“I couldn’t move. When night fell, I managed a few steps and immediately lost all sense of direction. At a certain point, in the dark, I found myself facing an even darker barrier. A dense wall of date palms. I began to breathe and, with some difficulty, managed to find my way back to our tent.”

Utnapishtim had listened as if he were aware of everything Sindbad was about to say before he said it. When Sindbad finished Utnapishtim said:

“Now you know what Dilmun is.”

IV

“When she was still called Inanna, Ishtar had desired to leave the Great Above and go down to the Great Below to see her older sister Ereshkigal, who was queen there. The Anunnaki were appalled. They were staid gods who never did more than pass from one to another of their temples, on certain days, in nine cities, all contained between the two great rivers. They knew nothing of travel. The very idea would have been abhorrent. For Inanna, war itself was a kind of travel. Every battle was one stage of a larger exploration, a drive to expand her territory. Now she had decided to descend to the one place whence no return is permitted.

“Inanna said she wanted to go down to the Underworld to take part in the funeral rites for the Bull of Heaven, Ereshkigal’s husband, whom Gilgamesh and Enkidu had killed and cut to pieces. But that was an alibi. You can’t kill a constellation.

“All Inanna really wanted was to set foot in the Underworld. And come back. Then she could say the Underworld was part of her territory. Only the rash and insolent Inanna could have thought she could go to see Ereshkigal as if it were no more than a family visit. Gorgeously made up, with earrings, necklaces, bracelets, rings, corset, and cloak—all mes designed to ward off attacks—Inanna set forth. She came to seven gates whose bars were thick with dust. At each gate, she had to surrender one of her ornaments, her powers. When at last Inanna entered her sister Ereshkigal’s kingdom, she had no defenses left. No one knows what happened next. She reappeared hanging from a butcher’s hook like a carcass. Naked, dead—and so she remained for three days and three nights. None of the supreme gods felt inclined to go to her aid, except Ea, who quickly fashioned two demons to take her water and wine to revive her. They told her she could return to the place whence she had descended. She would be escorted by the Galla, seven demons like sharp-pointed canes. But there was a condition: a substitute must take her place in the Underworld, forever. The first to come to meet her was the faithful Ninshubur, her protecting shadow. Bowing to the ground, Ninshubur at once offered herself as Inanna’s substitute. The demons would have agreed. Not Inanna, though; she didn’t want to lose Ninshubur’s precious help. It was thanks to her that her mes were saved when Ea had wanted to take them back. The same thing happened with Shara, Inanna’s hairdresser and poet. ‘I will never let you have him,’ Inanna told the Galla. And again with Lulal, her shield bearer. Inanna couldn’t do without these loyal supporters and their skills.