“It was an idea of Ea’s, at once delicate and decisive, to seek out the Anunnaki and share the mes, the powers, with them, showing how and to what extent they could be used. All the Anunnaki approved, drunk on power. Only when it came to Ishtar was there some turbulence in attributing the mes. But this was because Ishtar was the only one who could be everywhere at once. Other gods presided over single regions. Ishtar was imperial. She was present in every nook and cranny, permeated every surface. They called her the girl who laughs with a happy heart, but she was also one who fomented fighting and slaughter. No one could be sure what Ishtar would be from one moment to the next. Her turbulence upset every equilibrium. When Ea shared out the mes among the Anunnaki, Ishtar felt left out. She saw she hadn’t been given a function for herself. She was sovereign, but without presiding over anything in particular. Now she was forced to realize that the only thing that was strictly hers was sexual pleasure. And even if no one was ready to forgo it, that pleasure served no purpose. The gods shared out territories and governments; she alone was everywhere and nowhere. Rather than any particular god, she resembled the divine, that embraces all and cannot be pinned down.

“Ea always avoided conflict. He knew nothing is ever settled by arguing. But Ishtar was furious, crushing everything in her path. So Ea resorted to an old trick. He made a Double of Ishtar. The goddess would have to fight it out with that. From the secret waters of the Apsu a powerful figure emerged, a warrior. Standing tall, headstrong. Ea called her Saltu, which means ‘Quarrel.’ If Ishtar wanted war among the gods, she would first have to fight Saltu, who resembled her more than any other creature. And so it was. This was one of the occasions when Ea revealed all his wisdom.

“We don’t know who won the clash between Ishtar and her Double, which must have been something like a duel with a mirror. But it was enough to cause quakes and crevasses everywhere. I remember that after a while silence fell. But Ishtar hadn’t had her fill. She was hatching a plan.

“Wrapped in a cloak only gods possess, she climbed on the Boat of Heaven and chose to descend to the Apsu to visit Ea. Many saw her on the last leg of the journey, between Kulaba, her home in Uruk, and Eridu, where you go down to the Apsu.

“She said she wanted to speak, her alone, him alone, to Ea. ‘Behold the silvery Ishtar, my daughter,’ are words many of the guardians heard Ea pronounce. Just before they shut themselves up in a room of the subterranean palace, some of the dignitaries managed to glimpse their passing. A dazzling vision, they said. Huge luminous wings hovered over the boundless waters of the Apsu, opening the way for the goddess. No one would witness what followed, save, for a few moments, the servants who brought them food and drink. Exquisite no doubt. They whispered that Ea seemed drunk. They heard him say over and over: ‘My daughter, my daughter.’ And the two kept lifting bronze goblets. As for Ishtar’s splendor, they didn’t dare so much as begin to describe it. I feel sure they were telling the truth.