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Updated: July 23, 2025
Arpi, son of a man of the people, ruled for seven hundred and twenty years. Etana, the shepherd who ascended to heaven, who subdued all lands, ruled for six hundred and thirty-five years. Pili . . ., son of Etana, ruled for four hundred and ten years. Enmenunna ruled for six hundred and eleven years. Melamkish, son of Enmenunna, ruled for nine hundred years.
Thus the serpent justifies what he is about to do. In accordance with the instructions of the sun-god, the eagle is stripped of his wings and feathers, and left to die a miserable death. In its present form this tale of the eagle and serpent forms part of the Etana story. Jeremias is right in questioning whether it originally had anything to do with Etana.
The equation proved that the Babylonians and Assyrians identified the hero with a legendary king, Gilgamos, who is mentioned by Aelian. To be sure, what Aelian tells of this hero is not found in the Izdubar epic, and appears to have originally been recounted of another legendary personage, Etana.
Eabani reveals glimpses of the sad conditions that prevail there. It is the domain of the terrible Allatu, and Etana is named among those who dwell in this region. Eabani bewails his fate. He curses Ukhat, whom, together with Sadu, he holds responsible for having brought death upon him.
Hence, the receiver of life is a goddess equally with the giver of life, and indeed, Ishtar and Allatu are but the two aspects of one and the same phenomenon. Allatu signifies 'strength. The name is related to the Arabic Allah and the Hebrew Eloah and Elohim. The same meaning strength, power, rule attaches to many of the names of the gods of the Semites: Adôn, Etana, Baal, El, and the like.
In the case of birds, on the other hand, the association is to be sought in the appearance of the clouds during a storm moving across the heavens like a flock of birds. In the Etana legend, a reference occurs to Zu, who, as it would appear, is unable to escape from the control of the supreme judge Shamash. Zu is there called the chief worker of evil a kind of arch satan.
The story of Etana appears, therefore, to emphasize the equal impossibility for any mortal to ascend to the dwelling of the gods. Etana is deified, but he belongs permanently to the region where all mortals go after their career on earth is ended, the nether world. One gains the impression, therefore, that Etana is a hero of antiquity who is not approved of by the Babylonian priests.
According to our Sumerian text he reigned in Erech for a hundred years. Another attractive Babylonian legend is that of Etana, the prototype of Icarus and hero of the earliest dream of human flight. Clinging to the pinions of his friend the Eagle he beheld the world and its encircling stream recede beneath him; and he flew through the gate of heaven, only to fall headlong back to earth.
Two distinct stories have been combined, much as in the Gilgamesh epic several tales have been thrown together. The association of Etana with the eagle suggests the introduction of the episode of the eagle's discomfiture. If one may judge of the two episodes related of Etana, he is not a personage regarded with favor by the compilers. In both episodes we find him in distress.
Leaving this aside, it is fortunate that we have at least another episode in Etana's career which enables us to establish the connecting link between the hero as an historical personage and as a god or demi-god. As Gilgamesh offers an insult to Ishtar, so Etana encounters the ill-will of the great goddess, though through no direct offense.
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