enumeration of stones can be compared to the enumeration of culture traits in Inanna
and Enki, in Enki and the World Order(discussed below), as well as to the list of birds
in Nanshe and the Birds, in which each kind of bird is assigned a place in the world
(Veldhuis 2004 ).
In the other compositions, the central theme is Ninurta’s desire for the powers held
by other gods, which he believes he is entitled to because of his heroism. In Angim
(Cooper 1978 ; Bottéro and Kramer 1989 : 377 – 388 ; Black et al. 2004 : 181 – 186 ), Ninurta
is victorious over the mountain, but the poem is focused on the aftermath, when he
brings his chariot and trophies to his father’s house in Nippur and seems impatient to
usurp his father’s powers in his moment of triumph. The gods sing his praises and
Ninurta joins them, but, after asking for additional authority, he returns to his own
house.
In the Akkadian poem Anzu(B. Foster 2005 : 555 – 578 ), Ninurta hunts down and
slays a monstrous bird that stole the powers of his father Enlil. Upon his triumphant
return, it appears that he is not eager to relinquish the powers to his father, but
eventually does so and is praised by the gods. Although no Sumerian version of this
story is known, in the Sumerian Ninurta and the Turtle(Alster 1972 b; Bottéro and
Kramer 1989 : 418 – 424 ), Ninurta has defeated Anzu and wants to keep the captured
powers for himself. Enki intervenes by arranging for a monstrous turtle to seize
Ninurta and hold him while Enki admonishes him on his behavior. Ninurta’s mother,
who volunteered her son’s services in the Akkadian Anzupoem, is displeased with
Enki’s intervention; perhaps she wanted her favorite son to take Enlil’s powers. In
Ninurta’s Journey to Eridu(Reisman 1971 ; Bottéro and Kramer 1989 : 424 – 429 ), Ninurta
goes to Enki’s house. Like Inanna, when he sees the cosmic powers there, he covets
them for himself.
The story of Ninurta as an ambitious hero was adroitly reworked by the author of
the Babylonian Epic of Creation, in which a champion is needed to save the gods from
attack by the mother of them all, Tiamat (B. Foster 2005 : 436 – 486 ; Lambert 2008 ). Ea,
the Akkadian name for Enki, instructs his son, Marduk, to volunteer to champion the
gods, but, unlike Ninurta, Marduk is to demand supreme power over them, in
advance, as the price for his valor. In this twist to the story, the gods freely grant
Marduk their powers and, after his victory, he reorganizes the universe, in which
Babylon becomes its earthly center. Babylon thereby, in the Akkadian story, replaced
both Eridu and Nippur as the seat of cosmic powers. Inanna had no role in the Ninurta
story and likewise had none in the Babylonian Creation Epic. In this instance, a
Sumerian story, focused on a son’s desire to take his father’s powers when he has
surpassed him in bravery, has been converted in an Akkadian retelling into a clever plan
by the god of wisdom to make his own son pre-eminent in the universe. The
father–son rivalry has been removed from the plot; now the father has a master plan
to promote his son over all the gods.
EnlilChief god on earth, and sometimes considered to be the god of the atmosphere, Enlil
is the subject of two Sumerian mythological stories about how he acquires a wife. In
one, Enlil and Ninlil(Jacobsen 1987 a: 167 – 180 ; Bottéro and Kramer 1989 : 105 – 115 ;
Black et al. 2004 : 102 – 106 ), Ninlil is a nubile girl who arouses Enlil’s desire. With the
–– Sumerian mythology ––