Chapter 643: Forcing someone to do something?

Mount Ebifu, in the temple on the top of the mountain.

Ishtar rubbed her hands and walked towards the bed step by step, with an evil and excited smile on her face:

"Finally it's in my hands!"

Are you trying to force me?

Lorne subconsciously took a step back and took a defensive stance.

However, unexpectedly, the notorious goddess of war did not abuse him. She just put one hand on her slender waist and pointed at the empty room next door, saying triumphantly:

"Boy, from today on, you are mine. Stay here first, and don't run around."

"Didn't you say you were not interested in me before?" Loen was a little confused.

"But I'm interested in money! If Siduri wants to save you, she must at least offer me a price that satisfies me!"

“…”

Luo En was speechless for a while, and suddenly realized that he had not run into a blind date, but a female kidnapper.

He sighed and reminded:

"I remember Siduri was your good friend..."

"Friendship is friendship, and market is market. Who asked her to send you here, and she looked like she was willing to pay any price? If I don't ask her for some money, I'd be doing a disservice to her unsatisfied face."

Seeing Ishtar's confident look and hearing the terrible words, Lorne suddenly felt a little amused:

"I think you misunderstood. Siduri and I are just ordinary friends. She has no obligation to redeem me. In addition, I am a free man and have no obligation to cooperate with you..."

“30%!”

"ah?"

"After the deal is done, I'll give you 30%!"

Ishtar leaned close to Lorne's ear and whispered with a smile,

"Siduri and my brother are very rich. If you stay with me for a few days, we might make a fortune! I'll give you 70% and you 30%, and we'll eat barbecue and drink beer together!"

"Why is it only 30%?"

Loen originally wanted to sternly reject this unethical behavior, but when he heard the key point of the distribution, his DNA moved inexplicably and he blurted out this question instantly.

Ishtar glared at Lorne with disdain in her eyes and said:

"Forty percent, no more."

"This is not about money..." Lorne wanted to correct his slip of the tongue and pick up his moral integrity that he accidentally dropped on the ground.

"Fifty percent! Do you want to do it? If not, forget it!"

Ishtar reluctantly took out the final distribution plan, with a hint of gritted teeth in her words.

Loen was silent for a moment, then looked at Ishtar in front of him and asked:

"Are you so short of money?"

"Nonsense, we need it! Very much! I'm so poor now that I don't even have the money to repair the temple!"

Ishtar replied unhappily, looking bitter and resentful.

Lorne frowned, somewhat puzzled:

"That shouldn't be the case. Aren't you the goddess of war and fertility in Babylon? In terms of divine authority and status, you are at the forefront among all gods, and you have always been respected by the vast majority of Sumerians. How could you fall to such a state?"

"That was in the past," Ishtar explained gloomily. "After I fell out with Uruk, the surrounding city-states removed me from their list of main gods, and the Sumerians refused to pay tribute to me, forcing me to spend my own money to maintain the operation of the temple. Now, I am increasingly unable to make ends meet. If I don't find a way to earn some money, I'm afraid I won't even have a place to stay when I'm released from Mount Ebifu."

After listening to this, Luo En asked tentatively:

"Is it related to the seven-year drought in Uruk?"

Ishtar nodded and did not deny it.

But then, she noticed that Luo En's gaze and tone seemed a little subtle, and she couldn't help but ask suspiciously:

"Did you hear anything outside?"

"Nothing, just some rumors."

Based on the content of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Loen retold the records about Ishtar.

Before Ishtar could finish listening, her face turned blue with anger and she angrily accused:

"Slander! They are slandering me! It must have been that bastard Gilgamesh who did it!"

Lorne was surprised to hear Ishtar accurately identify the main character of the epic:

"Why are you so sure?"

"Need I ask? I have a grudge against that bastard! He can't stand seeing me getting any better!"

Ishtar sneered and immediately told about the past grudges between herself and the heroic king of Uruk.

After the birth of mankind, Eridu, as the first city-state built on earth, gradually prospered. As the patron god of the city, Enki, the god of the earth, also became the most respected among the Babylonian gods.

But as time went on, many city-states began to rise and wanted to replace Eridu's dominant position and become the core of civilization in the Babylonian Age of Gods.

Uruk is one of them.

At that time, Uruk was founded on agriculture. As the territory expanded and the population grew, the status of Ishtar, who held the authority of the god of agriculture, was constantly elevated, and gradually became the mainstream belief of the Sumerians at that time.

