From Mythologies o f the Ancient World,

edited by Samuel N oah Kramer

(N ew York, 1961), pp. 93-137.

Mythology of Sumer and Akkad

BY SAMUEL NOAH KRAMER

This material is presented solely for non-commercial educational/research purposes.

The extant myths of the Sumerians and Akkadians revolve
primarily about the creation and organization of the universe,
the birth of the gods, their loves and hates, their spites and
intrigues, their blessings and curses, their creative and de­
structive acts. Only rarely do the Sumero-Akkadian myths
revolve about the struggle for power between the gods, and
even then the struggle is not usually depicted as a bitter,
vindictive, and gory conflict. Intellectually speaking, the
Sumero-Akkadian myths reveal a rather mature and sophisti­
cated approach to the gods and their divine activities; behind
them can be recognized considerable theological and cosmo­
logical reflection.

SUMER

As yet no Sumerian myths have been recovered dealing di­

rectly and explicitly with the creation of the universe; what
little is known about the Sumerian cosmogonic ideas has been
inferred and deduced from laconic statements scattered
throughout the literary documents. But we do have a number
of myths concerned with the organization of the universe
and its cultural processes, the creation of man, and the
96 MYTHOLOGY O F SUMER AND AKKAD

establishment of civilization. The deities involved in these

myths are relatively few in number: the air-god Enlil, the
water-god Enki, the mother goddess Ninhursag (also known
as Nintu and Ninmah), the god of the south wind Ninurta, the
moon-god Nanna-Sin, the Bedu-god Martu, and above all the
goddess Inanna, particularly in relationship to her unlucky
spouse Dumuzi.
Enlil was the most important deity of the Sumerian
pantheon, “the father of the gods,” “the king of heaven and
earth,” “the king of all the lands.” According to the myth
“Enlil and the Creation of the Pickax,” he was the god
who separated heaven from earth, brought up “the seed
of the land” from the earth, brought forth “whatever was
needful,” fashioned the pickax for agricultural and building
purposes, and presented it to the “blackheads” (the Sumeri­
ans, or perhaps mankind as a whole). According to the
myth “Summer and Winter,” Enlil was the god who brought
forth all trees and grains, produced abundance and pros­
perity in “the land,” and appointed “Winter” as the “farmer
of the gods,” in charge of the life-producing waters and of
all that grows. The gods—even the most important among
them—are all eager for his blessing. One myth relates how
the water-god Enki, after building his “sea house” in Eridu,
journeyed to Enlil’s temple in Nippur in order to obtain his
approval and benediction. When the moon-god Nanna-Sin,
the tutelary deity of Ur, wants to make sure of the well­
being and prosperity of his domain he journeys to Nippur
on a boat loaded with gifts and thus obtains Enlil s generous
blessing.
But although Enlil is the chief of the Sumerian pantheon,
his powers are by no means unlimited and absolute. One
of the more “human” and tender of the Sumerian myths con­
cerns Enlil’s banishment to the Nether World and tells the
following story:
When man had not yet been created and the city of
Nippur was inhabited by gods alone, “its young man” was
the Enlil; “its young maid” was the goddess Ninlil; and “its
old woman” was NinliTs mother Nunbarshegunu. One day
 MYTHOLOGY OF SUM ER AND AKKAD 97

the latter, having evidently set her mind and heart on Ninlil’s
marriage to Enlil, instructs her daughter thus:
“In the pure stream, woman, bathe in the pure stream,
Ninlil, walk along the bank of the stream Nunbirdu,
The bright-eyed, the lord, the bright-eyed,
The ‘great mountain/ father Enlil, the bright-eyed, will see
you,
The shepherd . . . who decrees the fates, the bright-eyed,
will see you,
W ill forthwith embrace (?) you, kiss you.”

Ninlil joyfully follows her mother’s instructions:

In the pure stream, the woman bathes, in the pure stream,

'Ninlil walks along the bank of the stream Nunbirdu,
The bright-eyed, the lord, the bright-eyed,
The “great mountain,” father Enlil, the bright-eyed, saw her,
The shepherd . . . who decrees the fates, the bright-eyed,
saw her.
The lord speaks to her of intercourse (?), she is unwilling,
Enlil speaks to her of intercourse (?), she is unwilling;
“M y vagina is too little, it knows not to copulate,
M y lips are too small, they know not to kiss . .

Whereupon Enlil calls his vizier, Nusku, and tells him of his
desire for the lovely Ninlil. Nusku brings up a boat and Enlil
rapes Ninlil while sailing on the stream, and impregnates her
with the moon-god Sin. The gods are dismayed by this
immoral deed, and though Enlil is their king, they seize him
and banish him from the city to the Nether World. The
relevant passage, one of the few to shed some indirect light
on the organization of the pantheon and its method of opera­
tion, reads:

Enlil walks about in the Kiur (NinliVs private shrine),

As Enlil walks about in the Kiur,
The great gods, the fifty of them,
The fate-decreeing gods, the seven of them,
98 MYTHOLOGY O F SUMER AND AKKAD

Seize Enlil in the Kiur (saying):

uEnlil, immoral one, get you out of the city,
Nunamnir (an epithet of Enlil), immoral one, get you out
of the city ”

And so Enlil, in accordance with the fate decreed by the

gods, departs in the direction of the Sumerian Hades. Ninlil,
however, now pregnant with child, refuses to remain behind,
and follows Enlil on his forced journey to the Nether World.
This disturbs Enlil, for it would mean that his son Sin,
originally destined to be in charge of the largest luminous
body, the moon, would have to dwell in the dark gloomy
Nether World instead of in the sky. To circumvent this, he
seems to devise this rather complicated scheme. On the way
to Hades from Nippur he meets up with three individuals,
minor deities no doubt: the gatekeeper in charge of the
Nippur gates; the “man of the Nether World river”; and the
ferryman, the Sumerian “Charon” who ferries the dead
across to Hades. Enlil takes the form of each of these in
turn—the first known example of divine metamorphosis—
and impregnates Ninlil with three Nether World deities as
substitutes for their older brother Sin, who is thus free to
ascend to heaven.
One of the more detailed and revealing of the Sumerian
myths concerns the organization of the universe by Enki,
the Sumerian water-god who was also the god of wisdom.
The myth begins with a hymn of praise addressed to Enki
which exalts Enki as the god who watches over the universe
and is responsible for the fertility of field and farm, of flock
and herd. There follows a paean of self-glorification put into
the mouth of Enki, and concerned primarily with his rela­
tionship to the leading deities of the pantheon, An, Enlil, and
Nintu, and to the lesser gods known collectively as the
Anunnaki. Following a brief five-line passage which tells
of the Anunnaki doing homage to Enki, Enki “for a second
time” utters a paean of self-glorification. He begins by exalt­
ing the power of his word and command in providing the
earth with prosperity and abundance; continues with a de-
 MYTHOLOGY O F SUMER AND AKKAD 99

scription of the splendor of his shrine, the Abzu; and con­

cludes with an account of his joyous journey over the
marshland, in his makurru-boat, “the ibex of the Abzu,” after
which the lands Magan, Dilmun, and Meluhha sent their
heavily laden boats to Nippur with rich gifts for Enlil.
Then the Anunnaki once again pay homage to Enid, par­
ticularly as the god who “rides” and directs the me’s, the
divine laws which govern the universe.
The poet now introduces a description of the various rites
and rituals performed by some of the more important priests
and spiritual leaders of Sumer in Enki's Abzu-shrine. After
which we find Enki in his boat once again all set to “decree
the fates.” Beginning, as might have been expected, with
Sumer itself, he first exalts it as a chosen, hallowed land
with “lofty” and “untouchable” me’s, where the gods have
taken up their abode, then blesses its flocks and herds, its
temples and shrines. From Sumer he proceeds to Ur, which
he extols in lofty, metaphorical language and blesses with
prosperity and pre-eminence. From Ur he goes to Meluhha
and blesses it most generously with trees and reeds, oxen and
birds, gold, tin, and bronze. Following which, he proceeds
to provide Dilmun, Elam, Marhashi, and Martu with some
of their needs.
Enki now turns from the fate and destiny of the various
lands which made up the Sumerian inhabited world, and per­
forms a whole series of acts vital to the earth's fertility and
productiveness. Directing himself first to its physical features,
he begins by filling the Tigris with fresh, sparkling, life-
giving water—in the concrete metaphorical imagery of our
poet, Enki is a rampant bull who mates with the river
imagined as a wild cow. Then, to make sure that the Tigris
and Euphrates function properly, he appoints the god En-
bilulu, the “canal inspector,” to take charge of them. Enki
next “called” the marshland and the canebrake, supplied
them with fish and reeds, and appointed a deity “who loves
fish”—the name is illegible—to take charge of them. He
then turns to the sea, erects there his holy shrine, and places
the goddess Nanshe, “the Lady of Sirara,” in charge. Finally
100 MYTHOLOGY O F SUMER AND AKKAD

