Inanna was the Sumerian goddess of love, so she was glamorous and popular, but not as powerful as the rest of her family. She had often wondered how she could gain more power and influence.
Her uncle, Enki, was the god of the sea and the god of wisdom, so he had all the world’s skills and knowledge hoarded in his palace, far out to sea.
Inanna decided to pay her favourite uncle a visit.
She polished her axe and her sword, she put on her most flattering robe and richest jewels, and she left her home city of Uruk with her sidekick Ninshibur. Ninshibur was a queen and a warrior, but she had chosen to serve as Inanna’s chamberlain.
The two young women left the inland city of Uruk for the nearest harbour, where Inanna kept the boat of heaven, her beautiful white crescent-shaped boat. The boat of heaven was lit by two round oil lamps, one hanging from the front so Inanna and Ninshibur could see where they were going, the other hanging from the back so they could see where they had been.
Inanna and Ninshibur jumped into the boat of heaven, and they rowed across the wide water to Enki’s sea-washed palace.
Well, I say they rowed, but Inanna was a goddess, so she just sat in the back of the boat and trailed her fingers in the water, while Ninshibur did all the hard work with the oars.
Eventually they arrived at Enki’s palace. The god of wisdom and of the sea rarely had visitors because he lived so far from land, and he was delighted to see Inanna. He ordered his chamberlain, Isimud, to prepare a feast. Isimud opened up the feasting hall, which was filled with carved wooden boxes, and laid the long table with barley cakes, butter, honey and beer.
Enki sat at one end with Isimud standing behind him. Inanna sat at the other end with Ninshibur standing behind her.
And they feasted.
Inanna was the perfect guest. When Enki told jokes she laughed, when he sang songs she joined in with the chorus, when he told stories she gasped in all the right places.
Then it was her turn and Inanna started to sing. She sang a long gentle quiet song.
Enki’s face grew soft and his eyes started to droop. He said to her, in between verses, “Thank you so much for coming to visit me… I’m so happy to see you at my table… what can I give you to say thank you for visiting?”
Inanna kept singing, her voice smooth and low, and Enki looked round his feasting hall. He saw the carved wooden boxes, holding all his knowledge, skills and ideas.
Inanna kept singing her persuasively beautiful song. The god of wisdom staggered over to the boxes and started throwing open the lids. Inside the boxes, he saw crafts like woodworking and metalworking, he saw ideas like kingship and heroism.
“Here’s a gift to say thanks for visiting your lonely old uncle,” he said, as he gave the craft of the coppersmith to Inanna. But Inanna didn’t stop singing, she just smiled sweetly and passed the gift to Ninshibur behind her, who slipped out of the hall and hid the gift in the boat of heaven.
Enki kept opening boxes and kept giving Inanna gifts as she sang. He gave her crowns and swords; coloured clothes and black clothes; the loud music of instruments and the sad music of lamentation; the art of hairdressing and the craft of the scribe; the idea of shepherds’ huts and sheepfolds; good judgement and good counsel; forthright speech and fancy speech and deceitful speech.
Isimud tried to stop Enki, but Enki ordered him to sit down and be quiet.
As Inanna sang, the god of wisdom opened every box he could see. He smiled at Inanna and gave her every gift he could find. And Ninshibur stowed the gifts in the boat of heaven.
Finally, Inanna changed to an even slower, softer song, and Enki fell gently asleep at the table.
Inanna and Ninshibur ran to the boat of heaven. They leapt in and they started to row away from the palace towards Uruk.
Well, I say they rowed, but Inanna was a goddess, so she just sat at the back of the boat and let her fingers dangle in the water, while Ninshibur did all the hard work with the oars.
Before they were even half-way home, Enki woke up. He rubbed his eyes, he shook his head and he looked around his hall.
He saw the empty boxes.
Enki yelled at Isimud, “Where is my wisdom? Where is everything? All the crafts and knowledge and ideas?”
“You gave everything away, my lord. To your niece Inanna.”
“I gave it all away? Go and get it back!”
So Isimud leapt into the sea god’s fastest boat and he chased after the boat of heaven. When he caught up, he bowed to Inanna and said politely, “This is a little awkward, my lady, but my lord would like his gifts back. He didn’t really mean to give them to you. So please return them.”
Inanna smiled. “The god of wisdom wants his gifts back? Because he didn’t mean to give them to me? That must mean the god of wisdom made a mistake. Not very wise, is he? Perhaps these crafts, ideas and knowledge are safer with me. So no, he can’t have them back.”
Ninshibur rowed on, away from Isimud.
Isimud rushed back to Enki. “She’s not going to return your gifts, no matter how politely I ask.”
Enki smiled. “Then we will just have to take them back.” He reached into a shadowy corner and dragged out a box which he hadn’t noticed the night before.
“This,” he said, “is the box of monsters.”
