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A Prayer to the Gods of Night

They are lying down, the Great Ones,
the bars have fallen, the bolts are shot,
the crowds and all the people rest,
the open gates are locked.
The gods of the land, the goddesses,
Shamash Sin Adad Ishtar,
sun, moon, turmoil, love
lie down to sleep in heaven.
The judgement seat is empty now,
for no god now is still at work.
Night has drawn down the curtain,
the temples and the sanctuaries are silent, dark.
Now the traveller calls to his god,
defendant and plaintiff sleep in peace,
for the judge of truth, the father of the fatherless,
Shamash has gone to his chamber.
'O Great Ones, Princes of the Night,
Bright Ones, Gibil the furnace, Irra
war-lord of the Underworld,
Bow-star and Yoke, Orion, Pleiades, Dragon,
the Wild Bull, the Goat, and the Great Bear,
stand by me in my divination.
By this lamb that I am offering,
may truth appear!'

In Poems of Heaven and Hell from Ancient Mesopotamia [trad. N. K. Sandars] [sécs. XIX-XVI? a.C.]