“When Enlil saw the ship aground on the back of Mount Nimush he was seized by another fit of rage. Had it all been for nothing, then? Wasn’t even the Flood enough? And who could have conspired against him? There was only one suspect: Ea, he who knows. As they said.

“In a flash Enlil changed. It’s a privilege the gods enjoy. With solemn step, he climbed aboard the ship, took my hand, had me kneel together with my wife, touched us on the forehead, in blessing, and said: ‘Utnapishtim, until today you have been a man, from now on you and your wife will be like gods. And you will dwell at the confluence of the rivers.’ From that moment on, I knew that life for me would never end. But I still wonder what it means to be like gods. How much like them? On the other hand, I know all too well what keeps me far from men. And I still yearn for what I have lost. Which is why I can’t stop speaking to you, Sindbad.”

“How did the Anunnaki behave after the Flood? Did they accept the existence of men? They chose not to say. They had killed men like flies and like flies they buzzed around the first sacrifice I celebrated as soon as I was off the ship. And Anu gave Nintu—another name for Mami—a necklace of lapis lazuli stones shaped like flies. She said she would never take it off, in memory of those calamitous days.”

Darkness had fallen. Sindbad’s mind wandered. Then once again, from the shadows, he heard Utnapishtim’s voice: “I would have liked to be someone who dwells in the midst of everything and sees afar. Instead, my fate has been to see afar, but from a place no one else can reach. Or only you, Sindbad, and you weren’t even looking for it.”

III

“In the sky Ishtar is Venus, the brightest star at dawn and dusk, but among the fixed stars she is the goddess with the bow, in the constellation of the Great Dog, close to her lover Dumuzi, the true shepherd of the heavens, in Orion, and to Ninurta, the great hero, where the hurricane brews, who is Sirius, the arrow. Ishtar was other things as well. Where you see two parallel stands of bamboo, bending at the tips, or rosettes, or eight-pointed stars, you are seeing Ishtar. Sometimes her frilly skirts fall to her ankles. Sometimes she’s quite naked, with wings, pushing up prosperous breasts, her feet on a lion, a two-horned crown on her head. It’s still Ishtar. Taking the god’s place, the king coupled with Ishtar in a room with a golden table and a bed with linen sheets. The king had been specially chosen to give the goddess sensual pleasure. Head high, he drew near to Ishtar’s legs. She stretched her pure legs on the bed and on that bed the king pleasured her flesh. He was the beloved groom.