enchantment of the whole world," the allusion is undoubtedly to events in the land of ghosts. The passage recalls the threat of Istar to shatter the Underworld and lead forth the dead into the world above to flock with the living. We are also reminded of the representation of the goddess of Hades on two of the Hades reliefs where the monster sails along the river of death kneeling in a boat. Considering the inconsistency of all such popular fancies it is hardly remarkable that, according to the Gilgamesh epic, the "waters of death" are in the south-east, though generally the entrance to the Underworld was supposed to lie in the west. Perhaps it was supposed that there were two approaches, one by land in the desert, another by the waters of the river of death.
Seven walls, pierced by seven (or according to one legend fourteen) gates, surrounded the place of the dead, sometimes represented as open country, sometimes as a city, sometimes as a huge palace, but always described as full of countless terrors. The opening part of the "Journey of Istar in Hades" is well known:
thought Istar, daughter of the moon-god.
The moon-god's daughter thought . . .
of the house of darkness, the seat of Irkalla (i.e.,
Nergal),
