Lugalbanda lies idle in the mountains, in a faraway place. He has ventured into the Zabu mountains. No mother is with him to give him advice. No father is with him to talk to him. There is no one with him whom he knows, whom he values. No confidant is there to talk to him. In his heart, he speaks to himself:
"I will treat the bird as he deserves, I will treat Anzu as he deserves. I will greet his wife tenderly. I will invite Anzu's wife and Anzu's child to a feast.
An will fetch Ninkasi (Ninguena) for me from her house in the mountains - the experienced woman who is a credit to her mother. Her fermentation vat is made of green lapis lazuli, her beer barrel is made of fine silver and gold. When she stands by the beer, there is joy; when she sits by the beer, there is happiness. As cupbearer, she mixes the beer and never tires as she walks back and forth, Ninkasi, the barrel at her side, on her hips. May she make my beer serving perfect.
When Anzu has drunk the ale and is happy, he can help me find the place where Unug's troops are headed. Anzu can put me on the trail of my brothers."
Now the magnificent Huluppu tree of Enki stood firmly on the summit of Inanna's mountain of colorful cornelian stone, like a tower on the earth, all shaggy like an Aru. Its shadow covered the highest peaks of the mountains like a cloak. Its shadow spread over them like a tunic. Its roots rested like saĝkal snakes in Utu's river of the seven mouths.
Nearby, in the mountains, where no cypresses grow, where no snake crawls, where no scorpion stings, in the midst of the mountains, the bird Buru-az had built his nest and laid his eggs. Nearby, the bird Anzu had also built his nest and laid his young in it. It was made from the wood of the juniper and the box tree. The bird had made the light-colored branches into an arbor.
When Anzu stretches out at dawn, when he cries out at sunrise, the ground in the Lulubi Mountains shakes with his cry. He has the teeth of a shark and the talons of an eagle. Fearing him, the wild bulls flee to the foothills and the deer to their mountains.
Lugalbanda is wise and he accomplishes mighty deeds. In preparing a sweet heavenly cake, he added carefulness to carefulness. He kneaded the dough with honey, he added more honey. He set it before the young nestling, the Anzu chick, fed the baby fatty meat. He fed it with sheep fat. He put the cakes in its beak. He put the anzu chick in its nest, painted its eyes with kohl, dabbed white cedar scent on its head, put a twisted roll of salted meat on it. He withdrew from the anzu's nest and waited for him in the mountains, where no cypress trees grow.
At this time, Anzu was herding together wild bulls of the mountains. He held a live bull in his claws, he carried a dead bull on his shoulders. He poured out his bile like 10 gur of water. Suddenly Anzu paused. When Anzu called back to the nest, his young did not answer him. When the bird called to the nest a second time, his young still did not answer. Whenever Anzu had called to the nest before, his young answered him, but now, when he called to the nest again, his young did not answer.
The bird let out a cry of distress, "Woe!" that reached to the sky and called his wife. Her cry reached the Abu. The bird with this cry of "Woe!" and his wife with her cry of grief actually made the Anuna gods, the gods of the mountains, crawl into crevices like ants. Anzu says to his wife:
"Foreboding weighs on my nest, as over the great cattle pen of Nanna. Terror lies over it, like when wild lions pounce on each other. Who has taken my child from its nest? Who has taken Anzu from its nest?"
But it seemed to Anzu, as he approached the nest, that it had been made like the dwelling of a god. It was magnificently decorated. His chick sat in its nest, its eyes painted with kohl, branches of white cedar attached to its head. A twisted piece of salt meat hung high above. The bird cheers, Anzu cheers:
"I am the prince who decides the fate of the rolling river [of life]. I keep the righteous who follow Enlil's advice on the straight and narrow path. My father Enlil brought me here. He made me block the entrance to the mountains as if with a great door.
If I fix a fate, who will change it? If I say just one word, who will change it?
Whoever has done this to my nest, if you are a god, I will speak to you, yes I will befriend you. If you are a human, I will determine your fate. I will not allow you to have enemies in the mountains. You shall be 'Hero-strengthened-by-Anzu'.""
Lugalbanda, partly in shock, partly in joy, partly in shock, partly in deep joy, cajoles Anzu:
"Bird with sparkling eyes, born in this district, you frolic as if bathing in a pond. Your grandfather, the prince of all achievements, gave the sky into your hands and laid the earth at your feet.
