One day Enmerkar, the priest-lord of the Sumerian city of Uruk, the son of the sun god Utu, decided to subjugate the state of Arattu. He enlisted the support of the powerful goddess Inanna, who promised to help him in everything. Enmerkar sends a messenger to Aratta demanding that its inhabitants not only pay him tribute in gold, silver and precious stones, but also take part in the construction of the temple of the god Enki in Eridu.
The messenger, having crossed seven mountains, arrives at his destination and delivers an ultimatum to the local ruler. But he refuses to submit to Enmerkar, proudly citing the fact that the goddess Inanna herself made him king and he is under her protection. Then the messenger tells him that Inanna now lives in Uruk and supports Enmerkar in everything.
This statement confuses the ruler of Aratta. After some thought, he gives the messenger an answer. Instead of an armed conflict, he proposes a competition between two warriors defending the interests of their kingdoms. In addition, if Inanna left Aratta, then he is ready to talk about submission to the Uruk king only if he sends a lot of grain. The messenger returns to Uruk and presents this message to Enmerkar
First, Enmerkar consults with the Sumerian goddess of wisdom Nidaba and performs some ritual actions. Then he sends a caravan of grain and a messenger to Aratta with orders to deliver precious stones, gold and silver to Uruk. The people of Aratta are completely delighted with the large amount of grain and are ready to provide Enmerkar with jewelry and builders for the construction of the temple. However, the ruler categorically refuses the messenger and even puts forward his demands for payment of tribute to him.
The messenger returns to Uruk, tells everything to Enmerkar, and he again carries out some ritual actions with a certain herb “sushima”. He sends a messenger to Aratta for the third time, but without any message, but with an order to hand over a staff to the local ruler.
This rod makes the right impression on the ruler of Aratta; he bitterly complains that Inanna has left him and offers Enmerkar a contest - let the king of Uruk send his representative, but he should not be black, white, brown, yellow, or motley.
Enmerkar is not at all embarrassed by these seemingly meaningless demands; perhaps this is not about skin color, but about clothing. He once again sends a messenger to Aratta with rather strict conditions. He is ready to accept the challenge of the ruler of Aratta and sends his representative for this, but he demands the sending of gold, silver and jewelry. Otherwise, he threatens Aratta with complete destruction.
What follows is a not very intelligible passage, from which, if understood correctly, it follows that Enmerkar was the first person to write messages on clay tablets. The messenger hands such a tablet to the ruler of Aratta and waits for an answer. This time, the god of rain and storm Ishkur unexpectedly comes to the aid of Aratta. The wind brings a whole bunch of wild wheat and beans to the city. At the sight of this miracle, the ruler of Aratta regained his former self-confidence. He tells the messenger that Inanna will never leave him.
Further, the text is very poorly preserved, but from the remaining fragments we can conclude that the inhabitants of Aratta nevertheless paid tribute to Uruk in the form of gold, silver and lapis lazuli.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru