er, to obey the high gods, and addressed
Namtar, saying:

Unto Ishtar give the waters of life and bring her before me.

Thereafter the Queen of Heaven was conducted through the various
gates, and at each she received her robe and the ornaments which were
taken from her on entering. Namtar says:

Since thou hast not paid a ransom for thy deliverance to her
(Allatu), so to her again turn back,
For Tammuz the husband of thy youth.
The glistening waters (of life) pour over him...
In splendid clothing dress him, with a ring of crystal adorn him.

Ishtar mourns for "the wound of Tammuz", smiting her breast, and she
did not ask for "the precious eye-stones, her amulets", which were
apparently to ransom Tammuz. The poem concludes with Ishtar's wail:

O my only brother (Tammuz) thou dost not lament for me.
In the day that Tammuz adorned me, with a ring of crystal,
With a bracelet of emeralds, together with himself, he adorned
me,[123]
With himself he adorned me; may men mourners and women
mourners
On a bier place him, and assemble the wake.[124]

A Sumerian hymn to Tammuz throws light on this narrative. It sets
forth that Ishtar descended to Hades to entreat him to be glad and to
resume care of his flocks, but Tammuz refused or was unable to return.

His spouse unto her abode he sent back.

She then instituted the wailing ceremony:

The amorous Queen of Heaven sits as one in darkness.[125]

Mr. Langdon also translates a hymn (Tammuz III) which appears to
contain the narrative on which the Assyrian version was founded. The
goddess who descends to Hades, however, is not Ishtar, but the
"sister", Belit-sheri. She is accompanied by various demons--the
"gallu-demon", the "slayer", &c.--and holds a conversation with Tammuz
which, however, is "unintelligible and badly broken". Apparently,
however, he promises to return to earth.

... I will go up, as for me I will depart with thee ...
... I will return, unto my mother let us go back.

Probably two goddesses originally lamented for Tammuz, as the Egyptian
sisters, Isis and Nepthys, lamented for Osiris, their brother. Ishtar
is referred to as "my mother". Isis figures alternately in the
Egyptian chants as mother, wife, sister, and daughter of Osiris. She
cries, "Come thou to thy wife in peace; her heart fluttereth for thy
love", ... "I am thy wife, made as thou art, the elder s