Enki “called” the life-giving rain, made it come down on

earth, and put the storm-god Ishkur in charge.
Enki applies himself to the earths cultural needs. He
attends to the plow, yoke, and furrow and appoints EnliTs
farmer, Enkimdu, in charge of them. He next “calls” the
cultivated field, brings forth its varied grains and vegetables,
and makes the grain-goddess Ashnan responsible for them.
He looks after the pickax and brick mold, and puts the
brick-god Kulla in charge of them. He lays foundations,
aligns the bricks, builds “the house,” and puts Mushdamma,
“the great builder of Enlil,” in charge.
Leaving farm, field, and house, Enki directs his attention
to the high plain, covers it with green vegetation, multiplies
its cattle, and makes Sumugan, “the king of the mountains,”
responsible for them. He next erects stalls and sheepfolds,
supplies them with the best fat and milk, and appoints the
shepherd-god Dumuzi to take charge of them. He fixes
the “borders”—presumably of cities and states—sets up
boundary stones, and appoints the sun-god Utu “in charge
of the entire universe.” Finally Enki attends to “that which
is woman's task,” specially the weaving of cloth, and puts
Uttu, the goddess of clothing, in charge.
The myth now takes a rather unexpected turn, as the poet
brings on the scene the ambitious and aggressive Inanna,
who feels that she has been slighted and left without any
special powers and prerogatives. Bitterly she complains that
EnliTs sister Aruru, alias Nintu, and her (Inanna s) sister
goddesses Ninisinna, Ninmug, Nidaba, and Nanshe have
all received their respective powers and insignia, but that she,
Inanna, has been singled out for neglectful and inconsiderate
treatment. Enki seems to be put on the defensive by Inanna's
complaint, and he tries to pacify her by pointing out that
she actually does have quite a number of special insignia
and prerogatives—“the crook, staff, and ward of shepherd-
ship”; oracular responses in regard to war and battle; the
weaving and fashioning of garments; the power to destroy
“the indestructible” and to make perish the “imperishable”—
as well as by giving her a special blessing. Following Enki’s
 MYTHOLOGY OF SUM ER AND AKKAD 101

reply to Inanna the poem closes with a four-line hymnal

passage to Enki.
Another Enki myth tells an intricate and as yet somewhat
obscure tale which involves the paradise-land Dilmun, per­
haps to be identified with ancient India. Very briefly
sketched, the plot of this Sumerian “paradise” myth, which
treats of gods, not humans, runs thus:
Dilmun is a land that is “pure,” “clean,” and “bright,” a
“land of the living,” which knows neither sickness nor death.
W hat is lacking, however, is the fresh water so essential to
animal and plant life. The great Sumerian water-god Enki,
therefore, orders Utu, the sun-god, to fill it with fresh water
brought up from the earth. Dilmun is thus turned into a
divine garden, green with fruit-laden fields and meadows.
In this paradise of the gods eight plants are made to sprout
by Ninhursag, the great mother goddess of the Sumerians,
perhaps more originally Mother Earth. She succeeds in
bringing these plants into being only after an intricate process
involving three generations of goddesses, all conceived by
the water-god and bom—so our poem repeatedly underlines
—without the slightest pain or travail. But probably because
Enki wanted to taste them, his messenger, the two-faced god
Isimud, plucks these precious plants one by one and gives
them to his master Enki, who proceeds to eat them each in
turn, whereupon the angered Ninhursag pronounces upon
him the curse of death. Evidently to make sure that she
does not change her mind and relent, she disappears from
among the gods.
Enkfs health begins to fail, eight of his organs become
sick. As Enki sinks fast, the great gods sit in the dust. Enlil,
the air-god, the king of the Sumerian gods, seems unable to
cope with the situation when up speaks the fox. If properly
rewarded, he says to Enlil, he, the fox, will bring Ninhursag
back. As good as his word, the fox succeeds in some way—
the relevant passage is unfortunately destroyed—in having
the mother goddess return to the gods and heal the dying*
water-god. She seats him by her vulva and after inquiring
which eight organs of his body ache him, she brings into
102 MYTHOLOGY O F SUMER AND AKKAD

existence eight corresponding healing deities, and Enki is

brought back to life and health.
Although our myth deals with a divine rather than a human
paradise, it has numerous parallels with the Biblical paradise
story. First, there is some reason to believe that the very
idea of a paradise, a garden of the gods, is of Sumerian origin.
The Sumerian paradise is located, according to our poem, in
Dilmun. It is in this same Dilmun where later, the Babylonians,
the Semitic people who conquered the Sumerians, located their
“land of the living,” the home of their immortals. And there
is good indication that the Biblical paradise, too, which is
described as a garden planted eastward in Eden, from whose
waters flow the four world rivers including the Tigris and
Euphrates, may have been originally identical with Dilmun,
the Sumerian paradise-land.
Again the passage in our poem describing the watering of
Dilmun by the sun-god with fresh water brought up from the
earth is reminiscent of the Biblical, “But there went up a
mist (?) from the earth, and watered the whole face of the
ground” (Genesis 2:6). The birth of the goddesses without
pain or travail illuminates the background of the curse against
Eve that it shall be her lot to conceive and bear children
in sorrow. And obviously enough, Enki’s eating of the eight
plants and the curse uttered against him for this misdeed
recall the eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge by
Adam and Eve, and the curses pronounced against each of
them for this sinful action.
But perhaps the most interesting result of our comparative
analysis of the Sumerian poem is the explanation which it
provides for one of the most puzzling motifs in the Biblical
paradise story, the famous passage describing the fashion­
ing of Eve, “the mother of all living,” from the rib of Adam.
For why a rib? Why did the Hebrew storyteller find it more
fitting to choose a rib rather than any of the other parts of
the body for the fashioning of the woman whose name, Eve,
according to the Biblical notion, means approximately “she
who makes live.” The reason becomes quite clear if we
assume a Sumerian literary background, such as that rep­
 MYTHOLOGY OF SUMER AND AKKAD 103

resented by our Dilmun poem, underlying the Biblical para­

dise tale. For in our Sumerian poem one of Enid’s sick
members is the rib. Now the Sumerian word for “rib” is ti
(pronounced “tee”). The goddess created for the healing of
Enki’s rib therefore was called in Sumerian Nin-ti, “the lady
of the rib.” But the very same Sumerian word ti also means
“to make live.” The name Nin-ti may thus mean “the lady
who makes live,” as well as “the lady of the rib.” In Sumerian
literature, therefore, “the lady of the rib” came to be iden­
tified with “the lady who makes live” through what may
be termed a play of words. It was this, one of the most
ancient of literary puns, which was carried over and perpetu­
ated in the Biblical paradise story, although here, of course,
it loses its validity, since the Hebrew word for “rib” and that
for “who makes live” have nothing in common.
There is also an Enld-Ninhursag myth concerned with the
creation of man from “clay that is over the abyss.” The story
begins with a description of the difficulties of the gods in
procuring their bread, especially, as might have been
expected, after the female deities had come into being. The
gods complain, but Enki, the water-god, who, as the Sume­
rian god of wisdom, might have been expected to come to
their aid, is lying asleep in the deep and fails to hear them.
Thereupon his mother, the primeval sea, “the mother who
gave birth to all the gods,” brings the tears of the gods before
Enki, saying:

“O my son, rise from your bed, from your . . . work what is

wise,
Fashion servants of the gods, may they produce their
doubles (?)”

Enki gives the matter thought, leads forth the host of

“good and princely fashioners,” and says to his mother,
Nammu, the primeval sea:

“O m y mother, the creature whose name you uttered, it exists,

Bind upon it the image (?) of the gods;
104 MYTHOLOGY O F SUMER AND AKKAD

Mix the heart of the clay that is over the abyss,

The good and princely fashioners will thicken the clay,
You, do you bring the limbs into existence;
Ninmah (the earth-mother goddess) will work above you,
The goddesses (of birth) . . . will stand by you at your
fashioning;
O my mother, decree its (the newborns) fate,
Ninmah will bind upon it the mold (?) of the gods,
It is man. . .

The poem now turns from the creation of man as a whole

to the creation of certain imperfect human types in an obvi­
ous attempt to explain the existence of these abnormal beings.
It tells of a feast arranged by Enki for the gods, no doubt to
commemorate man's creation. At this feast Enki and Ninmah
drink much wine and become somewhat exuberant. Ninmah
then takes some of the clay which is over the abyss and
fashions six different varieties of abnormal individuals, while
Enki decrees their fate and gives them bread to eat.
After Ninmah had created these six types of man, Enki
decides to do some creating of his own. The manner in which
he goes about it is not clear, but whatever it is that he does,
the resulting creature is a failure; it is weak and feeble in
body and spirit. Enki is now anxious that Ninmah help this
forlorn creature; he therefore addresses her as follows:

“Of him whom your hand has fashioned, 1 have decreed the
fate,
Have given him bread to eat;
Do you decree the fate of him whom my hand has fashioned,
Do you give him bread to e a t”

Ninmah tries to be good to the creature but to no avail.