Your outstretched wings are like a bird's net that stretches across the sky! ...... On the ground your claws are like a trap set for the wild bulls and cows of the mountains! Your spine is as straight as a scribe's! Your chest, when you fly, is like Niraḫ parting the waters! As for your back, you are a green palm garden, breathtaking to look at.
Yesterday I ventured to you, since then I have entrusted myself to your protection. Your wife shall be my mother, you shall be my father, I will treat your little ones like my brothers. Since yesterday I have been waiting for you in the mountains where no cypresses grow. Let your wife stand beside you to greet me. I greet you and leave it to you to decide my fate."
Anzu stands before him, rejoices over him. Anzu says to the holy Lugalbanda:
"Come now, my Lugalbanda. Go like a boat full of precious metals, like a grain barge, like a boat delivering apples, like a boat piled high with a load of cucumbers and casting shadows, like a boat lavishly laden at the place of harvest, go back to the walled kulaba with your head held high!"
Lugalbanda, who loves his seeded thought, will not accept this.
"Like Šara, Inanna's beloved son, shoot with your barbed arrows like a sunbeam, shoot with reed arrows like moonlight! May the barbed arrows be a horned viper to those they strike! Like a fish killed with an axe, may they be able to slice as if by magic! May you be able to bundle them like logs hewn with an axe!"
Lugalbanda, who loves his seeded thought, will not accept this.
"May Ninurta, Enlil's son, place the helmet of the Lion of Battle on your head. May the breastplate, which allows no retreat in the great mountains, be placed on your chest! May you ...... stretch the battle-net against the enemy! When you go to the city, ......!"
Lugalbanda, who loves his seeded thought, will not accept this.
"The abundance of Dumuzi's sacred butter churn, whose butter is the butter of the whole world, shall be granted to you. His milk is the milk of the whole world. It shall be granted to you."
Lugalbanda, who loves his seeded thought, will not accept this.
Like a kib bird when it flies along a lagoon [and does not think], he answered him with words. Anzu listened to him. After that Anzu said to the holy Lugalbanda:
"Now look, my Lugalbanda, think again. It's like this: an wilful plough-ox should be brought back on track, a balking donkey should be made to take the straight path. Yet I will grant you what you ask of me. I will assign you a fate that corresponds to your wishes."
The holy Lugalbanda answers him:
"Let the power of running be in my thighs, let me never grow weary! Let there be strength in my arms, let me stretch my arms wide, let my arms never become weak! Let me move like the sunlight, like Inanna, like the seven storms of Iškur, let me leap like a flame, blaze like lightning! Let me go wherever I look to, set my foot wherever I cast my gaze, reach wherever my heart desires, and let me untie my shoes in the place my heart has named for me!
If Utu lets me reach my city of Kulaba, let the one who curses me have no pleasure in it; let the one who wants to quarrel with me never say, 'Let him only come!'
I will have the woodcarvers make statues of you, and you will be breathtaking to behold. Your name will become famous in Sumer and the temples of the great gods will be honored."
So says Anzu to the holy Lugalbanda:
"The power of running is in your thighs! Never get tired! Strength be in your arms! Stretch your arms wide, may your arms never become weak! Move like the sun, like Inanna, like the seven storms of Iškur, leap like a flame, blaze like lightning! Go where you look at, set your foot where you cast your gaze, reach where your heart desires, untie your shoes in the place your heart has called you!
If Utu lets you reach your city of Kulaba, the one who curses you shall have no pleasure in it. Let not the one who wants to quarrel with you say, "Let him come!"
If you let the woodcarvers make statues of me, the sight of me will be breathtaking. My name will become famous in Sumer and will bring honor to the temples of the great gods.
May ...... shake for you ...... like a sandal. ...... the Euphrates ...... your feet ......"
Lugalbanda picked up the supplies he had not eaten and his weapons, one by one. Anzu flew up high, Lugalbanda walked on the ground. The bird, looking from above, spied the troops. Lugalbanda, looking from below, sees the dust raised by the troops. The bird says to Lugalbanda:
"Come now, my Lugalbanda. I will give you some advice: May my advice be heeded. I will tell you a few words: keep them in mind.
What I have told you, the fate I have determined for you, do not tell it to your comrades, do not explain it to your brothers. A good destiny can hide a bad one: that is true.
Leave me in my nest, you stay with your troop."
The bird hurried to his nest. Lugalbanda made his way to the place where his brothers were.
