The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
Lugalbanda´s adventures in the mountains gave rise to many dramatic stories. One of them tells how the hero, lost amid the high places, took the daring step of seeking out the nest of the fearsome Anzud bird, built near the ealge-tree of Enlil that grows from the summit of a vast mountain.
(Texts: All Artifacts, Color Coding, & Writings in Bold Type With Italics Inside Parenthesis, are Added by Editor R. Brown, not the Authors, Translators, or Publishers!)
(gods in blue …mixed-breed demigods in teal...)
1-27 (King) Lugalbanda lies idle in the mountains, in the faraway places; he has ventured into the Zabu mountains.
No mother is with him to offer advice, no father is with him to talk to him.
No one is with him whom he knows, whom he values, no confidant is there to talk to him.
In his heart he speaks to himself:
“I shall treat the bird as befits him, I shall treat Anzud (Anzu) as befits him.
I shall greet his wife affectionately.
I shall seat Anzud‘s wife and Anzud‘s child at a banquet.
(alien Anunnaki King Anu, Ninkasi, goddess of beer)
An will fetch Ninguenaka (Ninkasi) for me from her mountain home —
the expert woman, who redounds to her mother’s credit,
Ninkasi (Enki & Ninhursag‘s daughter via Uttu) the expert, who redounds to her mother’s credit:
her fermenting-vat is of green lapis lazuli, her beer cask is of refined silver and of gold;
(Ninkasi, Enki‘s daughter, Master Brewer of the gods)
if she stands by the beer, there is joy, if she sits by the beer, there is gladness;
as cupbearer she mixes the beer, never wearying as she walks back and forth,
(serving brew to the giant alien gods, with musical entertainment)
Ninkasi (beer-maker goddess), the keg at her side, on her hips; may she make my beer-serving perfect.
When the bird has drunk the beer and is happy, when Anzud has drunk the beer and is happy,
he can help me find the place to which the troops of Unug are going, Anzud can put me on the track of my brothers.”
28-49 Now the splendid ‘eagle’-tree of Enki on the summit of Inanna‘s mountain of multi-colored cornelian
stood fast on the earth like a tower, all shaggy like an aru.
With its shade it covered the highest eminences of the mountains like a cloak, was spread out over them like a tunic.
(Utu, son to Nannar, Anu‘s royal descendant wearing crown of horns)
It roots rested like sajkal snakes in Utu‘s river of the seven mouths.
Nearby, in the mountains where no cypresses grow, where no snake slithers, where no scorpion scurries,
in the midst of the mountains the buru-az bird had put its nest and laid therein its eggs;
(Anzu symbol, the Anzud bird, flying alien craft)
nearby the bird Anzud had set its nest and settled therein its young.
It was made with wood from the juniper and the box trees.
The bird had made the bright twigs into a bower.
When at daybreak the bird stretches himself, when at sunrise Anzud cries out,
at his cry the ground quakes (alien technologies) in the Lulubi mountains.
He has a shark’s teeth and an eagle’s claws.
In terror of him wild bulls run away into the foothills, stags run away into their mountains.
50-89 (giant semi-divine king) Lugalbanda is wise and he achieves mighty exploits.
In preparation of the sweet celestial cakes he added carefulness to carefulness.
He kneaded the dough with honey, he added more honey to it.
He set them before the young nestling, before the Anzud chick, gave the baby salt meat to eat.
(Anzu / Anzud Bird, standard of Ninurta)
He fed it sheep’s fat.
He popped the cakes into its beak.
He settled the Anzud chick in its nest, painted its eyes with kohl,
dabbed white cedar scent onto its head, put up a twisted roll of salt meat.
He withdrew from the Anzud‘s nest, awaited him in the mountains where no cypresses grow.
At that time the bird was herding together wild bulls of the mountains,
Anzud was herding together wild bulls of the mountains.
(powerful winged sky-beast)
He held a live bull in his talons, he carried a dead bull across his shoulders.
He poured forth his bile like ten gur of water.
The bird flew around once, Anzud flew around once.
When the bird called back to his nest, when Anzud called back to his nest, his fledgling did not answer him from its nest.
When the bird called a second time to his nest, his fledgling did not answer from its nest.
Before, if the bird called back to his nest, his fledgling would answer from its nest;
but now when the bird called back to his nest, his fledgling did not answer him from its nest.
The bird uttered a cry of grief that reached up to heaven, his wife cried out “Woe!” Her cry reached the Abzu.