She talks to him but he fails to answer. She gives him bread
to eat, but he does not reach out for it. He can neither sit nor
stand, nor bend the knees. Following a long but as yet unin­
telligible conversation between Enki and Ninmah, the latter
utters a curse against Enki because of the sick, lifeless crea­
 MYTHOLOGY OF SUMER AND AKKAD 105

ture which he produced, a curse which Enki seems to accept

as his due.
Of Ninurta, the god of the stormy South Wind, there is a
myth with a dragon-slaying motif. Following a brief hymnal
passage to the god, the plot begins with an address to Nin­
urta by the Sharur, his personified weapon. For some unstated
reason the Sharur had set his mind against Asag, the demon
of sickness and disease, whose abode is in the Kur, or Nether
World. In a speech which is full of phrases extolling the
heroic qualities and deeds of Ninurta, he urges him to attack
and destroy the monster. Ninurta sets out to do as bidden.
At first, however, he seems to have met more than his match,
and he “flees like a bird.” Once again the Sharur addresses
him with reassuring and encouraging words. Ninurta now
attacks the Asag fiercely with all the weapons at his com­
mand, and the demon is destroyed.
With the destruction of the Asag, however, a serious
calamity overtook Sumer. The primeval waters of the Kur
rose to the surface, and as a result of their violence no fresh
waters could reach the fields and gardens. The gods of Sumer
who “carried its pickax and basket,” that is, who had charge
of irrigating Sumer and preparing it for cultivation, were
desperate. The Tigris did not rise, it had no “good” water
in its channel.
Famine was severe, nothing was produced,
At the small rivers, there was no “washing of the hands,”
The waters rose not high.
The fields are not watered,
There was no digging of (irrigation) ditches.
In all the lands there was no vegetation,
Only weeds grew.
Thereupon the Lord put his lofty mind to it,
Ninurta, the son of Enlil brought great things into being.
He set up a pile of stones over the Kur and heaped it up
like a great wall in front of Sumer. These stones held back
“the mighty waters,” and as a result the waters of the
Kur could rise no longer to the surface of the earth. As for
106 MYTHOLOGY OF SUMER AND AKKAD

waters which had already flooded the land, Ninurta gathered

them and led them into the Tigris, which is now in a position
to water the fields with its overflow. Or, as the poet puts it:
What had been scattered, he gathered,
What of the Kur had been scattered,
He guided and hurled into the Tigris,
The high waters it pours over the fields.
Behold, now, everything on earth,
Rejoiced afar at Ninurta, the king of the land.
The fields produced abundant grain,
The vineyard and orchard bore their fruit,
The harvest was heaped up in granaries and hills,
The Lord made mourning to disappear from the land,
He made happy the spirit of the gods.
Hearing of her sons great and heroic deeds, his mother
Ninmah was taken with love for him; she became so restless
that she was unable to sleep in her bedchamber. She there­
fore addresses Ninurta from afar with a prayer for permission
to visit him and gaze upon him. Ninurta looks at her with the
“eye of life,” saying:
“Oh lady, because you would come to the Kur,
Oh Ninmah, because far my sake you would enter the inimi­
cal land,
Because you have no fear of the terror of the battle surround­
ing me,
Therefore, of the hill which I, the hero, have heaped up,
Let its name be Hursag (Mountain) and you be its queen.n
Ninurta then blesses the Hursag that it may produce all
kinds of herbs; wine and honey; various kinds of trees; gold,
silver, and bronze; cattle, sheep, and all “four-legged crea­
tures.” Following this blessing he turns to the stones, cursing
those which had been his enemies in his battle with the
Asag-demon, and blessing those which had been his friends.
Not a few of the Sumerian myths revolve about the ambi­
tious, aggressive, and demanding goddess of love, Inanna—
the Akkadian Ishtar—and her husband, the shepherd-god
 MYTHOLOGY OF SUMER AND AKKAD 107

Dumuzl—the Biblical Tammuz. The wooing of the goddess

by Dumuzi is told in two versions. In the one he contends for
her favor with the farmer-god Enkimdu, and is successful
only after a good deal of quarrelsome argument leading to
threats of violence. In the other, Dumuzi seems to find ready
and immediate acceptance as Inanna's lover and husband.
But little did he dream that his marriage to Inanna would end
in his perdition and that he would be literally dragged down
to Hell. This is told in one of the best-preserved Sumerian
myths, “Inanna’s Descent to the Nether World,” which has
been published and revised three times in the course of the
past twenty-five years, and is about to be revised a fourth
time with the help of several hitherto unknown tablets and
fragments; it tells the following tale:
Inanna, “queen of heaven,” the ambitious goddess of love
and war whom the shepherd Dumuzi had wooed and won for
wife, decides to descend to the Nether World in order to
make herself its mistress, and thus perhaps to raise the dead.
She therefore collects the appropriate divine laws and, having
adorned herself with her queenly robes and jewels, she is
ready to enter the “land of no return.”
The queen of the Nether World is her older sister and bitter
enemy, Ereshkigal, Sumerian goddess of death and gloom.
Fearing, not without reason, lest her sister put her to death in
the domain she rules, Inanna instructs her vizier, Ninshubur,
who is always at her beck and call, that if after three days
she has failed to return he is to set up a lament for her by the
ruins, in the assembly hall of the gods. He is then to go to
Nippur, the city of Enlil, the leading god of the Sumerian
pantheon, and plead with him to save her and not let her be
put to death in the Nether Worldv If Enlil refuses, Ninshubur
is to go to Ur, the city of the moon-god Nanna, and repeat
his plea. If Nanna, too, refuses, he is to go to Eridu, the city
of Enki, the god of wisdom, who “knows the food of life,”
who “knows the water of life,” and he will surely come to
her rescue.
Inanna then descends to the Nether World and approaches
Ereshkigals temple of lapis lazuli. At the gate she is met by
108 MYTHOLOGY OF SUMER AND AKKAD

the chief gatekeeper, who demands to know who she is and

why she has come. Inanna concocts a false excuse for her
visit, and the gatekeeper, on instructions from his mistress,
leads her through the seven gates of the Nether World. As
she passes through one gate after another her garments and
jewels are removed piece by piece in spite of her protests.
Finally, after entering the last gate, she is brought stark naked
and on bended knees before Ereshkigal and the Anunnaki,
the seven dreaded judges of the Nether World. They fasten
upon her their eyes of death, and she is turned into a corpse,
which is then hung from a stake.
Three days and three nights pass. On the fourth day Nin-
shubur, seeing that his mistress has not returned, proceeds to
make the rounds of the gods in accordance with her instruc­
tions. As Inanna had surmised, both Enlil and Nanna refuse
all help. Enki, however, devises a plan to restore her to life.
He fashions the kurgarru and the kalaturru, two sexless crea­
tures, and entrusts to them the “food of life” and the “water
of life,” with instructions to proceed to the Nether World
where Ereshkigal, “the birth-giving mother,” lies sick
“because of her children” and, naked and uncovered, keeps
moaning, “Woe my inside” and “Woe my outside.” They,
the kurgarru and kalaturru, are to repeat sympathetically her
cry and add: “From my ‘inside’ to your ‘inside/ from my
outside’ to your ‘outside/ ” They will then be offered water
of the rivers and grain of the fields as gifts, but, Enki warns,
they must not accept them. Instead they are to say, “Give us
the corpse hanging from a nail” and proceed to sprinkle “the
food of life” and “the water of life” which he had entrusted
to them, and thus revive the dead Inanna. The kurgarru and
kalaturru do exactly as Enki bid them and Inanna revives.
Though Inanna is once again alive, her troubles are far
from over, for it was an unbroken rule of the “land of no
return” that no one who had entered its gates might return
to the world above unless he produced a substitute to take
his place in the Nether World. Inanna is no exception to the
rule. She is indeed permitted to reascend to the earth, but is
accompanied by a number of heartless demons with instruo-
 MYTHOLOGY OF SUMER AND AKKAD 109

tions to bring her back to the lower regions if she fails to

provide another deity to take her place. Surrounded by these
ghoulish constables, Inanna first proceeds to visit the two
Sumerian cities Umma and Bad-tibira. The protecting gods
of these cities, Shara and Latarak, terrified at the sight of the
unearthly arrivals, clothe themselves in sackcloth and grovel
in the dust before Inanna. Inanna seems to be gratified by
their humility, and when the demons threaten to carry them
off to the Nether World she restrains the demons and thus
saves the lives of the two gods.
Inanna and the demons, continuing their journey, arrive at
Kullab, a district in the Sumerian city-state of Erech. The
king of this city is the shepherd-god Dumuzi, who, instead of
bewailing the fact that his wife had descended to the Nether
World when she had suffered torture and death, “put on a
noble robe, sat high on a throne,” that is, he was actually
celebrating and rejoicing. Enraged, Inanna looks down upon
him with “the eye of death” and hands him over to the eager
and unmerciful demons to be carried off to the Nether World.
Dumuzi turns pale and weeps. He lifts his hands to the sky
and pleads with the sun-god Utu, who is Inanna’s brother
and therefore his own brother-in-law. Dumuzi begs Utu to
help him escape the clutches of the demons by changing his
hand into the hand of a snake, and his foot into the foot of a
snake.
But there, right in the middle of Dumuzi’s prayer, the
available tablets break off, and the reader was left hanging
in the mid-air. Now, however, we have the melancholy end.
Dumuzi, in spite of the three-time intervention of Utu, is
carried off to die in the Nether World as a substitute for his
angered and embittered wife, Inanna. This we learn from a
hitherto largely unknown poem which is not actually a part
of the “Inanna's Descent to the Nether World” but is inti­
mately related to it and which, moreover, speaks of Dumuzi’s
changing into a gazelle rather than a snake. This new compo­
sition has been found inscribed on twenty-eight tablets and
fragments dating from about 1750 b .c ., and the full text has
only recently been pieced together and translated, at least
110 MYTHOLOGY O F SUMER AND AKKAD

