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236 Begins at Sumer) has characterized as "the first war of nerves." Lauding his king and his powers, the emissary quoted verbatim Enmerkar's threats to bring desolation upon Aratta and dispersion upon its people. The ruler of Aratta, however, countered this war of nerves with a ploy of his own. Reminding the emissary of the confusion of languages in the aftermath of the Tower of Babel inci- dent, he claimed he could not understand the message given him in Sumerian. In frustration Enmerkar sent another message written on clay tablets—this time, it appears, in the language of Aratta—a feat made possible with the help of Nidaba, the Goddess of Writing. In addition to threats an offering of the seeds of "the olden grain" that had been kept in Anu's temple was made—a seed, it appears, needed badly in Aratta because a long drought had destroyed its crops. The drought was deemed to have been a sign that it was Inanna herself who wished Aratta to come "under the protecting "The lord of Aratta from the herald took the baked tablet; the lord of Aratta examined the clay.” The writing» was in cuneiform ns rae ie sas ne te script: "The dictated word was nail-like in appearance." Was he to yield or resist? Just at that moment "a storm, like a great lion attacking, stepped up"; the drought was suddenly broken by a thunderstorm that made the whole land tremble, the mountains quake; and once again, "white-walled Aratta" became a land of abundant grains. said to the herald: "Tnanna, the queen of the lands, has not abandoned her House in Aratta; she has not handed over Aratta to Erech." In spite of the rejoicing in Aratta, its expectation that Inanna would not abandon her abode there was not entirely fulfilled. Enticed by the prospect of residing in a grand temple at Sumer's City of Anu, she became a commuting goddess: a "working de- ity," so to speak, in faraway Aratta, but a resident in metropol- itan Erech. She did her commuting by flying from place to place in her "Boat of Heaven." Her flying about gave rise to many depictions of her as an aeronaut (Fig. 75), and the inference from some texts is that she did her own piloting. On the other hand, like other major deities, she was THE WARS OF GODS AND MEN shade of Erech." There was no need to yield to Erech; and the lord of Aratta