The Sumerians recorded a story about fifty giants sent to go after a vessel carrying the powers of civilization. The story appears in the Inanna and Enki, catalogued by Oxford University as ETCSL 1.3.1. The story begins in Eridu, one of the oldest cities in Mesopotamia, where the god Enki rules from the Abzu, a subterranean freshwater domain. Inanna visits Enki, and the two begin drinking beer. Enki becomes intoxicated and gives her possession of the "me", a collection of divine powers governing kingship, knowledge, craftsmanship, warfare, religious authority, and basically everything else you could imagine. Inanna takes these powers, boards the Boat of Heaven, and departs for Uruk. When Enki sobers up, he realizes what has happened. He immediately orders his minister, Isimud, to intercept the vessel and recover what he has given away. Enki then issues another command: "The fifty giants of Eridug are to take the Boat of Heaven away from her!" According to the surviving text, these fifty giants seize the vessel. Inanna appeals to her minister, Ninshubur, who intervenes and helps her recover it. Enki then dispatches another group, fifty lahama associated with the subterranean waters. They also seize the boat and are defeated. Enki continues the pursuit, sending great fish and additional guardians to intercept the vessel. I find several details about this account particularly interesting. First, the Abzu is not the ocean. In Mesopotamian tradition, it is the freshwater realm beneath the earth. Second, these aren't random creatures appearing in a story. Enki issues specific orders to distinct groups of beings, including fifty giants and fifty entities associated with the subterranean waters. Third, the entire confrontation concerns the movement of something the Sumerians believed was fundamental to the establishment and operation of civilization. The me are understood by scholars as divine powers and ordinances, not established technological devices. The text doesn't identify these giants as an unknown biological species either. But that doesn't make the account any less interesting. We have an ancient narrative describing a ruler of the subterranean waters attempting to prevent the transfer of civilization's governing powers from one city to another, using multiple groups of extraordinary beings to intercept a vessel. I don't think we should just assume these accounts describe literal historical events. But I also don't think we should overlook the details simply because they survive as myth. The Sumerians preserved a remarkably specific sequence of events here. A subterranean domain. A transfer of knowledge and authority. A vessel. Fifty giants. Fifty beings from the fresh waters below. Repeated attempts to recover what was taken. What exactly were the Sumerians trying to tell us?