Ištar's Other Descent

Last Akkadian of the school year. From the end of a tablet mostly occupied with the praise of Tiglath-Pileser I and the Really Terrible Things He Did—see Ebeling's "Ein Heldenlied auf Tiglatpileser I. und der Anfang einer neuen Version von 'Ištars Höllenfahrt' nach einer Schülertafel aus Assur" in Orientalia 18 (1949) for further details—but I am less concerned with how the king is like a hunter and more with this rather weird variant on the opening of Ištar's Descent as we know it. So those of you who came here looking for the Neo-Assyrian atrocities, I must regretfully disappoint you with some mythology instead.

ana Antum bēlti qaqqiri rabītim
ana ^dIštar āšibat qerbi Irkalli
ašri Gingal bēlti qaqqiri rabītim
ana ^dIštar āšibat qerbi Irkalli
bīt Irkalli ša ālikūtušu lā tayyāru
ašru nūru lā šakin nišīšu
ašru mītūssu sahhupū ina ipri
[b]īt eklītu kakkabu ul ussa
mārat ^dSîn uzunša iptēma
iptēma uzanša ušaškin
ša ālikūtuša lā tayyāru

To Antum, the great lady of the land,
to Ištar who lives at the center of Irkallu,
the place (of) Gingal, the great lady of the land,
to Ištar who lives at the center of Irkallu,
the house of Irkallu whose going is without return,
the place that provides no light for its people,
the place whose dead are covered with dust,
the house of darkness (where) the star does not come out,
the daughter of Sîn opened her attention,
opened and turned her attention,
whose going is without return.

. . . huh?
(Cut for attempted explication.)
( Read more... )