''Ki'' was the

earth goddess An Earth goddess is a deification of the Earth. Earth goddesses are often associated with the "chthonic" deities of the underworld. Ki and Ninhursag are Mesopotamian earth goddesses. In Greek mythology, the Earth is personified as Gaia, corres ...

Sumerian religion Sumerian religion was the religion practiced by the people of Sumer, the first literate civilization of ancient Mesopotamia. The Sumerians regarded their divinities as responsible for all matters pertaining to the natural and social orders. ...

, chief consort of the sky god An. In some legends Ki and An were brother and sister, being the offspring of

Anshar Anshar, also spelled Anšar ( Sumerian: , Neo-Assyrian: , meaning "whole heaven"), was a primordial god in the Babylonian creation myth Enuma Elish. His consort is Kishar which means "Whole Earth". They were the children of Lahamu and Lahmu ...

("Sky Pivot") and

Kishar In the Babylonian epic Enuma Elish, Kishar ( akk, 𒆠𒊹, Kišar) is the daughter of Lahamu and Lahmu, the first children of Tiamat and Abzu. She is the female principle, sister and wife of Anshar, the male principle, and the mother of Anu. Ki ...

("Earth Pivot"), earlier personifications of heaven and earth. By her consort Anu (also known as Anunna), Ki gave birth to

Anunnaki The Anunnaki (Sumerian: , also transcribed as Anunaki, Annunaki, Anunna, Ananaki and other variations) are a group of deities of the ancient Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians and Babylonians. In the earliest Sumerian writings about them, which c ...

, the most prominent of these deities being

Enlil Enlil, , "Lord f theWind" later known as Elil, is an 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 the Akkadians, Ba ...

, god of the air. According to legends, heaven and earth were once inseparable until Enlil was born; Enlil cleaved heaven and earth in two. An carried away heaven. 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 In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. Thi ...

and the name appears only in a limited number of Sumerian creation texts. Samuel Noah Kramer identifies Ki with the Sumerian mother goddess

Ninhursag , deity_of=Mother goddess, goddess of fertility, mountains, and rulers , image= Mesopotamian - Cylinder Seal - Walters 42564 - Impression.jpg , caption= Akkadian cylinder seal impression depicting a vegetation goddess, possibly Ninhursag, sitt ...

and claims that they were originally the same figure. She later developed into the Babylonian and Akkadian goddess Antu, consort of the god

Anu , image=Detail, upper part, Kudurru of Ritti-Marduk, from Sippar, Iraq, 1125-1104 BCE. British Museum.jpg , caption=Symbols of various deities, including Anu (bottom right corner) on a kudurru of Ritti-Marduk, from Sippar, Iraq, 1125–1104 BCE , ...

(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

(the sky pivot) and

(the earth pivot). Making Anshar and Kishar her father and mother. Ki was a mother to 1, 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 (Borger 2003 nr. 737; U+121A0 ) is the sign for "earth". It is also read as GI₅, GUNNI (=KI.NE) "hearth", KARAŠ (=KI.KAL.BAD) "encampment, army", KISLAḪ (=KI.UD) "threshing floor", and SUR₇ (=KI.GAG). In Akkadian orthography, it functions as a determiner for toponyms and has the syllabic values ''gi'', ''ge'', ''qi'', and ''qe''.

References

* Michael Jordan, ''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