tentatively, although some of the pieces were published dec­

ades ago. In fact the first of the pieces belonging to the myth
was published as early as 1915 by a young Sumerologist,
Hugo Radau, but it contained only the last lines of the poem
and its contents therefore remained obscure. In 1930 the
French scholar, Henri de Genouillac, published two addi­
tional pieces which contained the initial fifty-five lines of the
poem. But since the entire middle portion was unknown there
was no way of knowing that the Radau and the de Genouillac
pieces belonged to the same poem. By 1953 six additional
pieces, published and unpublished, became available, and
Thorkild Jacobsen, of the Oriental Institute, one of the
world's leading Sumerologists, was the first to give an idea of
its plot and to translate several passages in the Journal of
Cuneiform Studies, vol. XII, pp. 165-66, and in Leo Oppen-
heim’s The Interpretation of Dreams in the Ancient Near
East, p. 246. Since then, I have identified nineteen additional
tablets and fragments, ten of which are in the Museum of the
Ancient Orient in Istanbul; these have been copied by Mmes.
Muazzez Cig and Hatice Kizileyay, the curators of the tablet
collection in Istanbul, and myself. As a result of all these
new documents it was possible, at long last, to restore the text
of the poem almost in full and to prepare the tentative trans­
lation on which the following sketch of its contents is based.
The myth begins with an introductory passage in which
the author sets the melancholy tone of the tale he is to tell.
Dumuzi the shepherd of Erech has a foreboding premonition
that his death is imminent, and so goes forth to the plain with
tearful eyes and bitter lament:

His heart was filled with tears,

He went forth to the plain,
The shepherd— his heart was filled with tears,
He went forth to the plain,
Dumuzi— his heart was filled with tears,
He went forth to the plain,
He fastened his flute (?) about his neck,
Gave utterance to a lament:
 MYTHOLOGY OF SUMER AND AKKAD 111

“Set up a lament, set up a lament,

O plain, set up a lamentl
O plain, set up a lament, set up a wail (?) I
Among the crabs of the river, set up a lamentl
Among the frogs of the river, set up a lament!
Let my mother utter words (of lament),
Let my mother Sirtur utter words (of lament),
Let my mother who has (?) not five breads (?)
utter words (of lament),
Let my mother who has (?) not ten breads (?)
utter words (of lament),
On the day I die she will have none to care (?) for her,
On the plain, like my mother, let m y eyes shed tears (P),
On the plain, like my little sister, let m y eyes shed tears”

Dumuzi, the poem continues, then lies down to sleep and

has an ominous and foreboding dream:
Among the buds (?) he lay down, among the buds (?) he
lay down,
The shepherd—among the buds (?) he lay down,
As the shepherd lay down among the buds (?), he dreamt a
dream,
He arose— it was a dream, he trembled (?)— it was a vision,
He rubbed his eyes with his hands, he was dazed.

The bewildered Dumuzi now has his sister Geshtinanna,

the divine poetess, singer, and dream interpreter, brought
before him and tells her his portentous vision:
“My dream, oh m y sister, m y dream,
This is the heart of m y dream:
Rushes rise up all about me, rushes sprout all about me,
One reed standing all alone, bows its head for me,
Of the reeds standing in pairs, one is removed for me,
In the wooded grove, tall (?) trees rise fearsomely all about
me,
Over my holy hearth, water is poured.
Of m y holy churn— its stand (?) is removed,
112 MYTHOLOGY OF SUMER AND AKKAD

The holy cup hanging from a peg, from the peg has fallen,
My shepherds crook has vanished,
An owl holds a ..................
A falcon holds a lamb in its claws,
My young goats drag their lapis beards in the dust,
My sheep of the fold paw the ground, with their bent limbs,
The chum lies (shattered), no milk is poured,
The cup lies (shattered), Dumuzi lives no more,
The sheepfold is given over to the wind.”

Geshtinanna, too, is deeply disturbed by her brother’s dream:

“Oh m y brother, your dream is not favorable, which you

tell mel
Oh Dumuzi, your dream is not favorable which you tell mel
Rushes rise up all about you, rushes sprout all about you.
( This means) outlaws ivill rise up to attack you.
One reed standing all alone, bows its head for you,
( This means) your mother who bore you will lower her head
for you.
Of the reeds standing in pairs, one is removed,
( This means) 1 and you— one of us will be removed. . .

Geshtinanna thus proceeds to interpret, item by item, her

brother’s somber and foreboding dream, ending with a warn­
ing that the demons of the Nether World, the galla’s, are
closing in on him and that he must hide immediately.
Dumuzi agrees, and implores his sister not to tell the
galla’s of his hiding place, thus:

“M y friend, 1 will hide among the plants,

Tell no one m y (hiding) place,
1 toill hide among the small plants,
Tell no one my (hiding) place.
I will hide among the large plants,
Tell no one my (hiding) place.
I will hide among ditches of Arallu,
Tell no one my (hiding) place.”
 MYTHOLOGY O F SUM ER AND AKKAD 113

To which Geshtinanna replies:

“If I tell your (hiding) place, may your dogs devour mey
The black dogs, your dogs of \shepherdship/
The wild dogs, your dogs of ‘lordship/
May your dogs devour m e ”
And so the galla’s, the inhuman creatures who
Eat no food, know not water,
Eat not sprinkled flour,
Drink not libated water,
Accept no gifts that mollify,
Sate not with pleasure the wife's bosom,
Kiss not the children, the s w e e t...................
come searching for the hidden Dumuzi but cannot find him.
They seize his sister Geshtinanna and try to bribe her to tell
them of Dumuzi’s whereabouts, but she remains true to her
given word.
Dumuzi, however, returns to the city, probably because he
fears that the demons will kill his sister. There the gallas
catch hold of him, belabor him with blows, punches, and
lashes, bind fast his hands and arms, and are all set to carry
him off to the Nether World. Whereupon Dumuzi turns to
the sun-god Utu, the brother of his wife, Inanna, the tutelary
goddess of his city Erech, with the prayer to turn him into a
gazelle, so that he can escape the gallas and carry off his
“soul" to a place (as yet unidentified) known by the name of
Shubirila, or as Dumuzi himself puts it:
“Utuy you are m y wife's brother,
1 am your sister's husband,
I am he who carries food for Eanna [Inanna's temple],
In Erech 1 performed the marriages
I kissed the holy lips (?)
Caressed (?) the holy lap, the lap of Inanna—
Turn m y hands into the hands of a gazelle,
Turn m y feet into the feet of a gazelle,
Let m e escape m y galh-demons,
Let m e carry off my soul to Shubirila. . . ”
114 MYTHOLOGY O F SUMER AND AKKAD

The sun-god harkened to Dumuzi’s prayer. In the words of

the poet:
Utu took his tears as a gift,
Like a man of mercy, he showed him mercy,
He turned his hands into the hands of a gazelle,
He turned his feet into the feet of a gazelle,
He escaped his galla-demons,
Carried off his soul to Shubirila. . .
But to no avail. The pursuing demons catch up with him
once again, and beat and torture him as before. A second
time, therefore, Dumuzi turns to the sun-god Utu with the
prayer to turn him into a gazelle; only this time he will carry
off his soul to the house of a goddess known as “Belili, the
wise old lady.” Utu does so, and Dumuzi arrives at the house
of Belili pleading:
“Wise old lady, I am not a man, I am the husband of a god­
dess,
Of the libated water, let me drink a little (?)
Of the flour which has been sprinkled, let me eat a little (?).”
He had barely had time to partake of food and drink, when
the galias appear and beat and torment Dumuzi a third
time. Again Utu turns him to a gazelle, and he escapes to the
sheepfold of his sister Geshtinanna. But all in vain, five of
the galla’s enter the sheepfold, strike Dumuzi on the cheek
with nail and sticks, and Dumuzi dies. Or, to quote the mel­
ancholy lines which end the poem:
The first galla enters the sheepfold.
He strikes Dumuzi on the cheek with a piercing (?) nail (?),
The second one enters the sheepfold.
He strikes Dumuzi on the cheek with the shepherd’s crook,
The third one enters the sheepfold,
Of the holy churn, the stand (?) is removed,
The fourth one enters the sheepfold,
The cup hanging from a peg, from the peg falls,
The fifth one enters the sheepfold,
 MYTHOLOGY O F SUMER AND AKKAD 115

