human and serpent. Nirah is identified as a snake god of the city of Der, and associated with the e-kur temple at Nippur of the Akkadian god Ellil (Sumerian: Enlil), where he was regarded as "a protective deity of the temple and a protective presence." (cf. pp. 166-167 for commentary and drawings figure 137. "Snake gods." Jeremy Black & Anthony Green. Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia, An Illustrated Dictionary. Austin, Texas. University of Austin Press. Published in co-operation with the British Museum Press of London, England. 1992)

The Sumerian god Enlil (Akkadian: Ellil) is identified as the principal instigator of the universal Flood sent to destroy mankind. He also is associated with the creation of mankind at Nippur, to replace the Igigi gods who object to the hard toil in his city-garden, making and clearing its irrigation canals and ditches. In Genesis it is Yahweh-Elohim who makes man, places him in his garden in Eden, to till it and later attempts man's demise with a Flood. To the degree that Enlil "plays the part of Yahweh" in creating man, placing him in his garden and later seeks man's demise in a Flood, the presence of Nirah the serpent-god at Enlil's e-kur ("mountain-house") temple is perhaps being recalled in Genesis' serpent?

Enki's punting pole by which he propels his boat in the marshes about Eridu is called Nirah, so this snake-god was not only associated with Enlil but Enki too. Interestingly, Moses' staff becomes a serpent in his confrontation with Pharaoh's magicians, and Enki was famed for his magic. So Enki's punting pole, like Moses' staff is likened to having the power to transform itself into a serpent.

Black:

"...Enki...His punting pole is Nirah; his oars are the small reeds...The ship departs...he leaves the temple of Eridug..." (p. 332. lines 83-92. "Enki's journey to Nibru." Jeremy Black, Graham Cunningham, Eleanor Robson, and Gabor Zolyomi.

The Literature of Ancient Sumer. New York & Oxford. Oxford University Press. 2004, 2006)

That is to say the below images, if they are of of Nirah, are yet again another "prototype" of Eden's Serpent.