A Queen Am I!

The tale of Inanna/Ishtar is a tale of a “self-made goddess.” Neither one of the Olden Gods, the original group of astronauts from the Twelfth Planet, nor even a firstborn daughter of one of them, she nevertheless propelled herself to the highest ranks and ended up a member of the Pantheon of Twelve. To achieve that she combined her cunning and her beauty with ruthlessness—a goddess of war and a goddess of love, who counted among her lovers both gods and men. And it was she of whom there had been a true case of death and resurrection.

Inasmuch as the death of Dumuzi was brought about by Inanna’s desire to become a queen on Earth, the imprisonment and exile of Marduk did little to satisfy her ambitions. Now, having challenged and prevailed over a major god, she felt she could no longer be deprived of a domain of her own. But where? The funeral of Dumuzi, one gathers from such texts as Inanna ’s Descent to the Lower World, was held in the Land of Mines in southern Africa.

It was the domain of Inanna’s sister Ereshkigal and her spouse Nergal. Enlil and Nannar, even Enki, advised Inanna not to go there; but she made up her mind: “From the Great Above she set her mind toward the Great Below”.

When she arrived at the gate of her sister’s capital city, she said to the gatekeeper: “Tell my elder sister, Ereshkigal,” that she had come “to witness the funeral rites.”

One would expect the meeting between the sisters to have been heartwarming, filled with sympathy for the bereaved Inanna. We learn instead that Inanna, who came uninvited, was received with unrestrained suspicion. As she was let through the seven gates of the city leading to Ereshkigal’s palace, she was made to give up her emblems and regalia of divine status. When Inanna finally came into the presence of her sister, she found her sitting on her throne surrounded by seven Anunnaki with a judicial capacity. “They fastened their eyes upon her, the eyes of death.” They said angry things to her, “words which torture the spirit.” Instead of being welcomed, Inanna was sentenced to be hung as a corpse from a stake. … It was only through the intervention of Enki that she was saved and revived.

The texts do not explain the reasons for the harsh treatment meted out to Inanna. nor quote the “torturing words” her accusers cast at her. But we learn from the beginning of the text that at the same time that she went on her trip, Inanna sent her messenger to “fill heaven with complaints for me, in the assembly [of the gods] cry out for me.” Attending a funeral was thus a mere pretext; what she had in mind was to force the gods to satisfy a complaint that she wished to dramatize.

From the moment of her arrival at the first gate. Inanna threatened violence if she would not be let in. When the news of her arrival was brought to Ereshkigal, ’ ‘her face turned pale . . . her lips turned dark" and she wondered out loud what the real purpose of the visit was.

When the two came face-to-face, “Ereshkigal saw her and burst out at her presence; Ishtar. unflinching, flew at her.” Somehow Inanna’s intentions spelled danger for Ereshkigal! We have already found that many of the biblical marital and succession laws were akin to such laws that governed the behavior of the Anunnaki; the rules regarding a half-sister are but one example. The clue to Inanna’s intentions, we believe, can be found in the book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of Moses, in which the Hebrew code of personal behavior was spelled out. Chapter 25 (verses 5-10) deals with the instance when a married man dies without having had a son. If the man had a brother, the widow could not remarry a stranger: it was the duty of the brother—even a married one—to marry his widowed sister-in-law and have children by her; and the firstborn boy was to bear the name of the deceased brother, “so that his name shall not be blotted out.”

This, we believe, is what had also been Inanna’s reason for her risky journey. For Ereshkigal was married to Nergal, a brother of Dumuzi: Inanna had come to put the Rule into play. . . . The custom, we know, put the onus on the eldest brother, who was, in the case of the sons of Enki, Marduk. But Marduk was found guilty of indirectly causing the death of Dumuzi, and was punished and exiled. Had Inanna then the right to demand that the next in line, Nergal, take her as his second wife so that she could have a male heir?

The personal and succession problems that Inanna’s intentions would have caused Ereshkigal can well be imagined. Would Inanna be satisfied to be a second wife, or would she connive and scheme to usurp the queenship over the African domain? Obvi- “A Queen Am I!” 231 ously Ereshkigal was not willing to take chances. And so it was, we believe, that after harsh words between the sisters, Inanna was hauled before a hastily convened court of “seven Anunnaki who judge,” was found in violation of the rules, and was summarily hung on a stake to die a slow death. She survived only because her father-in-law, Enki, on hearing the terrible news, rushed two emissaries to save her. “Upon the corpse they directed that which pulsates and that which radiates”; they administered to her the “water of life” and the “food of life,” and “Inanna arose.” Back in Sumer the revived Inanna, heartbroken and lonely, spent her time on the banks of the Euphrates River, tending a wildgrowing tree and voicing her sorrows: When at last shall I have a holy throne. that I may sit on it? When at last shall I have a holy bed, that I may lie on it? Concerning this Inanna spoke . . . She who let her hair down is ill at heart; The pure Inanna. Oh how she weeps!