The bird with this cry of “Woe!” and his wife with this cry of grief
made the Anuna (Anunnaki), gods of the mountains, actually crawl into crevices like ants.
The bird says to his wife, Anzud says to his wife,
(Nannar‘s cattle pens in Ur, over one million cattle feeding aliens in Sumer)
“Foreboding weighs upon my nest, as over the great cattle-pen of Nannar (Sin).
Terror lies upon it, as when wild bulls start butting each other.
Who has taken my child from its nest?
Who has taken the Anzud from its nest?”
90-110 But it seemed to the bird, when it approached its nest,
it seemed to Anzud, when it approached its nest, that it had been made like a god’s dwelling-place.
It was brilliantly festooned.
His chick was settled in its nest, its eyes were painted with kohl, sprigs of white cedar were fixed on its head.
A twisted piece of salt meat was hung up high.
The bird is exultant, Anzud is exultant: “I am the prince who decides the destiny of rolling rivers.
I keep on the straight and narrow path the righteous who follow Enlil‘s counsel.
My father Enlil brought me here.
(Enlil, King Anu‘s son & heir, Anu‘s appointed Earth Colony Commander)
He let me bar the entrance to the mountains as if with a great door.
If I fix a fate, who shall alter it?
If I but say the word, who shall change it?
Whoever has done this to my nest, if you are a god, I will speak with you, indeed I will befriend you.
If you are a man, I will fix your fate.
I shall not let you have any opponents in the mountains.
You shall be ‘Hero-fortified-by-Anzud‘.”
111-131 Lugalbanda, partly from fright, partly from delight, partly from fright, partly from deep delight,
flatters the bird, flatters Anzud: “Bird with sparkling eyes, born in this district,
Anzud with sparkling eyes, born in this district, you frolic as you bathe in a pool.
Your grandfather, the prince of all patrimonies, placed heaven in your hand, set earth at your feet.
Your wingspan extended is like a birdnet stretched out across the sky!
(Ninurta‘s sky-disc / winged disc)
…… on the ground your talons are like a trap laid for the wild bulls and wild cows of the mountains!
Your spine is as straight as a scribe’s!
Your breast as you fly is like Nirah (unidentified) parting the waters!
As for your back, you are a verdant palm garden, breathtaking to look upon.
Yesterday I escaped safely to you, since then I have entrusted myself to your protection.
Your wife shall be my mother” (he said), “You shall be my father” (he said),
“I shall treat your little ones as my brothers.
Since yesterday I have been waiting for you in the mountains where no cypresses grow.
Let your wife stand beside you to greet me.
I offer my greeting and leave you to decide my destiny.”
132-141 The bird presents himself before him, rejoices over him, Anzud presents himself before him, rejoices over him.
Anzud says to Lugalbanda the pure, “Come now, my Lugalbanda.
(giant alien Enki & smaller earthling workers shipping goods downstream)
Go like a boat full of precious metals, like a grain barge, like a boat going to deliver apples,
like a boat piled up high with a cargo of cucumbers, casting a shade, like a boat loaded lavishly at the place of harvest,
go back to brick-built Kulaba with head held high!” — Lugalbanda who loves the seed will not accept this.
(Inanna‘s son Shara / Roman god Cupid)
142-148 “Like Cara (Shara, Roman god Cupid), Inanna‘s beloved son,
shoot forth with your barbed arrows like a sunbeam,
shoot forth with reed-arrows like moonlight! (alien technologies)
May the barbed arrows be a horned viper to those they hit!
Like a fish killed with the cleaver, may they be magic-cut! (alien technologies)
May you bundle them up like logs hewn with the ax!” — Lugalbanda who loves the seed will not accept this.
(Ninurta with his lion-headed beast, killing dinner)
149-154 “May Ninurta, Enlil‘s son (& heir), set the helmet Lion of Battle on your head,
may the breastplate (?) that in the great mountains does not permit retreat be laid on your breast!
May you …… the battle-net against the enemy!
When you go to the city, ……!” — Lugalbanda who loves the seed will not accept this.
(Enki‘s & Ninsun‘s son Dumuzi the Shepherd with his stags)
155-159 “The plenty of Dumuzi‘s (Enki & Ninsun‘s son) holy butter churn,
whose fat is the fat of all the world, shall be granted (?) to you.
Its milk is the milk of all the world. It shall be granted (?) to you.” — Lugalbanda who loves the seed will not accept this.
As a kib bird, a fresh-water kib, as it flies along a lagoon, he answered him in words.
