Hea.  This third member of the Assyrian Nature Triad was one of the most important gods in the pantheon.  He was "lord of the sea, of rivers and fountains;" lord of wisdom and knowledge. (Encyclopedia Britannica, Chambers, v.1, 1901).

Hea, one of the most important of all the Assyrian gods, as he combines in his numerous titles the attributes of several Classic deities.  His Accadian name was En-ki, or the "Lord of the World," (earth,) and his Assyrian name read phonetically Ea or Hea.  He unites in his offices the attributes of Pluto (Hades), of Poseidon (Neptune), and of Hermes (wisdom).  Hea, as the representative of the Greek Poseidon, was "Lord of the Abyss," sar abzu, and he was spoken of as Hea "who dwells in the great deep."  In a list of his titles he is called "Lord of the Madudu or Sailors," and it was Hea who taught Hasis Adra how to build the ark, or ship (elapu), in which he sailed over the flood.  In this character of the god of water and ocean, he was associated with a female deity Bahu, "The Void," who may be identified wit the bohu of Genesis I.  Hea held dominion over a large number of spirits who dwelt in the abzu or the deep.  In the character of the Greek Pluto, or lord of Hades, Hea himself figured but seldom, but his consort Nin-ki-gal, "the Lady of the Great Land," appears very frequently.  Hea as lord of Hades, had the name of Nin-a-zu, and his wife was called Nin-ki-gal wife of Nin-a-zu.  But it was in the character of the god of wisdom, the "god who knows all things," that Hea figured most prominently; Nin-ni-mi-ki, "Lord of Wisdom," or as the Accadian expresses it, "the Lord of the Bright Eye."  It was Hea alone who could deliver man from the various spells and curses with which the complicated system of Chaldean magic beset him.  Hea also delivered Ishtar from the power of Nin-ki-gal, in the legend of her descent into Hades.  Hea had for his female consort in his cahracter of "Lord of Wisdom" the goddess Dav-kina, the female deification of the earth, who was probably only another form of Nin-ki-gal, and resembles the Classic Persephone or Proserpine; though perhaps Nin-ki-gal and Dav-kina may be better identified with Persephone and Ceres (Demeter), the "Mother and Daughter" of the Greeks. (An Archaic Dictionary, Cooper, 1876).