One who had taken pity on—and a liking to—Inanna was her great-grandfather, Anu. It is known from Sumerian texts that Inanna, who was born on Earth, “went up to Heaven” at least once; it is also known that Anu had visited Earth on several occasions. When and where exactly did Anu embrace Inanna as his Anunitum (“Beloved of Anu”) is not clear, but it was more than mere Sumerian gossip when texts hinted that the love between Anu and his great-granddaughter was more than platonic. Assured thus of sympathy at the highest level, Inanna raised the issue of a dominion, a “land,” to rule over. But where? The treatment meted out to Inanna, whatever its reasons, made it clear that she could not expect to attain a dominion in Africa. Her spouse Dumuzi was dead, and with him died her claims to queenship in the lands of Enki’s descendants. If her suffering and prevailing over a major god entitled her to a dominion of her own, it had to be elsewhere. But Mesopotamia, too, and the lands bordering on Mesopotamia were all spoken for. Where could Inanna be given dominion? Casting their eyes about, the gods came up with an answer.

The texts dealing with the death of Dumuzi, as well as with the imprisonment of Marduk. mention the names of Sumerian cities and their populace. This suggests that those events had taken place after the Sumerian urban civilization had already begun circa 3800 B.C. On the other hand, the Egyptian background of the tales makes no reference to urban settlements and describes a pastoral environment, suggesting a time prior to 3100 B.C.. when urban civilization in Egypt began. In the writings of Manetho a chaotic period of 350 years is said to have preceded the urban kingship of Menes. That period between 3450 and 3100 B.C. appears to have been the time of the troubles and tribulations triggered by Marduk: the Tower of Babel incident; and the Dumuzi affair, when a god of Egypt was captured and killed, when the Great God of Egypt was imprisoned and exiled.

It was then, we believe, that the Anunnaki turned their attention to the Third Region of the Indus Valley, where civilization began soon thereafter.

Unlike the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations that lasted for millennia and continued, to this very day, through offspring civilizations, the one in the Third Region lasted only a millennium. Soon thereafter it began to decline, and by 1600 B.C. it was totally gone—its cities in ruins, its people dispersed. Human plunder and the ravages of nature gradually obliterated the civilization’s remains; in time it was totally forgotten. It was only in the 1920s that archaeologists, led by Sir Mortimer Wheeler, began to unearth two principal centers and several sites in between, stretching over more than four hundred miles from the Indian Ocean coast northward, along the Indus River and its tributaries.

Both sites—Mohenjo-Daro to the south and Harappa in the north—show that they were cities of substance, some three miles in circumference. High walls ran around and within the cities; these walls, as well as the public and private buildings, were all constructed of bricks made of clay or mud. Originally there were so many of these bricks that in spite of constant ransacking by subsequent home-builders both in ancient times as well as more recently for such purposes as ballast for the Lahore-Multan railroad, enough still remains standing to reveal the site of the cities and the fact that they were laid out in accordance with preconceived city building plans.

At both sites the city was dominated by an acropolis—a raised area of citadels and temples. In both instances these structures were of the same measurements and similarly oriented exactly on a north-south axis—proving that their builders followed strict rules when it came to erecting the temples. In both cities the second larg- “A Queen Am I!” 233 esi feature was immense granaries—grain silos of a vast size and impressive functionality, situated near the riverbank. This suggests that grains were not only the chief crop, but also the chief export product of the Indus civilization.

The cities and the few artifacts that were still found in their remains—furnaces, urns, pottery, bronze tools, copper beads, some silver vessels, and ornaments—all attest to a high civilization that was suddenly transplanted from elsewhere. Thus the two earliest brick buildings at Mohenjo-Daro (a huge granary and a fort tower) were reinforced with timbers—a construction method totally unsuitable to the Indus climate. This method, however, was soon abandoned, and all subsequent construction avoided timberreinforcing. Scholars have concluded from this that the initial builders were foreigners accustomed to their own climatic needs. Seeking the fountainhead of the Indus civilization, scholars concluded that it could not have arisen independently of the Sumerian civilization, which preceded it by almost a thousand years. In spite of notable differentiations (such as the yet undeciphered pictographic script), the analogies to Mesopotamia are everywhere. The use of dried mud or clay bricks for construction; the layout of city streets; the drainage system; the chemical methods used for etching, for glazing, and for bead-making; the shapes and design of metal daggers and jars—all bear striking similarity to what had been uncovered at Ur or Kish or other Mesopotamian sites. Even the designs and symbols on pottery, seals, or other clay objects are virtual duplicates of those of Mesopotamia. Significantly the Mesopotamian sign of the cross—the symbol of Nibiru, the Home Planet of the Anunnaki—was also prevalent throughout the Indus civilization.