The holtj churn lies (shattered), no milk is poured,

The cup lies (shattered), Dumuzi lives no more,
The sheepfold is given to the wind.
Thus Dumuzi comes to a tragic end, a victim of Inanna’s
love and hate. Not all the Inanna myths, however, relate to
Dumuzi. There is one, for example, which relates how the
goddess obtained through trickery the divine laws the me’s
which govern mankind and his institutions. This myth is of
considerable anthropological interest. Because its author
found it desirable in connection with the story to give a full
list of the me9s, he divided civilization as he conceived it into
over one hundred culture traits and complexes relating to
man’s political and religious and social institutions, to the
arts and crafts, to music and musical instruments, and to a
varied assortment of intellectual, emotional, and social pat­
terns of behavior. Briefly sketched, the plot of this revealing
myth runs as follows:
Inanna, Queen of Heaven, the tutelary goddess of Erech,
is anxious to increase the welfare and prosperity of her city,
to make it the center of Sumerian civilization and thus to
exalt her name and fame. She, therefore, decides to go to
Eridu, the ancient and hoary seat of Sumerian culture where
Enki, the Lord of Wisdom, “who knows the very heart of the
gods,” dwells in his watery abyss, the Abzu. For Enki has
under his charge all the divine decrees that are fundamental
to civilization. And if she can obtain them, by fair means or
foul, and bring them to her city Erech, its glory and her own
will indeed be unsurpassed. As she approaches the Abzu of
Eridu, Enki, no doubt taken in by her charm, calls his mes­
senger Isimud, whom he addresses as follows:
uCome9 m y messenger Isimud, give ear to my instructions,
A word I shall say to you, take m y word.
The maid, all alone, has directed her step to the Abzu,
Inanna, all alone, has directed her step to the Abzu,
Have the maid enter the Abzu of Eridu,
Give her to eat barley cake with butter,
Pour for her cold water that freshens the heart,
116 MYTHOLOGY O F SUMER AND AKKAD

Give her to drink beer in the ‘face of the lion

At the holy table, the Table of Heaven,
Speak to Inanna words of greeting”
Isimud did exactly as bidden by his master, and Inanna
and Enki sit down to feast and banquet. After their hearts
had become happy with drink, Enki exclaims:
“By the name of power, by the name of my power,
To holy Inanna, my daughter, I shall present the divine
decrees”
He thereupon presents, several at a time, the over one
hundred divine decrees which, according to our author, con­
trol the culture pattern of civilization as he knew it. Inanna is
only too happy to accept the gifts offered her by the drunken
Enki. She takes them and loads them on her Boat of Heaven,
and makes off for Erech with her precious cargo. But after
the effects of the banquet had worn off, Enki noticed that the
mers were gone from their usual place. He turns to Isimud
and the latter informs him that he, Enki himself, had pre­
sented them to his daughter Inanna. The upset Enki greatly
rues his munificence and decides to prevent the Boat of
Heaven from reaching Erech at all cost. He therefore dis­
patches his messenger Isimud together with a group of sea
monsters to follow Inanna and her boat to the first of the
seven stepping stations that are situated between the Abzu
of Eridu and Erech. Here the sea monsters are to seize the
Boat of Heaven from Inanna; Inanna herself, however, must
be permitted to continue her journey to Erech afoot
Isimud does as bidden. He overtakes Inanna and the Boat
of Heaven and informs her of Enki's change of heart, and
that while she is free to go on to Erech, he will have to take
the boat and its precious cargo from her and bring it back to
Erech. Whereupon Inanna berates Enki roundly for breaking
his word and oath, turns to her vizier, the god Ninshubur, for
help, and the latter rescues her and the boat from Isimud
and the sea monsters. Enki is persistent; again and again he
sends Isimud accompanied by various sea monsters to seize
 MYTHOLOGY O F SUMER AND AKKAD 117

the Boat of Heaven. But on each occasion Ninshubur comes

to the rescue of his mistress. Finally Inanna and her boat
arrive safe and sound at Erech, where amidst jubilation and
feasting on the part of the delighted inhabitants she unloads
the precious divine m es, one at a time.
There is one Inanna myth in which a mortal plays an
important role; its plot runs as follows:
Once upon a time there lived a gardener by the name of
Shukallituda, whose diligent efforts at gardening had met
with nothing but failure. Although he had carefully watered
his furrows and garden patches, the plants had withered
away; the raging winds smote his face with the “dust of the
mountains”; all that he had carefully tended turned desolate.
He thereupon lifted his eyes east and west to the starry
heavens, studied the omens, observed and learned the divine
decrees. As a result of this newly acquired wisdom he planted
the (as yet unidentified) sarbatu-tiee in the garden, a tree
whose broad shade lasts from sunrise to sunset. As a conse­
quence of this ancient horticultural experiment Shukallituda’s
garden blossomed forth with all kinds of green.
One day, continues our myth, the goddess Inanna, after
traversing heaven and earth, lay down to rest her tired body
not far from Shukallituda’s garden. The latter, who had spied
her from the edge of his garden, takes advantage of Inanna’s
extreme weariness and cohabits with her. When morning
came and the sun rose, Inanna looked about her in consterna­
tion and determined to ferret out at all costs the mortal who
had so shamefully abused her. She therefore sends three
plagues against Sumer. Firstly, she fills all the wells of the
land with blood, so that all the palm groves and vineyards
are saturated with blood. Secondly, she sends against the
land destructive winds and storms. The nature of the third
plague is uncertain, since the relevant lines are too fragmen­
tary. But in spite of all three plagues she is unable to locate
her defiler. For after each plague Shukallituda goes to his
father’s house and informs him of his danger. The father
advises his son to direct his step to his brothers, the “black­
headed people,” that is, the people of Sumer, and to stay
118 MYTHOLOGY O F SUMER AND AKKAD

close to the urban centers. Shukallituda follows this advice,

and as a result Inanna is unable to find him.
After her third failure Inanna realizes bitterly that she is
unable to avenge the outrage committed against her. She
therefore decides to go to the city Eridu, to the house of
Enid, the Sumerian god of wisdom, and ask his advice and
help. But here unfortunately the tablet breaks off, and the
end of the story remains unknown.
Except for references to mankind as a whole, mortals play
little role in the Sumerian myths. In addition to the Inanna-
Shukallituda myth just described, there is only one other
myth involving a mortal. This is the long-known flood-
story so important for comparative Biblical studies. Unfor­
tunately only one* tablet inscribed with this myth has been
excavated to date, and this tablet is only one-third preserved.
The beginning of the myth is broken away, and the first intel­
ligible lines concern the creation of man, vegetation, and
animals; the heavenly origin of kingship; the founding and
naming of five antediluvian cities, which are presented to
five tutelary deities. We then leam that a number of deities
are bitter and unhappy because of a divine decision to bring
the flood and destroy mankind. Ziusudra, the Sumerian coun­
terpart of the Biblical Noah, is next introduced in the story
as a pious god-fearing king who is constantly on the lookout
for divine dreams and revelations. He stations himself by a
wall, where he hears the voice of a deity, probably Enki,
informing him of the decision taken by the assembly of the
gods to send a deluge and “destroy the seed of mankind.”
The myth must have continued with detailed instructions
to Ziusudra to build a giant boat and thus save himself from
destruction. But all this is missing because of a rather large
break in the tablet. When the text resumes we find that the
flood in all its violence had already come upon the earth
where it raged for seven days and nights. Following which,
the sun-god Utu comes forth lighting and warming up the
earth, and Ziusudra prostrates himself before him and offers
him sacrifices of oxen and sheep. The last extant lines of the
 MYTHOLOGY OF SUMER AND AKKAD 119
myth describe the deification of Ziusudra: after he had pros­
trated himself before An and Enlil, he was given “life like a
god” and translated to Dilmun, the divine paradise-land,
“the place where the sun rises.”
Finally, there is a Sumerian myth which, although con­
cerned with gods only, provides an interesting bit of anthro­
pological information about the Semitic Bedu-people known
as Martu. The action of the story takes place in the city of
Ninab, “the city of cities, the land of princeship,” a still
unidentified locality in Mesopotamia. Its tutelary deity seems
to have been Martu, god of the nomadic Semites who lived
to the west and southwest of Sumer. The relative time when
the events took place is described in cryptic, antithetical, and
obscure phrases, thus:
Ninab existed, Aktab existed not,
The holy crown existed, the holy tiara existed not,
The holy herbs existed, holy nitrum existed not. . . .
The god Martu, the story begins, decides to marry. He
asks his mother to take him a wife, but she advises him to go
and find a wife for himself in accordance with his own desire.
One day, the story continues, a great feast is prepared in
Ninab, and to it comes Numushda, the tutelary deity of
Kazallu, a city-state located to the northeast of Sumer,
together with his wife and daughter. During this feast Martu
performs some heroic deed which brings joy to the heart of
Numushda. As a reward, the latter offers Martu silver and
lapis lazuli. But Martu refuses; it is the hand of Numushda’s
daughter which he claims as a reward. Numushda gladly
consents; so, too, does his daughter, although her girl friends
try to dissuade her from marrying Martu since:
H e lives in tents, buffeted by wind and rain,
Eats uncooked meat,
Has no house while he lives,
Is not brought to burial when he dies.
120 MYTHOLOGY OF SUMER AND AKKAD

