Damkina- Mesopotamian GodDeity"Lady of the Earth"

The Birth in the Apsu

After Ea slew the primordial Apsu and built his dwelling upon the body of the conquered waters, he took Damkina as his wife. In the chamber of fates, deep within the subterranean freshwater realm, she conceived. The Enuma Elish records the moment: "In the heart of Apsu, Marduk was created. He who begot him was Ea, his father; she who conceived him was Damkina, his mother."

The child was extraordinary. "Alluring was his figure, sparkling the lift of his eyes. Lordly was his gait, commanding from of old." Four eyes, four ears, fire blazing from his lips when he spoke. Ea's grandfather Anu created the four winds as playthings for the infant, and their stirring of dust storms and waves would soon set in motion the war against Tiamat. The champion who would slay chaos and split her body into heaven and earth was born in the palace Damkina shared with Ea, in the sacred place built over the slain primordial's corpse.

The Sanctuary at Eridu

Damkina was worshipped alongside Ea at Eridu, the oldest of Sumerian cities, where the temple E-abzu sat above a natural freshwater spring. In the Sumerian tradition she was called Damgalnunna and sometimes identified with Ninki, Lady Earth. God lists from Assyrian temple archives pair her consistently with Ea, and offerings at Eridu were made to both. Where Ea governed the waters beneath the earth, Damkina was the earth itself, and the spring at Eridu rose where the two met.