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272 back to the gods of Sumer, the Anunnaki, when they em- ployed emissaries in their dealings with one another rather than with Earthlings. PPL 2 eee de ne ae a rn The one whom scholars refer to as "the vizier of the great gods" was Papsukkal; his epithet-name meant "Father/Ancestor of the Emissaries." He carried out missions on behalf of Anu, conveying Anu's decisions or advice to the Anunnaki leaders on Earth; as often as not, he displayed considerable diplomatic skills. The texts suggest that at times, perhaps when Anu was away from Earth, Papsukkal served as an emissary of Ninurta (although, during the battle with Zu, Ninurta employed his main weapon-bearer Sharur as a Divine Emissary). Enid's principal Sukkal or emissary was called Nusku; he is mentioned in a variety of roles in most of the "myths" concerning Enlil. When the Anunnaki toiling in the mines of the Abzu (southeastern Africa) mutinied and surrounded the house where Enlil stayed, it was Nusku who blocked their way with his weapons; it was also he who acted as a go- between to diffuse the confrontation. In Sumerian times he was the emissary who brought the "word of Ekur" (Enid's ziggurat in Nippur) to those—both gods and people—whose fate Enlil had decreed. A Hymn to Enlil, the All-Beneficent stated that "only to his exalted vizier, the chamberlain (Suk- kal) Nusku, does he (Enlil) the command, the word that is in his heart, make known." We have mentioned earlier an instance in which Nusku, standing in the Harran temple with Sin, informed the Assyrian king Esarhaddon of the divine permission to invade Egypt. Ashurbanipal, in his annals, asserted that it was "Nusku, the faithful emissary," who conveyed the divine decision to make him king of Assyria; then, on the gods’ command, Nusku accompanied Ashurbanipal on a military campaign to assure victory. Nusku, Ashurbanipal wrote, "took the lead of my army and threw down my foes with the divine weapon." The assertion brings to mind the reverse incident reported in the Bible, when the Angel of Yahweh smote the army of Assyria besieging Jerusalem: And it came to pass that night that the Angel of Yahweh DIVINE ENCOUNTERS