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161 Fig. 48 the cattle he dispersed." When the Enemy kept retreating into the mountains, the two gods "like an onrushing flood the mountains ravaged." As the battles extended in time and scope, the two leading gods called on the others to join them. "My lord, to the battle which is becoming extensive, why don't you go?" they asked a god whose name is missing in a damaged verse. The question was clearly also addressed to Ishtar, for she is mentioned by name: "In the clash of weapons, in the feats of heroship, Ishtar her arm did not hold back." As the two gods saw her, they shouted encouragingly to her: "Advance hither without stop- ping! Put your foot down firmly on the Earth! In the mountains, we await thee!" "The weapon which is lordly brilliant, the goddess brought forth .. a horn [to direct it] she made for it." As she used it against the enemy in a feat "that to distant days" shall be re- membered, "the skies were like red-hued wool in color." The explosive beam "tore apart [the enemy), made him with his hand clutch his heart." The continued tale, on tablets v-viii, is too damaged to be prop- erly read. The partial verses suggest that after the intensified attack with Ishtar's assistance, there arose a great cry and lamentation in the Enemyland. "Fear of Ninurta's Brilliance encompassed the land," and its residents had to use substitutes instead of wheat and barley "to grind and mill as flour." Under this onslaught the Enemy forces kept retreating south. It was then that the war assumed its ferocious and vicious character, when Ninurta led the Enlilite gods in an attack on the heartland of The Pyramid Wars