The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate

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The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate
Dust-jacket illustration for The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate
Author	L. Sprague deCamp
Cover artist	Charles McCurry
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Historical novel
Publisher	Doubleday
Publication date	1961
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	429 pp
ISBN	NA

The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate is an historical novel by L. Sprague de Camp, first published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1961, and in paperback by Lancer Books in 1968. It is the third of his historical novels in order of writing, and earliest chronologically. It is set in the last years of the reign of King Xerxes I of Persia, and begins in 466 BC.

The novel concerns the quest of Bessas of Zarispa, a young officer of the Immortals regiment, for the ingredients of a potion that the King has been told will give him immortality---the blood of a dragon and the ear of a king. Unbeknownst to Bessas, the third ingredient is the heart of a hero; the King has been told by his sorcerous advisor that if Bessas can bring back the first two ingredients, the third ingredient will be right there for the taking.

Relying on information given him by the priests of Marduk in Babylon that a reptile depicted in reliefs on their temple, the sirrush, is a real dragon and lives at the headwaters of the Nile, Bessas sets out for the source of the Nile, accompanied by his former tutor, Myron of Miletos, who is bored with his life of teaching and wants to make a name for himself in the field of philosophy.