Which gods did the people of the Indus Valley worship? The few pictorial depictions that have been found show them wearing the divine Mesopotamian homed headdress. More abundant clay figurines indicate that the dominant deity was a goddess, usually naked and bare-chested (Fig. 74a) or with rows of beads and necklaces as her sole covering (Fig. 74b); these were well-known depictions of Inanna, found in abundance in Mesopotamia and throughout the Near East. It is our suggestion that in their search for a land for Inanna, the Anunnaki decided to make the Third Region her dominion. Although it is generally held that the evidence for the Mesopotamian origins of the Indus civilization and for ongoing contacts between Sumer and the Indus Valley is limited to the few archaeological remains, we believe that there also exists textual evidence attesting to these links. Of particular interest is a long text named by scholars Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, whose background is the rise to power of Uruk (the biblical Erech) and of Inanna.

Fig. 74

The text describes Aratta as the capital of a land situated beyond mountain ranges and beyond Anshan; i.e., beyond southeastern Iran. This is precisely where the Indus Valley lay: and such scholars as J. van Dijk (Orientalia 39, 1970) have surmised that Aratta was a city “situated on the Iranian plateau or on the Indus river.” What is most striking is the fact that the text speaks of the grain silos of Aratta. It was a place where “wheat was growing of itself, beans also growing of themselves”—crops growing and stored in the storehouses of Aratta. Then, to be exported, they “poured grain into sacks, loaded them on the crate-carrying donkeys, and placed them on the sides of the transporting donkeys.”

Aratta’s geographical location and the fact that it is a place renowned for its grain and bean storehouses bear forceful similarities to the Indus civilization. Indeed one must wonder whether Harappa or Arappa is not a present-day echo of the ancient Aratta. The ancient tale takes us back to the beginning of kingship at Erech. when a demigod (the son of Utu/Shamash by a human female) was both high priest and king at the sacred precinct from which the city was to develop. Circa 2900 B.C. he was succeeded by his son Enmerkar, “who built Uruk” (according to the Sumerian King Lists), transforming it from the nominal abode of an absentee god (Anu) to a major urban center of a reigning deity. He achieved this by persuading Inanna to choose Erech as her principal seat of power and by aggrandizing for her the Eanna (“House of Anu”) temple.

We read in the ancient text that at first all Enmerkar demanded of Aratta was that it contribute “precious stones, bronze, lead, slabs of lapis lazuli” to the building of the enlarged temple, as well as “artfully fashion gold and silver” so that the Holy Mount being raised for Inanna would be worthy of the goddess. But no sooner was this done than the heart of Enmerkar grew haughty. A drought had afflicted Aratta, and Enmerkar now demanded not only materials but also obedience: “Let Aratta submit to Erech!” he demanded. To achieve his purpose Enmerkar sent to Aratta a series of emissaries to conduct what S. N. Kramer (History

Begins at Sumer) has characterized as “the first war of nerves.” Lauding his king and his powers, the emissary quoted verbatim Enmerkar’s threats to bring desolation upon Aratta and dispersion upon its people. The ruler of Aratta, however, countered this war of nerves with a ploy of his own. Reminding the emissary of the confusion of languages in the aftermath of the Tower of Babel incident, he claimed he could not understand the message given him in Sumerian.

In frustration Enmerkar sent another message written on clay tablets—this time, it appears, in the language of Aratta—a feat made possible with the help of Nidaba, the Goddess of Writing. In addition to threats an offering of the seeds of “the olden grain” that had been kept in Anu’s temple was made—a seed, it appears, needed badly in Aratta because a long drought had destroyed its crops. The drought was deemed to have been a sign that it was Inanna herself who wished Aratta to come “under the protecting shade of Erech.”

“The lord of Aratta from the herald took the baked tablet; the lord of Aratta examined the clay.” The writing was in cuneiform script: “The dictated word was nail-like in appearance.” Was he to yield or resist? Just at that moment “a storm, like a great lion attacking, stepped up”; the drought was suddenly broken by a thunderstorm that made the whole land tremble, the mountains quake; and once again, “white-walled Aratta” became a land of abundant grains.

