Page Content (OCR)
360 Enki main), recommended drastic action to stop Marduk. Enki vehemently objected. Ishtar pointed out that while they were debating, Marduk was seizing city after city. "Sheriffs" were sent to seize Nabu, but he escaped and was hiding among his followers in one of the "sinning cities." Finally, Ninurta and Nergal were authorized to retrieve from a hiding place awesome nuclear weapons, and to use them to destroy the Spaceport in the Sinai (lest it fall into Mardukian hands) as well as the area where Nabu was hiding. The unfolding drama, the heated discussions, the accusa- tions, and the final drastic action—the use of nuclear weapons in 2024 B.c.—are described in great detail in a text that schol- ars call the Erra Epic. Te. akin Ann. oe a re - era, seen BOATS In this document Nergal is referred to as Erra ("Howler") and Ninurta is called Ishum ("Scorcher"). Once they were given the go-ahead they retrieved "the awesome seven weap- ons, without parallel" and went to the Spaceport near the "Mount Most Supreme." The destruction of the Spaceport was carried out by Ninurta/Ishum: "He raised his hand; the Mount was smashed; the plain by the Mount Most Supreme he then obliterated; in its forests not a tree-stem was left standing." Now it was the turn of the sinning cities to be upheavaled, and the task was carried out by Nergal/Erra. He went there by following the King's Highway that connected the Sinai and the Red Sea with Mesopotamia: Then, emulating Ishum, Erra the King's Highway followed. The cities he finished off, to desolation he overturned them. The use of nuclear weapons there broke open the sand barrier that still partly exists in the shape of a tongue (called El Lissan), and the waters of the Salt Sea poured south, inundating the low-lying plain. The ancient text records that Erra/Nergal "dug through the sea, its wholeness he divided." And the nuclear weapons turned the Salt Sea to the body of water now called the Dead Sea: "That which lives in it he made wither," and what used to be a thriving and verdant DIVINE ENCOUNTERS