Page:The Babylonian conception of heaven and hell - Jeremias (1902).djvu/19

mankind filled the sea like fish spawn." "The gods wept with her over the Anunaki, the gods lay crouched (at the celestial lattice of Anu); they abode there weeping, their lips firmly closed."

Again and again the Babylonian legends give poetic utterance to the thought that all splendour vanishes, all strength fails before the might of death. "The Journey of Ishtar in Hades" tells how life died away on earth when the goddess sank into the Underworld. Even the death goddess mourns and "sinks down like a reed that is cut through," and says:

" . . . instead of bread, earth will I eat, instead of wine . . . will I drink,for the men will I weep, who leave their wives,for the women will I weep, who [turn] from the loins of their husbands,for the little children will I weep, who before their time [make an end?]Go, watchman, open to her the gate.Seize her, according to the laws of old."

For by these laws all adornment must be left behind, and naked must man pass into the world of the dead.

The first gate he let her pass; he divested her, taking the great crown from off her head.

"Wherefore, O! warder, takest thou the great crown from off mv head?"