"Would you like to hear how Asherah made Enki sick?"
"Sure."
"How this story is translated depends on how it is interpreted. Some see it as a Fall from Paradise story. Some see it as a battle between male and female or water and earth. Some see it as a fertility allegory. This reading is based on the interpretation of Bendt Alster."
"Duly noted."
"To summarize: Enki and Ninhursag— who is Asherah, although in this story she also bears other epithets— live in a place called Dilmun. Dilmun is pure, clean and bright, there is no sickness, people do not grow old, predatory animals do not hunt.
"But there is no water. So Ninhursag pleads with Enki, who is a sort of water-god, to bring water to Dilmun. He does so by masturbating among the reeds of the ditches and letting flow his life-giving semen— the 'water of the heart,' as it is called. At the same time, he pronounces a nam-shub forbidding anyone to enter this area— he does not want anyone to come near his semen."
"Why not?"
"The myth does not say."
"Then," Hiro says, "he must have thought it was valuable, or dangerous, or both."
"Dilmun is now better than it was before. The fields produce abundant crops and so on."
"Excuse me, but how did Sumerian agriculture work? Did they use a lot of irrigation?"
"They were entirely dependent upon it."
"So Enki was responsible, according to this myth, for irrigating the fields with his 'water of the heart.' "
"Enki was the water-god, yes."
"Okay, go on."
"But Ninhursag— Asherah— violates his decree and takes Enki's semen and impregnates herself. After nine days of pregnancy she gives birth, painlessly, to a daughter, Ninmu. Ninmu walks on the riverbank. Enki sees her, becomes inflamed, goes across the river, and has sex with her."
"With his own daughter."
"Yes. She has another daughter nine days later, named Ninkurra, and the pattern is repeated."
"Enki has sex with Ninkurra, too?"
"Yes, and she has a daughter named Uttu. Now, by this time, Ninhursag has apparently recognized a pattern in Enki's behavior, and so she advises Uttu to stay in her house, predicting that Enki will then approach her bearing gifts, and try to seduce her."
"Does he?"
"Enki once again fills the ditches with the 'water of the heart,' which makes things grow. The gardener re-joices and embraces Enki."
"Who's the gardener?"
"Just some character in the story," the Librarian says. "He provides Enki with grapes and other gifts. Enki disguises himself as the gardener and goes to Uttu and seduces her. But this time, Ninhursag manages to obtain a sample of Enki's semen from Uttu's thighs."
"My God. Talk about your mother-in-law from hell."
"Ninhursag spreads the semen on the ground, and it causes eight plants to sprout up."
"Does Enki have sex with the plants, then?"
"No, he eats them— in some sense, he learns their secrets by doing so."
"So here we have our Adam and Eve motif."
"Ninhursag curses Enki, saying 'Until thou art dead, I shall not look upon thee with the "eye of life." Then she disappears, and Enki becomes very ill. Eight of his organs become sick, one for each of the plants. Finally, Ninhursag is persuaded to come back. She gives birth to eight deities, one for each part of Enki's body that is sick, and Enki is healed. These deities are the pantheon of Dilmun; i.e., this act breaks the cycle of incest and creates a new race of male and female gods that can reproduce normally."
