Apkallu: Who Were the Seven Sages of Mesopotamia?

Seven semi-divine sages sent by Enki before the Flood to give humans civilization, carved as fish-men and eagle-headed spirits.

The apkallu are seven sages who, in Mesopotamian tradition, lived before the Flood and brought the arts of civilization to humans on behalf of Enki, beginning with Uanna, called Oannes.

The apkallu (Sumerian abgal) are seven sages who, in Mesopotamian tradition, lived before the Flood and brought the arts of civilization to humans on behalf of Enki. A late cuneiform tablet from Uruk, the Uruk List of Kings and Sages, written in 165 BCE, pairs each antediluvian king with his sage, starting with Uanna, whom Berossus called Oannes.

Texts describe them as 'pure purādu-fish of the sea', and a ritual text called Bit Meseri names them one by one. The last of the seven, Utuabzu, is said to have ascended to heaven. After the Flood, the sages who follow are described as partly or wholly human. Some later texts make the chain continue, with human sages serving historical kings, as if wisdom had passed down from them in an unbroken line of scholars.

In art they appear in three forms: a man in a fish cloak, a winged man with an eagle's head, and a winged human. Many carry a cone and a small bucket, thought to be for purifying or blessing. Figurines of apkallu were buried in the foundations of Assyrian houses and palaces as protection, and giant reliefs of them lined the palace of Ashurnasirpal II at Nimrud.

Scholars such as Amar Annus have argued that the Enoch story of the Watchers, heavenly beings who taught forbidden arts before the Flood, is partly a Jewish response to the apkallu tradition. In that reading the Babylonian teachers became Jewish villains. The parallel is not exact, but in both traditions heavenly teachers bring knowledge to humans before the Flood, and that knowledge carries both blessing and danger.