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FAMOUS LITERATURE.

THE ADVENTURES OF ISTAR.

TRANSLATED BY GEORGE SMITH.

(From "The Chaldean Account of Genesis.")

[The Assyrian legend of Istar is one of the oldest in the world, for it undoubtedly goes back far beyond the epic in which it is embodied, and from which the following translation is made. This great poem, at present existing for us only in fragments, but which may not improbably be restored from discoveries remaining to be made, appears to have interwoven numerous legends of the deities much in the same manner as the Metamorphoses of Ovid were constructed out of pre-existent materials, already sufficiently venerable to have acquired a sacred character. The book devoted to the adventures of Istar is hitherto by far the most perfect. It describes Istar's descent into the underworld in quest of her dead husband, Du-zi, the Tammuz for whom the Syrian women are represented by Scripture as mourning, and the Adonis of Greek mythology. The entire myth typifies the withdrawal of the sun in the darkness and cold of winter, of all natural facts the most likely to impress such races of mankind as do not enjoy a perpetual summer. It is met with in some form or other in every religion above the very rudest; what is peculiar to the Babylonian poet is the powerful imagination with which he depicts Istar successively divested of every portion of her apparel until nothing remains for her but the dust of death: while the consequences to mankind of the departure of the Goddess of Love and Pleasure from among them show that even at this early period, men were reasoning upon causes and results.]

1 [To Hades the country whence none return] I turn myself,

2 I spread like a bird my hands.

3 I descend, I descend to the house of darkness, the dwelling of

the god Irkalla :

4 to the house out of which there is no exit,

5 to the road from which there is no return:

6 to the house from whose entrance the light is taken,

7 the place where dust is their nourishment and their food mud.

8 Its chiefs also are like birds covered with feathers;

9 the light is never seen, in darkness they dwell.

10 In the house, O my friend, which I will enter,

11 for me is treasured up a crown;

12 with those wearing crowns who from days of old ruled the earth,

13 to whom the gods Anu and Bel have given names of rule.

14 Water (?) they have given to quench the thirst, they drink limpid waters.

15 In the house, O my friend, which I will enter,

16 dwell the lord and the unconquered one,

17 dwell the priest and the great man,

18 dwell the worms of the deep of the great gods;

19 there dwells Etana, there dwells the god Ner,

20 (there dwells) the queen of the lower regions, Allat,

21 the mistress of the fields the mother of the queen of the lower regions before her submits,

22 and there is not any one that stands against her in her

presence.

23 I will approach her and she will see me

24. . . and she will bring me to her.

[Here the story is again lost, Columns V. and VI. being absent. It would seem that Hea-bani is here telling his friend how he must die and descend into the house of Hades. Mr. Smith, however, thought that in the third column some one is speaking to Istar, trying to persuade her not to descend to Hades, while in the fourth column the goddess, who is suffering all the pangs of jealousy and hate, revels in the dark details of the description of the lower regions, and declares her determination to go there.]

The descent of Istar into Hades.

1 To Hades the land whence none return, the land (of darkness),

2 Istar daughter of Sin (the moon) her ear (inclined);

3 inclined also the daughter of Sin her ear,

4 to the house of darkness the dwelling of the god Irkalla,

5 to the house out of which there is no exit,

6 to the road from which there is no return,

7 to the house from whose entrance the light is taken,

8 the place where dust is their nourishment and their food mud.

9 Light is never seen, in darkness they dwell.

10 Its chiefs also are like birds covered with feathers,

11 over the door and bolts is scattered dust.

12 Istar on her arrival at the gate of Hades,

THE ADVENTURES OF ISTAR.

13 to the keeper of the gate a command she addresses: 14 Keeper of the waters, open thy gate,

15 open thy gate that I may enter.

16 If thou openest not the gate that I may enter,

17 I will strike the door, the bolts I will shatter,

18 I will strike the threshold and will pass through the doors;

19 I will raise up the dead to devour the living,

20 above the living the dead shall exceed in numbers.

21 The keeper opened his mouth and speaks,

22 he says to the princess Istar:

23 Stay, lady, thou dost not glorify her,

24 let me go and thy name repeat to the queen Allat.

25 The keeper descended and says to Allat:

26 This water (of life) thy sister Istar (comes to seek).

27 The queen of the great vaults (of heaven).

28 Allat on hearing this says:

29 Like the cutting off of the herb has (Istar) descended (into Hades),

30 like the lip of a deadly insect (?) she has...

31 What will her heart bring me (i.e., matter to me) what will her anger (bring me)?

32 (Istar replies :) This water with (my husband)

33 like food would I eat, like beer would I drink.

34 Let me weep over the strong who have left their wives.

35 Let me weep over the handmaids who (have lost) the embraces of their husbands.

36 Over the only son let me mourn, who ere his days are come is

taken away.

37 (Allat says:) Go keeper open thy gate to her,

38 bewitch her also according to the ancient rules.

39 The keeper went and opened his gate:

40 Enter, O lady, let the city of Cutha1 receive thee;

41 let the palace of Hades rejoice at thy presence.

42 The first gate he caused her to enter and touched her, he threw down the great crown of her head.

43 Why, O keeper, hast thou thrown down the great crown of my

head?

44 Enter, O lady, of Allat thus is the order.

45 The second gate he caused her to enter and touched her, he threw away the earrings of her ears.

46 Why, keeper, hast thou thrown away the earrings of my ears?

47 Enter, O lady, of Allat thus is the order.

1 A great necropolis seems to have existed in Cutha.