|
Post Content
|
To a great assembly, counsel to take, Enlil them all summoned.
All the Anunnaki leaders in Nibru-ki gathered; Enki and Marduk's brothers also came.
About the happenings all of them were agitated, opposed to Marduk and Nabu they all were.
In the council of the great gods, accusations wererampant, recriminations filled the chamber.
What is coming no one can prevent; let us Marduk's supremacy accept! Enki alone counseled.
If the time of the Ram is coming, let us Marduk of the Bond Heaven-Earth deprive! Enlil in
anger proposed.
To obliterate the Place of the Celestial Chariots all except Enki agreed;
To use therefore the Weapons of Terror Nergal suggested; only Enki was opposed:
Of the decision, Earth to Anu the words pronounced; Anu to Earth the words repeated.
What was destined to be, by your decision to undo will fail! So did Enki say as he departed.
The evil thing to carry out Ninurta and Nergal were selected.
Thus it was that without Enki needing, Enlil tothe two heroes the hiding place disclosed:
Those seven Weapons of Terror, in a mountain they abide! to them Enlil said.
In a cavity inside the earth they dwell, with the terror to cladthem is required!
Then the secret of how the weapons from their deep sleep awaken, Enlil to them did reveal.
Before the two sons, one of Enlil, one of Enki, to the hiding place departed,
Enlil to them words of forewarning said: Ere the weapons are used, by the Anunnaki must the
chariots' place be vacated;
The cities must be spared, the people must not perish!
In his skyship Nergal to the hiding place soared, Ninurta by his father was delayed;
A word to his son alone Enlil wished to say, a secret to him alone reveal:
About the prophecy of Galzu and the choosing of lbruum to Ninurta he told.
Hot-headed is Nergal, make sure that the cities are spared, that Ibruum is forewarned! to
Ninurta Enlil said.
When Ninurta at the weapons' place arrived, Nergal from the cavity had already them brought
out,
As their ME's from the long slumber he awakened, to each one of the seven Nergal a taskname
gave:
The One Without Rival the first weapon he called, the Blazing Flame he named the second,
The One Who with Terror Crumbles he called the third, Mountain Melter the fourth he called,
Wind That the Rim of the World Seeks he named the fifth, the One Who Above and Below No
One Spares was the sixth,
The seventh with monstrous venom was filled, Vaporizer of Living Things he called it
With Anu's blessing were the seven to Nergal and Ninurta given, therewith to destruction wreak.
When Ninurta at the place of the Weapons of Terror arrived, to destroy and annihilate was
Nergal ready.
I shall kill the son I will annihilate the father! Nergal with vengeance was shouting.
The lands they covet will vanish, the sinning cities I will upheaval! So did Nergal enraged
announce.
A thousand and seven hundred and thirty-six was the count of Earth years then.
On that day, on that fateful day, Enlil to Ninurta the signal sent;
To Mount Mashu Ninurta departed, behind him Nergal followed.
The Mount and the plain, in the heart of the Fourth Region, Ninurta from the skies surveyed.
With a squeezing in his heart, to Nergal a sign he gave: Keep off! to him he signaled.
Then the first terror weapon fromthe skies Ninurta let loose;
The top of Mount Mashu with a flash it sliced off, the mount's innards in an instant it melted.
Above the Place of the Celestial Chariots the second weapon he unleashed,
With a brilliance of seven suns the plain's rocks into a gushing wound were made,
The Earth shook and crumbled, the heavens after the brilliance were darkened;
With burnt and crushed stones was the plain of the chariots covered,
Of all the forests that the plain had surrounded, only tree stems were left standing.
It is done! Ninurta from the skyship, his Black Divine Bird, words shouted.
The control that Marduk and Nabu so coveted, of it they are forever deprived!
Then to emulate Ninurta Nergal desired, to be Erra the Annihilator his heart him urged;
Following the King's Highway, to the verdant valley of the five cities he flew.
In the verdant valley where Nabu the people was converting, Nergal as a caged bird to squash
him planned!
Over the five cities, one after the other, Erra upon each from the skies a terror weapon sent,
The five cities of the valley he finished off, to desolation they were overturned.
With fire and brimstones were they upheavaled, all that lived there to vapor was turned.
By the awesome weapons were mountains toppled, where the sea waters were barred the bolt
broke open,
Down into the valley the sea's waters poured, by the waters was the valley flooded;
When upon the cities' ashes the waters poured, steam to the heavens was rising.
It is done! Erra in his skyship shouted. In Nergal's heart there was no more vengeance.
Surveying their evil handiwork, the two heroes by what they saw were puzzled:
By a darkening of the skies were the brilliances followed, then a storm to blow began.
Swirling within a dark cloud, gloom from the skies an Evil Wind carried,
As the day wore on, the Sun on the horizon with darknessit obliterated,
At nighttime a dreaded brilliance skirted its edges, the Moon at its rising it made disappear.
When dawn the next morning came, from the west, from the Upper Sea, a stormwind began
blowing,
The dark brown cloud eastward it directed, toward the settled lands did the cloud spread;
Wherever it reached, death to all that lives mercilessly it delivered;
From the Valley of No Pity, by the brilliances spawned, toward Shumer the death was carried.
To Enlil and Enki Ninurta and Nergal the alarm sounded: Unstoppable the Evil Wind death to all
delivers!
The alarm Enlil and Enki to the gods of Shumer transmitted: Escape! Escape! to them all they
cried out.
Let the people disperse, let the people hide!
From their cities the gods did flee, like frightened birds from their nests escaping they were.
The people of the lands by the Evil Storm's hand were clutched; futile was the running.
Stealthy was the death, like a ghost the fields and cities it attacked;
The highest walls, the thickest walls, like floodwaters it passed,
No door could shut it out, no bolt could turn it back.
Those who behind locked doors hid insidetheir houses like flies were felled,
Those who to the streets fled, in the streets were their corpses piled up.
Cough and phlegm the chests filled, the mouths with spittle and foam filled up;
As the Evil Wind the people unseen engulfed, their mouths were drenched with blood.
Slowly over the lands the Evil Wind blew, fromwest to east over plains and mountains it
traveled;
Everything that lived, behind it was dead and dying, people and cattle, all alike perished.
The waters were poisoned, in the fields all vegetation withered.
From Eridu in the south to Sippar in the north did the Evil Wind the land overwhelm;
Babili, where Marduk supremacy declared, by the Evil Wind was spared.
- Lost Book of Enki
|
