G. Martiny (Astronomisches zur babylonischen Turm) showed how these features of the ziggurat suited it for celestial observations, and that the topmost stage of the Esagila was oriented toward the planet Shupa (which we have identified as Pluto) and the constellation Aries.
But were the ziggurats raised solely to observe the stars and planets, or were they also meant to serve the spacecraft of the Nefilim? All the ziggurats were oriented so that their corners pointed exactly north, south, east, and west. As a result, their sides ran precisely at 45-degree angles to the four cardinal directions. This meant that a space shuttle coming in for a landing could follow certain sides of the ziggurat exactly along the flight path - and reach Sippar without difficulty! The Akkadian/Babylonian name for these structures, zukiratu, connoted "tube of divine spirit." The Sumerians called the ziggurats ESH; the term denoted "supreme" or "most high" - as indeed these structures were. It could also denote a numerical entity relating to the "measuring" aspect of the ziggurats. And it also meant "a heat source" ("fire" in Akkadian and Hebrew). Even scholars who have approached the subject without our "space" interpretation could not escape the conclusion that the ziggurats had some purpose other than to make the god's abode a "high-rise" building. Samuel N. Kramer summed up the scholastic consensus: "The ziggurat, the stagetower, which became the hallmark of Mesopotamian temple architecture . . . was intended to serve as a connecting link, both real and symbolic, between the gods in heaven and the mortals on earth." We have shown, however, that the true function of these structures was to connect the gods in Heaven with the gods - not the mortals - on Earth. MUTINY OF THE ANUNNAKI
AFTER ENLIL ARRIVED on Earth in person, "Earth Command" was transferred out of Enki's hands. It was probably at this point that Enki's epithet or name was changed to E.A ("lord waters") rather than "lord earth."
The Sumerian texts explain that at that early stage in the arrival of the gods on Earth, a separation of powers was agreed upon: Anu was to stay in the heavens and rule over the Twelfth Planet; Enlil was to command the lands; and Enki was put in charge of the AB.ZU (apsu in Akkadian). Guided by the "watery" meaning of the name E.A, scholars have translated AB.zU as "watery deep," assuming that, as in Greek mythology, Enlil represented the thundering Zeus, and Ea was the prototype of Poseidon, God of the Oceans.
In other instances, Enlil's domain was referred to as the Upper World, and Ea's as the Lower World; again, the scholars assumed that the terms meant that Enlil controlled Earth's atmosphere while Ea was ruler of the "subterranean waters" - the Greeklike Hades the Mesopotamians supposedly believed in. Our own term abyss (which derives from apsu) denotes deep, dark, dangerous waters in which one can sink and disappear. Thus, as scholars came upon Mesopotamian texts describing this Lower World, they translated it as Unterwelt ("underworld") or Totenwelt ("world of the dead"). Only in recent years have the Sumerologists mitigated the ominous connotation somewhat by using the term netherworld in translation. The Mesopotamian texts most responsible for this misinterpretation were a series of liturgies lamenting the disappearance of Dumuzi, who is better known from biblical and Canaanite texts as the god Tammuz. It was with him that Inanna/Ishtar had her most celebrated love affair; and when he disappeared, she went to the Lower World to seek him.
The massive Tammuz-Liturgen und Verwandtes by P. Maurus Witzel, a masterwork on the Sumerian and Akkadian "Tammuz texts," only helped perpetuate the misconception. The epic tales of Ishtar's search were taken to mean a journey "to the realm of the dead, and her eventual return to the land of the living."
The Sumerian and Akkadian texts describing the descent of Inanna/Ishtar to the Lower World inform us that the goddess decided to visit her sister Ereshkigal, mistress of the place. Ishtar went there neither dead nor against her will - she went alive and uninvited, forcing her way in by threatening the gatekeeper: If thou openest not the gate so that I cannot enter, I will smash the door, I will shatter the bolt, I will smash the doorpost, I will move the doors.
One by one, the seven gates leading to the abode of Ereshkigal were opened to Ishtar; when she finally made it, and Ereshkigal saw her, she literally blew her top (the Akkadian text says, "burst at her presence"). The Sumerian text, vague about the purpose of the trip or the cause of Ereshkigal's anger, reveals that Inanna expected such a reception. She took pains to notify the other principal deities of her journey in advance, and made sure that they would take steps to rescue her in case she was imprisoned in the "Great Below."
The spouse of Ereshkigal - and Lord of the Lower World - was Nergal. The manner in which he arrived in the Great Below and became its lord not only illuminates the human nature of the "gods" but also depicts the Lower World as anything but a "world of the dead."
The tale, found in several versions, begins with a banquet at which the guests of honor were Anu, Enlil, and Ea. The banquet was held "in the heavens," but not at Anu's abode on the Twelfth Planet. Perhaps it took place aboard an orbiting spacecraft, for when Ereshkigal could not ascend to join them, the gods sent her a messenger who "descended the long staircase of the heavens, reached the gate of Ereshkigal." Having received the invitation, Ereshkigal instructed her counselor, Namtar: "Ascend, Namtar, the long staircase of the heavens; Remove the dish from the table, take my share; Whatever Anu gives to thee, bring it all to me."
When Namtar entered the banquet hall, all the gods except "a bald god, seated in the back," rose to greet him. Namtar reported the incident to Ereshkigal when he returned to the Lower World. She and all the lesser gods of her domain were insulted. She demanded that the offending god be sent to her for punishment.
The offender, however, was Nergal, a son of the great Ea. After a severe reprimand by his father, Nergal was instructed to make
the trip alone, armed only with lots of fatherly advice on how to behave. When Nergal arrived at the gate, he was recognized by
Namtar as the offending god and led in to "Ereshkigal's wide courtyard," where he was put to several tests.
Sooner or later, Ereshkigal went to take her daily bath.
. . . she revealed her body.
What is normal for man and woman,
he ... in his heart . . .
. . . they embraced,
passionately they got into bed.
For seven days and nights they made love. In the Upper World, an alarm had gone out for the missing Nergal. "Release me," he
said to Ereshkigal. "I will go, and I will come back," he promised. But no sooner had he left than Namtar went to Ereshkigal and
accused Nergal of having no intention of coming back. Once more Namtar was sent up to Anu. Ereshkigal's message was clear:
I, thy daughter, was young;
I have not known the play of maidens. . . .
That god whom you didst send,
and who had intercourse with me -
Send him to me, that he may be my husband,
That he might lodge with me.
With married life perhaps not yet on his mind, Nergal organized a military expedition and stormed the gates of Ereshkigal,
intending to "cut off her head." But Ereshkigal pleaded:
"Be thou my husband and I will be thy wife.
I will let thee hold dominion
over the wide Lower Land.
I will place the Tablet of Wisdom in thy hand.
Thou shalt be Master, I will be Mistress."
And then came the happy ending:
When Nergal heard her words,
He took hold of her hand and kissed her,
Wiping away her tears:
"What thou hast wished for me
since months past - so be it now!"
The events recounted do not suggest a Land of the Dead. Quite the contrary: It was a place the gods could enter and leave, a place of lovemaking, a place important enough to be entrusted to a granddaughter of Enlil and a son of Enki. Recognizing that the facts do not support the earlier notion of a dismal region, W. F. Albright (Mesopotamian Elements in Canaanite Eschatology) suggested that Dumuzi's abode in the Lower World was "a bright and fruitful home in the subterranean paradise called 'the mouth of the rivers' which was closely associated with the home of Ea in the Apsu."