Ishtar's army of the dead

Ñu ngi koy wooye itam: Descent of Ishtar, Ishtar's threat

Léeb ak cosaanNéew yu dundaatÀddina su yàgg

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

Xeexal ko

Jëkk a bindu

1000 balaa Yeesu

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

Cosaan

Mesopotamian (Akkadian)

Irag

Lan moo ko waral

Yeneen

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

Naka ngay doone benn

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

Kañ la jëkk a feeñ?

Àddina su yàgg Diggu jamono 1500 ba 1899 1900 ba 1967 1968 ba 1999 2000 ba 2009 2010 ba tey

1000 balaa Yeesu

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

notu gëstu

Li sours yi wax

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

Sours yi

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Benn jamono: Àddina su yàgg

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