Only two human beings were permitted to reside on the Babylonian island paradise, however.  These were Pir-napishtim and his wife.  Apparently Gilgamesh could not join them there.  His gods did not transport heroes and other favoured individuals to a happy isle or isles like those of the Greeks and Celts and Aryo-Indians.  There was no Heaven for the Babylonian dead.  All mankind were doomed to enter the gloomy Hades of the Underworld, “the land of darkness and the shadow of death; a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is darkness”, as Job exclaimed in the hour of despair, lamenting his fate.[245]

This gloomy habitation of the dead resembles the Greek Hades, the Teutonic Nifelhel, and the Indian “Put”.  No detailed description of it has been found.  The references, however, in the “Descent of Ishtar” and the Gilgamesh epic suggest that it resembled the hidden regions of the Egyptians, in which souls were tortured by demons who stabbed them, plunged them in pools of fire, and thrust them into cold outer darkness where they gnashed their teeth, or into places of horror swarming with poisonous reptiles.

Ishtar was similarly tortured by the plague demon, Namtar, when she boldly entered the Babylonian Underworld to search for Tammuz.  Other sufferings were, no doubt, in store for her, resembling those, perhaps, with which the giant maid in the Eddic poem “Skirnismal” was threatened when she refused to marry Frey, the god of fertility and harvest: 

    Trolls shall torment thee from morn till eve
      In the realms of the Jotun race,
    Each day to the dwellings of Frost giants must thou
      Creep helpless, creep hopeless of love;
    Thou shalt weeping have in the stead of joy,
      And sore burden bear with tears.... 
    May madness and shrieking, bondage and yearning
      Burden thee with bondage and tears.[246]

In like manner, too, the inhabitants of the Indian Hell suffered endless and complicated tortures.[247]

The Persephone of the Babylonian Underworld was Eresh-ki-gal, who was also called Allatu.  A myth, which was found among the Egyptian Tel-el-Amarna “Letters”, sets forth that on one occasion the Babylonian gods held a feast.  All the deities attended it, except Eresh-ki-gal.  She was unable to leave her gloomy Underworld, and sent her messenger, the plague demon Namtar, to obtain her share.  The various deities honoured Namtar, except Nergal, by standing up to receive him.  When Eresh-ki-gal was informed of this slight she became very angry, and demanded that Nergal should be delivered up to her so that he might be put to death.  The storm god at once hastened to the Underworld, accompanied by his own group of fierce demons, whom he placed as guardians at the various doors so as to prevent the escape of Eresh-ki-gal.  Then he went boldly towards the goddess, clutched her by the hair, and dragged her from her throne.  After a brief struggle, she found herself overpowered.  Nergal made ready to cut off her head, but she cried for mercy and said:  “Do not kill me, my brother!  Let me speak to thee.”