Isullanu answered her:
‘Of me what requirest thou?
Has my mother not baked, have I not eaten,
that I should eat such food?
Thorns and thistles are hidden therein’ (?).
When thou didst hear these his words,
thou didst smite him, and change him into a column (?),
and didst plant him in the midst of [the garden?].”
Istar flew to her father Anu in heaven, and demanded from him vengeance upon Gilgames for the slight he had put upon her. Accordingly a monstrous bull was created, which ravaged the country, and threatened the life of Gilgames himself. But Gilgames was more than a match for the monster. With the help of Ea-bani the bull was slain, and its huge horns carried in triumph through the streets of Erech; while Istar stood in impotent rage on the walls of the city, lamenting the death of the bull, and calling on her harlot priestesses to weep over it with her.
But the death of “the divine bull” had evil consequences for the two heroes. The curse of Istar falls upon them; Gilgames himself is smitten with a grievous sickness, and Ea-bani dies after lingering in pain for full twelve days. Gilgames is inconsolable; vainly he protests against the law of death which carries away the [pg 436] strong equally with the weak, the hero equally with the common man. The ninth book thus begins—