127 - Gilgamesh bathed himself and cleaned his hair, as beautiful as it was long. He cast off bloodied robes and put on his favorite gown, secured the cincture and stood royal. Then Gilgamesh put on his crown.

128 - Ishtar looked up at Gilgamesh's handsome pride. "Come to me," she whispered. "Come to me and be my groom. Let me taste all parts of you, treat you as husband, be treated as your wife.

129 - And as a gift I'd give to you one regal coach of gold and blue with wheels of yellow and all so new that I would flatter all your might with the sight of demons driven off by my own god, by my own man.

130 - Come to my home, most sweetly scented of all places, where holy faces wash your feet with tears as do the priests and priestesses of gods like Anu. All mighty hands of kings and queens will open doors for you.

131 - So too will all the countryside donate in duplicate to your fold. And the slow will race ahead for you, so that by association, all that you touch will turn to gold."

133 - My self or something wrapped around a tree? Do I offer you food, sweet nuts or grapes? Are those for gods or for the savage apes? And who will pour a treat to us in bed, you dressed for life and me as if I'm dead?

134 - Here's a song I made for you Ishtar's the hearth gone cold, a broken door, without the gold; a fort that shuts its soldiers out, a water well that's filled with doubt; tar that can't be washed away, a broken cup, stained and gray; rock that shatters to dust and sand, a useless weapon in the hand; and worse than that or even this, a god's own sandal filled with piss.

135 - You've had your share of boys, that's true, but which of them came twice for you? Let me now list the ones that you just blew away.

137 - Its cock went in your form-as-hen. And then you dug him seven holes in which to fall on sharpened poles.

138 - You let a horse in your back door by laying on a stable floor; but then you built the world's first chain to choke his throat and end his reign. You let him run with all his might, as boys will sometimes do at night, before you harnessed his brute force with labor fierce, a mean divorce. So did his mother weep and wail to see her child's foot set with a nail.

139 - You fondled once a shepherd boy who baked buns for your tongue's joy and daily killed his lambs so coy. So in return for gifts like those you chose to lupinize his toy. And when his brothers saw his penis they knew you'd done something heinous. Ishullanu trimmed your father's trees and brought you carrots, dates and peas.

140 - So mighty you sat down to feasts, then turned your thoughts to raping beasts. You saw him naked once and said: 'Come, Ishullanu, into my bed and force your force into my head.

141 - Place your fingers where men dread to touch a girl who's dead.' And he in turn said this to you: 'What is it that you'd have me do? I know, kind mother, I won't eat if I can't match your female heat.

142 - But would you have me sing and sin as my whistle goes both out and in?' So since he balked to play that role, you switched his jewel into a mole; stuck in the muck of a marshy town his pleasure can't go up or down.

143 - And that is how you'd deal with me if we got friendly, warm, and free." When Ishtar heard his words so cruel, she lost her cool and played the fool loo by blasting off for daddy's distant star, where she said: "Daddy, daddy, daddy, please, Gilgamesh called me a tease." .

144 - "Gilgamesh said I sinned and lived without faith in myself or others," she pouted. Her father, Anu, said these exact words to Ishtar: "Now, daughter, did you first insult him, this Gilgamesh who then began to taunt you with jibes about your inclinations?"

145 - Ishtar shouted back at him-who-is-her-father: "You! Now! Make him stop! Loose the bull who could trample him at once. Let the bull spill his blood. And you'd better do this now or I'll wreak havoc of my own right down to Hell. I'll loose the goddamn devil. I'll rain corpses. I'll make zombies eat infants and there will be more dead souls than living ones!"

147 - And she said: "Yes, I have reserved a plan for those I love. Now do as I demand and punish all who insult me." Then her father, Anu, heard Ishtar's cry and Ishtar forced her will.

148 - Anu set loose a bull from out of the sky and, at the bull's proclamation, there cracks the earth to swallow up nine dozen citizens of Uruk!

149 - An earthquake fixed a grave for nine dozen citizens of Uruk. Two or three or four hundred victims, maybe more than that, fell into Hell. And when the quake returned for a third time, it was near to Enkidu, he who fell upon the Abyss so wide and grim. Enkidu collapsed near the earth-shaking bull.

150 - Then he leaped to grab the bull by his long horns even with spit upon his face from out the savage mouth, even with the stench of bowels near his nose

151 - Then Enkidu said to Gilgamesh: "Brother, you and I are now hailed as one. How could we defeat a god? Brother, I see great challenge here, but can we dare defy such force? Let's kill it if we can right now. Be unrelenting and hope that god gives us the strength.

153 - So Gilgamesh, like a bull dancer, svelte and mighty then, plunged his sword into the throat held fast by Enkidu. They butchered and bled the bull and then cut out its heart to offer as sacrifice before Shamash.

154 - Then Gilgamesh and Enkidu retreated 160. from the altar itself and stood afar in deep respect as they did pray. At last the two sat down, bound by war, bound by worship. Ishtar appeared upon Uruk's walls looking like a wailing widow.

155 - She shrieked this curse aloud: "Damn Gilgamesh, who injured me, by slaughtering a divine bull." Enkidu reacted to these words of Ishtar quick by hurling at her head a hunk of meat from the bull's thigh.

156 - And from afar he shouted up to her: "This bloody mess of a plain bull would be about what I could make of you if you came near. I'd tie your hands with these rope-like intestines."

157 - Ishtar signaled then for her attendants: coiffured bishops, cantors, and girls whose charms keep worshippers coming. Then atop the great wall above the city high standing by the severed part of its right thigh, she had them shriek laments for the bull who'd died.