History Of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Vol. 3 — 26 - Ch. 2: The Temples and the Gods of Chaldaea, pt. 13

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin.

This is the back of the bronze plate represented on the preceding page; the animal-head of the god appears in relief at the top of the illustration.

The warders at the gates despoiled the new-comers of everything which they had brought with them, and conducted them in a naked condition before Allat, who pronounced sentence upon them, and assigned to each his place in the nether world.

The good or evil committed on earth by such souls was of little moment in determining the sentence: to secure the favour of the judge, it was of far greater importance to have exhibited devotion to the gods and to Allat herself, to have lavished sacrifices and offerings upon them and to have enriched their temples.

The souls which could not justify themselves were subjected to horrible punishment: leprosy consumed them to the end of time, and the most painful maladies attacked them, to torture them ceaselessly without any hope of release.

Those who were fortunate enough to be spared from her rage, dragged out a miserable and joyless existence.

They were continually suffering from the pangs of thirst and hunger, and found nothing to satisfy their appetites but clay and dust.

They shivered with cold, and they obtained no other garment to protect them than mantles of feathers--the great silent wings of the night-birds, invested with which they fluttered about and filled the air with their screams.

This gloomy and cruel conception of ordinary life in this strange kingdom was still worse than the idea formed of the existence in the tomb to which it succeeded.

In the cemetery the soul was, at least, alone with the dead body; in the house of Allat, on the contrary, it was lost as it were among spirits as much afflicted as itself, and among the genii born of darkness.

None of these genii had a simple form, or approached the human figure in shape; each individual was a hideous medley of human and animal parts, in which the most repellent features were artistically combined.

Lions’ heads stood out from the bodies of scorpion-tailed jackals, whose feet were armed with eagles’ claws: and among such monsters the genii of pestilence, fever, and the south-west wind took the chief place.

When once the dead had become naturalized among this terrible population, they could not escape from their condition, unless by the exceptional mandate of the gods above.

They possessed no recollection of what they had done upon earth.

Domestic affection, friendships, and the memory of good offices rendered to one another,--all were effaced from their minds: nothing remained there but an inexpressible regret at having been exiled from the world of light, and an excruciating desire to reach it once more.

The threshold of Allat’s palace stood upon a spring which had the property of restoring to life all who bathed in it or drank of its waters: they gushed forth as soon as the stone was raised, but the earth-spirits guarded it with a jealous care, and kept at a distance all who attempted to appropriate a drop of it.

They permitted access to it only by order of Ea himself, or one of the supreme gods, and even then with a rebellious heart at seeing their prey escape them.

Ancient legends related how the shepherd Dumuzi, son of Ea and Damkina, having excited the love of Ishtar while he was pasturing his flocks under the mysterious tree of Eridu, which covers the earth with its shade, was chosen by the goddess from among all others to be the spouse of her youth, and how, being mortally wounded by a wild boar, he was cast into the kingdom of Allat.

One means remained by which he might be restored to the light of day: his wounds must be washed in the waters of the wonderful spring, and Ishtar resolved to go in quest of this marvellous liquid.

The undertaking was fraught with danger, for no one might travel to the infernal regions without having previously gone through the extreme terrors of death, and even the gods themselves could not transgress this fatal law.

“To the land without return, to the land which thou knowest--Ishtar, the daughter of Sin, turned her thoughts: she, the daughter of Sin, turned her thoughts--to the house of darkness, the abode of Irkalla--to the house from which he who enters can never emerge--to the path upon which he who goes shall never come back--to the house into which he who enters bids farewell to the light--the place where dust is nourishment and clay is food; the light is not seen, darkness is the dwelling, where the garments are the wings of birds--where dust accumulates on door and bolt.

” Ishtar arrives at the porch, she knocks at it, she addresses the guardian in an imperious voice: “‘Guardian of the waters, open thy gate--open thy gate that I may enter, even I. --If thou openest not the door that I may enter, even I,--I will burst open the door, I will break the bars, I will break the threshold, I will burst in the panels, I will excite the dead that they may eat the living,--and the dead shall be more numerous than the living.

’--The guardian opened his mouth and spake, he announced to the mighty Ishtar: ‘Stop, O lady, and do not overturn the door until I go and apprise the Queen Allat of thy name.

’ Allat hesitates, and then gives him permission to receive the goddess: ‘Go, guardian, open the gate to her--but treat her according to the ancient laws.

Mortals enter naked into the world, and naked must they leave it: and since Ishtar has decided to accept their lot, she too must be prepared to divest herself of her garments.

’” The guardian went, he opened his mouth: ‘Enter, my lady, and may Kutha rejoice--may the palace and the land without return exult in thy presence!

‘He causes her to pass through the first gate, divests her, removes the great crown from her head:--‘Why, guardian, dost thou remove the great crown from my head?

