‘What has prompted her, what has induced her spirit?
Should I indeed sit with her,
Eat clay instead of food, drink water instead of wine?
Should I weep over the husbands who left their wives?
Over the women who were snatched away from the embrace of their consorts?
Over the young taken before their time should I weep?’
A motive had to be found for the hostile attitude of the two sisters towards each other. In the case of Ishtar, it is anger with Eresh-kigal, who now controls those who once belonged to her as the mother of mankind. Ishtar loves mankind, and in another tale—that of the Deluge—she is portrayed as actually weeping over the destruc- tion of her offspring. Popular fancy, reinforced by theological speculation, accordingly pictured Ishtar as proceeding to the lower world once a year, in order to sit with the dead, share their food, and weep over their inexorable fate. Hence her violent hatred of Eresh-kigal. The watchman is ordered to admit the goddess, and to treat her according to the existing laws. That the story has been transformed by the introduction of new motives rendered necessary by the differentiation of Ishtar from Eresh-kigal, is shown by the wel- come which the watchman gives Ishtar, and which is in glaring contradiction to the threats which Ishtar has uttered—
‘Enter, my lady, Cuthah t greets thee ;
The palace of the land without return rejoices at thy presence.’
As she passes through the seven gates of the nether world the various articles of her apparel are taken away. At the first gate her crown is
corresponding to Rawlinson, iv.? pl. 31; recent translations by Jensen, Keilinschriftl. Bibl. vi. 1, pp. 80-91; and Jeremias in Roscher’s Leaikon der griech- und romischen M ythologie, article ‘Nergal.’ See also Zimmern, Keilinschriften wu. d. Alte Testa- ment, pp. 561-563. =
* Literally, ‘placed her ear.’
+ The name of an important centre in southern Babylonia which was the seat of Nergal worship, and hence becomes a poetical designation for the nether world.
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RELIGION OF BABYLONIA
removed, at the second her earrings, at the third her necklace, at the fourth her breastplate, at the fifth her studded girdle, at the sixth the ornaments on her hands and feet, and at the seventh, finally, her loincloth, so that, when she enters the presence of Eresh-kigal, she is quite naked.
The symbolical significance of this gradual strip- ping of the goddess is quite evident ; it marks the gradual decay of vegetation at the approach of the rainy and winter season, and incidentally may have furnished the priests with a doctrinal ex- planation why the images of Ishtar, which the people placed in the temples as votive offerings, frequently portrayed her as naked.*
The naked Ishtar, thus forced to obey laws not of her making, is clearly a different figure from the one portrayed at the opening of the story, intent upon forcing an entrance to Eresh-kigal with some evil intent. To adapt the old myth to the later conception, Ishtar is described as rushing towards Eresh-kigal, but, without a struggle, is overpowered by Namtar, who, at the command of the eae of the nether world, smites Ishtar with sixty diseases affecting all her organs and limbs. The symbolism of the original myth is once more apparent in the description of what followed upon the imprisonment—for such it is—of Ishtar in ‘ the palace of the land without return.’
aes the lady Ishtar had descended to the land without return The bull no longer mounted the cow, the ass did not mount the she-ass, The man did not go to the maid to lie with her.’
These lines evidently describe in naive language the cessation of fertility on earth with the depar- ture of the great mother-goddess. The gods, also, bewail the departure of Ishtar from their midst, and plan for her release from the nether world. Sin and Ea are appealed to, and Ea creates a mysterious being, Asushu-namir, whose name, signifying ‘his going forth is brilliant,’ points to a solar deity—perhaps the god of the spring sun— who brings back vegetation and fertility to nature. Asushu-namir forces his entrance into the nether world despite the opposition of Eresh-kigal, who is enraged also at this new intruder. He besprinkles Ishtar with the water of life and takes her with him. At each gate the articles taken away from her at her entrance are restored to her, until she emerges in all her glory. The story closes with references, which are not altogether clear, to a festival in honour of Tammuz, a solar deity, symbolizing the spring, who is designated as the youthful lover of Ishtar.
We see, then, that we are to distinguish in the story the following elements—(1) the old nature myth symbolical of the change of seasons, representing Ishtar as forced at a certain season of the year to leave the earth, followed by her release in the spring ; (2) the combination of this myth with the later view, representing Eresh- kigal as an independent goddess, permanently established as ruler in the nether world ; leading to (3) the hostility between the two goddesses. It will be observed that references to two festivals celebrated in Babylonia have been introduced into the story—a lamentation at the time of Ishtar’s descent, and a rejoicing on her return. Further, the story has been made the medium for illustrat. ing the current views regarding the abode of the dead, and the hope at least is suggested that, through the gods, a release from the control of Eresh-kigal is possible. Beyond this, however, the theologians did not venture to go, and such epithets as ‘restorer of the dead,’ occasionally given to certain gods, have reference to the power