Fig. 147
The ancient texts refer repeatedly to a type of ship used by the gods called elippu tebiti ("sunken ship"—what we now call a submarine). We have seen the "fish-men" that were assigned to Ea. Is this evidence of efforts to dive to the depths of the oceans and retrieve their mineral riches? The Land of the Mines, we have noted, was earlier called A.RA.LI.–"place of the waters of the shiny lodes." This could mean a land where gold could be river-panned; it could also refer to efforts to obtain gold from the seas.
If these were the plans of the Nefilim, they apparently came to naught. For, soon after they had established their first settlements, the few hundred Anunnaki were given an unexpected and most arduous task: to go down into the depths of the African soil and mine the needed minerals there.
Depictions that have been found on cylinder seals show gods at what appear to be mine entrances or mine shafts; one shows Ea in a land where Gibil is aboveground and another god toils underground, on his hands and knees. (Fig. 148)
In later times, Babylonian and Assyrian texts disclose, men—young and old—were sentenced to hard labor in the mines of the Lower World. Working in darkness and eating dust as food, they were doomed never to return to their homeland. This is why the Sumerian epithet for the land—KUR.NU.GI.A—acquired the interpretation "land of no return"; its literal meaning was "land where gods-who-work, in deep tunnels pile up [the ores]." For the time when the Nefilim settled Earth, all the ancient sources attest, was a time when Man was not yet on Earth; and in the absence of Mankind, the few Anunnaki had to toil in the mines. Ishtar, on her descent to the Lower World, described the toiling Anunnaki as eating food mixed with clay and drinking water fouled with dust.
Fig. 148
Against this background, we can fully understand a long epic text named (after its opening verse, as was the custom), "When the gods, like men, bore the work."
Piecing together many fragments of both Babylonian and Assyrian versions, W. G. Lambert and A. R. Millard (Atra-Hasis: The Babylonian Story of the Flood) were able to present a continuous text. They reached the conclusion that it was based on earlier Sumerian versions, and possibly on even earlier oral traditions about the arrival of the gods on Earth, the creation of Man, and his destruction by the Deluge.
While many of the verses hold only literary value to their translators, we find them highly significant, for they corroborate our findings and conclusions in the preceding chapters. They also explain the circumstances that led to the mutiny of the Anunnaki.
The story begins in the time when only the gods lived on Earth:
When the gods, like men,
bore the work and suffered the toil—
the toil of the gods was great,
the work was heavy,
the distress was much.
At that time, the epic relates, the chief deities had already divided the commands among themselves.
Anu, father of the Anunnaki, was their Heavenly King;
Their Lord Chancellor was the warrior Enlil.
Their Chief Officer was Ninurta,
And their Sheriff was Ennugi.
The gods had clasped hands together,
Had cast lots and divided.
Anu had gone up to heaven,
[Left] the earth to his subjects.
The seas, enclosed as with a loop,
They had given to Enki, the prince.
Seven cities were established, and the text refers to seven Anunnaki who were city commanders. Discipline must have been strict, for the text tells us "The seven Great Anunnaki were making the lesser gods suffer the work."
Of all their chores, it seems, digging was the most common, the most arduous, and the most abhorred. The lesser gods dug up the river beds to make them navigable; they dug canals for irrigation; and they dug in the Apsu to bring up the minerals of Earth. Though they undoubtedly had some sophisticated tools—the texts spoke of the "silver axe which shines as the day," even underground—the work was too exacting. For a long time—for forty "periods," to be exact—the Anunnaki "suffered the toil"; and then they cried: No more!
They were complaining, backbiting,
Grumbling in the excavations.
The occasion for the mutiny appears to have been a visit by Enlil to the mining area. Seizing the opportunity, the Anunnaki said to one another:
Let us confront our ... the Chief Officer,
That he may relieve us of our heavy work.
The king of the gods, the hero Enlil,
Let us unnerve him in his dwelling!
