Eagle In The Pit
(from p.111-113 of Divine Encounters- Zecharia Sitchin-
author of The Earth Chronicles)
The list of names and lengths of reign is deviated from only once, in
respect to the thirteenth king. Of him the King Licts state:
Etana, a shepherd,
he who ascended to heaven,
who consolidated all countries,
became king and ruled for 1,56O years.
This historical notation is not an idle one, for there does exist a long
epic tale, the Epic of Etana, that describes his Divine Encounters in
his efforts to reach the Gates of Heaven. Although no complete text has
been found, scholars have been able to piece together the story line from
fragments of Old Babylonian, Middle Assyrian, and Neo-Assyrian recensions;
but there is no doubt that the original version was Sumerian. for a sage
in the service of the Sumerian king Shulgi (twenty-first century B.C.)
is mentioned in one of the recensions as the editor of an earlier version.
The reconstruction of the tale from the various fragments has not been
easy because the text seems to weave together two separate stories. One
has to do with Etana, clearly a beloved king known for a major benevolent
achievement (the consolidation of all countries''), who was deprived of
a son and natural successor because of his wife's malady; and the only
remedy was the Plant of Birth, which could be obtained only in the Heavens.
The story thus leads to Etana's dramatic attempts to reach
the Gates of Heaven, borne aloft on the wings of an eagle (a part
of the tale that was depicted on cylinder seals from the twenty-fourth
century B.C.-Fig. 30). The other story line deals with the Eagle, its
friendship at first and then quarrel with a Serpent, resulting in the
Eagle's imprisonment in a pit from which it is saved by Etana in a mutually
beneficial deal: Etana rescues the Eagle and repairs its wings in exchange
for the Eagle's acting as a spaceship that takes Etana to distant heavens.
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Several Sumerian texts convey historical data in the form of
an allegorical disputation (some of which we had already mentioned),
and scholars are uncertain where in the Eagle Serpent segment
allegory ends and a historical record begins. The fact that in
both segments it is Utu/Shamash, the commander of the Spaceport,
who is the deity that controls the fate of the Eagle and who arranges
for Etana to meet the Eagle, suggests a factual space-related
event. Moreover, in what scholars call The Historical Introduction
to the inter The Gates of Heaven woven episodes, the narrative
sets the stage for the related events as a time of conflict and
clashes in which the IGI.GI ("Those Who Observe and See''
- the corps of astronauts who remained in Earth orbit and manned
the shuttle craft (as distinct from the Anunnaki who had come
down to Earth: "barred the gates'' and ''patrolled the city''
against opponents whose identity is lost in the damaged tablets.
All of this spells actuality, a record of facts.
The unusual presence of the Igigi in a city on land, the fact
that Utu/Shamash was commander of the Spaceport (by then in the
Fourth Region), and the designation of the pilot-cum-spacecraft
of Etana as an Eagle, suggest that the conflict echoed in the
Etana tale had to do with space flight. Could it be an attempt
to create an alternative space center, one not controlled by Utu/Shamash?
Could the Eagleman who was involved in the failed attempt, or
the intended spacecraft, be banished to languish in a pit-an underground
silo? A depiction of a rocket ship in an underground silo (showing
the command module above ground) has been found in the tomb of
Hui, an Egyptian governor of the Sinai in Pharaonic times (Fig.
31), indicating that an ''Eagle"
in a "pit" was recognized in antiquity as a rocket ship
in its silo.
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Divine Encounters