In order to go one step further and become the "city patron saint" of Uruk, and to make this land move towards greater prosperity under her protection, Ishtar secretly went to the Water Temple in Eridu, and through a trick she seized the "Secret" symbolizing the power of civilization from Enki, the god of earth and wisdom, which is another name for "Destiny" in the mouths of other gods.

These "secrets" include core elements of human development such as agricultural technology, law, art, and wheat seeds, which are the cornerstone of agricultural civilization.

After she succeeded, she escaped the pursuers sent by Enki and returned to Uruk, where she bestowed the hard-earned "Mandate of Heaven" on the city. Uruk thus obtained key resources to promote social progress, established its position as the center of Sumerian civilization, and ushered in a period of rapid development.

Ishtar also established herself as the patron saint of the city of Uruk, and the scale of her temple gradually surpassed that of the god Anu.

But the good times did not last long. The fifth king of Uruk, Gilgamesh, was the grandson of the god Anu. In order to elevate the status of the foreign king Annu and the sanctity of his own bloodline, he belittled and discredited Ishtar, the original patron saint of the city, in various ways. In the end, he even wanted to expel Ishtar from Uruk.

Having taken great risks to snatch the mandate of heaven from the earth god Enki and given it to Uruk, Ishtar was now about to have her fruits picked. She was not willing to swallow this insult, so she released the Bull of Heaven in anger, causing a seven-year drought in Uruk. This was her way of avenging Gilgamesh and the Sumerians and venting her dissatisfaction.

However, Gilgamesh, with the help of his good friend Enkidu, worked together to kill the Bull of Heaven.

Ishtar was so angry that she went straight to confront the god Anu.

If everything ended here, Anu might still be able to smooth things over.

But after their victory, Gilgamesh and Enkidu showed no signs of restraint, and arrogantly dismembered the Bull of Heaven, sacrificed its heart to the sun god Utu, and threw its internal organs at Ishtar, directly challenging the majesty of the gods.

As a result, Enki, the god of the earth, Enlil, the lord of the spirits, Utu, the god of the sun, and Marduk, the king of kings, took the opportunity to attack, and Anu had to announce that Gilgamesh or Enki must be executed for killing the bull of heaven.

Soon after, Enkidu fell victim to decay and death.

The matter came to an end from then on. Gilgamesh and Ishtar were both defeated. One lost his best friend, and the other lost the foundation of his faith in Uruk.

Anu, the god of the sky, and Enki, the god of the earth, also suffered a lose-lose situation, and in the end it was Marduk, the king of kings, and the city of Babylon, which he protected, who stood by and watched, that benefited.

After listening to Ishtar's narration, Loen was thoughtful.

In the standard Babylonian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh, "The Man Who Sees the Abyss", Ishtar is described as evil, ruthless, and deliberately killing her husband or lover, but there is no other text to support this, including other versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh, "Above All Other Kings" and its Sumerian predecessor, "Gilgamesh and the Bull of the Sky".

Ishtar called these contents "slander" and angrily cursed Gilgamesh: "May sorrow befall Gilgamesh, who slandered me and killed the bull of heaven!"

In line with the archaeological principle that a single piece of evidence is not enough to prove anything, we should be cautious about Gilgamesh's accusations against Ishtar in Tablet 6 of "The Man Who Sees the Abyss" until corroborative texts are unearthed.

In other words, many of the so-called "black spots" on Ishtar may really be due to injustice.

The reason why her reputation is so bad is because she was involved in the struggle between faith and divine power, and was tricked by Uruk and the newly appointed Gilgamesh. It is not her nature.

Otherwise, she could have chosen more brutal means to retaliate against Uruk and those godless city-states, so as not to become increasingly destitute and eventually fall to the point where she had to spend money to run her own temple.

Is it because of the Mother Goddess's instinctive care and kindness for life?

A hint of complexity flashed across Luo En's eyes, and he asked:

"And then what?"

Ishtar showed a hint of sneer on her face: "I heard that after Enkidu died, he finally became afraid and left Uruk. He crossed mountains and seas, went through hardships, and went to the abyss to find the immortal herb that could make him immortal. But in the end, although he got the thing, it was stolen by a snake while he was bathing..."

Lorne frowned and questioned:

"How can a snake bypass the perception of which hero king and steal the immortal grass?"

"Of course it's because someone doesn't want him to have an immortal body and give Uruk a chance to rise again."