There was no need to yield to Erech; and the lord of Aratta said to the herald: “Inanna, the queen of the lands, has not abandoned her House in Aratta; she has not handed over Aratta to Erech.”

In spite of the rejoicing in Aratta, its expectation that Inanna would not abandon her abode there was not entirely fulfilled. Enticed by the prospect of residing in a grand temple at Sumer’s City of Anu, she became a commuting goddess: a “working deity,” so to speak, in faraway Aratta, but a resident in metropolitan Erech. She did her commuting by flying from place to place in her “Boat of Heaven.” Her flying about gave rise to many depictions of her as an aeronaut (Fig. 75), and the inference from some texts is that she did her own piloting. On the other hand, like other major deities, she was assigned a pilot-navigator for the more demanding flights. As the Vedas, which spoke of pilots of the gods (one, Pushan. “guided Indra through the speckled clouds” in the “golden ship that travels in the air’s mid-region”), so did the earlier Sumerian texts refer to the AB.GALs, who ferried the gods across the heavens. Inanna’s pilotnavigator, we are told, was Nungal; and he was specifically named in regard to her transfer to the House of Anu in Erech:

Fig. 75

At the time when Enmerkar in Uruk ruled, Nungal, the lion-hearted, was the Pilot who from the skies brought Ishtar down to the E-Anna.

According to the Sumerian King Lists, kingship after the Deluge began at Kish. Then, “the Kingship to the Eanna was carried.” As archaeologists have confirmed, Erech indeed had its beginnings as a temple city, consisting of the sacred precinct where Anu’s first modest shrine (“White Temple”) was built atop a raised platform (Fig. 76); the site remained in the city’s heart even as Erech grew and its temples were aggrandized, as the remains of the city and its walls indicate (Fig. 77).

Archaeologists have come upon the remains of a magnificent temple dedicated to Inanna and dating to the early part of the third millennium B.C.—possibly the very temple constructed by Enmer-

Fig. 77

“A Queen Am I!” 239 kar. It was uniquely built with decorated high columns (Fig. 78) and must have been as lavish and impressive as the hymns that sang its praises had described: Fig. 78 With lapis-lazuli was adorned, Decorated with the handiwork of Ninagal. In the bright place . . . the residence of Inanna, the lyre of Anu they installed. With all that. Erech was still a “provincial” town, lacking the stature of other Sumerian cities, which had the distinction of having been rebuilt on the sites of pre-Diluvial cities. It lacked the status and benefits that stemmed from the possession of the “Divine MEs.” Though they are constantly referred to, the nature of the ME is not clear, and scholars translate the term as “divine commandments,” “divine powers,” or even “mythic virtues.” The ME, however, are described as physical objects that one could pick up and carry, or even put on, and which contained secret knowledge or data. Perhaps they were something like our present-day computer chips, on which data, programs, and operational orders have been minutely recorded. On them the essentials of civilization were encoded.

These MEs were in the possession of Enki, the chief scientist of the Anunnaki. They were released by him to benefit mankind gradually, step by step; and the turn of Erech to attain the heights of civilization had, apparently, not yet come when Inanna became its resident deity. Impatient, Inanna decided to use her feminine charms to improve the situation.

A text titled by S. N. Kramer (Sumerian Mythology) as “Inanna and Enki.” but whose original (and more poetic) Sumerian title is unknown, describes how Inanna journeyed in her “Boat of Heaven” to the Abzu, where Enki had secreted away the MEs. Realizing that Inanna was coming to call on him by herself—“the maiden, all alone, has directed her step to the Abzu”—Enki ordered his chamberlain to prepare a sumptuous meal, including plenty of date wine. After Inanna and Enki had feasted and Enki’s heart became happy with drink, Inanna brought up the subject of the MEs. Gracious with drink, Enki presented to her ME for “Lordship …. Godship. the Exalted and Enduring Tiara, the Throne of Kingship.” and “bright Inanna took them.” As Inanna worked her charms on her aging host, Enki made to her a second presentation of “the Exalted Scepter and Staff, the Exalted Shrine, Righteous Rulership”; and “bright Inanna took them,” too. As the feasting and drinking went on, Enki parted with seven major MEs, embracing the functions and attributes of a Divine Lady, her temple and rituals, its priests, eunuchs, and prostitutes; warfare and weapons; justice and courts; music and arts; masonry; woodworking and metal working; leatherwork and weaving; scribeship and mathematics; and so on.

