Ushankushu, son of Inumšahurāṣi lived in Temple Kašamê, palaced with gold and woven linen
Thirty-six years had he been living under the sky of Ab, made man at sixteen, En-Lugal at twenty-four. His reign had been for twelve years, met with prosperity and luxury. In those days, the city of his charge was Eninan, and all those who resided within and around were of his patrimony. For he had been given that right by his election, being the chosen man of the Mistress of Heaven, who like his father before him had been selected to commune with heaven. To serve heaven he had been groomed for from the day of his breaching the womb of the Esirtu-Mûalāṭu. Thus this esirtu was made fertile by the most fecund patroness, Bēltuilātu-Anshashar. From the seat of Kašamê he was raised up, in the harem of his father fed the finest loins of lamb not for sacrifice and the sweetest figs from the Kirātšadî. “Without Equal” he was called by the soldiers of his father’s palace, quicker than a viper and forceful like an auroch.
By the temple slaves Ushankushu was taught to dance and sing exquisitely, the prize of his youth lauded before all the peoples of the world. Such was his culture and majesty that even the great progenitor of the waters, Bēlumilū-Urukia looked upon him with envious awe. Never had the whole city of Eninan seen such a wondrous affluence of character before, in anyone but the son of Inumšahurāṣi. The city of old had laid marvelous works before the Gods in ages past, but in the time of the son of Inumšahurāṣi, the temples had not been higher, the fields more plentiful nor the gold so gleaming. For when Inumšahurāṣi passed into the wet hands of Bēlumilū-Urukia, his son was taken to the top of that glimmering Temple Kašamê and before the Mistress of Heaven offered a hecatomb before the holy idol of the great enthroned Mistress of Heaven. In thanks, Beautiful Nin-an rose from the blood of the Nārubalā decorated with a diadem atop her head alongside rings, bracelets, necklaces made of gold that adorned her body. Beautiful Nin-an, Mother of the Gods, wearing only the softest of white linens presented herself to Ushankushu for the consummation of their marriage. For in those days it was that only Ummuilāti-Nin-an herself could marry the En-Lugal and be his aššatu. For in those days it was the sign of fidelity, between the Divine and the Mortal. Ushankushu and Nin-an laid together in a pool of aurochs blood, after which the Divine Father Ab marked the occasion with the star of Kittu. Thus was their bond sealed and their pact reestablished as had been done for ages past. For his own part, the son of Inumšahurāṣi sang a hymn to his new wife in adulation:
"So you see how I have loved you
under the meet stars of heaven.
You are my ample portion
and the relief of heaven.
Without whom the word suffers,
for you are the love of ages,
the Mistress of Heaven.
For you are where
the blood of my heart flows from
and the skin of my flesh hangs.
You are the Mistress of Heaven
and your succor is mine.
From childhood I nursed
from the breast of your daughters.
As man I nurse on the love
of your divinity.
My father, I thank him for his
relinquished life.
Without his passing I would not yet have you,
now held as my bountiful wife."
