ed so many variations of one and the same theme,
symbolizing their disappearance and the hoped-for return, the same story
that we encounter in the myth of Venus and Adonis, in the myth of
Osiris, and, in some guise or other, among many other nations of the
ancient world. Of Girra, it may be well to remember that he is viewed
merely as a form of Nergal in the later texts. Belili, it will be
recalled, is associated with Tammuz in the story of Ishtar's
journey.[1226] She is not, however, the consort of the god, but his
sister. The antiquity of her cult follows from the occurrence of her
name in the list of gods antecedent to Anu,[1227] and where Alala is
entered as her consort. Whatever else the relationship of 'sister' to
Tammuz means, it certainly indicates that Belili belongs to the deities
of vegetation, and it may be that she will turn out to be identical with
Belit-seri, which is merely the designation of some goddess, and not a
real name.[1228] One is inclined also to suspect some, albeit remote,
connection between Alala, the consort of Belili, and the Alallu bird who
is spoken of in the Gilgamesh epic as having been deprived of her
pinions by Ishtar.[1229] In the tale, Tammuz, the Alallu bird, a lion,
and a horse are successively introduced as those once loved and then
deceived by Ishtar. The lion is, as has been several times indicated,
the symbol of Nergal; the horse appears in the Hades relief above
described as the animal upon which Allatu is seated, and it seems
legitimate, therefore, to seek for Alallu also in the nether world.
While it may be that a long process intervened, before such a species of
symbolization was brought about as the representation of an ancient
deity in the guise of a bird, still, if it will be recalled that Zu is a
deity, pictured as a bird,[1230] there is every reason to interpret the
bird Alallu merely as the symbol of some deity, just as the lion is
certainly such a symbol.

Jensen would add Etana to the list of gods of vegetation who form part
of Allatu's court. While the etymology he proposes for the name is not
acceptable, there is no doubt that to Etana, like Gilgamesh, the
character of a solar deity has been imparted. His presence in the nether
world is due to the story of his flight with the eagle and the
fall.[1231] If he falls from heaven, he naturally enters the realm of
Allatu, and it is possible that the story in its original form was
suggested by a myth illustrating the c