A leader or organizer of the mutiny was soon found. He was the "chief officer of old time," who must have held a grudge against the current chief officer. His name, regrettably, is broken off; but his inciting address is quite clear:
"Now, proclaim war;
Let us combine hostilities and battle."
The description of the mutiny is so vivid that scenes of the storming of the Bastille come to mind:
The gods heeded his words.
They set fire to their tools;
Fire to their axes they put;
They troubled the god of mining in the tunnels;
They held [him] as they went
to the gate of the hero Enlil.
The drama and tension of the unfolding events are brought to life by the ancient poet:
It was night, half-way through the watch.
His house was surrounded—
but the god, Enlil, did not know.
Kalkal [then] observed it, was disturbed.
He slid the bolt and watched....
Kalkal roused Nusku;
they listened to the noise of....
Nusku roused his lord—
he got him out of his bed, [saying];
"My lord, your house is surrounded,
battle has come right up to your gate."
Enlil's first reaction was to take up arms against the mutineers. But Nusku, his chancellor, advised a Council of the Gods:
"Transmit a message that Anu come down;
Have Enki brought to your presence."
He transmitted and Anu was carried down;
Enki was also brought to his presence.
With the great Anunnaki present,
Enlil arose ... opened his mouth
And addressed the great gods.
Taking the mutiny personally, Enlil demanded to know:
"Is it against me that this is being done?
Must I engage in hostilities ... ?
What did my very own eyes see?
That battle has come right up to my gate!"
Anu suggested that an inquiry be undertaken. Armed with the authority of Anu and the other commanders, Nusku went to the encamped mutineers. "Who is the instigator of battle?" he asked. "Who is the provoker of hostilities?"
The Anunnaki stood together:
"Every single one of us gods has war declared!
We have our ... in the excavations;
Excessive toil has killed us,
Our work was heavy, the distress much."
When Enlil heard Nusku's report of these grievances, "his tears flowed." He presented an ultimatum: either the leader of the mutineers be executed or he would resign. "Take the office away, take back your power," he told Anu, "and I will to you in heaven ascend." But Anu, who came down from Heaven, sided with the Anunnaki:
"What are we accusing them of?
Their work was heavy, their distress was much!
Every day ...
The lamentation was heavy, we could hear the complaint."
Encouraged by his father's words, Ea also "opened his mouth" and repeated Anu's summation. But he had a solution to offer: Let a lulu, a "Primitive Worker," be created!
"While the Birth Goddess is present,
Let her create a Primitive Worker;
Let him bear the yoke....
Let him carry the toil of the gods!"
The suggestion that a "Primitive Worker" be created so that he could take over the b
urden of work of the Anunnaki was readily accepted. Unanimously, the gods voted to create "The Worker." "'Man' shall be his name," they said:
They summoned and asked the goddess,
The midwife of the gods, the wise Mami,
[and said to her:]
"You are the Birth Goddess, create Workers!
Create a Primitive Worker,
That he may bear the yoke!
Let him bear the yoke assigned by Enlil,
Let The Worker carry the toil of the gods!"
Mami, the Mother of the Gods, said she would need the help of Ea, "with whom skill lies." In the House of Shimti, a hospital-like place, the gods were waiting. Ea helped prepare the mixture from which the Mother Goddess proceeded to fashion "Man." Birth goddesses were present. The Mother Goddess went on working while incantations were constantly recited. Then she shouted in triumph:
"I have created!
My hands have made it!"
She "summoned the Anunnaki, the Great Gods ... she opened her mouth, addressed the Great Gods":
"You commanded me a task
I have completed it....
I have removed your heavy work
I have imposed your toil on The Worker, 'Man.'
You raised a cry for a Worker-kind:
I have loosed the yoke,
I have provided your freedom."
The Anunnaki received her announcement enthusiastically. "They ran together and kissed her feet." From then on it would be the Primitive Worker—Man—"who will bear the yoke."
The Nefilim, having arrived on Earth to set up their colonies, had created their own brand of slavery, not with slaves imported from another continent, but with Primitive Workers fashioned by the Nefilim themselves.
A mutiny of the gods had led to the creation of Man.
