The front matter to “Cities of the Rivers,” the first of three parts of Earthopolis: A Biography of Our Urban Planet, retells the myth of the founding of the city of Uruk by the goddess Inanna (Ishtar), after she stole the many characteristics of city life from her father Enki and delivered them up the river by boat to the settlement of Uruk. This story, which emphasizes cities as tools of both creation and destruction, serves as a pivot point in discussions of urban theory and the life of the Urban Planet throughout the rest of the book.