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334 Fig. 107 For, in spite of all the efforts of Ninurta to dissuade Nergal from harming mankind, a great suffering did ensue. Though the two had not intended it, the nuclear explosion gave rise to an immense wind, a radioactive wind, which began as a whirlwind: A storm, the Evil Wind, went around in the skies. And then the radioactive whirlwind began to spread and move westward with the prevailing winds blowing from the Mediterra- nean; soon thereafter, the omens predicting the end of Sumer came true; and Sumer itself became the ultimate nuclear victim. The catastrophe that befell Sumer at the end of Ibbi-Sin's sixth year of reign is described in several Lamentation Texts—long poems that bewail the demise of the majestic Ur and the other cen- ters of the great Sumerian civilization. Bringing very much to mind THE WARS OF GODS AND MEN