of the path which leads forth, but not back again,
of the house, wherein he who enters is deprived of light
of the place where dust is their food, and clay their nourishment,
where light they see not, in darkness dwell they,
where they are clad in garments of wings as birds,
dust lies thick on door and bolt."
Still worse were the prospects held out to any specially unwelcome visitants. The queen of the shades says to the messenger from the gods who has forced his way into the Underworld: "With a great curse I will curse thee; the food in the gutters of the city shall be thy meat, the water in the sewers of the city shall be thy drink; the shadows of the wall thy dwelling, a threshold of stone thy seat; . . . shall break down thy strength." In another epic fragment this identical curse is directed against a captivating hierodulos who by her cunning brought bane upon one of the heroes.
The picture of the Underworld at the beginning of "Istar's Journey in Hades" is found almost word for word in an epic narrative belonging to the cycle of Gilgamesh legends; here, however, the continuation is remarkable. "In the house of dust, that I have trodden. . . . [there dwell] wearers of crowns who ruled the land from of
