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254 limits; and there Erra caused its "Brilliance" (radiating source of energy) to be removed. Thereupon, as Marduk had warned, "the day turned into darkness," the "flooding was disarrayed," and soon "the lands were laid to waste, the people were made to per- ish." All of Mesopotamia was affected, for Ea/Enki, Sin and Sha- mash, in their cities, became alarmed; "with anger [at Erra] they were filled." The people made sacrifices to Anu and Ishtar but to no avail: "the water sources went dry." Ea, Erra's father, re- proached him: "Now that Prince Marduk had stepped off, what have you done?" He ordered that a statue of Erra, which had been prepared, should not be set up in the Esagil. "Go away!" he or- dered Erra. "Take off to where no gods ever go!" "Erra lost his voice" only for a moment, then uttered words of impudence. Enraged, he smashed Marduk's abode, set fire to its gates. Defiantly, "he made a sign" as he turned to leave, announc- ing that his followers, however, would stay behind: "as to my war- riors, they shall not go back." And so it was that when Erra returned to Kutha, the men who had come with him stayed behind, establishing a long-lasting presence for Nergal in the lands of Shem; a colony was assigned to them not far from Babylon, perhaps as a per- manent garrison; there were "“Kutheans who worship Nergal" in Samaria in biblical times; and there was official worship of Nergal in Elam, as evidenced by an unusual bronze sculpture (Fig. 82) found there, depicting worshipers with unmistakable African features _per- forming a cultic ceremony in a temple courtyard. The departure of Marduk from Babylon brought to an end Ish- tar's conflict with him; the rift between Marduk and Nergal and the latter's retention of an Asian presence unintentionally created an alliance between Ishtar and Nergal. The chain of tragic events that no one could have predicted and that no one had perhaps even de- sired was thus being forged by fate, leading the Anunnaki and Mankind ever closer to the ultimate disaster. . . . With her authority restored, Inanna renewed the kingship in Agade and put on the throne a grandson of Sargon, Naram-Sin ("Sin's Favorite"). Seeing in him, at last, a true successor to Sar- gon, she encouraged him to seek grandeur and greatness. After a brief period of peace and prosperity she goaded Naram-Sin to em- bark on an expansion of the erstwhile empire. Soon Inanna began to encroach on the territories of other gods; but they were unable or unwilling to fight her: "The great Anunnaki gods fled before you like fluttering bats," a hymn to Inanna stated; "they could not THE WARS OF GODS AND MEN