Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh is man’s oldest recorded epic. It is the story of a man named Gilgamesh and follows his life. That, at least, is the simplified version of the story.
In the story, Gilgamesh, the goddess Ishtar (the Babylonian goddess of love and fertility) asks Gilgamesh to marry her. He turns her down and explains that she has a reputation for cursing her lovers and he does not want that fate. (Carnahan) Ishtar becomes enraged and pleads with her father, Anu, to give her the Bull of Heaven so she can kill Gilgamesh. When Anu first refuses, she says;
“If you do not give me the Bull of Heaven,
I will knock down the Gates of the Netherworld,
I will smash the door posts, and leave the doors flat down,
and will let the dead go up to eat the living!
And the dead will outnumber the living!” (Carnahan, 2001)
Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill the bull and Ishtar never makes good on her threat, but it is the earliest reference in literature to revenants.
In the story, Gilgamesh, the goddess Ishtar (the Babylonian goddess of love and fertility) asks Gilgamesh to marry her. He turns her down and explains that she has a reputation for cursing her lovers and he does not want that fate. (Carnahan) Ishtar becomes enraged and pleads with her father, Anu, to give her the Bull of Heaven so she can kill Gilgamesh. When Anu first refuses, she says;
“If you do not give me the Bull of Heaven,
I will knock down the Gates of the Netherworld,
I will smash the door posts, and leave the doors flat down,
and will let the dead go up to eat the living!
And the dead will outnumber the living!” (Carnahan, 2001)
Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill the bull and Ishtar never makes good on her threat, but it is the earliest reference in literature to revenants.