ense, he placed the cushion and the mould
upon his head and carried it to the appointed place. There he placed
clay in the mould, shaping it into a brick, and he left the brick in its
mould within the temple. And last of all he sprinkled oil of cedar-wood
around.

The next day at dawn Gudea broke the mould and set the brick in the sun.
And the Sun-god was rejoiced at the brick that he had fashioned. And
Gudea took the brick and raised it on high towards the heavens, and he
carried the brick to his people. In this way the patesi inaugurated the
manufacture of the sun-dried bricks for the temple, the sacred brick
which he had made being the symbol and pattern of the innumerable bricks
to be used in its construction. He then marked out the plan of the
temple, and the text states that he devoted himself to the building of
the temple like a young man who has begun building a house and allows
no pleasure to interfere with his task. And he chose out skilled workmen
and employed them on the building, and he was filled with joy. The gods,
too, are stated to have helped with the building, for Enki fixed the
temennu of the temple, and the goddess Nina looked after its oracles,
and Gatumdug, the mother of Shir-purla, fashioned bricks for it morning
and evening, while the goddess Bau sprinkled aromatic oil of cedar-wood.
Gudea himself laid its foundations, and as he did so he blessed the
temple seven times, comparing it to the sacred brick, to the holy
libation-vase, to the divine eagle of Shirpurla, to a terrible couching
panther, to the beautiful heavens, to the day of offerings, and to the
morning light which brightens the land. He caused the temple to rise
towards heaven like a mountain, or like a cedar growing in the desert.
He built it of bricks of Sumer, and the timbers which he set in place
were as strong as the dragon of the deep.

While he was engaged on the building Gudea took counsel of the god Enki,
and he built a fountain for the gods, where they might drink. With the
great stones which he had brought and fashioned he built a reservoir
and a basin for the temple. And seven of the great stones he set up as
stelae, and he gave them favourable names. The text then recounts
the various parts and shrines of the temple, and it describes their
splendours in similes drawn from the heavens and the earth and the
abyss, or deep, beneath the earth. The temple itself is described as,
being like the crescent of the new moon, or lik