Ishtar's army of the dead

Gape e bidiwa: Descent of Ishtar, Ishtar's threat

Dinaane tsa setso le ditlhamaneBaswi ba ba tsogilengLefatshe la bogologolo

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

Di lwantshe

E kwadilwe la ntlha

1000 pele ga Keresete

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

Tshimologo

Mesopotamian (Akkadian)

Iraq

Se se e bakang

Tse dingwe

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

O fetoga yone jang

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

E tlhagile la ntlha leng?

Lefatshe la bogologolo Motlha wa Bogare 1500 go ya go 1899 1900 go ya go 1967 1968 go ya go 1999 2000 go ya go 2009 2010 go fitlha gompieno

1000 pele ga Keresete

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

dikwalo tsa patlisiso

Se metswedi e se buang

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

Metswedi

Ntlha nngwe le nngwe mo tsebeng e e tswa mo metsweding e, e kwadilwe ka mafoko a rona. O bone phoso? Re bolelele kwa [email protected].

Fepa letshwititi. Ga go na dipapatso, ga go na dilatedi, e duelelwa ke motho a le mongwe. Madi a tebogo a e boloka e le mo inthaneteng.Tlogela madi a tebogo

Motlha o o tshwanang: Lefatshe la bogologolo

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