He lifted the lid carefully, stuck his hand inside and hauled out a wild-haired enkum.
He said to the creature of the water, “Bring everything back to me!” and threw the enkum into the sea.
The enkum swam as fast as the waves after the boat of heaven.
The wild-haired enkum was blue, like the sea on a sunny day, and covered in long hair all over his body, on his head, his arms, his hands, his fingers, his belly, his knees, his feet. His hair was wiry and curly, and wound round anything near the enkum. It even wound round the enkum’s own body, the hairs of his head twisting and twining and growing into his ears and up his nostrils.
When he reached the boat of heaven, his hair coiled round the oars so Ninshibur couldn’t row. Inanna laughed. “I’ll deal with this.” She picked up her axe and her sword, and she hacked at the enkum’s hair with her axe and slashed at his belly with her sword.
But the axe bounced off his hair and the sword couldn’t pierce his skin.
Inanna looked at her hands, dripping wet from trailing in the sea. She yelled to Ninshibur, “My hands have touched Enki’s sea, so my hands have no power against his monsters. You will have to fight the enkum yourself, Ninshibur, because your hands have not touched the sea.”
Ninshibur looked at the wild-haired enkum behind the boat, and she looked at the lamps fore and aft. She seized the nearest lamp and threw it at the enkum.
The lamp hit him square in the middle of his forehead. The lamp smashed open, burning oil splattered all over the enkum and his hair caught fire. The flames rushed up each spiral hair and covered his body in a blaze of light.
The fire travelled along his hair, into his ears, up his nostrils and right inside his head. The enkum was burning inside and out, and he slowly sank, sizzling, under the waves.
Ninshibur started to row towards land.
But Enki opened the box of monsters again, stuck his hand inside and hauled out a kugulal.
He said to the creature of the air, “Bring back everything,” and threw the kugulal upwards.
The kugulal flew as fast as the wind after the boat of heaven.
The kugulal was a huge bird, with a massive deep breast, because the kugulal’s weapon was not her beak nor her talons, but her voice. The kugulal had one huge lung in her chest, which gave so much power and volume to her call that she could shatter buildings and drive people mad.
The kugulal flew over the boat of heaven, shrieking and squealing. Inanna and Ninshibur had to cover their ears because the piercing noise was unbearable. As Ninshibur crouched down, trying to get away from the bird’s screams, she could see the boat begin to shake apart under her feet.
She pulled her fingers out of her ears, and with her own body quivering and jerking in the waves of sound, she ran her nails between the boards of the boat to scrape up some of the bitumen which made it waterproof. Then she stuck the bitumen in her ears, to block out the noise so she could move and think.
Ninshibur grabbed Inanna’s sword, stood up tall, and drove the sword straight above her head, right into the breast of the kugulal. The blade ripped open the bird’s lung and suddenly the only noise the kugulal could make was a sad whistle as the air leaked out of her chest.
The kugulal turned and flapped slowly home.
And Ninshibur rowed towards the coast.
Enki had sent a creature of the water and a creature of the air, so next he sent creatures of the earth.
As they neared the shore, Inanna and Ninshibur saw fifty uru giants: giants so tall that their faces were hidden in the clouds, giants so big their footprints were valleys in the earth.
The giants were standing at the harbour.
Ninshibur said, “I will do anything for you, my lady Inanna, but I don’t think even I can defeat fifty uru giants with just an axe and a sword. So I don’t think we can land the boat at the harbour.”
Inanna looked at the giants, at the harbour, at the roofs of her city a few miles inland, and said, “I don’t think we need to land.”
“But how else can we get the gifts to the city?”
Inanna smiled and put her fingers back in the water. Then she pushed the water, Enki’s own water, towards the shore.
The seawater rose and poured over the shore, over the harbour and towards the city. The giants, being creatures of the land, moved away from the water.
The water flooded Uruk. Not like a tidal wave, but like a jug carefully filling a glass. Water slipped into the streets, filling them gently to turn them into calm canals.
Ninshibur kept rowing past the flooded harbour, as Inanna waved cheerfully at the retreating giants.
The people of Uruk stood on tables, window sills and roofs to watch their goddess and her boat of heaven move across the new wider sea towards the city, then float along the streets.
The boat floated towards Inanna’s temple, where she and her gifts would be safe until Enki’s anger and the seawater subsided.
Inanna and Ninshibur reached the temple steps, they unpacked the gifts and they carried them into the temple.
Well, I say they unpacked the gifts, but Inanna was a goddess, so she raised her arms and acknowledged the cheers of her people, while Ninshibur did all the heavy lifting.
That is how Inanna brought all the arts and knowledge of civilisation to people, not just the people of Uruk, but all the people of the world. That is how Inanna become the most powerful goddess of her time.
With a little help from her sidekick Ninshibur.