AKKAD

The myths of the Akkadians (that is, of the Babylonians and

Assyrians) derive largely from Sumerian prototypes. At least
two of them—“Ishtar's Descent to the Nether World” and
the “Flood”-story as told in the Epic of Gilgamesh—are
well-nigh identical with known Sumerian originals. But even
those for which no Sumerian counterparts have as yet been
recovered contain mythological themes and motifs which
reflect Sumerian sources, not to mention the fact that most of
the deities involved are part of the Sumerian pantheon. This
is not to say that the Akkadian poets imitated slavishly their
Sumerian prototypes; they introduced many innovations and
changes in both theme and plot. But by and large, the Akka­
dian men of letters could not escape the deep and all-
pervading influence of their Sumerian heritage.
The best-known of the Akkadian myths is the “creation”
poem usually called Enuma-Elish, from its initial two words
which mean “when above.” Actually the poem was composed
not so much to tell the story of creation, but to glorify the
Babylonian god Marduk and the city of Babylon. But in the
course of doing so it introduces and relates Marduk’s acts of
creation, and is thus a prime source for the Akkadian cosmo­
gonic ideas. Thus the poem tells us that at the very beginning,
when as yet “the heavens had not been named on high” and
“the earth had not been called by name below,” there existed
only the primordial oceans, Tiamat and Apsu (the Sumerian
Abzu). Then, at some unspecified time, several generations
of gods were bom, one of whom was Ea, the Sumerian Enki,
the god of wisdom. These gods, however, distressed Apsu
and Tiamat with their unceasing bustle and clamor, and
Apsu decided to do away with them, although his wife Tia­
mat urged him to have compassion on them. Fortunately for
the gods, however, Ea succeeded in killing Apsu with the
 MYTHOLOGY O F SUMER AND AKKAD 121

help of a magic incantation. Ea then established his own

abode upon the dead Apsu, and there his wife gave birth to
Marduk, a heroic and imposing figure of a god who soon had
occasion to show his braveiy by saving the gods from
Tiamat, bent on avenging the death of her husband Apsu,
with the help of some renegade gods and a host of vicious
monsters. Following this victory, Marduk created heaven and
earth from Tiamat’s huge corpse by splitting it in two. He
then created special "stations” for the gods, set up the stellar
constellations, constructed gates through which the sun might
enter and depart, and caused the moon to shine forth. Then,
to free the gods from menial labor, Marduk, with the help of
his father Ea, created mankind from the blood of Kingu, the
rebel god who had been leader of Tiamat’s inimical host.
Following which, the appreciative gods built the Esagila,
Marduk’s temple at Babylon, prepared a joyous banquet, and
recited Marduk’s fifty names which attributed to him the
powers of practically all the major gods of the Akkadian
pantheon.
In addition to the Enuma-Elish version, there are a num­
ber of other and much briefer creation accounts which differ
in numerous details from each other and from that of Enuma-
Elish. Thus there is one account used as an introduction to an
incantation for the purification of a Babylonian temple, which
relates that at first nothing existed, neither reed nor tree,
neither house nor temple, neither city nor living creatures,
and that "all lands were sea.” Then the gods were created
and Babylon was built. After which Marduk fashioned a reed
frame over the face of the waters and created mankind with
the help of the mother goddess Aruru (the Sumerian Nin­
mah, alias Nintu, alias Ninhursag). Following man, Marduk
created the beasts of the plain, the rivers Tigris and Euphrates,
grass, rushes, and reeds, the green herbs of the fields, lands,
marshes, and canebrakes, the cow and her young, the ewe and
her lamb, the sheep of the fold. And thus it was that dry land
came into being, and cities such as Nippur and Erech to­
gether with their temples and houses were built of bricks
fashioned in brick molds.
122 MYTHOLOGY OF SUMER AND AKKAD

According to another brief creation account, one that was

intended for recitation in connection with a ritual for the
restoration of a temple, it was the god Anu (the Sumerian
heaven-god An) who created the heavens, while Ea (the
Sumerian Enki) created the dry land and everything on it.
He “pinched off clay” from over his sea dwelling, the Apsu,
and created the brick-god Kulla. He created the reed marshes,
and forests, the mountains and the seas, together with the
gods in charge of such crafts as carpentry, metal work,
engraving, and stonecutting. In order that the temples, once
built, might be provided with regular offerings, he created
the deities in charge of grain, cattle, and wine, as well as a
divine cook, cupbearer, and high priest. Finally, in order to
maintain the temples and perform the labor which the gods
would otherwise have to do themselves, they created men
and kings.
There is a fragmentary creation myth used as an introduc­
tion to a childbirth incantation, of which only the passage
dealing with the creation of man is preserved. According to
this version, the gods turn to Mami, alias Aruru, the mother
goddess, also known by her Sumerian names Nintu, Nin­
hursag, and Ninmah, with a request to create man “to bear
the yoke” of the gods. Mami asks Enki for counsel, and he
advises that Mami fashion man as a partly divine creature by
mixing clay with the blood and flesh of a deity slain by
the gods.
There is one “creation” poem devoted primarily to the
creation of man alone. This version begins with the statement
that after “heaven had been separated from earth” and the
earth had been fashioned, after the “fate” of the universe
had been decreed, and the Tigris and Euphrates together
with their dykes and canals had been “established” and given
their proper direction, then all the gods seated themselves in
their exalted sanctuary and Enlil, the king of the gods, asks:

“Now that the 4fate9of the universe has been decreed,

Dyke and canal have been given proper direction,
The banks of the Tigris and Euphrates have been established,
 MYTHOLOGY OF SUMER AND AKKAD 123

What else shall we do?

What else shall we create?
O Anunnaki, great gods,
What else shall we do?
What else shall we create?”

The Anunnaki thereupon urge upon Enlil that the gods

should create man out of the blood of two Lamga (crafts­
man) gods whom they will slay for this purpose. Mans
portion, the gods continue, will be to carry out the service
of the gods for all time, by tilling and irrigating the fields and
building temples and sanctuaries for them. Accordingly there
were created two mortals having the names Ullegarra and
Zallegarra (two Sumerian words whose meaning is still
uncertain), and these were blessed by the gods with generous
increase and rich abundance, so that they might celebrate the
festivals of the gods “day and night.”
How the Akkadian poets felt free to modify the current
cosmogonic ideas in accordance with the need of the moment
is well illustrated by a creation version used as an incantation
against toothache which, according to the Akkadian medical
practitioners, was due to a blood-sucking worm lodged in the
gums. As the author, who was a poet, priest, and physician
combined, puts it:

After Ann had created heaven,

Heaven had created earth,
Earth had created rivers,
Rivers had created canals,
Canals had created marsh,
Marsh had created worm—
The worm came weeping before Shamash,
His tears flowing before Ea:
uWhat will you give me to eat?
What will you give me to drink?9

*7 will give you the ripe fig,

The apricot.”
124 MYTHOLOGY O F SUMER AND AKKAD

“W hat to me are the ripe fig,

The apricot?
L ift me up and let me dwell
Among the teeth and the gums,
1 will suck the blood of the tooth,
And will gnaw away of the gum its roots”

