Chapter 26
section twenty six of history of egypt chaldea syria babylonia and assyria volume three by gaston maspero read for librivox dot org into the public domain chapter two the temples and the gods of chaldea part thirteen the warders at the gates despoiled the new-comers of every thing which they had brought with them and conducted them in a naked condition before allat who pronounced sentence upon them and assigned to each his place in the nether world the good or evil committed on earth by such souls was of little moment in determining the sentence to secure the favor of the judge it was of far greater importance to have exhibited devotion to the gods and to allat herself to have lavished sacrifices and offerings upon them and to have enriched their temples the souls which could not justify themselves were subjected to horrible punishment leprosy consumed them to the end of time and the most painful maladies attacked them to torture them ceaselessly without any hope of release those who were fortunate enough to be spared from her rage dragged out a miserable and joyless existence they were continually suffering from the pangs of thirst and hunger and found nothing to satisfy their appetites but dust and clay
they shivered with cold and they obtained no other garment to protect them than mantles of feathers the great silent wings of the night-birds invested with which they fluttered about and filled the air with their screens this gloomy and cruel conception of ordinary life in this strange kingdom was still worse than the idea formed of the existence in the tomb to which it succeeded in the cemetery the soul was at least alone with the dead body in the house of allat on the contrary it was lost as it were among spirits as much afflicted as itself and among the genii born of darkness none of these genii had a simple form or approached the human figure in shape each individual was a hideous melody of human and animal parts in which the most repellent features were artistically combined lion's head stood out from the bodies of scorpion-tailed jackals whose feet were armed with eagle's claws and among such monsters the genii of pestilence fever and the southwest wind took the chief place when once the dead had become naturalized among this terrible population they could not escape from their condition unless by the exceptional mandate of the gods above they possessed no recollection of what they had done upon earth
domestic affection friendships and the memory of good offices rendered to one another all were effaced from their minds nothing remained there but an inexpressible regret at having been exiled from the world of light and an excruciating desire to reach it once more the threshold of allat's palace stood upon a spring which had the property of restoring to life all who bathed in it or drank of its waters they gushed forth as soon as the stone was raised but the earth spirits guarded it with a jealous care and kept at a distance all who attempted to appropriate a drop of it they permitted access to it only by order of ea himself or one of the supreme gods and even then with a rebellious heart at seeing their prey escape them ancient legends related how the shepherd dumuzi son of ea and damkina having excited the love of ishtar while he was pasturing his flocks under the mysterious tree of eridu which covers the earth with its shade was chosen by the goddess from among all others to be the spouse of her youth and how being mortally wounded by a wild boar he was cast into the kingdom of allat one means remained by which he might be restored to the light of day his wounds must be washed in the waters of this wonderful spring and ishtar resolved to go in quest of this marvellous liquid
the undertaking was fraught with danger for no one might travel to the infernal regions without having previously gone through the extreme terrors of death and even the gods themselves could not transgress this fatal law to the land without return to the land which thou knowest ishtar the daughter of sin turned her thoughts she the daughter of sin turned her thoughts to the house of darkness the abode of urkala to the house from which he who enters can never emerge to the path upon which he who goes shall never come back to the house into which he who enters bids farewell to the light the place where dust is nourishment and clay is food the light is not seen darkness is the dwelling where the garments are the wings of birds where dust accumulates on door and bolt ishtar arrives at the porch she knocks at it she addresses the guardian in an imperious voice guardian of the waters open thy gate open thy gate that i may enter even i if thou openest not the door that i may enter even i i will burst open the door i will break the bars i will break the threshold i will burst in the panels i will excite the dead that they may eat the living and the dead shall be more numerous than the living
the guardian opened his mouth and spake he announced to the mighty ishtar stop o lady and do not overturn the door until i go and apprise the queen allat of thy name allat hesitates and then gives him permission to receive the goddess go guardian open the gate to her but treat her according to the ancient laws mortals enter naked into the world and naked they must leave it and since ishtar has decided to accept their lot she too must be prepared to divest herself of her garments the guardian went he opened his mouth enter my lady and may kutha rejoice may the palace and the land without return exult in thy presence he causes her to pass through the first gate divests her removes the great crown from her head why guardian dost thou remove the great crown from my head enter my lady such is the law of allat the second gate he causes her to pass through it he divests her removes the rings from her ears why guardian dost thou remove the rings from my ears enter my lady such is the law of allat and from gate to gate he removes some ornament from the distressed lady now her necklace with its attached amulets now the tunic which covers her bosom now her enameled girdle her bracelets and the rings on her ankles and at length at the seventh gate takes from her her last covering
when she at length arrives in the presence of allat she throws herself upon her in order to wrest from her in a terrible struggle the life of dumuzi but allat sends for namtar her messenger of misfortune to punish the rebellious ishtar strike her eyes with the affliction of the eyes strike her loins with the affliction of the loins strike her feet with the affliction of the feet strike her heart with the affliction of the heart strike her head with the affliction of the head strike violently at her at her whole body while ishtar was suffering the torments of the infernal regions the world of the living was wearing mourning on account of her death in the absence of the goddess of love the rites of love could no longer be performed the passions of animals and men were suspended if she did not return quickly to the daylight the races of men and animals would become extinct the earth would become a desert and the gods would have neither votaries nor offerings papsukol the servant of the great gods tore his face before shamash clothed in mourning filled with sorrow shamash went he wept in the presence of sin his father and his tears flowed in the presence of ea the king