Like a pelican rising from the sacred reeds, like Laḫama deities rising from the Abu, like someone stepping from heaven to earth, Lugalbanda stepped into the midst of the assembled troops of his brothers. His brothers chattered, the troops chattered. His brothers, his friends tired him with questions:
"Come now, my Lugalbanda, here you are again! The troops had left you behind like a fallen man in battle. Surely you have not eaten the good fat of the flock! Surely you have not eaten the fresh cheese of the sheepfold. How is it that you have come back from the great mountains, where no one goes alone, from where no one returns to the people?"
Again, his brothers and friends wear him out with questions:
"The banks of the mountain rivers, mothers of abundance, are far apart. How did you cross their waters? -- As if you were drinking them?"
The holy Lugalbanda answers them:
"The banks of the mountain rivers, mothers of abundance, are far apart. With my legs I strode over them, I drank them like water from a water bag; and then I growled like a wolf, I grazed the water meadows, I pecked at the ground like a wild pigeon, I ate the mountain acorns."
Lugalbanda's brothers and friends think about the words he said to them. As if they were little birds flocking together all day, they hug him and kiss him. As if he were a chick sitting in his nest, they feed him and give him a drink. They drive the disease out of the holy Lugalbanda.
Then the men of Unug followed them like a single man. They wound their way through the hills like a snake over a heap of grain. When the city was only a double hour away, the armies of Unug and Kulaba camped by the stakes and ditches that surrounded Aratta.
Spears rained down from the city as if from clouds, slingstones as numerous as the raindrops that fell in a whole year hissed loudly from Aratta's walls. The days passed, the months grew long, the year went round in circles. A yellow harvest grew under the sky. They looked questioningly at the fields. They were overcome with unease.
Skidding stones, as numerous as the raindrops that fell in a whole year, landed on the road. Like a barrier of mountain thorn bushes populated by dragons, they trapped them. No one knew how to return to the city, no one was in a hurry to get back to Kulaba. In their midst, Enmerkar, the son of Utu, was afraid and worried, disturbed by this unrest.
Enmerkar was looking for someone to send back to the city, he was looking for someone to send back to Kulaba. But no one told him he would go to Kulaba, neither his host's foreign army nor his elite troops. Lugalbanda alone stood up from among the people and said to him:
"My king, I want to go to the city, but no one is to go with me. I will go to Kulaba alone. No one shall go with me."
Enmerkar replied:
"When you go into the city, no one is to go with you. You shall go to Kulaba alone, no one shall go with you. Swear that you will not let the great emblems of Kulaba out of your hands."
He swore by heaven and earth: After standing before the invited assembly, Enmerkar son of Utu, in his palace [in front of Aratta], which rests on the earth like a great mountain, [in the presence of Lugalbanda] berated Inanna:
"Once my princely sister, the holy Inanna, called me from the bright mountains in her holy heart and let me enter the breick-built Kulaba. Where there was a swamp in Unug at that time, it was full of water. Where there was dry land, Euphrates poplars grew there. Where there were reed thickets, old and young reeds grew there.
The divine Enki, who was king in Eridu, pulled out the old reeds for me and let the water drain away completely. For fifty years I built, for fifty years I was successful.
Then the Martu peoples, who knew no agriculture, appeared throughout Sumer and Akkad. But the wall of Unug stretched across the desert like a bird's net. But now, here in this place, my influence over them has waned.
My troops are bound to me like a cow to her calf; but like a son who hates his mother and leaves his city, my princely sister, the holy Inanna, has run away from me, back to the walled Kulaba.
If she loves her city and hates me, why does she bind the city to me? If she hates the city and yet loves me, why does she bind me to the city?
If the mistress departs from me to her sacred chamber and abandons me like an anzu chick, let her at least take me home to the walled kulaba: On that day may my spear be laid aside. On that day she may shatter my shield. Deliver this message to my princely sister, the holy Inanna."
The holy Lugalbanda then came out of the palace. Although his brothers and comrades barked at him like a strange dog wanting to join a pack of dogs, he walked proudly ahead like a strange wild donkey wanting to join a herd of wild donkeys.
"Send another for the Lord to Unug."
Lugalbanda replied:
"For Enmerkar, the son of Utu, I will go to Kulaba alone. No one is to go with me."
Enmerkar replied:
"Why do you want to go alone and not join anyone on the journey? If our benevolent spirit does not assist you there, if our good protective deity does not go there with you, you will never again stand with us where we stand, you will never again live with us where we live, you will never again set your feet on the ground where our feet are. You will never come back from the great mountains, where no one goes alone, from where no one returns to the people!"
