Once upon a time there lived a gardener named Shukalletuda. He very diligently cultivated his garden, watered the trees and beds, but all his efforts were in vain - the dry desert wind dried out the soil and the plants died. Exhausted by failures, Shukalletuda turned his gaze to the starry heavens and began to ask for a divine sign. He probably received the command of the gods, because by planting a sarbatu tree (origin unknown) in the garden, which stretches its shadow from west to east, Shukalletuda got the desired result - all the plants in his garden bloomed in lush colors.
One day, the goddess Inanna, after a long and tiring journey, decided to rest near the garden of Shukalletuda. The gardener saw a beautiful goddess from behind the hedge, who amazed him with her unearthly beauty. He timidly knelt down in front of her and kissed her. Seeing that Inanna was sleeping soundly, Shukalletuda became bolder and satisfied his suddenly flared passion, taking possession of the sleeping goddess.
Waking up with the first rays of the sun, Inanna was deeply offended by the insolence of a mere mortal and decided, at all costs, to take revenge on him. Since the goddess did not know who exactly insulted her, revenge fell on the heads of all the inhabitants of Sumer
At first, Inanna filled all the wells of the country with blood. Then she sent destructive hurricanes to Sumer. The essence of the third disaster is not entirely clear, since the text is corrupted in this place. However, each time Shukalletuda went to his father’s house, where the wise old man advised him to go to large cities so that the goddess could not find him among the crowd.
After the third attempt, Inanna bitterly realized that she was unable to take revenge on a mortal. Then she goes to the Sumerian god of wisdom Enki and asks him for help.
Unfortunately, it is not known how this myth ends, since the text on the sign is broken.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru