ABSTRACT

In Antiquity, by the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates, throughout more than three millennia, several intertwined innovations were developed that would forever change the course of history. When analysed together, these innovations manifest a rather dynamic, pragmatic, and imaginative mental framework, where intelligence, creativity and fantasy run side by side.

Deeply religious, the Mesopotamians also created a complex mythical discourse, where the transcendental nature of deities was accommodated through the hyperbolised and metaphorical projection of their own reality. Following a History of Religions perspective, with this chapter, we aim to examine a Mesopotamian notion of intelligence, by linking its historical agents with the envisioned nature of Enki/Ea, the god of wisdom and knowledge.