Footnote 4 – When the Sons of God Cavorted with the Daughters of Men

The crucial passage has recently been restored:

“Enki opened his mouth

and addressed Nintu, the birth-goddess,

‘[You], birth-goddess, creatress of destinies,

[create death] for the peoples.’ ”

[For the restorations in this text, see W. G. Lambert, “The Theology of Death” in Death in Mesopotamia, ed. B. Alster (Copenhagen: Akademisk, 1980), pp. 54–58. The restorations are based on the Gilgamesh Epic, tablet 10, column 6, lines 28–32, where the gods’ decree of human mortality after the flood is recalled.]