160-166 The bird listened to him. Anzud said to Lugalbanda the pure,
“Now look, my Lugalbanda, just think again.
It’s like this: a willful plow-ox should be put back in the track, a balking ass should be made to take the straight path.
Still, I shall grant you what you put to me.
I shall assign you a destiny according to your wishes.”
167-183 (King) Lugalbanda the pure answers him:
“Let the power of running be in my thighs, let me never grow tired!
Let there be strength in my arms, let me stretch my arms wide, let my arms never become weak!
Moving like the sunlight, like Inanna (Ishtar, Nannar‘s daughter),
(alien winged sky-disc above head of Adad; Ishkur / Adad atop his zodiac symbol of Taurus the Bull)
like the seven storms, those of Ickur (Ishkur / Adad, Enlil‘s son), let me leap like a flame, blaze like lightning!
Let me go wherever I look to, set foot wherever I cast my glance, reach wherever my heart desires
and let me loosen my shoes in whatever place my heart has named to me!
(alien unidentified god presents mixed-breed king & spouse with dinner sacrifice to Utu)
When Utu (Shamash, Nannar‘s son) lets me reach Kulaba my city, let him who curses me have no joy thereof;
let him who wishes to strive with me never say “Just let him come!”
I shall have the woodcarvers fashion statues of you, and you will be breathtaking to look upon.
Your name will be made famous thereby in Sumer and will redound to the credit of the temples of the great gods.”
184-202 So Anzud says to Lugalbanda the pure (alien DNA): “The power of running be in your thighs!
Never grow tired! Strength be in your arms! Stretch your arms wide, may your arms never become weak!
(Inanna atop Leo; Adad atop Taurus, their zodiac symbols)
Moving like the sun, like Inanna, like the seven storms of Ickur (Ishkur / Adad), leap like a flame, blaze like lightning!
Go wherever you look to, set foot wherever you cast your glance, reach wherever your heart desires,
loosen your shoes in whatever place your heart has named to you!
(unidentified king before alien giant god Utu, Ninurta, & Ninsun)
When Utu lets you reach Kulaba your city, he who curses you shall have no joy thereof;
he who wishes to strive with you shall never say “Just let him come!”
When you have had the woodcarvers fashion statues of me, I shall be breathtaking to look upon.
My name will be made famous thereby in Sumer and will redound to the credit of the temples of the great gods.
May …… shake for you …… like a sandal.
(ancient Sumer, “land of the gods”, the “Eden” between the rivers Euphrates & Tigris)
…… Euphrates …… you feet …….”
203-219 He took in his hand such of his provisions as he had not eaten, and his weapons one by one.
Anzud flew on high, Lugalbanda walked on the ground.
The bird, looking from above, spies the troops.
Lugalbanda, looking from below, spies the dust that the troops have stirred up.
The bird says to Lugalbanda, “Come now, my Lugalbanda. I shall give you some advice:
may my advice be heeded. I shall say words to you: bear them in mind.
What I have told you, the fate I have fixed for you,
do not tell it to your comrades, do not explain it to your brothers.
Fair fortune may conceal foul: it is indeed so.
Leave me to my nest: you keep to your troops.”
The bird hurried to its nest.
Lugalbanda set out for the place where his brothers were.
220-237 Like a pelican emerging from the sacred reed-bed,
like Lahama (Igigi, Mars stationed) deities going up from the Abzu , like one who is stepping from heaven to earth,
Lugalbanda stepped into the midst of his brothers’ picked troops.
His brothers chattered away, the troops chattered away.
His brothers, his friends weary him with questions: “Come now, my Lugalbanda, here you are again!
The troops had abandoned you as one killed in battle.
Certainly, you were not eating the good fat of the herd!
Certainly, you were not eating the sheepfold’s fresh cheese.
How is it that you have come back from the great mountains,
where no one goes alone, whence no one returns to mankind?”
Again his brothers, his friends weary him with questions:
“The banks of the mountain rivers, mothers of plenty, are widely separated.
How did you cross their waters? — as if you were drinking them?”
238-250 Lugalbanda the pure replies to them,
“The banks of the mountain rivers, mothers of plenty, are widely separated.
With my legs I stepped over them, I drank them like water from a waterskin; and then I snarled like a wolf,
I grazed the water-meadows, I pecked at the ground like a wild pigeon, I ate the mountain acorns.”
Lugalbanda‘s brothers and friends consider the words that he has said to them.
