allows him to do once he accepts her as his spouse. There then follows a series of conquests in which Enki ravishes four successive generations of daughters sired by him, and it must be said that his 'I must have that' behaviour is reminiscent of a child in a sweetshop - which, if we accept that the Sumerians did not find incest distasteful, has the comic effect desired by the author. When he takes the final daughter, Uttu, with some force, her cries are heard by Ninhursag to whom, already tired of her husband’s philandering, this is the last straw. She remove