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Updated: May 12, 2025
Assisted by fourteen companions, whose names 'fever, 'fiery heart, 'lightning sender' remind us again of the eleven monsters that constitute Tiâmat's assistants, Nergal proceeds to the lower world, and knocks at the gate for admission. Namtar, the plague-demon, acts as the messenger. He announces the arrival of Nergal to Allatu.
Go, Uddushu-namir, to the gate of the land without return, turn thy face. The seven gates of the land without return will be opened before thee. Allatu will see thee and welcome thee After her heart is pacified, her spirit brightened. Invoke against her the name of the great gods. Raise thy countenance, to Sukhal-ziku direct thy attention.
The scene that follows embodies, again, views of the nether world as developed in the schools. Corresponding to the seven zones surrounding the earth, the nether world is pictured as enclosed by seven gates. Through these Ishtar must pass, before she is ushered into the presence of Allatu. The watchman went and opened his gate. Enter, O mistress, welcome in Cuthah.
It is interesting to note that the chief goddess of Arabia is Allat a name identical with our Allatu. The bronze relief above described furnished us with a picture of this queen of the lower world. The gloom enveloping the region controls this picture. Allatu is of as forbidding an aspect as Tiâmat. She is warlike and ferocious. When enraged, her anger knows no bounds.
In the original form, the goddess must have been forced into an exile to the nether world, the exile symbolizing the wintry season when fertility and productivity come to an end. Ishtar is stripped of her glory. She comes to Allatu, who grieves at her approach, but imprisons her in the 'great house, and refuses to yield her up, until forced to do so by order of the gods.
The theology of the schools did not venture to set Allatu aside altogether; and this limitation in the development of the doctrine that elsewhere gave the male principle the supremacy over the female, may be taken as a valuable indication of the counter-influence, exercised by deeply rooted popular beliefs, over the theoretical elaboration of the religion at the hands of the religious guides.
The division is much larger than any of the others. Two hideous figures dominate the scene, both of fantastic shape, and evidently so portrayed as to suggest the horror of the nether world. One of these figures stands erect in a menacing attitude; the other is resting in a kneeling position on a horse. The second figure is a representation of the chief goddess of the nether world Allatu.
The stern queen of the infernal regions, Allatu or Eresh-Kigal by name, reluctantly allowed Ishtar to be sprinkled with the Water of Life and to depart, in company probably with her lover Tammuz, that the two might return together to the upper world, and that with their return all nature might revive.
See Delitzsch, Assyr. Wörterbuch, p. 341. So far as the domestic animals are concerned, it is true that they throw off their young in the spring. See Westermarck, The History of Human Marriage, pp. 27 seq. Allatu. I.e., of the dead person. Ishtar. See p. 475. Vorstellungen, pp. 6-8. Some instrument is mentioned. IVR. 30, no. 3, obverse 23-35.
The combination of the Ishtar-Tammuz story with this factor resulted in the tale as we have it now. The enraged Ishtar is the one who seeks for her consort. The Ishtar who is forced to give up her ornaments is the old goddess who falls into the hands of Allatu. During her absence, production comes to a standstill; decay sets in.
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