"And what does that mean, being dead?"
"We must not speak during the ceremony."
"Was Inanna dead when she descended into the nether world?"
"For three days, yes."
"And it was like being asleep?"
He smiled and said nothing.
"But then she awoke and came back, and now she stands before us. Will my father awaken? Will he come back to govern Uruk again, Ur-kununna?"
Ur-kununna shook his head. "He will awaken, but he will not come back to govern Uruk." Then he put his finger to his lips, and would not speak again, leaving me to consider the meaning of my father's death as the ceremony went on and on about me. Lugalbanda did not move; he did not breathe; his eyes were closed. It was like sleep. But it must have been more than sleep. It was death. When Inanna went to the nether world and was slain, it was the occasion of great dismay in heaven and Father Enki caused her to be brought forth into life. Would Father Enki cause Lugalbanda to be brought forth into life? No, I did not think so. Where then was Lugalbanda now, where would he journey next?
I listened to the chanting, and heard the answer: Lugalbanda was on his way to the palace of the gods, where he would dwell forever in the company of Sky-father An and Father Enlil and Father Enki the wise and compassionate, and all the rest. He would feast in the feasting-hall of the gods, and drink sweet wine and black beer with them. And I thought that that would not be so harsh a fate, if indeed that was where he was going. But how could we be sure that that was where he was going? How could we be sure? I turned again to Ur-kununna, but he stood with eyes closed, chanting and swaying. So I was left alone with my thoughts of death and my struggle to understand what was happening to my father.
Then the chanting ended, and Inanna made a gesture, and a dozen of the lords of the city knelt and lifted to their shoulders the massive alabaster slab on which my father lay, and carried it from the temple through the side entrance. The rest of us followed, my mother and I leading the procession, and the priestess Inanna in the rear. Across the White Platform we went, down its far side, and toward the west a few hundred paces, until we stood in the sharp-edged shadow of the temple of An. I saw that a great pit had been excavated in the dry sandy earth between the White Platform and the temple of An, with a sloping ramp leading down into it. We arranged ourselves into a group at the ramp's mouth, and all the townsfolk by their thousands formed a great ring around the whole precinct.
Then an unexpected thing: the serving-maids of my motheclass="underline" the ú queen surrounded her and began to take her rich and costly garments from her, one by one until she stood naked in the bright sunlight in the full view of all the city. I thought of the tale of Inanna's descent, how as she went deeper and deeper into the nether world she gave up her garments and at last was naked, and I wondered whether my mother too was making ready for a descent into the pit. But that was not the case. The lady-in-waiting Alitum, who looked so much like my mother Ninsun that they seemed to be sisters, stepped forward now and put offher own robes, so that she also was altogether bare; and the serving-maids began to put the crimson coat of my mother on Alitum and her headdress and breastplates, and Alitum's simpler robes on my mother. When they were done, it was hard to tell which was Ninsun and which Alitum, for Alitum's face had been daubed with green paint just as had my mother's.
Then I saw a playmate of mine, Enkihegal the son of the gardener Gimishag, walking slowly toward me between two priests. I called out as he approached. But he made no answer. His eyes were glassy and strange. He seemed not to know me at all, though only yesterday I had raced with him from one side of the grand Ninhursag courtyard to the other, eight times without stopping.
The priests now began to pluck at my brocaded robe and stripped it from me and put my robe on Enkihegal, and gave me his ordinary one. They took my golden headband away, and put that on his head. I was as tall as he was, though he was three years older, and my shoulders were of the same breadth as his. When we were done exchanging clothes they left Enkihegal standing by my side, as Alitum stood by my mother's side.
Now a sledge-chariot came forth, drawn by two asses. It was decorated with blue, red, and white mosaic along the edges of the framework, and had golden heads of lions on its side panels with manes of lapis lazuli and shell; and great mounds of treasure were heaped upon it. Then the charioteer Ludingirra, who had ridden many times to the wars with my father, stepped forward. He took a deep drink from a huge wine-bowl that the priests had fetched, and made a sharp sound and shook his head as though the wine were bitter, and mounted the chariot and drove it slowly downward into the deep pit. Two grooms walked alongside to steady and calm the asses. Afterward a second and a third chariot followed, and each of the drivers and each of the grooms drank of the wine. Into the pit went vessels of copper and silver and obsidian and alabaster and marble, gaming-boards and tumblers, chalices, a set of chisels and saw made of gold, and a great deal more, all of it magnificent. Ther the warriors in armor went down into the pit; and then some of the palace servants, the barbers and gardeners and a few of the fine ladies in-waiting, with their hair done up in golden braid, and headdresses of carnelian and lapis lazuli and shell. Each of them drank of the wine. All this in silence, except for the steady beat of the lilissu drum.
Following this, a certain great lord of the city who had been amon! those carrying the bier of my father from the temple went to his side. He picked up the horned crown that lay beside him, and hell it high and showed it to all, as it glinted in the sun. I am forbidden to write the name by which that lord then was known, for afterward he became king of Uruk, and one may not write or utter the birth name of one who becomes king; but the king-name he took was
Dumuzi. And he who was to become Dumuzi held the horned crown out to the south and the east and the north and the west, and the he put it on my father's head, and a great outcry went up from the people of Uruk.
Only a god wears a horned crown. I turned to Ur-kununna and said, "Is my father now a god?" "Yes," the old harper said softly. "Lugalbanda has become a god. Then I am a god also, I thought. A giddy sensation of high excitement ran through me. Or at least-so I told myself-I am in some part a god. Part of me must be mortal still, I supposed, since I was born of mortal flesh. Nevertheless the child of a god must a god to some degree, is that not so? It was a bold thing for me to think. But indeed I have come to know that it is the case, that I am in part a god, though not entirely.
"And if he is a god, then will he come back from death as other gods who have died came back?" I asked.
Ur-kununna smiled and said, "These things are never certain, boy. He is a god, but I think he will not come back. Look you now, bid him farewell."
I saw three husky grooms of the bedchamber and three charioteers lift the alabaster bier and begin the descent into the pit with it. Before they lifted it they had sipped of the bitter wine. They did not come forth from the pit; no one who had gone down into it had come forth. To Ur-kununna I said, "What is that wine they all drink?"
"It gives a peaceful sleep," he replied.
"And they are all sleeping there in the ground?"
"In the ground, yes. Alongside your father."
"Will I drink it? Will you?"
"You will drink it, yes, but not for many years, I think. But I will drink of it in a few minutes."
"So you will sleep in the ground near my father?"
He nodded.
"Until tomorrow morning?"
"Forever," he said.
I considered that. "Ah. It will be much like dying, then."