Or triumphant. The poem’s most poignant feature may be the soldier’s optimism, his faith in what comes after hell. He insists on the necessity of that faith, perhaps as a way of reassuring ...

He followed her to Hell when she died ... Neil Gaiman reads an extract from this poem in Orpheus Underground. Listen online now.

CIRCUMSTANCE: from 'Inanna's Journey to Hell'; Inanna, the goddess of fertility, prepares for her descent to hell. Poems of Heaven and Hell from Ancient Mesopotamia, translated by N.K. Sandars, ...