Exactly as if they were small birds flocking together all day long they embrace him and kiss him.
As if he were a gamgam chick sitting in its nest, they feed him and give him drink.
They drive away sickness from Lugalbanda the pure.
251-283 Then the men of Unug (Uruk) followed them as one man;
they wound their way through the hills like a snake over a grain-pile.
When the city was only a double-hour distant, the armies of Unug and Kulaba
encamped by the posts and ditches that surrounded Aratta.
From the city it rained down javelins as if from the clouds,
(slingers & archers of war)
slingstones numerous as the raindrops falling in a whole year whizzed down loudly from Aratta’s walls.
The days passed, the months became long, the year turned full circle.
A yellow harvest grew beneath the sky.
They looked askance at the fields.
Unease came over them.
Slingstones numerous as the raindrops falling in a whole year landed on the road.
They were hemmed in by the barrier of mountain thorn-bushes thronged with dragons.
No one knew how to go back to the city, no was rushing to go back to Kulaba.
In their midst Enmerkar (giant semi-divine) son of Utu was afraid, was troubled, was disturbed by this upset.
He sought someone whom he could send back to the city, he sought someone whom he could send back to Kulaba.
No one said to him “I will go to the city”.
No one said to him “I will go to Kulaba“.
He went out to the foreign host.
No one said to him “I will go to the city”.
No one said to him “I will go to Kulaba“.
He stood before the elite troops.
No one said to him “I will go to the city”.
No one said to him “I will go to Kulaba“.
A second time he went out to the foreign host.
No one said to him “I will go to the city”.
No one said to him “I will go to Kulaba“.
He stepped out before the elite troops.
284-289 Lugalbanda alone arose from the people and said to him,
“My king, I will go to the city, but no one shall go with me.
I will go alone to Kulaba. No one shall go with me.” — “If you go to the city, no one shall go with you.
You shall go alone to Kulaba, no one shall go with you.”
He swore by heaven and by earth: “Swear that you will not let go from your hands the great emblems of Kulaba.”
290-321 After he had stood before the summoned assembly, within the palace that rests on earth
(Inanna with bird wings & feet, depicting capabilities of flight, alien technologies)
like a great mountain Enmerkar the son of Utu berated Inanna:
“Once upon a time my princely sister Inanna the pure summoned me in her holy heart
from the bright mountains, had me enter brick-built Kulaba.
Where there was a marsh then in Unug (Uruk), it was full of water.
Where there was any dry land, Euphrates poplars grew there.
Where there were reed-thickets, old reeds and young reeds grew there.
(Enki, God of Waters, 1st to colonize Earth, Enki & 2 others in the marshes – Abzu – of the Persian Gulf)
Divine Enki who is king in Eridu tore up for me the old reeds, drained off the water completely.
For fifty years I built, for fifty years I gave judgments.
Then the Martu peoples, who know no agriculture, arose in all Sumer and Akkad.
(giant demigod-kings carved into Uruk walls)
But the wall of Unug extended out across the desert like a bird net.
Yet now, here in this place, my attractiveness to her has dwindled.
My troops are bound to me as a cow is bound to its calf; but like a son who, hating his mother, leaves his city,
(Inanna atop her zodiac symbol of Leo, & her 8-pointed star symbol of Venus above her head)
my princely sister Inanna the pure has run away from me back to brick-built Kulaba.
If she loves her city and hates me, why does she bind the city to me?
If she hates the city and yet loves me, why does she bind me to the city?
(Inanna / Canaanite Anat, Goddess of War using alien technologies against earthlings)
If the mistress removes herself from me to her holy chamber, and abandons me like an Anzud chick,
then may she at least bring me home to brick-built Kulaba: on that day my spear shall be laid aside.
On that day she may shatter my shield.\
(Ninsun, semi-divine mixed-breed king, & Inanna)
Speak thus to my princely sister, Inanna the pure.”
322-344 Thereupon Lugalbanda the pure came forth from the palace.
Although his brothers and his comrades barked at him as at a foreign dog trying to join a pack of dogs,
he stepped proudly forward like a foreign wild ass trying to join a herd of wild asses.
“Send someone else to Unug (Uruk) for the lord.” —
“For (King) Enmerkar son of Utu I shall go alone to Kulaba.
No one shall go with me” — how he spoke to them!
“Why will you go alone and keep company with no one on the journey?
If our beneficent spirit does not stand by you there, if our good protective deity does not go with you there,
you will never again stand with us where we stand, you will never again dwell with us where we dwell,
you will never again set your feet on the ground where our feet are.