Ishtar answered unhappily, with a hint of sarcasm in her eyes:

"Two-thirds of him is god, and one-third is human. He thought he had noble blood and could stand shoulder to shoulder with the gods, but in the end he was just a pawn to achieve his goal. At the last moment, even his grandfather, the god Anu, whom he regarded as his faith and support, abandoned him without hesitation for the sake of the overall situation."

Hearing this, Luo En couldn't help but sigh and shook his head.

The Mesopotamian region is the birthplace of the theory of original sin. According to Babylonian mythology, after Marduk, the king of kings, defeated Tiamat and seized the clay tablet of destiny, he sealed his mark on it and hung it on his chest. After that, under the rule of Marduk and the Babylonian gods, the gods were leisurely and relaxed, while humans were born with the burden of life and were regarded as slaves and tools to serve the gods. Their status was even lower than that of humans in Greece and Northern Europe.

Gilgamesh chose to believe in the divine part of himself. In order to please the god Anu, he even backstabbed Ishtar, the city patron goddess who had made great contributions to Uruk. This eventually led to him being deserted by his friends and relatives and becoming a victim of the struggle for theocracy.

Ishtar folded her arms across her chest and continued to sneer:

"I heard that he lost the immortal grass and came back from the underworld. He became very disgusted with the divine blood in his body and developed a bad habit of calling people 'bastards' at every turn. But if you think about it, he is one of them, and his purity is very high."

Hearing that tone of gloating, Luo En said something fair, not knowing whether to laugh or cry:

"Perhaps, he didn't just want to scold others, but also wanted to punish himself."

Ishtar was slightly stunned and remained silent.

After a moment, she lost her mocking mood and stood at the entrance of the temple, looking towards Uruk in the distance:

"That guy is arrogant and self-righteous, and very annoying. But after going through so much, he finally came to his senses and stopped pursuing the illusory eternal life. He also stopped spending his time on meaningless things like indulging in lust and pleasing the gods. He focused on governing Uruk and became a bit like a wise king. It can be considered a blessing in disguise."

Lorne nodded in agreement.

After clearing away the fog and finding the truth buried under the sand, he felt a little pity for this heroic king who grew up through hardships.

And a certain goddess of heaven who was also caught up in fate:

"So, when your sentence is over, do you plan to return to Uruk?"

"Forget it. I don't get along with that guy. Besides, even if I want to go back, my blood brothers and sisters may not agree."

Ishtar said, sounding a little irritated.

Obviously, she had vaguely sensed that the attitude of the Babylonian gods towards her was very subtle, as if they were intentionally hiding something.

Lorne suggested:

"I do have a place I would recommend - Nineveh, near the Tigris River. The Assyrians there highly respect you. If you are interested, you might as well go there and take a look."

"Of course I can, but only if I can solve the problem at Mount Ebifu."

"Perhaps, I can help."

"you?"

Ishtar looked at Lorne with a hint of suspicion on her face.

Luo En smiled slightly and said:

"To be honest, I am not only a shepherd, but also a shepherd god and a plant god. If you want to stop a piece of deteriorating wasteland from growing poisonous weeds, the best way is to plant rice seedlings all over it."

“That makes sense!”

Ishtar, who understood the hidden meaning, nodded with a hint of excitement on her face.

"So, you agree to stay and do this job?"

"Well, I just want to govern Mount Ebifu for you and get you free as soon as possible."

"I understand! I understand! When the benefits are in hand, I guarantee that you will get your share!"

Ishtar put her hand on Lorne's neck and spoke with a smile, as if they were going to work together to make a fortune in the future.

The impression that Loen had finally formed of Ishtar was shattered once again.

Well, it’s true that I’m not a bad person by nature.

But what you think is what you will think, and it is true that it is unreliable.

Just as Loen was complaining, Ishtar had already summoned the Sky Boat Maana and jumped on it:

"I'm going to go down the mountain to see if Siduri has left, and to clean up the monsters that are rampant in the mountain. You stay in my temple and don't run around. If you have nothing else to do, help me take care of Unit 2."

Unit 2?

When Loen was puzzled, a mini pet that was only the size of a palm, had golden and blue stripes on its body, and looked like both a pig and a cow was thrown to him by Ishtar.

As the cute little thing fell into his arms, Loen suddenly felt a familiar yet unfamiliar divine fluctuation from its body.

The mountain spirit of Mount Ebifu?

wrong!

Loen immediately shook his head, looking at the little thing that exuded the breath of the earth and was struggling around in his arms, and Ishtar who turned into a meteor and flew towards the valley, his face couldn't help but darken.

This crazy woman actually fed the mountain spirit of Mount Aibifu to her own pet?

(End of this chapter)