Apkallu – Seven Antediluvian Sages Created By God Enki – Were They The Watchers?

Ellen Lloyd - AncientPages.com - In ancient Mesopotamian myth and legends there are stories about very curious looking beings known as the Apkallu. These fish-man hybrids, occasionally depicted with bird heads are a symbol of ancient wisdom. The seven Apkallu were Antediluvian demi-gods and sages created by God Enki.

Left: A bird-headed Apkallu on a relief at the palace of Ashurnasirpal II, collection of the National Museum in Warsaw. Credit: Public Domain - Right: Artistic depiction of a watcher. Artist unknown

They emerged from the water Abzu, the Ocean of Wisdom known as the primeval sea below the void space of the underworld (Kur) and the earth (Ma) above. Enki who was a brilliant scientist, geneticist, and engineer was a Sumerian water god of Eridu, located in the southern wetlands of what is today Iraq.

Known under other names, such as the Akkadian-Babylonian, Ea, God Enki was considered the creator of mankind.

In the Erra Epic, Marduk specifically asks for the Seven Sages by saying" asks "Where are the Seven Sages of the Apsu, the pure puradu fish, who just as their lord Ea, have been endowed with sublime wisdom?"

The Apkallu are often referred to as Seven Sages and their duty was to assist God Enki and introduce art and learning to humans. The Sumerian King List, found in the temple library of Nippur, ancient city of Mesopotamia offers information on how the first gods gave human beings the gifts necessary for cultivating society.

Enki depicted on Adda Seal (c. 2300 BC), Image credit: British Museum

According to the Sumerian King List there were five important cities that pre-date the Flood. “These early cities were ruled by eight legendary kings, each of whom reigned for one and more centuries. The first seven of these Antediluvian rulers were served by semidivine counselors, called Apkallu, who introduced learning and arts to Sumer.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Apkallu are said to have laid the foundation for the  According to Babylonian legend, Adapa was one of the wise Apkallu from the Pre-flood city Eridu.” (Josepha Sherman- Storytelling: An Encyclopedia of Mythology and Folklore)

The seven Apkallu were known as:

Uanna, "who finished the plans for heaven and earth",

Uannedugga, "who was endowed with comprehensive intelligence",

Enmedugga, "who was allotted a good fate",

Enmegalamma, "who was born in a house",

Enmebulugga, "who grew up on pasture land",

An-Enlilda, "the conjurer of the city of Eridu",

Utuabzu, "who ascended to heaven".

Uanna is believed to have been Adapa. Amar Annus, at the University of Tartu, Estonia has put forward an intriguing theory suggesting that the seven Apkallu could have been the original Watchers.

As previously discussed on Ancient Pages, “little is known about the Watchers, the Fallen Angels who were the “sons of God”.  The subject of the Watchers is controversial, and scholars think the Watchers deliberately ‘created’ the hybrid giants to destroy God’s creation as punishment for being cast out of heaven.”

This gypsum wall relief depicts an eagle-headed and winged man; this is a protective spirit or Apkallu. Credit: Public Domain

“The Apkallus themselves were sometimes viewed negatively as malicious creatures within the Mesopotamian tradition itself. Among other associations, the Apkallus had strong ties to Mesopotamian demonology, and they were occasionally counted as demonic and evil beings, capable of witchcraft. This point of comparison shows that the wickedness of antediluvian teachers of humankind was not wholly an inversion of the Mesopotamian traditions by Jewish scholars, but was partly taken from already existing trends in Mesopotamian demonology,” Amar Annus explained.

However, it is also very likely that the Apkallu were deliberately discredited and assigned evil attributes by later authors. “As many kinds of Mesopotamian sciences and technologies were ideologically conceived as originating with antediluvian Apkallus, so both Enoch and the Watchers were depicted as antediluvian teaching powers. In so doing, the Jewish authors wanted to depict their national hero as superior to the champions of foreign wisdom.,” Annus points out.

One could easily dismiss the half-human, half-fish Apkallu as pure mythological beings, but the fact that they were known under different names in other parts of the world makes them very intriguing and highly significant to those who study mythology and ancient history. As mentioned earlier on Ancient Pages, the Seven Sages can be encountered in ancient Egypt, Babylon, Sumer, China, ancient Greece, and India.

Written by Ellen Lloyd – AncientPages.com

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