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230 stake. ... It was only through the intervention of Enki that she was saved and revived. The texts do not explain the reasons for the harsh treatment meted out to Inanna. nor quote the "torturing words" her accusers cast at her. But we learn from the beginning of the text that at the same time that she went on her trip, Inanna sent her messenger to "fill heaven with complaints for me, in the assembly [of the gods] cry out for me." Attending a funeral was thus a mere pretext; what she had in mind was to force the gods to satisfy a complaint that she wished to dramatize. From the moment of her arrival at the first gate. Inanna threat- ened violence if she would not be let in. When the news of her ar- rival was brought to Ereshkigal, ' ‘her face turned pale . . . her lips turned dark" and she wondered out loud what the real purpose of the visit was. When the two came face-to-face, "Ereshkigal saw her and burst out at her presence; Ishtar. unflinching, flew at her." Somehow Inanna's intentions spelled danger for Ereshkigal! We have already found that many of the biblical marital and suc- cession laws were akin to such laws that governed the behavior of the Anunnaki; the rules regarding a half-sister are but one example. The clue to Inanna's intentions, we believe, can be found in the book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of Moses, in which the He- brew code of personal behavior was spelled out. Chapter 25 (verses 5-10) deals with the instance when a married man dies without having had a son. If the man had a brother, the widow could not remarry a stranger: it was the duty of the brother—even a married one—to marry his widowed sister-in-law and have children by her; and the firstborn boy was to bear the name of the deceased brother, "so that his name shall not be blotted out." This, we believe, is what had also been Inanna's reason for her risky journey. For Ereshkigal was married to Nergal, a brother of Dumuzi: Inanna had come to put the Rule into play. . . . The cus- tom, we know, put the onus on the eldest brother, who was, in the case of the sons of Enki, Marduk. But Marduk was found guilty of indirectly causing the death of Dumuzi, and was punished and ex- iled. Had Inanna then the right to demand that the next in line, Nergal, take her as his second wife so that she could have a male heir? The personal and succession problems that Inanna's intentions would have caused Ereshkigal can well be imagined. Would Inanna be satisfied to be a second wife, or would she connive and scheme to usurp the queenship over the African domain? Obvi- THE WARS OF GODS AND MEN