The Seven Apkallu

[Meslamtaea]

So forgive me in advance for beginning a thread without links or exact references to what I'm about to be discussing at the moment. I wanted to start a thread to talk about the Ea's seven apkallu.

The first time I encountered them was in the Erra Epic. Marduk makes a passing reference to "those seven sacred fish, sages of the deep, who like their lord Ea are perfect in sublime wisdom." Apparently they played a role in purifying Marduk's image at Esagila after the deluge mentioned in the poem.

I was puzzled when I read this. There didn't seem to be any other reference to them in my mythology books, but luckily and most serendipitously I discovered that Bottero enters into a discussion about them in his Writing, Reasoning, and the Gods in Mesopotamia.

They're actually referenced directly by Berossos as seven sea-monsters who rose out of the deep and who taught the animalistic Mesopotamians the ways of civilization before returning to the ocean. He claims that this myth is of great antiquity in Mesopotamia, and their presence in Erra attests to its age in at least the first millennium, but since we have so many with passions for Sumerian antiquity and an assortment of Enki groupies, I was wondering if anyone here might have any more archaic examples.

Personally I can't stop imagining them as magical, talking coelocanth.

[muska]

In line 163 of Erra epic they indeed called "the sacred puradu-fishes".
Image on seal usually identified with apkallu
www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/collection_database/ancient_near_eastern_art/octagonal_pyramidal_seal/objectview.aspx?page=1&sort=6&sortdir=asc&keyword=41.160.234&fp=1&dd1=3&dd2=0&vw=1&collID=3&OID=30002481&vT=1&hi=0&ov=0

[asakku]

In my opinion the apkallu is a interresting topic.
Are they really a "council" ? Or just lesser followers of Ea? Is there any reference, that those apkallu was more than just " fish-humans" who brought mankind civilization?

And whats more interresting: How Apkallu stick to the God "Dagon" in Syria? It said, that he is half fish, half human.



Maybe Dagon is one of the Apkallu ? Any ideas?

[sheshki]

i just checked Civilizations of the Ancient Near East for apkallu. There is a table with apotropaic figures and there it tells us that the apkallu were first iconographically attested (in the form in your picture) during Kassite times, latest Selekuid times. That means this form of representation is kinda late. The Kassites ruled over Babylon from 1531 BC to ca. 1155 BC (short chronology).

from:
A Dictionary of ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN MYTHOLOGY

by Gwendolyn Leick


Seven Sages

In Mesopotamian mythology the process of civilization had to be
gradually implemented by various deities (see Lahar and Ašnan, Ninazu
and Ninmadu, Inanna and Utu etc.). In another tradition, the task of
teaching mankind the achievements of culture was ascribed to Seven
Sages (Akk. apkallu). References to these Sages are found in several
myths. In the Erra-Epic, Marduk 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?’ A bilingual ritual from Nineveh (Reiner) begins
with a mythological introduction, referring to the Seven Sages. They are
called ‘the seven apkallu grown in the river, who ensure the correct
functioning of the plan of heaven and earth, Nunpiriggaldim, the apkallu
of Enmerkar, who brought down Ištar from heaven to É-anna,
Piriggalnungal, from Kish, who angered Adad…so that he let no
vegetation be in the country for three years, Piriggalabzu, from Eridu,
who angered Ea […], LU-name is only 2/3 apkallu, he drove the
ušumgallu-dragon from É-ninkarnunna, the temple of Ištar of Shulgi…’
(the names of the other three Sages are lost). The gist of the story is that
all these Sages angered the gods and were therefore banned to the Apsu.
Berossus also reports that before the flood, fish-like monsters were sent
by Ea to teach mankind. The names of the Sages vary in the different
texts; some also include Adapa (whom Berossus calls Oannes).

+++++++++++++++++++++
Post number 600 invisible drinks for everyone

[asakku]

Thats really kinda late (for mesopotamia); i didn't expect that. I was thinking the apkallu had some origin in early sumerian times.. Well..interresting.

[lilitudemon]

There is a table with apotropaic figures and there it tells us that the apkallu were first iconographically attested (in the form in your picture) during Kassite times, latest Selekuid times.

This leads me to a question... Is this the origin or is there an earlier origin of the idea that fish ward evil? Specifically, fish eyes were wards of evil and especially of the evil eye. If this is apotropaic magic too then they are surely related?

[ninurta2008]

The whole dagon-fish deal may have arisen from the association of Dagon with the root dag- or little fish in hebrew

www.newadvent.org/cathen/04602c.htm

Don't know whether or not Dagan actually means the same thing as in the hebrew, its just a guess.

[sheshki]

from



"Mesopotamia, The Invention of the City" by Gwendolyn Leick
p. 25

The seven Sages were a manifestation of the ultimatley unpredictable forces of the Apsu. They often appear in magic texts and incantations as the abgal (Akkadian apkâllu), 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 also personified as traditionally seven "culture heroes", sent by Ea to teach mankind the arts of civilization. In late Babylonian compositions known as the Erra epic, they are called "the seven sages of the Absu, the pure parādu fish, who, just as their lord Ea, have been endowed with sublime wisdom". They were the councillors for the antedeluvian kings, also seven in number, and responsible for the invention and the building of the cities. The city is therefor the product of divine intelligence.

For some reason the Apkallu also stands for hubris. A bilingual text from Niniveh 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 cosmonogies referred to earlier, the creative potential and the wisdom of the Apsu and its creatures are seen as dangerous and subversive. The tradition of their benevolent influence was one of the very last fragments of Mesopotamian lore to be transmitted to a new world. A Babylonian priest of Marduk, who lived during the reign of the Selecuid king Antiochus I (third century BCE), was the author of a volume called Babyloniaca. He wrote in Greek, under the name Berossus. Only a few passages survive in the later Greek writings from his ambitious work, which was to summarize the history and literatur of his ancient culture. 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.

[lilitudemon]

Does anybody know of rebuttals to Anonymous - The Book Of Dagon Cursed Writings Of Assyrian Priests? Or can they give me one? My friend wants something refuting this if possible, but I cannot seem to get the darn document to work on my computer to even look at it.

[sheshki]

here are some more info´s about the "Abgal/Apkallu/the Seven Sages"

enenuru.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=explore&thread=90&page=1