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The Dark Gods
He—Gilgamesh: Chapter 8, Upon The River of Death
© 2016 James LaFond
JUL/13/16
He veiled the Wildman’s face like a bride’s.
Eagle-like, he circled his friend’s funerary bed.
Back and forth he paced, like a lioness whose cubs are trapped in a pit.
He tore out handfuls of hair, tore off his kingly robes, cursed as they were.
As The Sun took his lover and she glowed dawn, He proclaimed, “Artisans in gold, bronze, silver and gems—according to your arts—fashion a statue of Enkidu, my wild half, more grand than any before. Sheath his beard in lapis lazuli, his chest in gold. Obsidian and the other wondrous stones—jewels in every color—shall be barged down the Euphrates to great-girded Uruk for Enkidu’s statue.
“I shall lay him on a bed of honor.
“I shall place him on a royal bier on my left.
“I shall place his statue upon the throne of repose, the princes of men to kiss his feet, the people of Uruk to mourn his passing.
“When he is gone, I shall roam the wild places with matted hair in a lion skin.”
As the curriers of these words carried them with fleet feet on their unerring tongues, He unbarred the doors to the ancestral trove, where the wealth of his forefathers spilled from chest and vessel and leaned on wall and stand, in the form of sacred weapons and tools inlaid with ivory and gold and studded with jewels. Of these, he gathered Enkidu’s offerings for The Dark Gods of the Underworld.
He gathered also, fattened oxen and sheep, sacrificing them to Enkidu, butchered by his own hand.
He, the bloody altar behind him, closed his eyes, envisioning The River of Death upon which his friend’s descendent soul must travel.
In mimicry of the gate that yawned beyond the curtain of Death, He opened wide the palace gate, brought forth an offering table planked with precious yew, filled a carnelian bowl with honey, filled a lapis lazuli bowl with butter, and when the offerings were ready, He placed each across the finely planed yew before the all-seeing eye of The Sun.
To the heavenly queen, Ishtar his offering was a polished javelin of finest cedar.
“May Ishtar accept this, may she welcome my friend, to walk by his side through the Underworld, to lighten his heavy heart.”
To Sin, moon god [1], he offered up a curved knife of sharp, black obsidian.
“May Sin accept this, may he welcome my friend and walk by his side through the Underworld, so that Enkidu may not be heavy of heart.”
To The Dark Lady of the Great Earth, Queen of all the Dead, he offered a lapis lazuli flask. [2]
“May the Dark Queen accept this, may she welcome my friend and walk by his side through the Underworld.”
To Faithful Son, the shepherd, spurned lover of Ishtar, cursed to the Underworld by her scorn, he offered a carnelian flute.
“May Faithful Son, alleviate His and Enkidu’s mutual curse with the sweet sounds of the windblown grass they so cherished, may the wind song rustle soothingly in the dusty Underworld.”
To Lord True Tree, Gate Keeper of the Underworld, minister of its dusty halls, He offered a lapis lazuli chair and scepter, so that when Enkidu came before him in judgment lenience might be at hand.
To Stewardess, The Gate Keeper’s wife, handmaid of the dark gods, He offered a golden necklace to brighten her mode in her dusty abode. [3]
To Dust Crone, who sweeps the Underworld with her broom of bone and gray hair, He offered a silver bracelet to lighten her melancholy mood. [4]
To Cleanliness, housekeeper of the Underworld, He offered a mirror framed in whitest alabaster, backed with a picture of the Cedar Forest—the wood of which so enhances the household air—inlaid with rubies and lapis lazuli. [5]
Finally, to Bibbu, [6] Butcher of the Underworld, He offered a double-edged knife mounted on a haft of lapis lazuli bearing a picture of the Sacred Euphrates.
With all of the gifts arrayed beneath the ever-seeing eye of The Sun, He prayed, “May the gods accept these. May the gods welcome my friend and walk be his side in the Underworld, so that Enkidu may not, for eternity, be heavy of heart.”
After the funeral, He forsook Great-Girded Uruk, journeying deep into the wild, with hair matted, clothed in a lion hide.
Notes
1. The fact that a male deity is associated with the heavenly body primally associated with the feminine and that he is also the god of fertility and in some traditions the father of the sun, suggests two things: that this epic reflects multiple agricultural traditions, some more ancient than has been supposed and that the masculine identity in this culture had become resigned to civilized life [represented by the death of Enkidu], and secondly, that the masculine element of life had descended from the transcendental to the material, had given over concern with the hunt for concern with the harvest, had superseded the goddess cult in her on temple. Although many strong western cultures—such as the Hellenic—would segregate their households into female and male quarters in order to forestall complete emasculation, henceforth, most patriarchal western societies would now feature men demonstrating a level of concern over household affairs that would have been unseemly to their hunter ancestors.
2. I have only retained the ancient names of the gods which come easily to the modern tongue and are somewhat familiar, such as Ishtar [who is more than the goddess of love, but of war as well, Lust and War to be exact—a real spitfire.], Sin and Nergal. The other gods are named in their elemental form. Ereshkigal is the sister of Ishtar, an earlier fertility goddess, consigned to the Underworld, just as Poseidon was supplanted by Zeus in Greek myth, such syncretic evolutions most likely reflecting tribal conquests and subsequent cultural assimilation. Her name, like many below, are unlikely to imprint will on the modern mind. The myth of Tammuz [Faithful Sun] and Ereshkigal taken together are reflected in the Hellenic myth of Persephone.
3. Hushbishag, un-translated
4. Qassa-tabat, un-translated
5. Ninshuluhha, un-translated
6. Bibbu, un-translated
A New Age discussion of aspects of the Crone goddess in world myth may be found at
For a story dealing with the theme represented by the death of Enkidu, the reader might be interested in:
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