Ki (Sumerian: ) was the
earth goddess in
Sumerian religion, chief consort of the sky god
An. In some legends,
Ki and An were brother and sister, being the offspring of
Anshar ("Sky Pivot") and
Kishar ("Earth Pivot"), earlier personifications of the heavens and earth.
By her consort Anu (also known as Anunna), Ki gave birth to
Anunnaki
The Anunnaki (Sumerian language, Sumerian: , also transcribed as Anunaki, Annunaki, Anunna, Ananaki and other variations) are a group of deity, deities of the ancient Sumerian religion, Sumerians, Akkadian Empire, Akkadians, Assyrians and Babylo ...
; the most prominent of these deities being
Enlil
Enlil, later known as Elil and Ellil, is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian god associated with wind, air, earth, and storms. He is first attested as the chief deity of the Sumerian pantheon, but he was later worshipped by t ...
, god of the air. According to legends, the heavens and earth were once inseparable until Enlil was born; Enlil cleaved the heavens and earth in two. An carried away the heavens. Ki, in company with Enlil, took the Earth. Ki marries her son, Enlil, and from this union all the plant and animal life on Earth is produced.
Some authorities question whether Ki was regarded as a deity since there is no evidence of a
cult
Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term ...
and the name appears only in a limited number of Sumerian creation texts. Samuel Noah Kramer identifies Ki with the Sumerian mother goddess
Ninhursag and claims that they were originally the same figure.
She later developed into the Babylonian and Akkadian goddess
Antu, consort of the god
Anu (from Sumerian
An).
Family
Ki was the wife and chief consort of Anu, the god of the Sky. They are thought to be brother and sister, who could both be offspring of the god named
Anshar (the sky pivot) and
Kishar (the earth pivot). This makes Anshar and Kishar her father and mother.
Ki was a mother to one child, who was named Enlil. Her son Enlil, the god of Air, was part of the Anunnaki. Ki ends up marrying her son, Enlil, and according to the myth this was how the plants and animals were created on Earth.
Cuneiform sign
Cuneiform
Ki (k) (I)
(Borger 2003 nr. 737;
U+121A0 ) is the sign for "earth". It is also read as GI
5, GUNNI (=KI.NE) "hearth", KARAΕ (=KI.KAL.BAD) "encampment, army", KISLAαΈͺ (=KI.UD) "threshing floor", and SUR
7 (=KI.GAG). In Akkadian orthography, it functions as a determiner for toponyms and has the syllabic values ''gi'', ''ge'', ''qi'', and ''qe''.
References
* ''Encyclopedia of Gods'', Kyle Cathie Limited, 2002
*
Creation and Chaos : A Reconsideration of Hermann Gunkel's Chaoskampf Hypothesis', edited by JoAnn Scurlock, and Richard H. Beal, Penn State University Press, 2013. ''ProQuest Ebook Central''.
* Holland, Glenn S.
Gods in the Desert : Religions of the Ancient Near East', Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009. ''ProQuest Ebook Central''.
* Leick, Gwendolyn, and Dr, Gwendo Leick.
A Dictionary of Ancient near Eastern Mythology', Taylor & Francis Group, 1991. ''ProQuest Ebook Central''.
*https://www.geni.com/people/Ki-Goddess-of-the-Earth/6000000003645882297
Mesopotamian goddesses
Earth goddesses
Underworld goddesses
{{Semitic-lang-stub