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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.)
First off, who's Antum? In Tablet VI of Gilgameš, she appears as Ištar's mother and the female counterpart of Anu, the sky god; but although her name looks to mean "Mrs. Sky," her title bēlti qaqqiri rabītim calls to mind Ereškigal as Bēlet-ersetim in the more familiar versions of this text. As it turns out, she is in fact identified with KI: the earth, the underworld. Sky, earth; okay. There's a paradigm for that.
Gingal is a little trickier and ultimately more annoying: the best guess seems to be that the scribe messed up Ereškigal's name and instead of ereš-ki-gal gave us aš-ri gi-in-gal instead. Sigh. There's evidence all over this text for dictation rather than written composition, and evidently the scribe was not quite up to the job. Yes, you can gain literary immortality—and thousands of years later, people will still be wondering how on earth you made a living, you were such a lousy scribe.
Lastly, what is this text doing, calling Ištar already āšibat qerbi Irkalli? Is she traveling to the underworld to visit herself? Well, yes and no. Ereškigal, her sister. Her self and other. See![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nineweaving for the best variations on this theme in recent literature.
And I think that's all I have to say on this variant beginning of Ištar's Descent to the Underworld for now. Off to create numismatic spreadsheets. Wish me luck.
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.)
First off, who's Antum? In Tablet VI of Gilgameš, she appears as Ištar's mother and the female counterpart of Anu, the sky god; but although her name looks to mean "Mrs. Sky," her title bēlti qaqqiri rabītim calls to mind Ereškigal as Bēlet-ersetim in the more familiar versions of this text. As it turns out, she is in fact identified with KI: the earth, the underworld. Sky, earth; okay. There's a paradigm for that.
Gingal is a little trickier and ultimately more annoying: the best guess seems to be that the scribe messed up Ereškigal's name and instead of ereš-ki-gal gave us aš-ri gi-in-gal instead. Sigh. There's evidence all over this text for dictation rather than written composition, and evidently the scribe was not quite up to the job. Yes, you can gain literary immortality—and thousands of years later, people will still be wondering how on earth you made a living, you were such a lousy scribe.
Lastly, what is this text doing, calling Ištar already āšibat qerbi Irkalli? Is she traveling to the underworld to visit herself? Well, yes and no. Ereškigal, her sister. Her self and other. See
nineweaving for the best variations on this theme in recent literature.And I think that's all I have to say on this variant beginning of Ištar's Descent to the Underworld for now. Off to create numismatic spreadsheets. Wish me luck.