Be thou my husband, and let me be thy wife.
I will cause to be yoked for thee a chariot of lapis-lazuli and gold,
Whose wheels are gold and adamant its poles.
Thou shalt harness thereto the white ones, the great steeds.
Enter into our house mid the scent of the cedar.”
At his entering, the people were to kiss his feet, and kings, lords, and princes do him homage, and lastly, he was to have no rival upon the earth.
In the mutilated passage that follows, Gilgameš answers the goddess, reproaching her with her treatment of her former lovers or husbands, which seems to have been far from satisfactory. Reference to a “wall of stone,” and to “the land of the enemy,” seem to point to imprisonment and expulsion, and the words “Who is the bridegroom (whom thou hast kept?) for ever?” indicate clearly the opinion in which the hero held the goddess. From generalities, however, he proceeds to more specific charges—
“To Tammuz, the husband of thy youth,
From year to year thou causest bitter weeping.
Thou lovedst the bright-coloured Allala bird,