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You DON'T want to make love to Ishtar, the Goddess of Love?! What, are you crazy!
Gilgamesh replies to Ishtar, "Hell no, I will not make you my wife - do you think I'm crazy? All your lovers have found you nothing but big trouble, like a beer that chokes the drinker, or a loincloth that chafes the wearer. Sheesh, just look at what happened to those other poor sods who jumped into bed with you! Remember Tammuz, the lover of your youth, you used to wail all the time for him. Then you got p*ssed off with him and turned him into a bird with a broken wing, now he can't get it up. You loved the lion tremendous in strength - is that weird or what? You loved the stallion magnificent in battle, and for him you decreed whip and spur and a thong, to gallop seven leagues by force and to muddy the water before he drinks. I have a good mind to call the SPCA. You loved the shepherd of the flock and then turned him into a wolf; now his own herd-boys chase him away, his own hounds worry his flanks. What is this thing you have for animals?! You loved Ishullanu the gardener and then you turned him into a mole. That was really sick! I am just worried that if I make love to you, I will be turned into a
hamster!"
Ishtar screams at you, "What? You dare to reject ME, the Goddess of Love, puny one-third mortal?!' She stomps off to high heaven, tears streaming down her enraged cheeks, and says to her father
Anu, "That blasted Gilgamesh has heaped insults on me and he has told all over my abominable
behavior, my foul and hideous acts. Give me the Bull of Heaven to destroy Gilgamesh and fill him with arrogance to his destruction. If you refuse to give me the Bull of Heaven I will break in the doors of hell and smash the bolts. There will be confusion of people, those above with those from the lower depths. I shall bring up the dead to eat food like the living and the hosts of dead will outnumber them."
So Ishtar is given the Bull of Heaven to lead by the halter down to Uruk. When they reach the gates of Uruk the Bull goes to the river and with a big snort he cracks open the earth and a hundred men fall down to their death. With his second snort more cracks open and two hundred fall down to their death. With his third snort even more cracks open and Enkidu doubles over but instantly recovers. You dodge aside and leap onto the Bull and seize it by the horns. The Bull of Heaven foams in your face and it brushes you with the thick of its tail. Enkidu cries to Gilgamesh, "We boasted that we would leave enduring names behind us. Now thrust in your sword between the nape and the horns."
But Gilgamesh cries, "This is the Bull of Heaven. We have already offended Enlil by killing Humbaba. Dare we risk the wrath of the gods by killing yet another of their chosen ones?"
Hmmm, that is a very good point. If you kill the Bull of Heaven, Enlil is going to be REALLY p*ssed off, which means certain death! You are certainly on the horns of a dilemma, ave?!
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