On this or another occasion Etana desired to ascend to highest heaven.  He asked the Eagle to assist him, and the bird assented, saying:  “Be glad, my friend.  Let me bear thee to the highest heaven.  Lay thy breast on mine and thine arms on my wings, and let my body be as thy body.”  Etana did as the great bird requested him, and together they ascended towards the firmament.  After a flight which extended over two hours, the Eagle asked Etana to gaze downwards.  He did so, and beheld the ocean surrounding the earth, and the earth seemed like a mountainous island.  The Eagle resumed its flight, and when another two hours had elapsed, it again asked Etana to look downwards.  Then the hero saw that the sea resembled a girdle which clasped the land.  Two hours later Etana found that he had been raised to a height from which the sea appeared to be no larger than a pond.  By this time he had reached the heaven of Anu, Bel, and Ea, and found there rest and shelter.

Here the text becomes fragmentary.  Further on it is gathered from the narrative that Etana is being carried still higher by the Eagle towards the heaven of Ishtar, “Queen of Heaven”, the supreme mother goddess.  Three times, at intervals of two hours, the Eagle asks Etana to look downwards towards the shrinking earth.  Then some disaster happens, for further onwards the broken tablet narrates that the Eagle is falling.  Down and down eagle and man fall together until they strike the earth, and the Eagle’s body is shattered.

The Indian Garuda eagle[192] never met with such a fate, but on one occasion Vishnu overpowered it with his right arm, which was heavier than the whole universe, and caused many feathers to fall off.  In the story of Rama’s wanderings, however, as told in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, there are interesting references in this connection to Garuda’s two “sons”.  One was mortally wounded by Ravana, the demon king of Ceylon.  The other bird related to Rama, who found it disabled:  “Once upon a time we two (brothers), with the desire of outstripping each other, flew towards the sun.  My wings were burnt, but those of my brother were not....  I fell down on the top of this great mountain, where I still am."[193]

Another version of the Etana story survives among the Arabian Moslems.  In the “Al Fatihat” chapter of the Koran it is related that a Babylonian king held a dispute with Abraham “concerning his Lord”.  Commentators identify the monarch with Nimrod, who afterwards caused the Hebrew patriarch to be cast into a fire from which he had miraculous deliverance.  Nimrod then built a tower so as to ascend to heaven “to see Abraham’s god”, and make war against Him, but the tower was overthrown.  He, however, persisted in his design.  The narrative states that he was “carried to heaven in a chest borne by four monstrous birds; but after wandering for some time through the air, he fell down on a mountain with such a force that he made it shake”.  A reference in the Koran to “contrivances ... which make mountains tremble” is believed to allude to Nimrod’s vain attempt.[194]