NEAL STEPHENSON

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“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 rejoices 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 Cod. 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.”

“I’m beginning to see what Lagos meant about the febrile two-year-old.”

“Aister interprets the myth as ‘an exposition of a logical problem: Supposing that originally there was nothing but one creator, how could ordinary binary sexual relations come into being?’”

“Ah, there’s that word ‘binary’ again.”

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