Lugalbanda said:
"Time passes, I know. None of you will walk the great earth with me."
While the hearts of his brothers beat loudly and the hearts of his comrades sank, Lugalbanda took in his hand the provisions he had not yet eaten and each of his weapons, one after the other. From the foot of the mountains, over the high mountains, to the flat land, from the edge of Anšan to the summit of Anšan, he crossed five, six, seven mountains.
At midnight, but before they had even brought the offering table to the holy Inanna, he joyfully entered the walled Kulaba. His lady, the holy Inanna, was sitting there on her cushion. He bowed and prostrated himself on the floor. With joyful eyes, Inanna looked at the holy Lugalbanda as she would look at the shepherd Ama-ušumgal-ana. With a joyful voice, Inanna spoke to the holy Lugalbanda as she would speak to her son Lord Šara:
"Come, my Lugalbanda, why are you bringing news from the city? How did you get here alone from Aratta?"
The holy Lugalbanda answered her:
"What Enmerkar, the son of Utu, said and what he says, what your brother quoth and what he says, is:
'Once my princely sister, the holy Inanna, called me out of the mountains in her holy heart and made me come to the brick-built Kulaba. Where there was a swamp in Unug at that time, it was full of water. Where there was dry land, Euphrates poplars grew there. Where there were reed thickets, old and young reeds grew there.
The divine Enki, who is king in Eridu, pulled out the old reeds for me and let the water drain away completely. For fifty years I built, for fifty years I was successful.
Then the Martu peoples, who knew no agriculture, appeared throughout Sumer and Akkad. But the wall of Unug stretched across the desert like a bird's net. But now, here in this place, my influence on them has faded.
My troops are bound to me like a cow to her calf; but like a son who hates his mother and leaves his city, my princely sister, the holy Inanna, has run away from me, back to the walled Kulaba. If she loves her city and hates me, why does she bind the city to me? If she hates the city and yet loves me, why does she bind me to the city?
If the mistress departs from me to her sacred chamber and abandons me like an anzu chick, then at least bring me home to the walled kulaba: On that day may my spear be laid aside. On that day she may shatter my shield. Deliver this message to my princely sister, the holy Inanna.'"
The holy Inanna gave this answer:
"Now, at the end, on the banks and in the floodplains of a river with clear water, the river that is Inanna's shimmering water bag, the suḫurmaš fish eats the honeywort; the toad eats the mountain acorns; and the ...... fish, which is a god of the suḫurmaš fish, plays happily there and whirls around. With its scaly tail, it touches the old reeds in this sacred place. The tamarisk trees of the place, as many as there are, drink water from this pond.
One stands alone, it stands alone! A tamarisk stands alone by the side! When Enmerkar, the son of Utu, has cut this tamarisk and formed it into a bucket, he must pull out the old reeds from this sacred place, roots and all, and gather them in his hands. When he makes the ...... fish, which is a god of the suḫurmaš fish, out of it, catch this fish, cook it, garnish it and bring it as a sacrifice for the a-an-kar weapon, the fighting power of Inanna, then his troops will have success for him.
Then he will have put an end to that which secures Aratta's life force in the underground waters. When he takes away from the city its worked metal and its smiths, when he takes away its worked stones and its stonemasons, when he renews the city and settles it, then all the moulds of Aratta will be his.
Now the battlements of Aratta are of green lapis lazuli, its walls and its towering brickwork are bright red, its brick clay is made of tnstone dug out in the mountains where the cypress grows."
Enmerkar, King of Uruk, is on a campaign against the rich Aratta. The goddess Inanna sympathizes with both Uruk and Aratta. Ultimately, she does not care whether Aratta or Uruk wins. Instead of helping, she demands a sacrifice that is difficult to obtain. Lugalbanda, who serves as an officer under Enmerkar, has the opportunity to ensure Uruk's victory by asking Anzu for the right fate. By choosing the wrong fate, however, he ultimately becomes nothing more than Enmerkar's errand boy and contributes little to Aratta's fall.
While, according to Wellmann (2023), in the Etana myth the animals hunted by Anzu symbolize the people he influences, in this myth a distinction is made between the hunted animals and the people.
The myth contains a logical error: Enmerkar, who is in front of Aratta, should not have a palace there. This indicates that this part of the myth was taken over by the author from another myth.
