(27) With outspread wings, Ishtar, the daughter of Sin (the Moon), sweeps downward to the gates of death. The house of darkness--the dwelling of the god Irkalla--is described as "the place of no return." It is without light; the nourishment of those who dwell therein is dust and their food is mud. Over the bolts on the door of the house of Irkalla is scattered dust, and the keepers of the house are covered with feathers like birds. Ishtar demands that the keepers open the gates, declaring that if they do not she will shatter the doorposts and strike the hinges and raise up dead devourers of the living. The guardians of the gates beg her to be patient while they go to the queen of Hades from whom they secure permission to admit Ishtar, but only in the same manner as all others came to this dreary house. Ishtar thereupon descends through the seven gates which lead downward into the depths of the underworld. At the first gate the great crown is removed from her head, at the second gate the earrings from her ears, at the third gate the necklace from her neck, at the fourth gate the ornaments from her breast, at the fifth gate the girdle from her waist, at the sixth gate the bracelets from her hands and feet, and at the seventh gate the covering cloak of her body. Ishtar remonstrates as each successive article of apparel is taken from her, bur the guardian tells her that this is the experience of all who enter the somber domain of death. Enraged upon beholding Ishtar, the Mistress of Hades inflicts upon her all manner of disease and imprisons her in the underworld.

(34) I set aside the long-haired gods and passed on through those who had charge of their dens in my sight: I made my way and passed on and reached those who presided over their caverns, and those who had charge of the House of Osiris; and I speak to them, and make them recognize the god of Mighty Terrors, who is armed with horns against Sutu. I make them recognize who it is that hath seized for himself the divine provisions and hath equipped himself with the powers of Tmu

(11) Let me have my will there of the Bread and Beer with the gods; that I enter through the Sun-disk and come forth through the Divine Pair, that the gods who follow may speak to me, and that Darkness and Night may be terrified before me in Mehit-urit, by the side of him “Who is in his Sanctuary.”

(9) "Each of you light your pine sticks and your cigars; come and bring them back at dawn, you must not burn them up, but you must return them whole; this is what the lords told us to say." So they said. And so they were defeated. They burned up the pine sticks, and they also finished the cigars which had been given to them. There were many punishments in Xibalba; the punishments were of many kinds. The first was the House of Gloom, Quequma-ha, in which there was only darkness. The second was Xuxulim-ha, the house where everybody shivered, in which it was very cold. A cold, unbearable wind blew within. The third was the House of Jaguars, Balami-ha, it was called, in which there were nothing but jaguars which stalked about, jumped around, roared, and made fun. The jaguars were shut up in the house. Zotzi-há, the House of Bats, the fourth place of punishment was called. Within this house there were nothing but bats which squeaked and cried and flew around and around. The bats were shut in and could not get out. The fifth was called Chayim-há, the House of Knives, in which there were only sharp, pointed knives, silent or grating against each other in the house.

(1) I have come out of the Tuat: I am come from the ends of the Earth, lighting up the Tank, whither the desires of them who bring salutation guide me. I pass through the noble dwellings of those who are coffined. I open the dwelling of Remrem, I reach the house of Achsesef. I am led on to the noble mysteries, and I enter into the house of Kemkem

(13) E-sagil, where in the midst of the Deep the god Lugal-dul-azaga 1 dwelleth

(2) "I entered into the houses of the sphere, shining most exceedingly, and there was no measure to the light that was about me. And all the rulers and all those who are in that sphere, fell into agitation one against another. And they saw the great light that was about me, and they gazed upon my vesture and saw thereon the mystery of their name. And they fell into still greater agitation, and were in great fear, saying: 'How hath the lord of the universe passed through us without our knowing?' And all their bonds were unloosed and their regions and their orders; and every one left his order, and they fell down all together, adored before me, or before my vesture, and all sang praises together to the interiors of the interiors, being in great fear and great agitation.

(8) I rest in the Tuat, I am the master of the dusk, I enter in there and I come out. The arms of Tatunen receive me, the blessed lift me up. Stretch your arms towards me, for I know your gates, (?) guide me. Praise me, ye blessed ones, praise me, rejoice in me as in Rā, praise me like Osiris, for I have placed before you your offerings and you take possession of your victuals, according to the orders Rā gave me