ishtar has gone down into the earth and she has not come up again and ever since ishtar has descended into the land without return the passions of men and beasts have been suspended the master goes to sleep while giving his command the servant goes to sleep on his duty the resurrection of the goddess is the only remedy for such ills but this is dependent upon the resurrection of damuzi ishtar will never consent to reappear in the world if she cannot bring back her husband with her ea the supreme god the infallible executor of the divine will he who alone can modify the laws imposed upon creation at length decides to accord her what she desires ea in the wisdom of his heart formed a male being formed uru shunamir the servant of the gods go then uru shunamir turn thy face towards the gate of the land without return the seven gates of the land without return may they become open at thine presence may allat behold thee and rejoice in thy presence when her heart shall be calm and her wrath appeased charm her in the name of the great gods turn thy thoughts to the spring may the spring my lady give me of its waters that i may drink of them
allat broke out into a terrible rage when she saw herself obliged to yield to her rival she beat her sides she gnawed her fingers she broke out into curses against the messenger of misfortune thou hast expressed to me a wish which should not be made fly udushinamar or i will shut thee up in the great prison the mud of the drains of the city shall be thy food the gutters of the town shall be thy drink the shadow of the walls shall be thy abode the thresholds shall be thy habitation confinement and isolation shall weaken thy strength she is obliged to obey notwithstanding she calls her messenger namtar and commands him to make all the preparations for resuscitating the goddess it was necessary to break the threshold of the palace in order to get at the spring and its waters would have their full effect only in presence of the anunas namtar went he rent open the eternal place he twisted the upright so that the stones of the threshold trembled he made the anunnaki come forth and seated them on thrones of gold he poured upon ishtar the waters of life and brought her away she received again at each gate the articles of apparel she had abandoned in her passage across the seven circles of hell
as soon as she saw the daylight once more it was revealed to her that the fate of her husband was henceforward in her own hands every year she must bathe him in pure water and anoint him with the most precious perfumes clothe him in a robe of mourning and play to him sad airs upon a celestial flute whilst her priestesses intoned their doleful chants and tore their breasts in sorrow his heart would then take fresh life and his youth flourish once more from springtime to springtime as long as she should celebrate on his behalf the ceremonies already prescribed by the deities of the infernal world damuzi was a god the lover moreover of a goddess and the deity succeeded where mortals failed ea nebo gulah ishtar and their fellows possessed no doubt the faculty of recalling the dead to life but they rarely made use of it on behalf of their creatures and their most pious votaries pleaded in vain from temple to temple for the resurrection of their dead friends they could never obtain the favor which had been granted by alit to damuzi when the dead god was once placed in the tomb it rose up no more it could no more be reinstated in the place in the household it had lost it never could begin once more a new earthly existence
the necromancers indeed might snatch away death's prey for a few moments the earth gaped at the words of their invocations the soul burst forth like a puff of wind and answered gloomily the questions proposed to it but when the charm was once broken it had to retrace its steps to the country without return to be plunged once more in darkness the prospect of a dreary and joyless eternity was not so terrifying to the chaldeans as it was to the egyptians the few years of their earthly existence were of far more concern to them than the endless ages which were to begin their monotonous course on the morrow of their funeral the sum of good and evil fortune assigned to them by destiny they preferred to spend continuously in the light of day on the fair plains of the euphrates and tigris if they were to economize during this period with the view of laying up a posthumous treasure of felicity their store would have no current value beyond the tomb and would thus become so much waste the gods therefore whom they served faithfully would recoup them here in their native city with present prosperity with health riches power glory and a numerous offspring for the offerings of their devotion while if they irritated the deities by their shortcomings they had nothing to expect but overwhelming calamities and sufferings
the gods would cut them down like a reed and their names would be annihilated their seed destroyed they would end their days in affliction and hunger their dead bodies would be at the mercy of chance and would receive no sepulchre they were content to resign themselves therefore to the dreary lot of eternal misery which awaited them after death provided they enjoyed in this world a long and prosperous existence some of them felt and rebelled against the injustice of the idea which assigned one and the same fate without discrimination to the coward and the hero killed on the battle-field to the tyrant and the mild ruler of his people to the wicked and the righteous these therefore supposed that the gods would make distinctions that they would separate such heroes from the common herd welcome them in a fertile sunlit island separated from the abode of men by the waters of death the impassable river which leads to the house of allat the tree of life flourished there the spring of life poured forth there its reviving waters thither ea transferred zisestroth after the deluge gilgamesh saw the shores of this island and returned from it strong and healthy as in the days of his youth the site of this region of delights was at first placed in the centre of the marshes of the euphrates where this river flows into the sea afterwards when the country became better known it was transferred beyond the ocean
in proportion as the limits of the chaldean horizon were thrust further and further away by mercantile or warlike expeditions this mysterious island was placed more and more to the east afterwards to the north and at length a distance so great that it tended to vanish altogether as a final resource the gods of heaven themselves became the hosts and welcomed into their own kingdom the purified souls of the heroes part twenty six read by professor heatheren by for more free audio books or to volunteer please visit
