Of him whom goddess Ishtar warmly wooed,
Of him whose breast with virtue was imbued.
He as a giant towered, lofty grown,
As Babil's[9] great _pa-te-si_[10] was he known,
His armèd fleet commanded on the seas
And erstwhile travelled on the foreign leas;
His mother Ellat-gula[11] on the throne
From Erech all Kardunia[12] ruled alone.

[Footnote 1: "Samu," heaven.]

[Footnote 2: "Happy Fields," celestial gardens, heaven.]

[Footnote 3: "Subartu," Syria.]

[Footnote 4: "Sari," plural form of "saros," a cycle or measurement of
time used by the Babylonians, 3,600 years.]

[Footnote 5: From the "Accadian Hymn to Ishtar," terra-cotta tablet
numbered "S, 954," one of the oldest hymns of a very remote date,
deposited in the British Museum by Mr. Smith. It comes from Erech, one of
the oldest, if not the oldest, city of Babylonia. We have inserted a
portion of it in its most appropriate place in the epic. See translation
in "Records of the Past," vol. v. p. 157.]

[Footnote 6: "Kisar," the consort or queen of Sar, father of all the
gods.]

[Footnote 7: "Zir-ri" (pronounced "zeer-ree"), short form of "Zi-aria,"
spirits of the running rivers--naiads or water-nymphs.]