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The Sleeping Almanac

Etana and the Eagle: The Full Surviving Story of a Forgotten Sumerian Myth

3 hours · The Sleeping Almanac · October 4, 2026

Etana and the Eagle: The Full Surviving Story of a Forgotten Sumerian Myth
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The voice you hear is the creator's own. He cloned it from recordings of his own voice, so every story is told in his voice. If you enjoy falling asleep to it, follow the show so each new story arrives on its own, and leave a rating on Apple Podcasts so other people can find it.

Etana is the oldest story of human flight, and hardly anybody has heard of it. A king of Kish has everything except the one ordinary thing he wants, and to get it he must go up. Tonight is the eagle and the serpent and the broken oath in the tree, the pit, the long climb, the earth going small below, and the most restful passage in this whole season: a man looking down at his own country until it is the size of a bread basket, and then smaller, and then gone. A slow, calm 3 hour sleep story to help you fall asleep and stay asleep.

Settle in, close your eyes, and let it drift over you. The pacing is slow, the voice is soft, and the music never spikes. You do not have to follow it. You do not have to remember any of it in the morning.

These are retellings drawn from the real tablets and the real history. Where the old stories turn toward fear or cruelty, we turn gently toward comfort, choosing the telling that serves a calm night. Where scholars disagree, the disagreement is said out loud rather than smoothed over.

Season Five of The Sleeping Almanac: Mesopotamia. Twelve nights.

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This channel uses AI tools (script research, narration, visuals) under the direction of a human editor. Every episode is researched, reviewed, and revised before publication.

Chapters

  1. 0:00Welcome
  2. 5:05The Shepherd of Kish
  3. 11:22No Child
  4. 19:27The Tree With Two Houses
  5. 23:42The Broken Oath
  6. 28:02The Dead Ox
  7. 32:03The Pit
  8. 37:18Eight Months
  9. 40:25Up
  10. 45:00The World Grown Small
  11. 50:37The Fall
  12. 54:38What the Seals Remember
  13. 1:03:11Goodnight Over Kish
  14. 1:07:28Calm music to drift off

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