’--‘Enter, my lady, such is the law of Allat.

’ The second gate, he causes her to pass through it, he divests her--removes the rings from her ears:--‘Why, guardian, dost thou remove the rings from my ears?

’--‘Enter, my lady, such is the law of Allat.

’” And from gate to gate he removes some ornament from the distressed lady--now her necklace with its attached amulets, now the tunic which covers her bosom, now her enamelled girdle, her bracelets, and the rings on her ankles: and at length, at the seventh gate, takes from her her last covering.

When she at length arrives in the presence of Allat, she throws herself upon her in order to wrest from her in a terrible struggle the life of Dumuzi; but Allat sends for Namtar, her messenger of misfortune, to punish, the rebellious Ishtar.

“Strike her eyes with the affliction of the eyes--strike her loins with the affliction of the loins--strike her feet with the affliction of the feet--strike her heart with the affliction of the heart--strike her head with the affliction of the head--strike violently at her, at her whole body!

” While Ishtar was suffering the torments of the infernal regions, the world of the living was wearing mourning on account of her death.

In the absence of the goddess of love, the rites of love could no longer be performed.

The passions of animals and men were suspended.

If she did not return quickly to the daylight, the races of men and animals would become extinct, the earth would become a desert, and the gods would have neither votaries nor offerings.

[Illustration: 226. jpg ISHTAR DESPOILED OF HER GARMENTS IN HADES] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chaldaean 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 Uddushunamir, the servant of the gods:--‘Go then, Uddushunamir, 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 Allat 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.

’” Allat 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, 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 pleaded in vain from temple to temple for the resurrection of their dead friends; they could never obtain the favour which had been granted by Allat to Dumuzi.

* Merodach is called “the merciful one who takes pleasure in raising the dead to life,” and “the lord of the pure libation,” the “merciful one who has power to give life.

” In Jeremias may be found the list of the gods who up to the present are known to have had the power to resuscitate the dead; it is probable that this power belonged to all the gods and goddesses of the first rank.

[Illustration: 229. jpg DUMUZI REJUVENATED ON THE KNEES OF ISHTAR.

] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chaldaean intaglio.

When the dead body was once placed in the tomb, it rose up no more, it could no more be reinstated in the place in the household it had lost, it never could begin once more a new earthly existence.

The necromancers, indeed, might snatch away death’s prey for a few moments.

The earth gaped at the words of their invocations, the soul burst forth like a puff of wind and answered gloomily the questions proposed to it;

but when the charm was once broken, it had to retrace its steps to the country without return, to be plunged once more in darkness.

This prospect of a dreary and joyless eternity was not so terrifying to the Chaldaeans as it was to the Egyptians.

The few years of their earthly existence were of far more concern to them than the endless ages which were to begin their monotonous course on the morrow of their funeral.

The sum of good and evil fortune assigned to them by destiny they preferred to spend continuously in the light of day on the fair plains of the Euphrates and Tigris: if they were to economize during this period with the view of laying up a posthumous treasure of felicity, their store would have no current value beyond the tomb, and would thus become so much waste.

The gods, therefore, whom they served faithfully would recoup them, here in their native city, with present prosperity, with health, riches, power, glory, and a numerous offspring, for the offerings of their devotion; while, if they irritated the deities by their shortcomings, they had nothing to expect but overwhelming calamities and sufferings.

The gods would “cut them down like a reed,” and their “names would be annihilated, their seed destroyed;--they would end their days in affliction and hunger,--their dead bodies would be at the mercy of chance, and would receive no sepulture.

” They were content to resign themselves, therefore, to the dreary lot of eternal misery which awaited them after death, provided they enjoyed in this world a long and prosperous existence.

Some of them felt and rebelled against the injustice of the idea, which assigned one and the same fate, without discrimination, to the coward and the hero killed on the battle-field, to the tyrant and the mild ruler of his people, to the wicked and the righteous.

These therefore supposed that the gods would make distinctions, that they would separate such heroes from the common herd, welcome them in a fertile, sunlit island, separated from the abode of men by the waters of death--the impassable river which leads to the house of Allat.

The tree of life flourished there, the spring of life poured forth there its revivifying waters; thither Ea transferred Xisuthros after the Deluge; Gilgames saw the shores of this island and returned from it, strong and healthy as in the days of his youth.

The site of this region of delights was at first placed in the centre of the marshes of the Euphrates, where this river flows into the sea;

afterwards when the country became better known, it was transferred beyond the ocean.

In proportion as the limits of the Chaldaean horizon were thrust further and further away by mercantile or warlike expeditions, this mysterious island was placed more and more to the east, afterwards to the north, and at length at a distance so great that it tended to vanish altogether.

As a final resource, the gods of heaven themselves became the hosts, and welcomed into their own kingdom the purified souls of the heroes.