12. with burning fever and thirst thou didst poison him. 13. His mother, the goddess Silili, with thy cups thou didst poison. 14. Thou didst love the king of the land 15. whom continually thou didst render ill with thy drugs, 16. though every day he offered libations and sacrifices. 17. Thou didst strike him (with thy wand) and didst change him into a leopard. 18. The people of his own city drove him from it, 19. and his own dogs bit him to pieces! 20. Thou didst love a workman,[101] a rude man of no instruction, 21. who constantly received his daily wages from thee, 22. and every day made bright thy vessels. 23. In thy pot a savory mess thou didst boil for him, 24. saying, Come, my servant and eat with us on the feast day 25. and give thy judgment on the goodness of our pot-herbs. 26. The workman replied to thee, 27. Why dost thou desire to destroy me? 28. Thou art not cooking! I will not eat! 29. For I should eat food bad and accursed, 30. and the thousand unclean things thou hast poisoned it with. 31. Thou didst hear that answer (and wert enraged), 32. Thou didst strike him (with thy wand) and didst change him into a pillar, 33. and didst place him in the midst of the desert! 34. I have not yet said a crowd of things! many more I have not added. 35. Lady! thou wouldst love me as thou hast done the others. 36. Ishtar this speech listened to, 37. and Ishtar was enraged and flew up to heaven. 38. Ishtar came into the presence of Anū her father, 39. and into the presence of Annatu, her mother, she came. 40. Oh, my father, Izdūbar has cast insults upon me.”[102] The student of comparative mythology will recognize in the above legend the original idea of much of the classic lore of Greece. Izdūbar’s return, and the throwing off of his disguise, suggest the adventures of Ulysses as related by Homer, and his return to Ithaca as a beggar. “Next came Ulysses lowly at the door, A figure despicable, old and poor; In squalid vests with many a gaping rent, Propped on a staff and trembling as he went.” _Odyssey, Book xvii._ The character of Ishtar as presented in this tablet is apparently a prototype not only of Hecate, but also of Medea, whose chariot was drawn by winged serpents, and the cauldron or pot, which Ishtar filled with her magic herbs, suggests the statement of Ovid that Medea on one occasion spent no less than nine days and nights in collecting herbs for her cauldron.[103] The character of Ishtar may also have suggested that of Circe, who “Mixed the potion, fraudulent of soul, The poison mantled in a golden bowl,” and she loved Ulysses as Ishtar loved Izdūbar, even though she had transformed all of his companions into swine.