With the encoded data for all these attributes of a high civilization in her hands, Inanna slipped away and took off in her Boat of Heaven, back to Erech. Hours later a sobered Enki realized that Inanna and the MEs were gone. His somewhat embarrassed chamberlain reminded Enki that he, Enki himself, had made the MEs a present to Inanna. Greatly upset. Enki ordered his chamberlain to pursue Inanna in Enki’s “Great Heavenly Skychamber” and retrieve the MEs. Overtaking Inanna at the first stopping point, the chamberlain explained to Inanna his orders; but Inanna, asking, “Why had Enki changed his word to me?” refused. Reporting the situation to Enki, the chamberlain was ordered to seize Inanna’s Boat of Heaven, bring the Boat to Eridu, and release Inanna, but without the MEs. But in Eridu, Inanna ordered her trusted pilot to “save the Boat of Heaven and the MEs presented to Inanna.” And so, while Inanna kept the argument with Enki’s chamberlain going, her pilot slipped away in her boat with the invaluable MEs. An Exaltation of Inanna, composed to be read responsively by the congregation, echoes the sentiments of the people of Erech:

“A Queen Am I!” 241 Lady of the MEs, Queen Brightly resplendent; Righteous, clothed in radiance Beloved of Heaven and Earth; Hierodule of Anu, Wearing the great adorations; For the exalted tiara appropriate. For the high-priesthood suitable. The seven MEs she attained. In her hand she is holding. Lady of the great MEs, Of them she is the guardian . . .

It was in those days that Inanna was incorporated into the Pantheon of Twelve, and (replacing Ninharsag) was assigned the planet Venus (MUL DILBAT) as her celestial counterpart and the constellation AB.SIN (Virgo) as her zodiac house; the latter’s depiction has hardly changed from Sumerian times (Fig. 79). Expressing her own gratification, Inanna announced for all—gods and men alike—to hear: “A Queen am I!”

Fig. 79

Hymns acknowledged her new status among the gods and her celestial attributes: To the one who comes forth from heaven, To the one who comes forth from heaven, “‘Hail!” we do say . . . Loftiness, greatness, reliability [are hers] as she comes forth radiantly in the evening. 242 THE WARS OF GODS AND MEN a holy torch that fills the heavens; Her stance in heaven is like the Moon and Sun . . . In Heaven she is secure, the good “wild cow” of Anu: On Earth she is enduring, mistress of the lands. In the Abzu. from Eridu, she received the MEs; Her godfather Enki presented them to her, Lordship and Kingship he placed in her hand. With Anu she takes her seat upon the great throne. With Enlil she determines the fates in her land . . . Turning from her high position among the gods to her worship by the Sumerians (the “Black-Headed People”), the hymns went on:

In all the land, the black-headed people assemble when abundance has been placed in the storehouses of Sumer . . . They come to her with …. they bring disputes before her. She renders judgment to the evil and destroys the wicked; She favors the just, determines good fate for them . . . The good lady, the joy of Anu, a heroine she is: She surely comes forth from Heaven . . . She is mighty, she is trustworthy, she is great; She is exceeding in youthfulness. The people of Erech had every reason to be thankful to Inanna. for under her deityship, Erech had become an affluent center of Sumerian civilization. In praising her wisdom and valor, the people of Erech failed not also to mention her beauty and attractiveness. Indeed, it was at about that time that Inanna instituted the custom of the “Sacred Marriage,” sexual rites whereby the priest-king was supposed to have become her spouse—but only for a night. A text, attributed to a king named Iddin-Dagan, described this aspect of Inanna’s temple life—with music, male prostitute entertainers, and all:

The male-prostitutes comb her hair . . . They decorate the neck with colored bands . . . Their right side they adorn with women’s clothing as they walk before the pure Inanna . . . Their left side they cover with men’s clothing as they walk before the pure Inanna . . . “A Queen Am I!” 243 With jump ropes and colored cords they compete before her. . . The young men, carrying hoops, sing before her . . . The maidens. Shugia priestesses, walk before Inanna . . . They set up a bed for my lady, They cleanse rushes with sweet smelling cedar oil; For Inanna, for the King, they arrange the bed . . . The king approaches her pure lap proudly: Proudly he approaches the lap of Inanna . . . He caresses her pure lap. She stretches out on the bed, the pure lap; She makes love with him on her bed.

