Ishtar's army of the dead

Tamén chamado: Descent of Ishtar, Ishtar's threat

Folclore e mitoMorto viventeMundo antigo

The oldest surviving reference to the dead rising to eat the living is a threat, not a story. In the Akkadian Descent of Ishtar the goddess, refused entry to the underworld, promises to release its inhabitants on the world above, and in the Epic of Gilgamesh she repeats the threat to get her way in heaven. The dead never actually rise in either text. The idea itself, a mass of hungry corpses overwhelming the living, was nevertheless already familiar some three thousand years ago.1 2 3

Á batalla!

Primeiro rexistro

1000 a.C.

The Akkadian Descent of Ishtar, known from early first-millennium BC tablets found at Nineveh and Assur; the threat also appears in the Epic of Gilgamesh

Orixe

Mesopotamian (Akkadian)

Iraq

Que o causa

Outro

The goddess threatens to break open the underworld and let its dead out.

Como te convertes nun

The dead would be released by the goddess; the text notes they do not return by their own choice.

Cando apareceu por primeira vez?

Mundo antigo Idade Media De 1500 a 1899 De 1900 a 1967 De 1968 a 1999 De 2000 a 2009 De 2010 ata hoxe

1000 a.C.

The Akkadian Descent of Ishtar, known from early first-millennium BC tablets found at Nineveh and Assur; the threat also appears in the Epic of Gilgamesh

notas de campo

O que din as fontes

At the gate of the underworld Ishtar threatens to smash the door and raise the dead to devour the living1 2 3

She warns that the dead will then outnumber the living1 2 3

In Gilgamesh she makes the same threat to her father Anu to obtain the Bull of Heaven1 2 3

The Descent of Ishtar runs to 138 lines and was among the first Akkadian literary texts translated in modern times1 2 3

Historians of horror cite the passage as the earliest written image of the flesh-eating dead1 2 3

Fontes

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Mesma época: Mundo antigo

Erichtho's reanimated soldierRoman (literary), 61

PhilinnionAncient Greek, 150

The corpse of ThelyphronRoman (literary), 170

BouplagosAncient Greek / Roman, 150

Lugnano child burialLate Roman (Italy), 450

PolykritosAncient Greek, 150