12
•
THE CREATION OF MAN
The assertion, first recorded and transmitted by the Sumerians, that "Man" was created by the Nefilim, appears at first sight to clash both with the theory of evolution and with the Judeo-Christian tenets based on the Bible. But in fact, the information contained in the Sumerian texts—and only that information—can affirm both the validity of the theory of evolution and the truth of the biblical tale—and show that there really is no conflict at all between the two.
In the epic "When the gods as men," in other specific texts, and in passing references, the Sumerians described Man as both a deliberate creature of the gods and a link in the evolutionary chain that began with the celestial events described in the "Epic of Creation." Holding firm to the belief that the creation of Man was preceded by an era during which only the Nefilim were upon Earth, the Sumerian texts recorded instance after instance (for example, the incident between Enlil and Ninlil) of events that had taken place "when Man had not yet been created, when Nippur was inhabited by the gods alone." At the same time, the texts also described the creation of Earth and the development of plant and animal life upon it, in terms that conform to the current evolutionary theories.
The Sumerian texts state that when the Nefilim first came to Earth, the arts of grain cultivation, fruit planting, and cattle raising had not yet extended to Earth. The biblical account likewise places the creation of Man in the sixth "day" or phase of the evolutionary process. The Book of Genesis, too, asserts that at an earlier evolutionary stage:
No plant of the cleared field was yet on Earth,
No herb that is planted had yet been grown....
And Man was not yet there to work the soil.
All the Sumerian texts assert that the gods created Man to do their work. Putting the explanation in words uttered by Marduk, the Creation epic reports the decision:
I will produce a lowly Primitive;
"Man" shall be his name.
I will create a Primitive Worker;
He will be charged with the service of the gods,
that they might have their ease.
The very terms by which the Sumerians and Akkadians called "Man" bespoke his status and purpose: He was a lulu ("primitive"), a lulu amelu ("primitive worker"), an awilum ("laborer"). That Man was created to be a servant of the gods did not strike the ancient peoples as a peculiar idea at all. In biblical times, the deity was "Lord," "Sovereign," "King," "Ruler," "Master." The term that is commonly translated as "worship" was in fact avod ("work"). Ancient and biblical Man did not "worship" his god; he worked for him.
No sooner had the biblical Deity, like the gods in Sumerian accounts, created Man, than he planted a garden and assigned Man to work there:
And the Lord God took the "Man"
and placed him in the garden of Eden
to till it and to tend it.
Later on, the Bible describes the Deity "strolling in the garden in the breeze of the day," now that the new being was there to tend the Garden of Eden. How far is this version from the Sumerian texts that describe how the gods clamored for workers so that they could rest and relax?
In the Sumerian versions, the decision to create Man was adopted by the gods in their Assembly. Significantly, the Book of Genesis—purportedly exalting the achievements of a sole Deity—uses the plural Elohim (literally, "deities") to denote "God," and reports an astonishing remark:
And Elohim said:
"Let us make Man in our image,
after our likeness."
Whom did the sole but plural Deity address, and who were the "us" in whose plural image and plural likeness Man was to be made? The Book of Genesis does not provide the answer. Then, when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowing, Elohim issued a warning to the same unnamed colleagues: "Behold, Man has become as one of us, to know good and evil."
Since the biblical story of Creation, like the other tales of beginnings in Genesis, stems from Sumerian origins, the answer is obvious. Condensing the many gods into a single Supreme Deity, the biblical tale is but an edited version of the Sumerian reports of the discussions in the Assembly of the Gods.
The Old Testament took pains to make clear that Man was neither a god nor from the heavens. "The Heavens are the Heavens of the Lord, unto Mankind Earth He hath given." The new being was called "the Adam" because he was created of the adama, the Earth's soil. He was, in other words, "the Earthling."
Lacking only certain "knowing" and a divine span of life, the Adam was in all other respects created in the image (selem) and likeness (dmut) of his Creator(s). The use of both terms in the text was meant to leave no doubt that Man was similar to the God(s) both physically and emotionally, externally and internally.
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