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Eridu is a mound in the south of Iraq, near the old shoreline of the Gulf, and in Sumerian memory it was where everything started. The king list puts the first kingship there, the creation myths build it first, and Enki made it his home. On this site it also comes up as a candidate for Eden and as the name modern scholars give to the oldest flood story. I gathered those threads here.
Where kingship came down
The Sumerian King List opens in Eridu. Antediluvian rulers quotes the first line:
After the kingship descended from heaven, the kingship was in Eridug.
Sumerian King List
The same page lists Alulim as the first king of Eridu, ruling 28,800 years, followed by Alalngar with 36,000. Jim Marrs, on Sumer: The First Known Civilization, admits that at first glance the list seems preposterous. The Sumerian King List gives the Sumerian lines word by word, from “in Eridu was kingship” to “In Eridu, Alulim was king.”
Enki’s city
Enki, Lord of Earth explains that Enki was believed to have founded the city and built its most important temple, the E-Abzu, and Sumerian Cities calls Eridu one of the oldest Sumerian cities, a significant religious and cultural center. The world before the Great Flood notes that in the Sumerian myths Eridu is the first city, created by Enki.
The sages belong here too. On Apkallu, one of the seven is An-Enlilda, “the conjurer of the city of Eridu”, and The Holy Seven describes Uanna (Adapa), a sage gifted with wisdom by Ea (Enki), who was counselor to the first king of Eridu and brought the arts of civilization to humanity. Ninmah and Enki adds Adapa, the first man fashioned, who goes on to advise the King of Eridu.
The Babylonians kept the order. Mesopotamian Creation Myths summarizes “Marduk, Creator of the World,” where the first things created are the cities Eridu and Babylon and the temple Esagil.
A garden called Edin
Garden of Eden – Desert or Steppe sets out a theory that the Biblical Eden can be identified with Eridu. It links Eden with “Edin,” the Sumerian name for the plain of Babylonia, and describes Eridu as a kind of paradise or holy place. In the video Bloodlines of Noah, Lake Van & the Anunnaki, a sacred site of the Ararat Civilization is compared with Eridu as the most sacred city of ancient Sumer.
The Eridu Genesis
The Sumerian flood story carries the city’s name. What Is the Relationship Between Utnapishtim, Ziusudra, and Noah? explains that the Eridu Genesis is the surviving Sumerian flood story, named by modern scholars for its creation-to-flood structure, with Ziusudra as its hero. Atrahasis notes that this Sumerian Flood Story is older than the Akkadian Atrahasis. Excavations in southern Mesopotamia have uncovered flood deposits points out that the Eridu Genesis, like Gilgamesh, describes a single flood sent by the gods, with no second event.
Related pages
- Antediluvian rulers
- The Sumerian King List
- Enki, Lord of Earth
- Sumerian Cities
- Apkallu
- Garden of Eden – Desert or Steppe
- What Is the Relationship Between Utnapishtim, Ziusudra, and Noah?
- Mesopotamian Creation Myths
For every page I tagged with Eridu, see the Eridu tag archive.
