47. for Tammuz the husband of (thy) youth;
48. the glistening waters pour over (him), the drops (sprinkle upon him);
49. in splendid clothing dress him, with a ring of crystal adorn (him).
50. May Samkhat appease the grief (of Istar),
51. and, Kharimat,[27] give to her comfort.
52. The precious eye-stones also she destroyed not,
53. the wound of her brother (Tammuz) she heard, she smote (her breast), she, even Kharimat, gave her comfort;
54. the precious eye-stones, her amulets, she commanded not,
55. (saying): O my only brother, thou dost not lament for me.
56. In the day that Tammuz adorned me, with a ring of crystal, with a bracelet of emeralds, together with himself he adorned me,
57. with himself he adorned me; may men mourners and women mourners
58. on a bier place (him), and assemble the wake.
This remarkable text shows Istar fulfilling her threat and descending to Hades, but it does not appear that she had as yet accomplished her vengeance against Izdubar.
At the opening of the sixth tablet we have the final scene of the contest with Khumbaba. Izdubar, after slaying Khumbaba, takes the crown from the head of the monarch and places it on his own head, thus signifying that he assumed the empire. There were, as we are informed in several places, kings, lords, and princes, merely local rulers, but these generally submitted to the greatest power; and just as they had bowed to Khumbaba, so they were ready now to submit to Izdubar. The kingdom promised to Izdubar when he started to encounter Khumbaba now became his by right of superior force, and he entered the halls of the palace of Erech and feasted with his heroes.
We are thus brought to a curious part of the story, the romance of Izdubar and Istar. One of the strange and dark features of the Babylonian religion was the Istar or Venus worship, which was an adoration of the reproductive power of nature, accompanied by ceremonies which were a reproach to the country. The city of Erech, originally a seat of the worship of Anu, was now one of the foremost cities in this Istar worship. Tammuz, the young and beautiful Sun-god, the dead bridegroom of Istar, seems to be also spoken of as the brother of her handmaid Kharimat. This explains, as M. Lenormant has pointed out, the passage in Jeremiah xxii. 18, which preserves a portion of the wailing cry uttered by the worshippers of Tammuz or Adonis when celebrating his untimely death. This should be rendered: “Ah me, my brother, and ah me, my sister! Ah me, Adonis, and ah me, his lady!” Reference is made to the worship of Tammuz, which was carried on within the Temple itself at Jerusalem, in Ezek. viii. 14, Amos viii. 10, (where we should translate “as at the mourning for the only son” Tammuz), and Zech. xii. 10, 11. Tammuz is the Semitic form of the Accadian Dumuzi which signified in that language “the only son.”