Another of the governors of Lagash calls himself, priest of Ea, describing the god as the "supreme councillor." From him, the king receives "wisdom."[41] A ruler, Rim-Sin, of the dynasty of Larsa, associates Ea with Bel, declaring that these "great gods" entrusted Uruk into his hands with the injunction to rebuild the city that had fallen in ruins.

The ideograms, with which his name is written, En-ki, designate him as god of that 'which is below,'-- the earth in the first place; but with a more precise differentiation of the functions of the great gods, Ea becomes the god of the waters of the deep.

When this stage of belief is reached, Ea is frequently associated with Bel, who, it will be recalled, is the 'god of the lower region,' but who becomes the god of earth _par excellence_.

When, therefore, Bel and Ea are invoked, it is equivalent, in modern parlance, to calling upon earth and water; and just as Bel is used to personify, as it were, the unification of the earthly forces, so Ea becomes, in a comprehensive sense, the watery deep.

Ea and Bel assume therefore conspicuous proportions in the developed Babylonian cosmogony and theology.