The text closes with instructions to the dentist-incantator

to “insert the needle and seize its (the worm’s) foot”—that
is, presumably, to pull the sick nerve—and to perform an
accompanying ritual involving the mixing of “second-grade
beer” and oil.
Among the non-cosmogonic myths there is one which tells
of the slaying of the huge sea-born monster Labbu, who
brought havoc and destruction to the people and their cities.
Another myth revolves about the slaying of the monstrous
Zu-bird, who in its inordinate lust for power stole the “Tab­
lets of Fate” right from under EnliTs nose, as it were, and
thus usurped the sovereignty over the gods. The plot motif
of the two stories is similar; several deities ordered to go and
do battle with the monsters decline the honor in cowardly
terror, in spite of the promised reward; then one courageous
deity—probably Marduk or Ninurta— agrees, slays the mon­
ster, and is rewarded accordingly.
One myth concerns the Nether World and relates how the
god Nergal, originally a sky-god, became king of Hades
where until then the goddess Ereshkigal had reigned supreme.
The story begins with an invitation by the gods to Ereshkigal,
queen of the Nether World, to send a representative to a
banquet which they had prepared, since she herself cannot
leave her dominion. Ereshkigal accepts and sends Namtar,
that is, Fate, the demon of death. Namtar arrives in heaven
and is welcomed with due honor by the gods except for
Nergal, who insults him by remaining seated when all the
gods rise to greet him. To avenge this insult Ereshkigal
demands that Nergal be extradited to the Nether World,
where she will put him to death. On the plea of Nergal, how­
ever, the god Ea comes to his rescue by giving him fourteen
 MYTHOLOGY OF SUMER AND AKKAD 125

demons to accompany him to the Nether World and stand by

him against Ereshkigal. Upon arrival in Hades, Nergal posted
the fourteen demons at its fourteen gates while he himself,
after being admitted by the gatekeeper of the Nether World,
rushed into Ereshkigals palace, dragged her from the
throne by her hair, and was all set to cut off her head. But
she tearfully pleaded with him not to kill her, and to become
her husband instead, and take dominion over Hades. Where­
upon Nergal kissed her, wiped away her tears, and agreed
to become lord and king of the Nether World with Ereshkigal
as his lady and queen.
There are three mythological compositions in which mor­
tals play the major role. In one of these the protagonist is a
sage of Eridu by the name of Adapa, who might have secured
eternal life for himself and all mankind had he not followed
the unwise advice of Ea, the god who is usually depicted as
man's best friend. The myth begins with a description of
Adapa as “the wise son of Eridu," “the most wise," “a leader
among men," the “skillful and exceedingly wise," “the blame­
less and clean of hands," who daily provided Eridu, the city
of Ea, with food and drink. One day, as Adapa set sail in the
Persian Gulf in order to catch fish to provision Ea’s sanctuary,
the South Wind blew up a gale and submerged him and his
boat. Enraged, Adapa uttered a curse against the South Wind
and thus broke his wings. When the South Wind had failed
to blow upon the land for seven consecutive days, the heaven-
god Anu inquired what was the trouble, and his vizier,
Ilabrat, told him what had happened. Anu, beside himself
with anger, rose from his throne, cried out, “Let them fetch
him (Adapa) hither.”
Here Ea comes into the story and unwittingly, it seems,
deprives Adapa and mankind of the gift they desire most,
that of immortality. For he counsels Adapa thus: On his
journey to heaven and Anu's palace he is to wear his hair
long and unkempt and dress in mourning. This will arouse
the curiosity of the two heavenly gatekeepers, Tammuz and
Gishzida, two deities who had once lived on earth. Upon
their questioning him as to why he is in mourning, Adapa is
126 MYTHOLOGY O F SUMER AND AKKAD

to answer them ingratiatingly that he is mourning “two gods

who had disappeared from the land.” When they further ask
him, “Who are the two gods who have disappeared from the
land?” he is to say, “They are Tammuz and Gishzida.”
Delighted by this flattering response, they will intercede for
Adapa before the irate Anu.
So far so good. Ea then, however, adds a bit of advice
which, intentional or not, turns out to be tragic for Adapa
and mankind. This, in Ea’s own words, runs as follows: “As
you stand before Anu they will offer you the food of death—
do not eat it. They will offer you the water of death, do not
drink i t ” But when Adapa arrives in heaven, garbed in
mourning, and Tammuz and Gishzida, upon learning the
purported reason for his mourning, intercede with Anu in his
behalf, the latter offers, not the food and water of death, but
the food and water of life. Unfortunately, true to Ea’s coun­
sel, Adapa rejects both and misses the golden opportunity to
secure immortality for himself and mankind. Anu sends him
back to earth where man continues to be the victim of sick­
ness and disease, although these can be allayed to some
extent by Ninkarrak, the goddess of healing and medicine.
Another mortal who plays a major role in an Akkadian
myth is Etana, reputed to be a mighty ruler of the dynasty
of Kish, the first after mankind had recovered from the leg­
endary flood. He, too, ascended to heaven, but not as in the
case of Adapa to answer to the gods for a misdeed he had
committed; his burning desire was to obtain “the plant of
birth.” For though he was a pious, god-fearing king who
practiced the divine cult faithfully and assiduously, he was
cursed with childlessness and had no one to carry on his
name. According to the myth, he is borne to heaven by an
eagle whom he had rescued from a pit where it had been cast
by a serpent whose friendship it had betrayed and whose
nests it had devoured. The Etana myth was popular among
the seal cutters, to judge from a number of seals depicting a
mortal climbing toward heaven on the wings of an eagle.
The third Akkadian myth in which a mortal plays a sig­
nificant role revolves about a sage named Atrahasis and his
 MYTHOLOGY O F SUMER AND AKKAD 127

repeated efforts to save mankind from destruction at the

hands of the gods angered by man’s chronic depravity and
evil-doing. Unfortunately only a few fragmentary passages
of the composition, originally 1245 lines in length, are pre­
served. From these we gather that the gods, disturbed and
oppressed by “the clamor of mankind,” sent famine, plagues,
pestilence, and disease against it, so that people were reduced
to cannibalism and self-destruction. But again and again
Atrahasis pleads with the god Ea to intercede, and in one
way or another mankind is saved, only to multiply once again
and become noisy, rebellious, and clamorous. One of the
decimating inflictions sent against man by the gods, accord­
ing to this myth, is the flood, and in this case man is saved
when Atrahasis, on the advice of Ea, builds himself a huge
boat and boards it with his wife, family, and craftsmen, his
grain, goods, and possessions, as well as the beasts of the field,
“as many as eat herbs.” All this sounds like just another ver­
sion of the well-known and not too different Sumerian, Akka­
dian, and Biblical flood-stories in which the hero’s name, how­
ever, is not Atrahasis, but Ziusudra, Utanapishtim, and Noah.
Finally, there is a myth concerned with the trials and trib­
ulations of mankind, and particularly the Akkadians, though
it ends on a note of hope and salvation; in this case, however,
it is not a mortal, but a god who acts as the savior of man­
kind. This myth, which is not readily accessible to the lay­
man, will be treated here in considerable detail since it is
noteworthy in several respects: its diction is highly poetic;
some of its ideas and expressions seem to have Biblical
echoes; it ends with an unusual epilogue which illuminates
to some extent the literary practices and conventions of the
ancient myth writers.
The two major protagonists of the myth are Irra, the god
of pestilence, and his vizier and constant companion, Ishum,
the god of fire. Following a description of Irra as “the fear­
ful slaughterer” who 'lays waste the plain” and who takes
joyous delight in devastating the land, the story begins with
Irra lying lazily about, uncertain of what cruel and destructive
deed to perform next Whereupon Sibbi, his strange and
128 MYTHOLOGY O F SUMER AND AKKAD

unnatural seven-bodied weapon, whose “breath is death” and

who inspires all with dread and terror, speaks up to the dila­
tory Irra in bitter anger:
“Rise up and march forth, Irra,
Like a pale old man you linger in the city,
Like a whimpering child you linger in the house,
Like one who rides not the plain we eat womans food,
Like one who knows not battle we dread the combat.
Arise, hero, ride the plain,
Lay low man and beast,
Gods will hear and be dismayed,
Kings will hear and be affrighted,
Demons will hear and be terrified,
The mighty will hear and quake,
The towering mountains will hear and tremble,
The billowy seas will hear and be convulsed.
Irra, hear, 1 have said my word,
Taut is the good bow, pointed the sharp arrow,
Drawn is the sword for slaughter”
Whereupon mighty Irra calls to his vizier and guide, his
“torch,” Ishum, and says:
“Open the path, 1 would take to the road,
Sibbi, the hero unrivaled, will march at m y side,
While you, my guide, will walk behind”
Ishum heard these words with anguished heart. He took pity
on man and says to Irra:
“Lord! Against god and king you have planned evil,
To destroy all the land, you have planned evil,
Will you not turn backP”
Irra opened his mouth and speaks,
Addresses Ishum, his guide:
“Silence, Ishum, and hear my words,
Let m e answer you concerning man and his fate,
Guide of the gods, Ishum the wise, hear m y words:
 MYTHOLOGY OF SUMER AND AKKAD 129

