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Etana, a MythSource painting
Sumerian

Etana

01Identity

Etana in Sumerian tradition

After the Flood, people have no king to guide them, and the insignia of kingship lie before Anu in heaven. The Anunnaki decide that kingship should be sent down. Etana has no son, so he asks Shamash for an heir and the plant of birth, offering sacrifices to the god each day. In the eagle-and-serpent tale woven into the myth, an eagle lies trapped in a pit, its wings broken and its cries for help unanswered. Shamash directs Etana into the pit. He frees the eagle, which promises to carry him to Ishtar and the plant he seeks. As they ascend, the landscape shrinks and disappears. Ishtar and the plant remain ahead; the eagle has offered a way to reach them, not the outcome itself.

SourceMiddle Eastern Mythology: Part Of The Adventures Of Its Hero.

Top questions

The quick answers

02The myths

The myths of Etana

1 myth, with sources recorded for each.

Etana Rescues the Eagle

After the Flood, people had no king to guide them. The sceptre, crown, tiara and shepherd's crook, insignia of kingship, lay before Anu in heaven. The great Anunnaki decided that kingship should be sent down. For the rule to endure, an heir was necessary, but Etana had no son. He offered sacrifices to Shamash each day, asking the god for an heir. His prayer named the plant of birth: he asked Shamash to grant it and show it to him. Etana's need for a son belongs to the larger question of how kingship can continue beyond one ruler.

The myth also weaves in a tale of an eagle and a serpent. The eagle lies in a pit with broken wings, crying in vain to Shamash for help. At Shamash's direction, Etana enters the pit and frees it. In gratitude, the eagle promises to carry him to the throne of Ishtar, where he may seek the plant. The story follows their ascent, with the landscape diminishing and disappearing below them. That offer joins Etana's petition to a possible path towards the plant he wants.

Etana Rescues the Eagle, a MythSource painting of the scene

2 sources· checked 2026-09-26

  1. 1Middle Eastern MythologyT1
  2. 2Middle Eastern MythologyT1
03Different accounts

Different accounts

›Middle Eastern Mythology says it is apparently to be inferred that Etana was appointed king. This draft does not state that inference as fact; it confines itself to the source's description of kingship after the Flood and Etana's personal search for an heir.

    The accounts that differ: Middle Eastern Mythology, Part Of The Adventures Of Its Hero.

    From “Etana Rescues the Eagle”

    ›The eagle promises to carry Etana to Ishtar for the plant of birth. The approved excerpts do not establish that the journey succeeded or that Etana had a son.

      The accounts that differ: Middle Eastern Mythology, Part Of The Adventures Of Its Hero.

      From “Etana Rescues the Eagle”