(15) Thou puttest on the pure garment and thou divestest thy apron when thou stretchest thyself on the funereal bed; haunches are cut for thy ka , and a heart is offered unto thy mummy. Thou receivest a bandage of the finest linen from the hands of the attendant of Rā; thou eatest on thy resting couch bread which has been baked by the fire goddess herself; thou eatest the haunch, thou seizest the meat which has been prepared by Rā in his holy place; thou washest thy feet in silver basins made by the skilful artist Sokaris; thou eatest bread placed on the altar, and prepared by the holy fathers, thou livest upon baked cakes and hot drinks from the store-house; thou inhalest the smell of flowers; thy heart is not reluctant at the sight of offerings; thy ministrants make for thee the loaves and the cakes of the Powers of Heliopolis; and they themselves bring thee the sacred things; thy offerings have been chosen for thee; and thy ordinances are in the gates of the Great Dwelling; thou risest like Sahu and thou arrivest like the morning star; Nut stretches forth her arms towards thee; Sahu, the son of Rā, and Nut, the mother of the gods, the two great gods of the sky, they speak one to another saying: Take him in thy arms; I have brought in my arms the form of N. in the happy day when he is glorified, when his memory is recorded, when he is in the mouth of all generations

(52) Oh Chepera, who are in the midst of thy bark and whose body is the cycle of the gods for ever; deliver me from those inquisitorial Wardens to whom the Inviolate god, of Glorious Attributes, hath given guard over his adversaries, and the infliction of slaughter in the place of annihilation, from whose guard there is no escape. May I not fall under your knives, may I not sit within your dungeons, may I not come to your places of extermination, may I not fall into your pits; may there be done to me none of those things which the gods abominate; for I have passed through the place of purification in the middle of the Meskat, for which are given the Mesit and the Tehenit cakes in Tanenit

(14) And I entered into that house, and it was hot as fire and cold as ice: there were no delights of life therein: fear covered me, and trembling got hold upon me.

(8) Hun-Hunahpú and Vucub-Hunahpú entered the House of Gloom. There they were given their fat-pine sticks, a single lighted stick which Hun-Camé and Vucub-Camé sent them, together with a lighted cigar for each of them which the lords had sent. They went to give them to Hun-Hunahpú and Vucub-Hunahpú. They found them crouching in the darkness when the porters arrived with the fat-pine sticks and the cigars. As they entered, the pine sticks lighted the place brightly.

(4) Let me not be stopped at the Meskat; let not the Sebau have mastery over me; let me not be repulsed at your gates, let not your doors be closed against me; for I have bread in Pu and beer in Tepu. And let me join my two hands together (6) (6) in the divine dwelling which my father Tmu hath given me, who hath established for me an abode above the earth wherein is wheat and barley of untold quantity, which the son of my own body offereth to me there as oblations upon my festivals

(3) And should I be led to the fields wherein the gods destroy him who answereth them, then shall the horns of Chepera be twisted back, then shall blindness arise in the eyes of Tmu and destruction, through the seizure of me, and through my being carried off to the East, through there being made over me a feast day of the fiends, through all the murderous work perpetrated upon me

(1) "Then, by the will of the majesty, I took off my garment of light. I put on another garment of fire, which has no form, which is from the mind of the power, which was separated, and which was prepared for me, according to my will, in the middle region. For the middle region covered it with a dark power that I might come and put it on. I went down to chaos to save the whole light from it. For without the power of darkness I could not oppose nature. When I came into nature she was not able to tolerate my power. But I rested myself upon her staring eye, which was a light from the spirit. For it had been prepared for me as a garment and rest by the spirit. Through me, he opened his eyes down to Hades. He granted nature his voice for a time.

(33) For he has made the house of light to be a house of darkness, and the house of joy to be a house of mourning, lamentation and sadness; that which was the house of pleasure, delight, vivifying and refreshing, he has made to be a house of thirst and hunger; the house of love to be a house of eternal enmity; and the house of meekness to be a house of knocking, rumbling, thundering and lightning; the house of peace to be a house of lamenting and eternal howling; the house of laughing to be a house of eternal trembling and horror:

(1) "And I left that region behind me and ascended to the great æons of the rulers and came before their veils and their gates, shining most exceedingly, and there was no measure for the light which was about me. It came to pass then, when I arrived at the twelve æons, that their veils and their gates were shaken one over against the other. Their veils drew themselves apart of their own accord, and their gates opened one over against the other. And I entered into the æons, shining most exceedingly, and there was no measure for the light that was about me, forty-and-nine times more than the light with which I shone in the houses of the Fate.

(4) I have been given the diadem of the great goddess which is on the head of the shadow, and on the figure of the living gods. I have made my way ... my enemy is brought to me; he is given me and he will not be rescued from my hand; he will dwindle away in my possession, before the circle of gods of Osiris in his festival, when the inhabitants of the Amenta ... in his name of

(2) I prostrate myself to earth to the great god who is in the Netherworld. Let me be introduced into the presence of the company of gods who preside over those who are in Amenta