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Updated: May 12, 2025
As the one who gathers in the living to the dark abode, it is natural that he should be pictured as guardian at the gates of the great palace of Allatu. But by the side of Namtar stand a large number of demons, whose task is similar to that of their chief.
In her violence, she threatens a conflict between the dead and the living. The former will destroy the latter, as a victorious army butchers the hostile host. The watchman endeavors to pacify the enraged Ishtar: The watchman opened his mouth and spoke. Spoke to the great Ishtar: Hold, O mistress, do not destroy them. I will go and mention thy name to the queen Allatu.
Tammuz, Nin-gishzida, and the like are held enthralled by Allatu, and remain in the nether world against their will; but if Allatu chooses as her consort a 'god of healing, she must have been viewed as a goddess who could at times, at least, be actuated by kindly motives.
At the second gate, he removes the earrings of the goddess; at the third, her necklace is taken away, and, similarly, at each succeeding gate, a portion of her dress, the ornaments on her breast, her belt of precious stones, her bracelets, until, when the seventh gate is reached, the covering over her loins is removed, and she stands naked before Allatu.
The attendants given to him heat, lightning, and disease are the popular traits in the story; but with the chief characters in the old nature-myth changed, Marduk or the original Bel replaced by Nergal, and Tiâmat by Allatu, the story loses its popular aspect, and becomes a medium for illustrating a doctrine of the schools.
Ramman-nirari I. already designates the Anunnaki as belonging to the earth, though it is an indication of the vagueness of the notions connected with the group that in hymns, both the Anunnaki and the Igigi are designated as offspring of Anu, the god of heaven. They are not exclusively at the service of Nergal and Allatu. Bel, Ninib, Marduk, and Ishtar also send them out on missions.
At each gate Ishtar asks the same question, why the watchman strips her, and the same answer is given. The removal of one ornament after the other symbolizes, evidently, the gradual decay of vegetation, not, as has been supposed, that the dead enter Aralû naked. Allatu calls upon her messenger, Namtar, to strike the goddess with disease in all parts of her body.
In this form of the myth, the contest between Aphrodite and Persephone for the possession of Adonis clearly reflects the struggle between Ishtar and Allatu in the land of the dead, while the decision of Zeus that Adonis is to spend one part of the year under ground and another part above ground is merely a Greek version of the annual disappearance and reappearance of Tammuz. XXX. Adonis in Syria
In the month of Tebet, the tenth month, there was celebrated a festival of mourning for the lost En-meshara. It is the time of the winter solstice. A similar fate must have overtaken Belit-seri, Girra, and Gil. For a time, at least, they are hidden in the realm of Allatu.
The hymns to Nergal may be taken as samples of the Babylonian dirges. The praise of Nergal and Allatu was combined with the lament for the sad fate of the dead. Gilgamesh weeping for his friend Eabani furnishes an illustration. Gilgamesh is described as stretched out on the ground.
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