urses against the messenger of misfortune. "'Thou hast expressed to me
a wish which should not be made!--Fly, Uddushunamir, 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.

* It follows from this passage that Ishtar could be
delivered only at the cost of another life: it was for this
reason, doubtless, that Ea, instead of sending the ordinary
messenger of the gods, created a special messenger. Allat,
furious at the insignificance of the victim sent to her,
contents herself with threatening Uddushanamir with an
ignominious treatment if he does not escape as quickly as
possible.

Dumuzi was a god, the lover, moreover, of a goddess, and the deity
succeeded where mortals failed.* Ea, Nebo, Gula, 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 pleade