ot be requested.
Come, Uddushu-namir, I will curse thee with a terrible curse.
Food from the gutters of the city be thy nourishment.
The sewers (?) of the city be thy drink.
The shadow of the wall be thy seat.
The threshold be thy dwelling.
Exile and banishment break thy strength.

The force of the curse lies in the closing words. Uddushu-namir is to be
an outcast. He will not be permitted to enter either city or house, but
must remain at the wall or stop at the threshold. Properly prepared food
and drink are to be denied him. He shall starve or perish miserably.

But the mission of Uddushu-namir has been accomplished. Allatu may curse
as she pleases; the order of Ea must be obeyed.

The goddess Allalu opened her mouth and spoke.
To Namtar, her messenger, she addressed an order:
Go, Namtar, smash the true palace.[1180]
Break down the threshold, destroy the door-posts (?).
Bring out the Anunnaki and place them on golden thrones.
Besprinkle Ishtar with the waters of life and take her from me.

Namtar obeys the order. Ishtar is led through the seven gates. At each
one, the articles taken from her on her entrance are returned: at the
first, the loin cloth; at the second, the bracelets and ankle rings, and
so on, until she emerges in her full beauty.

The close of the story thus brings to our gaze once more Ishtar as
goddess of fertility, who gradually brings vegetation, strength, and
productivity back again. This curious mixture in the story of the astral
Ishtar,--the creation of the astronomers,--and the popular Ishtar, is a
trait which shows how the old nature-myth has been elaborated in passing
through the hands of the _literati_. The various steps in the process
can still be seen. 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[1181] 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. A similar story must
have been told of Tammuz, the sun-god, who is also the god of
vegetation. The two stories were combined. Ishtar marries Tammuz, and
then destroys him. The goddess produces fertility, but cannot maintain
it. Tammuz goes to the nether world. Ishtar repents, bewails her loss,
and goes to seek for her consort and to rescue