She says to Iddin-Dagan: “Surely, you are my beloved.” This habit of Inanna may have begun with Enmerkar himself, a sexual union of which the next ruler of Uruk, a demigod known as “divine Lugalbanda, a Righteous Supervisor,” was the progeny. Of Lugalbanda, too, as of Enmerkar, several epic tales have been found. Inanna, it seems, wanted him to reside in her stead in Aratta; but Lugalbanda was too restless and adventurous to stay put. One epic tale (Lugalbanda and Mount Hurum) describes his dangerous journey to the “awesome place on Earth” in search of the Divine Black Bird. He reached the Restricted Mount “where the Anunnaki, gods of the mountain, inside the earth like termites had tunneled.” Seeking a ride in the Bird of Heaven, Lugalbanda pleaded with its custodian; his words immortalized man’s desire to fly:

Like Utu let me go, like Inanna, Like the Seven Stormers of Ishkur in a flame let me lift myself off, and thunder away!

Let me go wherever my eyes can see, Wherever I desire, let me set my foot, Wherever my heart wishes, let me arrive . . . When he had arrived at Mount Hurum (“whose front Enlil as with a great door had closed off”), Lugalbanda was challenged by the Guardian: “If a god you are, a word in friendship will I utter which will let you enter; If a man you are, your fate will I decree.”

To which:

Lugalbanda, he of beloved seed, stretched his hand out [and said]: “Like divine Shara am I, the beloved son of Inanna.” But the Guardian of the sacred place turned Lugalbanda down with an oracle: indeed, he would reach far lands and make both himself and Erech famous, but he would do so on foot. Another long epic tale, originally called by scholars “Lugalbanda and Enmerkar’’ and more recently The Lugalbanda Epic, affirms Lugalbanda’s semi-divine descent but does not identify his father; we can assume, however, from the circumstances and subsequent events, that the father was Enmerkar; confirming Enmerkar as the first one in a long list of rulers who, under the guise of a symbolic marriage or without it, were invited by Inanna to share her bed.

This “invitation” by Inanna is featured in the well-known Epic of Gilgamesh. The fifth ruler of Erech, Gilgamesh sought to escape the mortals’ destiny to die because, as a son of the goddess Ninsun and the high priest of the Kullab, “two thirds of him were god.” In his search for immortality (examined at length in The Stairway to Heaven), he first journeyed to the “Landing Place” in the Cedar Mountain—the olden landing platform in the mountains of Lebanon (to which, apparently, Lugalbanda had also gone). Battling the mechanical monster that guarded the restricted area’s perimeter, Gilgamesh and his companion were almost annihilated were it not for Utu’s help. Exhausted from the battle, Gilgamesh took off his drenched clothes so that he might wash and rest. It was then that Inanna/Ishtar. who watched the struggle from the skies, was seized with a craving for Gilgamesh:

He washed his grimy hair, polished his weapons; The braid of his hair he shook out against his back. He cast off his soiled things, put on his clean ones. Wrapped a fringed cloak about, fastened with a sash. When Gilgamesh put on his tiara, Glorious Ishtar raised an eye at the beauty of Gilgamesh. “Come, Gilgamesh. be thou my lover!” [she said] “Do grant me of thy fruitfulness; thou shalt be a husband, I shall be a wife.” She reinforced her invitation with promises of a glorious (though not everlasting) life if Gilgamesh would accede to her otter. But Gil- “A Queen Am I!” 245

gamesh retorted with a long list of her lovers whom she befriended though she had “ordained for Tammuz [Dumuzi]. the lover of your youth, wailing year after year”; while still supposedly in mourning, he said, she acquired and discarded lovers “as a shoe which pinches the foot of its owner . . . as a door which does not keep out the wind . . . Which lover didst thou love forever?” he asked; “if thou shouldst make love to me, thou wouldst treat me like them.” (The offended Inanna thereupon received Anu’s permission to launch against Gilgamesh the Bull of Heaven; Gilgamesh was saved from it at the last moment at the gates of Erech).

The golden era of Erech was not to last forever. Seven other kings followed Gilgamesh on its throne. Then, “Uruk was smitten with weapons: its kingship to Ur was carried.” Thorkild Jacobsen, whose study The Sumerian King List is the most thorough on the subject, believes that the transfer of kingship in Sumer from Erech to Ur occurred circa 2850 B.C.; others adopt a lower date of circa 2650 B.C. (Such a discrepancy of two centuries has persisted into later times and remains unexplained by scholars.) The reigns of the various rulers were getting shorter and shorter as the site of kingship swung back and forth among Sumer’s principal cities: from Ur to Awan, then back to Kish; to a city named Hamazi, then back to Erech and Ur; to Adab and Mari, and back to Kish; to Aksak and again to Kish; and finally once more to Erech. In the course of no more than 220 years, there were thus three additional dynasties at Kish, three at Erech, two at Ur, and single ones in five other cities. It was, by all appearances, a volatile period; it was also a time of increasing friction between the cities, mostly over water rights and irrigation canals—phenomena that can be explained by drier weather on the one hand and rising populations on the other. In each instance the town that lost out was said to have been “smitten with weapons.” Mankind had begun to wage its own wars!

