104 i Flora Unveiled
the Foothills”), also known as Nintu (“Lady of Birth”). Enki impregnates Ninhursag,
and she gives birth to Ninnisaga, the goddess of mountain vegetation. (According to
some versions, Ninhursag first gives birth to Ninmu, the goddess of plants.) No sooner
does Ninnisaga reach puberty than Enki impregnates her as well, and she gives birth to
Ninkurra, the goddess of tall, distant mountains. The libidinous Enki then mates with
his own granddaughter, who gives birth to his great- granddaughter, Uttu, the spider god-
dess of weaving.
Ninhursag finally loses patience with her husband, but because there seems to be nothing
she can do to stop him, she advises Uttu to resist Enki’s advances until he brings her gifts
of fruits and vegetables: cucumbers, apples, and grapes. Rather than walk by the riverbank
where Enki usually makes his conquests, Uttu remains safe inside her house. When Enki
comes to her door and finds it barred, he proposes marriage and asks what wedding gifts she
wants. Uttu requests the gifts of cucumbers, apples, and grapes. Enki then finds a gardener
and strikes a bargain with him. He will help the gardener by filling his irrigation ditches
with sweet water, and, in return, the gardener will give Enki cucumbers, apples, and grapes.
The gardener agrees, and Enki presents the fruits of the garden to Uttu. Uttu is delighted
and allows Enki into her house. Once inside, however, Enki plies Uttu with beer and she
becomes drunk. He rapes her:
and she conceived the semen
in the womb,
very semen of Enki!^44Ninhursag hears Uttu’s cries and comes to her aid. The text is fragmentary at this point
in the story, but it appears that Ninhursag removes the semen from Uttu’s belly and plants it
in the ground. As a result, eight different plants spring forth: the tree plant, the honey plant,
the vegetable plant, and five other plants. Genealogically, these plants represent Enki’s great-
great- grandchildren. The incestuous cycle is now broken because Enki cannot copulate with
plants. However, he violates them in another way— by eating them! This last act infuriates
Ninhursag to such an extent that she curses him by giving him an ailment for each of the
plants he has consumed. She then disappears, vowing never to return.
Soon Enki becomes mortally ill. Greatly distressed, the other gods intervene and even-
tually persuade Ninhursag to return. To cure Enki, she gives birth to eight healing dei-
ties, one for each of his afflictions. Presumably, these healing deities are connected with
the Sumerian plant- based pharmacopoeia, traditionally a female area of expertise. In this
myth, Ninhursag and Uttu serve as vegetation deities because of their roles in conceiving
and planting the eight medicinal plants.
Goddesses of Grain and Grapes. Various goddesses presided over grain and activities
related to grain. In the city of Isin, Ashnan/ Ezinu (two different readings of the same
sign) lived the Sumerian goddess of grain cultivation. In a poem lamenting the destruc-
tion of the temple,^45 she is described as “Ezina, the laden, silver ear of grain.”^46 In The
Debate Between Grain and Sheep, the goddess Ezina- Kusu (Grain) is identified with the
cereal crop:
Grain standing in her furrow was a beautiful girl radiating charm; lifting her raised
head up from the field she was suffused with the bounty of heaven.^47