The Descent of the Goddess Ishtar into the Lower World · 2 of 3 · tr. E.A. Speiser / M. Jastrow
Section 1b
"Why, O gatekeeper, dost thou remove the girdle of my body, studded with birth-stones?" "Enter, O lady, for such are the decrees of Ereshkigal." The sixth gate, he bade her enter, opened it wide, and removed the spangles off her hands and feet.
"Why, O gatekeeper, dost thou remove the spangles off my hands and feet?" "Enter, O lady, for thus are the decrees of Ereiihkigal." The seventh gate he bade her enter, opened it wide, and removed her loin-cloth.
"Why, O gatekeeper, dost thou remove my loin-cloth ?" "Enter, O lady, for such are the decrees of Ereshkigal." Now when Ishtar had gone down into the land of no return, Ereshkigal saw her and was angered at her presence.
Ishtar, without reflection, threw herself at her [in a rage].
Ereshkigal opened her mouth and spoke, To Namtar, her messenger, she addressed herself: "Go Namtar, imprison her in my palace.
Send against her sixty disease, to punish Ishtar.
Eye-disease against her eyes, Disease of the side against her side, Foot-disease against her foot, Heart-disease against her heart, Head-disease against her head, Against her whole being, against her entire body." After the lady Ishtar had gone down into the land of no return, The bull did not mount the cow, the ass approached not the she-ass, To the maid in the street, no man drew near The man slept in his apartment, The maid slept by herself.
[The second half of the poem, the reverse of the tablet, continues is follows:] The countenance of Papsukal, the messenger of the great gods, fell, his face was troubled.
In mourning garb he was clothed, in soiled garments clad.
Shamash [the sun-god] went to Sin [the moon-god], his father, weeping, In the presence of Ea, the King, he went with flowing tears.
"Ishtar has descended into the earth and has not come up.
The bull does not mount the cow, the ass does not approach the she-ass.
The man does not approach the maid in the street, The man sleeps in his apartment, The maid sleeps by herself." Ea, in the wisdom of his heart, formed a being, He formed Asu-shu-namir the eunuch.
Go, Asu-shu-namir, to the land of no return direct thy face!
The seven gates of the land without return be opened before thee, May Eresbkigal at sight of thee rejoice!
After her heart has been assuaged, her liver quieted, Invoke against her the name of the great gods, Raise thy head direct thy attention to the khalziku skin.
"Come, lady, let them give me the khalziku skin, that I may drink water out of it." When Ereshkigal heard this, she struck her side, bit her finger, Thou hast expressed a wish that can not be granted.
Go, Asu-sbu-iaamir, I curse thee with a great curse, The sweepings of the gutters of the city be thy food, The drains of the city be thy drink, The shadow of the wall be thy abode, The thresholds be thy dwelling-place; Drunkard and sot strike thy cheek!" Ereshkigal opened her mouth and spoke, To Namtar, her messenger, she addressed herself.
"Go, Namtar, knock at the strong palace, Strike the threshold of precious stones, Bring out the Anunnaki, seat them on golden thrones.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The state of the goddess in the underworld is mirrored by the state of fertility and life in the human world.
The Stoic and Plotinian doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden affinities, so that a movement in one part resonates through the whole; the metaphysical basis for astrology, magic, and divination.
Ishtar's imprisonment in the underworld directly causes sterility and cessation of procreation among humans and animals on earth.
A non-physical dimension of reality, interpenetrating the physical world, populated by forces, beings, and forms ordinarily imperceptible to physical senses and instruments, that can affect embodied life without being seen — Dion Fortune's 'mind-side of nature,' the astral plane of Western esotericism broadly construed. Distinct from astral_light (a specific transmitting medium or fluid operating within this realm, not the realm itself), pleroma (the divine fullness at the summit of a cosmic hierarchy, not a parallel plane coextensive with ordinary life), and animism (particular indwelling spirits bound to specific natural objects, not the general unseen dimension itself).
The underworld is a non-physical realm that directly affects the physical world above—Ishtar's presence there causes all fertility and sexual activity to cease in the living world.
The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.
Ishtar's descent through seven progressively stripping gates is a structured directional process from full divine manifestation to complete undifferentiated death—a staged descent from higher to lower planes.
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
The entire narrative arc is oriented toward Ishtar's return from the underworld to her proper place in the upper world, reversing her descent and restoring her full divine nature.
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
Ishtar's exile in the underworld is the felt condition of separation from her proper cosmic position, and the gods' grief (Shamash weeping, Papsukal's troubled face) expresses the affective wound of this separation.
The trickster archetype: a boundary-breaking figure — Loki, Unktomee the Spider, the Cherokee Rabbit, Hermes — whose deception, cunning, and rule-violation drive mythic change, often doubling as culture hero; sacred disorder as an engine of the cosmos.
Asu-shu-namir employs deception—falsely requesting the khalziku skin to drink water—to manipulate Ereshkigal and secure Ishtar's release, a classic trickster strategy of exploiting a host's hospitality.