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.The one who had paws of a lion and talons of an eagle, the cobra mouth, the wielder of a special sword, the one who spit fire, and the one with hands of crushing power were now all dead.But Enkidu was not listening.He was still thinking about the look of fear he had seen in the Rapha.He looked up into the black sky, blinking in the falling rain and windstorm.Perhaps there were other gods out there of which they were not aware.Unknown gods with storm power that would frighten the most vicious creature Enkidu had ever met.Gilgamesh shouted to his band of warriors, “We ride out the storm and track Humbaba in the morning!”Chapter 21Ishtar led Dumuzi on a leash out to the clay pits.It was degrading enough that he could barely walk from the abuse that Ishtar had subjected him to, but to be led like a dog with a collar and leash was a crown of debasement.Dumuzi struggled to keep from falling, wincing in pain and soreness with every step.His intestines had been punctured by Ishtar’s perverse pleasures.He was bleeding internally and would probably die from the foreign objects that Ishtar had shoved into him.He felt like he was being led to his grave.He hoped he was being led to his grave.A large group of about one hundred workers followed them to the pit with torchlight.Ishtar had a special task to accomplish this evening.They got down to the bottom of the pit and Ishtar instructed a couple of dowsers to search for water with their dowsing sticks.When one of them announced a possible location, Ishtar knelt on the spot with cheek and palms feeling the earth for a sign of confirmation.She stood back up and commanded the workers begin immediately to dig a well.They were to work all night if necessary until they had broken through.They were frightened of the danger she was placing them in, but she demanded that they work at double strength and double time to find the water table.So they dug.Ishtar and Dumuzi came back up to the top of the pit and watched them.Ishtar sat on the portable throne from her temple and had Dumuzi kneel beside her.She looked down on him and patted his head like a pet.He was gratifying to her.He was handsome and well built.A rugged strong man could endure more pain, which pleased Ishtar, because she needed more and more violent and depraved acts to satisfy her hunger.As they watched the workers dig the well, Queen Ninsun arrived with her retinue of servants.“Ah, Lady Wild Cow,” said Ishtar.“I have been dying to talk to you of the pantheon.”Perspiration saturated Ninsun’s robes, far more than usual for the heat of the day.Ishtar continued, “Tell me of Mount Hermon and of the assembly of the gods.Who is left? Who escaped the Flood? Where is Semjaza? Who is in charge?”Ninsun had no idea what Ishtar was talking about.She had been smoked out by a real god.She had wondered if this would happen one day, and that day was here, and she did not know what to do.“Are you not a goddess? Do you know anything of the pantheon?”This goddess was impatient and wrathful.Ninsun wondered if she would live to see the morning.Ishtar exploded with wrath, “I ASKED YOU A QUESTION, COW!”“N-no,” stuttered Ninsun.“N-no, what?” mocked Ishtar.“No, you are not a goddess or no, you do not know of the pantheon?”“Both,” said Ninsun.“Ah, well, we shall have to drag out of you just what little political intrigues you are scheming,” said Ishtar.They were interrupted by a call from down in the clay pit.They had struck water.Ishtar had a servant raise the sign flag to command them to the next phase.Down in the pit, the foreman saw the sign and looked darkly at his diggers.“Hoist the drill,” he said.The workers looked at him with shock.One of them spoke up for the rest of them, “But sir, if we do that…”The foreman interrupted him with an angry command, “Do not question the goddess! Hoist the drill, NOW!”The workers looked at one another and obeyed.What else could they do? They knew no other life.They had been bred to obey royalty and deity without question.But they knew that what the goddess had ordered them to do was suicide.They wheeled over a large mechanical structure made of metal and timber.It had weights and pulleys and looked like an inverted battering ram.By pulling the ropes, workers slammed stone weights into a point sharpened log that would plunge into the earth, penetrating as deep as they could hammer it.Back up on the edge of the pit, Ishtar grinned diabolically after hearing Ninsun’s explanation.This would indeed be interesting.She had heard about the giant king, about his strength and glory.But this new information was most interesting indeed.“I cannot wait to meet this Naphil king Gilgamesh,” said Ishtar.“He and I have much to plot.”They heard screaming from below.The drill had plunged and penetrated into the water table.But by doing so with the force of the drill, it had blown the log sky high and ripped a hole that caused a massive release of pressure.Water started to gush out with the force of a geyser.It slammed into the workers and washed them around like ants in a storm.The log hit the ground and crushed a few others.And then the ground crumbled inward and a huge sinkhole formed, sucking the ground first down, and then upward with the force of the releasing waters below.The hundred workers were washed away in a drowning flood and the waters began to fill the clay pits like a drain backing up into a sink.Ishtar smiled.Ninsun recoiled in horror.Dumuzi was too broken to care.“Why are you doing this?” Ninsun cried out.But Ishtar was not going to explain to her that she was covering up her past.So she said nothing.And these were not just the waters of an underground lake that had been dowsed, these were the waters of the Abyss pouring in from the darkness below.What more fitting way to cover her tracks? She would create a lake that would bury forever her dishonor in the jaws of Rahab.As the water rose to fill the clay pits, Ishtar had the portable throne carried over to the sheer edge of the pit.Dumuzi’s leash had been fastened to the throne, so he was dragged along with it.Ishtar got off the throne and leaned down to Dumuzi, whispering, “Dumuzi, my shepherd.You have brought me much pleasure.I have much to thank you for.You rescued me from Sheol.You have entered my garden.You have plowed my vulva like a field.Your milk was sweet and thick, my bridegroom.You have made the sweetness of my holy loins quiver with delight.And I will write love poems about it one day to commemorate our beautiful union.But you have outlived your usefulness.Someone must be left behind in the Abyss to take my place as a substitution.That someone, my dear lover, will be you.”Ishtar stood up and gestured to the servants of the throne.They picked it up and threw it over the ledge.It splashed into the water, dragging Dumuzi with it, collared by his neck, into the depths.He was the last connection to the knowledge of Ishtar’s shame [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]