In the heavens I am a wild ox,

On earth I am a lion,
In the land I am a king,
Among the gods I am mighty.
Among the Igigi (heaven-gods) I am valorous,
Among the Anunnaki (here, the Nether World
gods) I am powerful,
Because man feared not my utterance,
And heeded not the word of Marduk,
But acted according to his own heart,
I will arouse Marduk, the princely,
Will summon him forth from his dwelling place,
Will destroy m an”
And so Irra proceeds to Babylon, the city of Marduk, the
king of the gods. He enters Marduk's temple, the Esagila, and
urges Marduk to leave his dwelling place and go forth toward
a place which he describes as “the house where the fire will
purify your garments,” perhaps the mountain to the east where
the gods live. Or in the words of the poet:
Mighty Irra toward Babylon, the city of the king of the gods,
set his face,
Entered Esagila, the palace of heaven and earth, and stood
before him,
Opened his mouth and to the king of the gods speaks:
“Lord, the nimbus, the symbol of your lordship,
Full of brightness like a heavenly star—
Darkened is its light,
The crown of your lordship is cast down;
March you forth from your dwelling place,
Toward the house where fire will purify your garments,
Set your face”
But Marduk is troubled lest if he leave Babylon and the
Esagila, complete chaos will follow on earth; evil winds,
demons, and the gods of the Nether World will destroy the
lands, devour its inhabitants, and kill all living creatures, with
none to turn them back. Irra reassures him that he will take
130 MYTHOLOGY OF SUMER AND AKKAD

full charge while Marduk is away, and see to it that the earth
and its inhabitants are unharmed either by the heaven-gods
or the Nether World demons. But as soon as Marduk leaves
Babylon, Irra calls Ishum and says:
“Open the path, I will take to the road,
The day is come, the hour is passed,
I will speak, and the sun will drop its rays,
1 will cover with darkness the face of day;
Who was born on a day of rain
Will be buried on a day of thirst,
Who went forth on a well-watered path
Will return by a road of dust.
I shall speak unto the king of the gods:
‘Come not forth from the house you entered,
Faithfully will I carry out your commands.
When the blackheaded people (the Akkadians) cry out
to you,
Receive not their prayers.*
I will put an end to all habitations
And turn them into mounds,
I will devastate all the cities
And make them into ruins,
I will destroy the mountains
And toipe out their flocks,
I will convulse the seas
And destroy their bounty,
1 will uproot canebrake and forest
And crush the mighty,
I will lay man low
And wipe out all living creatures ”

Ishum is filled with pity for man thus doomed to destruc­

tion. He therefore pleads with Irra to renounce his evil plans.
But to no avail. He first destroyed Babylon and its inhabitants,
as well as its walls and outskirts. Babylon a ruin, he turned
to Erech, “the city of hierodules, courtesans, and sacred
prostitutes to whom Ishtar (the goddess of love) was hus­
 MYTHOLOGY O F SUMER AND AKKAD 131

band and master”; the city “of eunuchs and sodomites, the
merrymakers of Eanna (Ishtar’s temple), whose maleness
Ishtar had turned to femaleness, in order to terrify man.”
Erech a ruin, Irra still found no peace and rest, saying in his
heart:

“Slaughter 1 shall multiply, and vengeance,

1 shall kill the son,
And his father will bury him,
I shall kill the father,
And there will be none to bury him.
W ho has made himself a house, saying:
4This is m y resting chamber.
This 1 have made to rest therein,
The day the fates carry me off, I shall lie in its midst’—
Him 1 shall put to death
1 shall destroy his resting chamber,
After it had become a ruin
I shall give it to another”

But Ishum, deeply disturbed by lira’s indiscriminate

slaughter and destruction, pleads with him and tries to pacify
him in these words:

“Mighty Irra!
The righteous you have put to death,
The unrighteous you have put to death,
Him who has sinned you have put to death,
Him who has sinned not you have put to death,
Him who burned offerings to the gods you have put to death,
The courtiers and the kings man you have put to death,
The elder in the assembly you have put to death,
The young maiden you have put to death,
And yet you refuse to rest, and say unto your heart
T shall crush the mighty
And lay low the weak,
I shall kill the leader of the host
And make the host turn back,
132 MYTHOLOGY O F SUMER AND AKKAD

I shall destroy the tower chamber, the wall coping,

And wipe out the wealth of the city,
I shall rip out the mast— the ship will be lost,
I shall break the tying post— it will not touch shore,
1 shall tear asunder the cable, rip off its flag,
I shall make dry the breast— the babe will not live,
I shall make dry the springs— the rivers will not bring
the waters of abundance,
I shall make fall the planet's light— leave the stars un­
tended,
1 shall tear out the roots of the tree— its fruit will not
grow,
1 shall rip out the foundation of the wall— its top will
totter,
To the dwelling of the king of the gods I shall betake
me— there is none to oppose m e ’ ”

Ishum’s address seems to pacify Irra to some extent, and

he proffers at last a note of hope, at least for the Akkadians,
if not for mankind as a whole:

Mighty Irra heard him,

And the word which Ishum spoke was soothing as oil,
And thus did mighty Irra speak:
“The Sealander— the Sealander,
The Subarean— the Subarean,
The Assyrian— the Assyrian,
The Elamite— the Elamite
The Kassite— the Kassite,
The Sutaean— the Sutaean,
The Gutaean— the Gutaean,
The Lullamaean—the Lullamaean,
Land—land, city—city,
House will attack house,
Brother will not spare brother,
They will kill one another,
Then will the Akkadian rise up,
And subdue them all.”
 MYTHOLOGY O F SUMER AND AKKAD 133

And so Irra at last finds peace and rest, and he informs the
gods that while it is true that he had formerly been angered
by man’s sins, and had planned his total destruction and an­
nihilation, he had a change of heart as a result of Ishum’s
counsel and urging; he will now see to it that the Akkadians
defeat and conquer their enemies and carry off their booty to
Babylon; that the land will prosper in peace and war; and
that once again Babylon will rule the world. Or, in lira’s own
words to the happy Ishum:

“The people of the land, the few, will turn into many,
The short and the tall will seek out its roads,
The Akkadian, the weakling, will capture the Sultaean, the
mighty,
One will carry off seven like sheep,
His cities you will turn into ruins, his mountains to mounds,
His heavy booty you will carry off to Babylon.
The gods of the land, the irate,
Appeased, you will bring them to their dwellings,
Cattle and grain will prosper in the land,
The fields which had been made desolate,
You shall make to bear produce,
All the governors, from the midst of their cities,
W ill bring their tribute to Babylon,
The Ekur temples which have been destroyed—
Like the rising sun, their peaks will shine forth in light,
The Tigris and Euphrates with waters of abundance will
overflow,
And unto distant days Babylon will rule the cities
a ir

The poem closes with an epilogue which sheds some light

on the psychological attitude of the author of the myth, as
well as of the audience for whom it was intended. The first
part reads:

That for the glory of Irra

This song might be sung years without count—
134 MYTHOLOGY O F SUMER AND AKKAD

How Irra had become angry,

And hud set his face to devastate the land,
To lay low man and beast,
How Ishum his counselor had pacified him,
And a remnant was saved—
To Kabti—llani—Marduk, his tablet keeper,
The son of Dabibi,
Ishum showed it in a vision of the night,
When he arose at dawn, not a line did he miss,
Not a line did he add.

To judge from this statement, which is hardly likely to have

corresponded to the facts, the ancient myth writer deemed
it important to proclaim to his intended audience that he did
not create the poem himself, but merely reproduced what
a god had “shown” him in a vision. Nor is it unlikely that
his claim was doubted by those who heard it—it may well
be that the author himself was convinced of its truth. In any
case our poet is very eager to have his song endure through
the ages, and to this end he closes his epilogue as follows:

Irra heard and welcomed it,

The song of Ishum was pleasing to him,
AU the gods revered it with him.
And thus did mighty Irra speak:
“Who honors this song— in his sanctuary abundance will
overflow,
Who causes it to be neglected will not smell incense,
The king who exalts my name will rule the four quarters,
The prince who utters the glory of m y might will
have no rival,
The singer who chants it will not die in slaughter,
To prince and king his word will be pleasing,
The scribe who learns it by heart will be saved from the
enemy s land.
In the assembly of the learned, where m y name is honored
unceasingly,
I shall open wide the ears,
 MYTHOLOGY OF SUM ER AND AKKAD 135

To the house where this tablet is stored,

Should Irra be irate and Sibbi rage,
The sword of slaughter will come not near,
Peace and well-being will be its lot,
May this song exist for all time,
May it endure unto eternity,
AH the lands shall hear and revere my might,
All the inhabited earth will say and exalt m y name.”
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alexander Heidel. The Babylonian Genesis, second edition.

University of Chicago Press, 1951.
A careful but rather heavy-handed translation and
interpretation of Enuma-Elish and related texts. The
book also contains a long chapter on the Old Testament
parallels found in the Akkadian “creation” texts, which is
quite detailed and informative, but whose conclusions
are rather superficial and tendentious.
Thorkild Jacobsen in The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient
Man (Editor, Henri Frankfort). University of Chicago
Press, 1946.
An original, imaginative, stimulating, but rather sub­
jective presentation of Sumero-Akkadian mythological
and religious concepts by one of the world's leading
cuneiformists; a penetrating and invaluable contribu­
tion in spite of its exaggerated emphasis on supposedly
“mythopoeic mind” attributed to the ancients.
Samuel Noah Kramer. Sumerian Mythology. Memoir No. XXI
of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia,
1944.
---------. “Sumerian Myths and Epic Tales” in Ancient Hear
Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Editor,
James Pritchard). Princeton University Press, 1957.
---------. History Begins at Sumer. Doubleday Anchor Book,
1959.
 MYTHOLOGY O F SUMER AND AKKAD 137
E. A. Speiser. “Akkadian Myths and Epics” in Ancient Near
Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Editor,
James Pritchard). Princeton University Press, 1957.
Excellent, up-to-date translations of the Akkadian ma­
terial. Prepared with care and precision, they retain much
of the poetic rhythm and flavor of the original text.