SNOW CRASH

“Yes, sir.”

“I want to hear some Sumerian stuff, even if it is untranslatable.”

“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 Aister.”

“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. Dilinun 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 namshub 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.”