The resort to arms to settle local disputes was becoming more commonplace. Inscriptions from those days indicate that the harassed populace was competing, through offerings and enhanced worship, for the favors of the gods; the warring city-states increasingly involved their patron-gods in their petty disputes. In one recorded instance Ninurta was involved in determining whether an irrigation ditch encroached on another city’s boundaries, Enlil, too, was forced to order the warring parties to disengage. This constant strife and lack of stability soon reached a point when the gods 246 THE WARS OF GODS AND MEN had had enough. Once before, when the Deluge was coming, Enlil was so disgusted with mankind that he schemed its obliteration by the great flood. Then, in the Tower of Babel incident, he ordered mankind’s dispersion and the confusion of its languages. Now, again, he was growing disgusted.

The historical background to the events that followed was the final attempt by the gods to reestablish Kish, the original capital, as the center of kingship. For the fourth time they returned kingship to Kish. starting the dynasty with rulers whose names indicate fealty to Sin, Ishtar. and Shamash. Two rulers, however, bore names indicating that they were followers of Ninurta and his spouseevidence of a revived rivalry between the House of Sin and the House of Ninurta. It resulted in the seating on the throne of a nonentity—“Nannia. a stone cutter”; he reigned a brief seven years. In such unsettled circumstances Inanna was able to retrieve the kingship for Erech.

The man chosen for the task, one Lugal-zagesi, retained the favor of the gods for twenty-live years; but then, attacking Kish to assure her permanent desolation, he only managed to raise Enlil’s ire; and the idea of a strong hand at the helm of human kingship made more and more sense. There was a need for someone uninvolved in all these disputes, someone who would provide firm leadership and once again properly perform the role of the king as sole intermediary between the gods and the people in all matters mundane. It was Inanna who. on one of her flying trips, found that man. Her encounter with him, circa 2400 B.C., launched a new era. He was a man who began his career as a cup-bearer to the king of Kish. When he took over the state reins in central Mesopotamia, he quickly extended his rule to all of Sumer. to its neighboring countries, and even unto distant lands. The epithet-name of this first empire-builder was Sharru-Kin (“Righteous Ruler”); modern textbooks call him Sargon I or Sargon the Great (Fig. 80). He built himself a brand-new capital not far from Babylon and named it Agade (“United”); we know it as Akkad—a name from which stems the term Akkadian for the first Semitic language.

A text known as The Legend of Sargon records, in Sargon’s own words, his odd personal history: Sargon. the mighty king of Agade. am I. My mother was a high priestess; I knew not my father . . . My mother, the high priestess, who conceived me. in secret she bore me. She set me in a basket of rushes, with bitumen sealed the lid.

Fig. 80

She cast me into the river; it did not sink me. The river bore me up. it carried me to Akki the irrigator. Akki the irrigator lifted me up when he drew water; Akki, the irrigator, as his son made me and reared me. Akki. the irrigator, appointed me as his gardener. This Moses-like tale (written more than a thousand years before the time of Moses!) then continues to answer the obvious question: How could a man of unknown fatherhood, a mere gardener, become a mighty king? Sargon answered the questions thus: While I was a gardener, Ishtar granted me her love. And for four and fifty years I exercised Kingship; The Black-headed people I ruled and governed. The laconic statement is elaborated in another text. The encounter between Sargon the workingman and Ishtar the lovely goddess was accidental but far from innocent:

One day my queen. After crossing heaven, crossing earth— Inanna. After crossing heaven, crossing earth— After crossing Elam and Shubur, After crossing . . . The hierodule approached weary, fell asleep. I saw her from the edge of my garden; Kissed her, copulated with her.

Inanna—by then awakened, we must assume—found in Sargon a man to her liking, a man who could satisfy not only her bedtime cravings but also her political ambitions. A text known as the Sargon Chronicle states that “Sharru-Kin, king of Agade, rose [to power] in the era of Ishtar. He had neither rival nor opponent. He spread his terror-inspiring glamor over all the countries. He crossed the sea in the east; he conquered the country of the west, in its full extent.” The enigmatic reference to the “‘Era of Ishtar” has baffled the scholars: but it can only mean what it says: at that time, for whatever reasons. Inanna/Ishtar was able to have a man of her choice take the throne and create for her an empire: “He defeated Uruk and tore down its wall. … He was victorious in the battle with the inhabitants of Ur . . . he defeated the entire territory from Lagash as far as the sea. …” There were also the conquests beyond the olden boundaries of Sumer: “Mari and Elam are standing in obedience before Sargon.”

