[Illustration: 226.jpg ISHTAR DESPOILED OF HER GARMENTS IN HADES]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chaldæan intaglio in the Hague Museum. Salomon Reinach has demonstrated that the naked figure is not the goddess herself, but a statue of the goddess which was adored in one of the temples.
"Papsukal, 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 to her what she desires. "Ea, in the wisdom of his heart, formed a male being,--formed Uddushunâmir, the servant of the gods:--'Go then, Uddushunâmir, turn thy face towards the gate of the land without return; --the seven gates of the land without return--may they become open at thy presence--may Allât 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.'" Allât 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, Uddushunâmir, 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 Anunnas. "Namtar went, he rent open the eternal palace,--he twisted the uprights 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 crystal 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.