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243 With jump ropes and colored cords they compete before her... The young men, carrying hoops, sing before her... The maidens. Shugia priestesses, walk before Inanna. . . They set up a bed for my lady, They cleanse rushes with sweet smelling cedar oil; For Inanna, for the King, they arrange the bed... The king approaches her pure lap proudly: Proudly he approaches the lap of Inanna. . . He caresses her pure lap. She stretches out on the bed, the pure lap; She makes love with him on her bed. This habit of Inanna may have begun with Enmerkar himself, a sexual union of which the next ruler of Uruk, a demigod known as "divine Lugalbanda, a Righteous Supervisor," was the progeny. Of Lugalbanda, too, as of Enmerkar, several epic tales have been found. Inanna, it seems, wanted him to reside in her stead in Aratta; but Lugalbanda was too restless and adventurous to stay put. One epic tale (Lugalbanda and Mount Hurum) describes his dangerous journey to the "awesome place on Earth" in search of the Divine Black Bird. He reached the Restricted Mount "where the Anunnaki, gods of the mountain, inside the earth like termites had tunneled." Seeking a ride in the Bird of Heaven, Lugalbanda pleaded with its custodian; his words immortalized man's desire to fly: Like Utu let me go, like Inanna, Like the Seven Stormers of Ishkur Let me go wherever my eyes can see, Wherever I desire, let me set my foot, Wherever my heart wishes, let me arrive. . . When he had arrived at Mount Hurum ("whose front Enlil as with a great door had closed off"), Lugalbanda was challenged by the Guardian: "If a god you are, a word in friendship will I utter which will let you enter; If a man you are, your fate will I decree." To which: "A Queen Am I!" She says to Iddin-Dagan: "Surely, you are my beloved." in a flame let me lift myself off, and thunder away!