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166 But on the other hand Ninsun was also having sex with gods, or at least one god. According to the Sumerian King Lists the young god Dumuzi reigned briefly in Uruk, between Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh. The Lists recognize the full di- vinity of Dumuzi, for he was a son of Enki. What the Lists do not mention, but what is attested by considerable literary texts dealing with the life, loves, and death of Dumuzi, is mat his mother was the goddess Ninsun—the very same god- dess who was the mother of Gilgamesh. Ninsun thus had sexual liaisons with both gods (Enki) and men (Lugalbanda). In this new phase of Divine Encounters, she was emulating not only Utu/Shamash (whose spouse was the goddess Aia, yet had a son by a mortal female), but also Inanna/Ishtar, the twin sister of Utu/Shamash. The fact that all these encounters in one way or another involved Uruk was no accident; for it was in Uruk that the GIGUNU—the "Chamber of Nighttime Pleasures"—was first established in the Gipar. Unlike Utu/Shamash and Ninsun, Inanna/Ishtar is not men- tioned in the Sumerian King Lists in connection with Uruk; but in the Epic of Gilgamesh she joins the two as a featured divine actor in the saga. In a way she belonged in the tale perhaps more than they, for she was the patron-goddess of Uruk and it was due to her that what was only a sacred precinct became a major great city. How she achieved that was described in a text known as "Enki and Inanna" that we shall soon examine; but first one should explain how Inanna became associated with Uruk—indeed, how she came to be called "Inanna" to begin with. When Kingship was transferred from Kish to Uruk at the beginning of the third millennium B.c., Uruk consisted only of a sacred precinct, the Kullab. That sacred precinct had existed by then for almost a thousand years, for it was origi- nally built mainly to accommodate Anu and Antu on their state visit to Earth. Clay tablets found in the ruins of Uruk, copies of earlier texts recording the pomp and circumstance of the event, retained enough detail to follow the carefully prescribed rites and ceremonies as well as the nature of the sacred compound and its various buildings. Besides temples DIVINE ENCOUNTERS