The grandeur of Sargon and the greatness of Inanna. going hand in hand, were expressed in the construction of the new capital city of Agade and in it the UL.MASH (“Glittering, Luxurious”) temple to Inanna. “In those days,” a Sumerian historiography text relates, “the dwellings of Agade were filled with gold; its brightshining houses were filled with silver. Into its storehouses were brought copper, lead and slabs of lapis-lazuli; its granaries bulged at the sides. Its old men were endowed with wisdom, its old women were endowed with eloquence; its young men were endowed with the Strength-of-Weapons, its little children were endowed with joyous hearts. . . . The city was full of music.”

In that beautiful and happy city, “in Agade did holy Inanna erect a temple as her noble abode; in the Ulmash she set up a throne.” It was the crowning temple in a series of shrines to her that encompassed Sumer’s principal cities. Stating that “in Erech, the E-Anna is mine,” Inanna listed her shrines in Nippur, Ur, Girsu, Adab,

Kish, Der, Akshak, and Umma, and lastly the Ulmash in Agade. “Is there a god who can vie with me?” she asked. Yet, though promoted by Inanna, the elevation of Sargon to kingship over what was henceforth known as Sumer and Akkad could not have taken place without the consent and blessing of Anu and Enlil. A bilingual (Sumerian-Akkadian) text, originally inscribed on a statue of Sargon that was placed before Enlil in his temple in Nippur, stated that Sargon was not only “Commanding Overseer” of Ishtar, but also “anointed priest of Anu” and “great regent of Enlil.” It was Enlil, Sargon wrote, who “had given him lordship and kingship.” Sargon’s records of his conquests describe Inanna as actively present on the battlefields but attribute to Enlil the overall decision regarding the scope of the victories and the extent of the territories: “Enlil did not let anybody oppose Sargon, the king of the land; from the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea Enlil gave unto him.” Invariably, postscripts to Sargon’s inscriptions invoked Anu, Enlil. Inanna, and Utu/Shamash as his “witnesses.” As one scrutinizes this vast empire, stretching from the Upper Sea (Mediterranean) to the Lower Sea (Persian Gulf), it becomes clear that Sargon’s conquests were, at first, limited to the domains of Sin and his children (Inanna and Utu) and, even at their peak, kept well within the Enlilite territories. Sargon reached Lagash. the city of Ninurta. and conquered the territory from Lagash southward, but not Lagash itself; nor did he expand to the northeast of Sumer where Ninurta held sway. Going beyond the boundaries of olden Sumer, he entered to the southeast the land of Elam—an area under Inanna’s influence from earlier times. But when Sargon was entering the lands to the west on the mid-Euphrates and the Mediterranean coast, the domains of Adad, “Sargon prostrated himself in prayer before the god . . . |and| he gave him in the upper region Mari, Yarmuli and Ebla, as far as the cedar forest and the silver mountain.”

It is clear from Sargon’s inscriptions that he was neither given Tilmun (the gods’ own Fourth Region), nor Magan (Egypt), nor Meluhha (Ethiopia) in the Second Region, the domains of Enki’s descendants; with those lands he only conducted peaceful trading relations. In Sumer itself he kept out of the area controlled by Ninurta and from the city claimed by Marduk. But then, “in his old age,” Sargon made a mistake:

He took away soil from the foundation of Babylon and built upon the soil another Babylon beside Agade. To understand the severity of this deed, we ought to recall the meaning of “Babylon”—Bab-Ili. “Gateway of the Gods.” A title and a function claimed for Babylon by a defiant Marduk.

It was symbolized by its hallowed soil. Now, encouraged by Inanna and driven by her ambitions, Sargon took away the sacred soil to spread it as a foundation for the new Bab-Ili. audaciously aiming to transfer the title and function to Agade. This was. as it turned out, an opportunity for Marduk—unheard from for so many centuries—to reassert himself: On account of the sacrilege Sargon thus committed. the great lord Marduk became enraged and destroyed his people by hunger.

From the east to the west he alienated them from Sargon; and upon him he inflicted as punishment that he could not rest. Desperately crushing one revolt after another, Sargon “could not rest”; discredited and afflicted, he died after a reign of 54 years.