Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: July 23, 2025
The eagle tempts Etana to mount with him into the upper regions. Etana is represented as giving, in part, an account of this adventure, in the first person. The gates of the upper regions are opened, and Etana is terrified at the majestic sight which greets him. He sees a throne, and throws himself on his countenance in terror.
The gates are significantly designated as the gate of Anu, Bel, and Ea, and the gate of Sin, Shamash, Ramman, and Ishtar. The introduction of the two classes of the theological triads reveals the influence of a scholastic elaboration of some popular myth. Etana obeys, and thus, securely attached to the eagle, begins the daring journey. They fly for the space of a double hour, when
The eagle being the associate of Etana, the suspicion is justified that the child thus miraculously saved is in reality Etana and not Gilgamesh. At all events, there must be some connection between the story of Aelian and the Babylonian legend under consideration.
The further course of the narrative is obscure. Was Etana punished by being sent to the nether world, where we find him in the Gilgamesh epic? There is a reference, unfortunately quite obscure, to the death of Etana, and perhaps to his shade, in a portion of the tablet.
Jensen would add Etana to the list of gods of vegetation who form part of Allatu's court. While the etymology he proposes for the name is not acceptable, there is no doubt that to Etana, like Gilgamesh, the character of a solar deity has been imparted. His presence in the nether world is due to the story of his flight with the eagle and the fall.
The oracles have completed my sacrifices, They have completed my free-will offerings to the gods. O Lord, let thy mouth command, And give me the plant of birth, Reveal to me the plant of birth, Bring forth the fruit, grant me an offspring. Of Shamash's reply only one line is preserved intact, in which he tells Etana: Take the road, ascend the mountain.
His patron is Shamash, the sun-god, and in popular tradition he becomes a member of the pantheon of the nether world. In the portions of the Etana legend preserved, two episodes are detailed in the hero's career, one regarding the birth of a son, the other a miraculous journey. The former episode justifies the assumption of a historical starting-point for the legend of Etana.
The Etana series, as we learn from the colophon to this fragment, was known by a designation in which a city occurs, and it may be that this is the city against which Etana, aided by the gods, proceeds.
For previous readings of the name, see Jeremias' article on 'Izdubar' in Roscher's Ausführliches Lexicon der Griechischen und Römischen Mythologie, ii. col. 773, 774. Historia Animalum, xii. 21. See p. 524. In the Oriental legends of Alexander the Great, this confusion is further illustrated. To Alexander are attached stories belonging to both Izdubar and Etana.
Earth and ocean grow still smaller, the former appearing only as large as 'a garden bed, the latter like 'a courtyard. For three double hours they fly. Etana appears to warn the eagle to desist from his rash intention, but the warning comes too late. Etana and the eagle are thrown down from the lofty regions. With lightning speed the descent takes place, until the two reach the ground.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking