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177 Herodotus, the fifth century B.C. Greek historian and trav- eler, described in his writings (History, Book I, 178-182) the sacred precinct of Babylon and the temple-ziggurat of Mar- duk (whom he called "Jupiter Bellus")—quite accurately, as modern archaeology has shown. According to his testimony, On the topmost tower there is a spacious temple, and inside the temple stands a couch of unusual size, richly adorned, with a golden table by its side. There is no statue of any kind set up in the place, nor is the cham- ber occupied of nights by any one but a single native woman, who, as the Chaldeans, the priests of this god affirm, is chosen for himself by the deity out of all the women of the land. They also declare—but I for my part do not credit it— that the god comes down in person into this chamber, and sleeps upon the couch. This is like the story told by the Egyptians of what takes place in their city of Thebes, where a woman always passes the night in the temple of the Theban Jupiter. In each case the woman is said to be debarred all intercourse with men. It is also like the custom of Patara, in Lycia, where the priestess who delivers the oracles, during the time that she is so employed ... is shut up in the temple every night. Although the statements by Herodotus give the impression that any maiden in the lands could have qualified for this widespread practice, it was not really so. One of the inscriptions found in the ruins of the Gipar at Ur was by an Entu named Enannedu, who has been identified as the daughter of Kudur-Mabuk, a king of the Sumerian city Larsa circa 1900 B.C. "I am magnificently suited to be a Gipar-woman, the house which in a pure place for the Entu is built," she wrote. Interestingly, votive objects found in the Ningal temple bore inscriptions identifying them as gifts from Enannedu, suggesting to some scholars (e.g. Penelope Wea- dock, The Giparu at Ur) that while serving as the human consort of the god Nannar, the Entu also had to be on good Encounters in the GIGUNU