Sumer and Babylon · Etana epic; King List ('Etana, who ascended to heaven')
Etana flies on an eagle
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Etana needs the plant of birth and rides an eagle up toward Anu's heaven. At each stage the eagle tells him to look down: the land shrinks to a hill, the sea to a pond, then to a garden ditch, then he cannot see it at all. Frightened, he falls.
Summary by the editors. Translation: Summary in my own words
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Read it literally
The oldest description of seeing Earth get smaller as you climb. Written 3,700 years before anyone could see it.
What scholars say
The ending is lost.
