Below are excerpts and pictures taken from William Hayes Ward's essay published in Scribners monthly (Issue 1, May 1875) under the title "The Elder Myths." Another remarkable fragment of Assyrian mythology is that which recounts the descent of Ishtar or Venus into hell. It appears that among the amours of the Assyrian goddess of love was one with Thammuz or Adonis. A lost fragment probably gave an account of his death, and the present tablet tells of her apparently fruitless descent into Hades in search of him. In the portions we have selected advantage has been taken of the translations published by Smith, Fox-Talbot, Lenormant, and Schrader. The story begins: "To the returnless, distant land, the home of    corruption, Ishtar, daughter of the moon god, turned her    mind; Yea, the daughter of Sin turned her mind To the house of corruption, to the seat of the    god Irkalla, To the house whose entrance allows no exit, To the road whose journey allows no return, To the house whose entrance is bereft of light, To the place where dust is their food and their    nourishment clay, Where the light never shines and in darkness    they dwell, Whose ghosts like birds flutter their wings, Over whose bolts and doors the dust lies thick.” Ishtar arrives at the gates of Hades and cries roughly to the porter, bidding him open the gates and let her in, or she will break them down and let the dead escape to devour the living. The porter replies, begging her to restrain her impatience till he can run and tell the Queen of Hades, the goddess Belit. When Belit heard the report she was angry, and exclaimed: “‘Let her dwell here with heroes who have left    their wives, With wives who have left the embrace of their    husbands, With luckless children who have perished    before their time. Go, Porter, open to her thy gate; Make an end with her as with former visitors.’ The porter went and opened the gate— ‘Enter in, O mistress of the city of Cutha, May the palace of the returnless land rejoice    at thy coming!”’ Here the narrative takes a yet more dramatic form. It was probably arranged for recitation in a sort of sacred play; it may be in some Assyrian Mysteries. “‘ I let her in through the first gate, I despoiled her, I took the great crown from her    head.’ ‘Why, porter, dost thou take the great crown    from my head?’ ‘Enter in, O mistress; thus the queen of earth    requires of her visitors.’ ‘I let her in through the second gate, I despoiled her, I took her ear-rings from her.’ ‘Why, porter, dost thou take my ear-rings from    me?’ ‘Enter in, O mistress; thus the queen of the    earth requires of her visitors.’”

And thus the dialogue repeats itself as Ishtar is let in through all the seven gates, until she has been stripped of the last article of clothing or ornament. Thus Ishtar entered within the land whence is no return, and presented herself dishonored, before the Queen of Hades, who received her angrily, and called her servant Nibhaz (cf. 2 Kings, xvii., 31), and bade her inflict on Ishtar disease in the eyes, the hips, the feet, the heart, and the head. Thus was the goddess of love confined by the queen of hell, and love disappeared from the earth and neither men nor beasts sought their ma4es. This ends the first canto. The second tells of the release`of Ishtar. Shamas, the sun god, urged by Nassir, first goes to his father Sin, the moon god, and together they greet Hea (Nisroch), god of wisdom, and tell him that since the Queen of Love has descended within the earth, love, too, has left the earth, and neither men nor beasts seek their mates. Then, in the wisdom of his heart, Hea formed his resolution. He called his phantom messenger, Assusunamir, a shade of the setting sun, and bade him carry to the queen of the lower world the commands of the great gods, that she should restrain her rage and release Ishtar. After invoking curses on the phantom messenger, Belit sent her servant Namtar, bidding him give to Ishtar the water of life and let her go. As she returned by each gate through which she had entered, there was restored the garment or ornament of which she had there been despoiled. “He sprinkled Ishtar with the water of life and    brought her forth. Out of the first gate he let her go; He returned her the girdle about her loins. Out of the second gate he let her go; He returned her the jewels for her hands and    feet. Out of the third gate he let her go; He returned her the cincture of precious stones    about her waist. Out of the fourth gate he let her go; He returned her the mantle for her back. Out of the fifth gate he let her go; He returned her the necklace of precious    stones. Out of the sixth gate he let her go; He returned her the rings for her ears. Out of the seventh gate he let her go; He returned her the great crown for her head.” Head of Ishtar, the Assyrian Venus “Bel to his attendant, the god Nusku, said: ‘The needs of my child Sin, who in heaven is    greatly troubled, Repeat to the god Hea in the Ocean.’ Nusku the command of his lord obeyed, To Hea in the Ocean he descended and went. To the prince, the noble sage, the lord, the god    unfailing, Nusku the message of his lord at once repeated. Hea in the ocean the message heard; His lips spake, and with wisdom was his mouth    filled. Hea called his son, god Merodach, and this    word he spoke: ‘Go, Merodach, my son, Go to the shining Sin, who in heaven is greatly    troubled, His troublers expel from heaven.;" The remainder of this fragment is lost, but it doubtless contained the story of the victory of the dauntless Merodach, son of Hea, over the seven evil spirits. We must wait the discovery of the missing fragments before we can learn whether the deities who abetted them were punished like the gods in the parallel Greek myth, by being thrown “sheer o’er the crystal battlements,” or swung dangling out of heaven by a golden chain. As it is, the resemblance is sufficiently striking to allow us to add this as another proof of the large infusion of Semitic elements with the pure Aryan mythology of Greece.