from Gilgamesh's rejection of the goddess Ishtar
in Tablet 6:
"Which of your husbands did you love forever?
Which could satisfy your endless desires?
Let me remind you of how they suffered,
how each one came to a bitter end.
Remember what happened to that beautiful boy
Tammuz: you loved him when you were both young,
then you changed, you sent him to the underworld
and doomed him to be wailed for, year after year.
You loved the bright-speckled roller bird,
then you changed, you attacked him and broke his wings,
and he sits in the woods crying Ow-ee! Ow-ee!
You loved the lion, matchless in strength,
then you changed, you dug seven pits for him,
and when he fell, you left him to die.
--------tr. Stephen Miller
