Ki (earth) in Sumerian mythology was the goddess and personification of the earth and underworld, chief consort of An (heaven) the sky god. In some legendscitation needed Ki and An were brother and sister, being the offspring of Anshar ("Sky Pivot") and Kishar ("Earth Pivot"), earlier personifications of heaven and earth.
By her consort Anu, Ki gave birth to the Anunnaki, the most prominent of these deities being Enlil, 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.
Some authoritieswho? question whether Ki was regarded as a deity. There is no evidence of a cult, and the name appears only in a limited number of Sumerian creation texts. She later developed intocitation needed the Babylonian and Akkadian goddess Antu, consort of the god Anu that had developed from the Sumerian An. Samuel Noah Kramer identifies Ki with the Sumerian mother goddess Ninhursag, saying that they were originally the same figure.
References
Michael Jordan, Encyclopedia of Gods, Kyle Cathie Limited, 2002
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