“What was life like for the Anunnaki before they took possession of the Tablet of Destinies? They did not control order. Rather, order preceded them, dominated them. They were gods, but not altogether sovereign.

“To show their unease they disturbed Apsu’s sleep. Finding their noise unbearable, he decided to wipe them out. Tiamat was hard put to dissuade him. Many generations would pass from then until the day when Enlil told the Anunnaki that he couldn’t sleep for the noise men were making. They would have to be wiped out. The gods decided on the Flood.

“Thanks to Ea’s advice, men survived. They founded an empire. The emperor sometimes found his sleep disturbed by the noisy crowds outside his palace doors. So he had his soldiers intervene with the order to kill anyone they came across, as if they were out hunting. So time passed. There was always someone, someone beneath, someone outside, who disturbed a sovereign’s sleep. No sovereign ever slept soundly.

“The Tablet of Destinies surpassed the power of the gods. And the gods wanted nothing more than to equate their power to that of the Tablet of Destinies. Only then could they complete their names with the epithet he who fixes the destinies. Thus it was for Enlil, Anu, and Ea. But to do that they must first take possession of the tablet. And to renew and decree the single destinies the gods must unite in ceremony at the beginning of each new year. Only then could they feel secure in their power.”

“The destinies were an order that somehow eluded the gods, in a way none of them wished to or knew how to explain. The only thing we know for certain is that the gods needed the destinies and the destinies did not need the gods, and even less did they need a single god. Yet it was only through the gods that one arrived at the destinies. Hence the ceremonies in the Esagil. And if the gods needed these ceremonies, men would need them all the more. Except that, at a certain point, men decided they could do without them. They stopped talking about the gods, but they never stopped talking about destiny, as you have seen yourself.”

“At the time of the Flood I had been called Atrahasis, the Exceedingly Wise, because I was given the task of saving men and animals. I never believed in that name. I never felt wise. More like someone who lives not too far from the origin of knowledge, which springs from Ea. Who was not wise but knowing, which is a different thing altogether. The wise are reasonable, the knowing are inscrutable. I never even tried to fathom certain of Ea’s doings. There was always something tortuous and secret about them. Ea seemed to appreciate my not asking too many questions.”

“The order that proceeds from Ea may be elusive and hidden. But it is everywhere, always. No order that man establishes, however good or bad, can hold for long. This became clear to me, once again, when I heard the story of Ahiqar.