Scorned by Gilgamesh, Ishtar shrieked furiously, her rage wafting up to heaven. Weeping in a rage, she went up to heaven to Anu of the Sky, her father, and her mother, Antu. Tears angrily streaking her cheeks, Ishtar howled, “Father, He scorned me! The worst slanders imaginable he threw at me. He falsely spoke the unspeakable, the unforgivable!”
Anu said to his daughter, Ishtar, “Might you have provoked him? Did you try to work your wiles on him, to seduce him? Or did this Gilgamesh insult you on a whim?”
Ishtar pleaded, “Please, Father, I implore you, give me the Bull of Heaven, just for a time. I desire to bring it to earth, to kill that liar, Gilgamesh, and wreck his palace. Father, if you decline, I will cast open the gates to the underworld and let loose countless starved souls to devour the living, so that the living shall be outnumbered by the dead.”
Anu said to Ishtar, princess of Heaven, “If I give you the Bull of Heaven, Uruk shall suffer famine for seven long years. Have you stored up enough grain to feed the people and the cattle for seven years?”
Ishtar answered, “Of course, Father, I have gathered the grain and fodder, stored up enough—and more—for seven long years.”
Notes
If you are a man of any athletic accomplishment, the episode above needs no explanation. At some point, most athletes, especially combat athletes, receive an offer from a woman along these lines, and rejection follows this expectable course.
Of note to horror readers is the first known threat of an undead apocalypse—what a bitch!
