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92 to leave the city. He was to tell them that, as a worshiper of Enki, he could no longer stay in a place controlled by Enlil: My god does not agree with your god. Enki and Enlil are angry with one another. Since I reverence Enki, I cannot remain in the land of Enlil. Ihave been expelled from my house. The conflict between Enki and Enlil, that earlier had to be surmised from their actions, has thus broken into the open— sufficiently to serve as a believable reason for the banishment of Atra-hasis. The city where the events were taking place was Shuruppak, a settlement under the lordship of Ninmah/ Ninharsag. There, for the first time, a demigod was elevated to the status of "king." According to the Sumerian text, his name was Ubar-Tutu; his son and successor was the hero of the Deluge. (The Sumerians called him Ziusudra; in the Epic of Gilgamesh he was called Utnapishtim; in Old Babylonian his epithet-name was Atra-hasis; and the Bible called him Noah). As one of the settlements of the Anunnaki in the Edin, it was in the domain of Enlil; to Enki the Abzu, in southern Africa, was allotted. It was that land of Enki beyond the seas, Atra-hasis was to say, that he expected to reach with his boat. Eager to get rid of the banished man, the elders of the city made the whole town help build the boat. "The carpenter Figure 22 DIVINE ENCOUNTERS