You will not come back from the great mountains,
where no one goes alone, whence no one returns to mankind!” —
“Time is passing, I know.
None of you is going with me over the great earth.”
While the hearts of his brothers beat loudly, while the hearts of his comrades sank,
Lugalbanda took in his hand such of his provisions as he had not eaten, and each of his weapons one by one.
From the foot of the mountains, through the high mountains, into the flat land,
from the edge of Ancan to the top of Ancan, he crossed five, six, seven mountains.
345-356 By midnight, but before they had brought the offering-table
to Inanna the pure, he set foot joyfully in brick-built Kulaba.
(Ninsun, mixed-breed king, & Inanna)
His lady, Inanna (Ishtar) the pure, sat there on her cushion.
He bowed and prostrated himself on the ground.
With (1 ms. adds joyful) eyes Inanna looked at Lugalbanda the pure
as she would look at the shepherd Ama-ucumgal-ana (Dumuzi, Inanna‘s late spouse).
In a (1 ms. adds joyful) voice, Inanna spoke to Lugalbanda the pure as she would speak to her son Lord Cara:
“Come now, my Lugalbanda, why do you bring news from the city?
How have you come here alone from Aratta?”
357-387 (King) Lugalbanda the pure answered her:
“What Enmerkar son of Utu quoth and what he says, what your brother quoth and what he says, is:
(young lovers Dumuzi & spouse Inanna, Goddess of Love & War)
“Once upon a time my princely sister Inanna the pure
summoned me in her holy heart from the mountains, had me enter brick-built Kulaba.
Where there was a marsh then in Unug, it was full of water.
Where there was any dry land, Euphrates poplars grew there.
Where there were reed-thickets, old reeds and young reeds grew there.
(giant mixed-breed & Enki, eldest & wisest of the gods on Earth)
Divine Enki who is (patron god) king in Eridu tore up for me the old reeds, drained off the water completely.
(Enki in the abzu / marshlands of Persian Gulf)
For fifty years I built, for fifty years I gave judgments.
Then the Martu peoples, who know no agriculture, arose in all Sumer and Akkad.
But the wall of Unug extended out across the desert like a bird net.
Yet now, here in this place, my attractiveness to her has dwindled.
My troops are bound to me as a cow is bound to its calf; but like a son who, hating his mother, leaves his city,
my princely sister Inanna the pure has run away from me back to brick-built Kulaba.
If she loves her city and hates me, why does she bind the city to me?
If she hates the city and yet loves me, why does she bind me to the city?
If the mistress removes herself from me to her holy chamber and abandons me like an Anzud chick,
then may she at least bring me home to brick-built Kulaba: on that day my spear shall be laid aside.
On that day she may shatter my shield.
Speak thus to my princely sister, Inanna the pure.””
(Inanna the pure with pilot eagle wings, similar to today’s pilots)
388-398 Inanna the pure uttered this response:
“Now, at the end, on the banks, in the water-meadows, of a clear river, of a river of clear water,
of the river which is Inanna‘s gleaming waterskin, the suhurmac fish eats the honey-herb;
the kijtur fish eats the mountain acorns; and the …… fish, which is a god of the suhurmac fish,
plays happily there and darts about.
With his scaly tail he touches the old reeds in that holy place.
The tamarisks of the place, as many as there are, drink water from that pool. “
399-409 “It stands alone, it stands alone!
One tamarisk stands alone at the side!
When Enmerkar son of Utu has cut that tamarisk and has fashioned it into a bucket,
he must tear up the old reeds in that holy place roots and all, and collect them in his hands.
When he has chased out from it the …… fish, which is a god of the suhurmac fish,
caught that fish, cooked it, garnished it and brought it as a sacrifice
(giant alien twins Utu & Inanna hold smaller earthlings captives, some by nose-ring)
to the a-an-kara weapon (alien technologies), Inanna‘s battle-strength, then his troops will have success for him;
then he will have brought to an end that which in the subterranean waters provides the life-strength of Aratta. “
410-412 “If he carries off from the city its worked metal and smiths,
if he carries off its worked stones and its stonemasons,
if he renews the city and settles it, all the molds of Aratta will be his.”
413 Now Aratta’s battlements are of green lapis lazuli, its walls and its towering brickwork are bright red,
their brick clay is made of tinstone dug out in the mountains where the cypress grows.
Praise be to Lugalbanda the pure.