This mythical narrative relates an encounter between the great goddess Inana and a humble gardener’s boy whose name, Su-kale-tuda, appears to mean ‘Spotty’. (He is the precursor of one of the goddess’s lovers whose inhumane treatment by her is the subject of GilgameS’s taunting in Tablet VI of the Babylonian Epic of Gilgames.) Although it may be possible to interpret the narrative on one level as a political allegory recalling the conquests of the mountain areas lying to the east of Mesopotamia by the kings of the Agade dynasty, the simplest and most direct reading of it describes a rural agricultural landscape in Sumer—a vegetable garden. The repeated refrain ‘Now, what did one say to another? What further did one add to the other in detail?’ creates an informal style evoking an orally transmitted story.
A short subplot (42—90) seems to describe how the wise god Enki teaches a raven to do some gardening tasks, including planting a vegetable like a leek which turns into the first palm tree. Su-kale-tuda is working in the garden, but seems not to be a very efficient gardener’s boy, since none of his vegetable plots thrive, and he has the habit of pulling up the plants which he has sown earlier. A sudden dust-storm blows up, during which he catches sight of the goddess Inana. In the hot sun, the exhausted goddess looks for somewhere to rest, and lights on a corner of Su-kale-tuda’s vegetable garden. As she lies sleeping under a shady Euphrates poplar, Su-kale-tuda has sex with her. He goes back to work afterwards; but by the following sunrise the goddess is fully aware of exactly what has happened, and is enraged at the indignity of her situation. She sends a plague of blood on the Land, swearing to find the man who has taken advantage of her.
Su-kale-tuda tells his father the whole story. His father advises him that in the country he will be easily tracked down and identified; the best thing will be to go to the nearby town, where he can quickly become invisible among the crowds. A second plague follows, and a third in which the highways of the Land are blocked.
Finally, Inana tracks down the gardener’s boy and threatens him mercilessly with death. But she tells him that at least his name will be remembered in the songs sung about him, in palaces and in the countryside by shepherds.
World History
