The Mythology Book

184

called The Descent of Inanna,

which relates how she, the Queen

of Heaven, determined to visit her

widowed sister Ereshkigal, Queen

of the Underworld.

Inanna hoped to attend the

funeral rites of her sister’s husband,

knowing that her actions had led to

his death: Inanna had offered her

hand in marriage to the heroic

demigod Gilgamesh, only to be met

with rejection and mockery. She

had asked her father Anu, the sky

god, to send the Bull of Heaven—

the deity Gugalanna, Ereshkigal’s

husband—to seek revenge on

Gilgamesh. Visible in the night sky

as the constellation the Romans

called Taurus, the bull had the

power to consume crops, dry up

rivers, and cause the earth to shake.

Anu agreed and sent the bull,

but Gilgamesh, who possessed

superhuman strength, killed and

dismembered it. Because she felt

responsible for his death, Inanna

THE DESCENT OF INANNA

IN BRIEF

THEME

Fertility and the seasons

SOURCE

The Descent of Inanna,

Anonymous, 3500–1900 bce; A

Hymn to Inanna, Enheduanna,

2285 and 2250 bce; Ishtar’s

Descent into the Underworld,

Anonymous, 7th century bce;

Inanna: Queen of Heaven

and Earth: Her Stories and

Hymns from Sumer, Diane

Wolkstein and Samuel Noah

Kramer, 1983.

SETTING

The Underworld.

KEY FIGURES

Inanna Goddess of fertility

and war; Queen of Heaven.

Ereshkigal Queen of the

Underworld; Inanna’s sister.

Gilgamesh A demigod.

Anu The sky god; father of

Inanna.

Gugalanna The Bull of

Heaven; first husband

of Ereshkigal.

Ninshubur Inanna’s

attendant.

Enlil Lord of the gods.

Nanna God of the moon.

Enki God of water.

Dumuzid Inanna’s husband;

a shepherd-god and god of

fertility; later became the

Babylonian god Tammuz.

Geshtinanna Dumuzid’s

sister, who takes his place.

M

esopotamian civilization

was essentially urban,

with people living in

walled cities, yet it had an agrarian

focus, too. Citizens had plots of land

either within a city or outside its

walls. If they had livestock, people

would take the animals out to

graze, but return them to the city

at night, often keeping them in

their own houses. In such a society,

the fertility of humans, animals,

and the land had great cultural

significance. The people had

shrines to fertility gods in their

homes, sometimes decorated with

figurines. Many myths, including

The Descent of Inanna, featured the

cycles of the seasons and fertility.

Revenge and death

Inanna was a great Mesopotamian

deity, representing the realities

around which life then revolved—

fertility, procreation, sensuality, and

love, but also war. The goddess is

mentioned in the earliest texts from

the 4th millennium bce, when she

was the patroness of the important

city of Uruk in Sumer (southern

Iraq). Inanna was the subject of

several ancient myths and a poem

The slaying of the Bull of Heaven

is also recounted in The Epic of

Gilgamesh. This illustration of it comes

from Myths of Babylonia and Assyria,

by Donald A. Mackenzie (1915).

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185

Inanna is often depicted with wings

and standing on two animals, as in

this terracotta relief from the 2nd

millennium bce. She is also wearing

her cone-shaped crown.

wanted to mourn with her sister in

the Underworld. However, in some

interpretations of the story, Inanna

intended to conquer her sister’s

realm, so that she could extend her

power into the Underworld.

An unwelcome guest

For the Mesopotamians, the

Underworld was not unlike the

real world, except that it was

always dark, people were naked,

and the bread and beer were stale.

Named Kur, this realm was neither

good nor bad but existed between

heaven and earth, where the dead

remained trapped between the two

planes of existence.

Inanna knew that her descent

into the Underworld could also

lead to her death. As protection,

she equipped herself with seven

divine powers—symbolized in

items that she wore and held.

Inanna put on a turban, described

as “headgear for the open country,”

and hung lapis lazuli beads around

her neck. She wore twin egg-

shaped beads on her breast,

donned a fine pala dress, placed

a pectoral over her chest named

“Come, man, come,” and adorned

her hand with a golden ring. As

Queen of Heaven, she also clasped

the lapis lazuli rod and tape used

for measuring the boundaries of her

realm. Inanna’s fine robes, attractive

ornaments, and the mascara—

called “Let a man come, let him

come”—that she wore to make her

irresistible, represented sexuality,

beauty, and fertility. The rod and

tape were instruments of her

authority—acquired from Enlil, the

See also: The abduction of Persephone 50–51 ■ Orpheus and Eurydice 53 ■ Osiris and the Underworld 276–83

ASIA

Hymn to Inanna

The Hymn to Inanna was

written in the 3rd century bce

by Enheduanna, high priestess

of the city of Ur in Mesopotamia

(now southern Iraq). She was

the daughter of Sargon, the first

king of the Akkadian Empire,

and she was the first author

in the world that we know by

name. In her hymn to Inanna,

the priestess described the

Queen of Heaven as having

powers greater than the highest

of the gods—a powerful

goddess of destruction who

had the strength of a bull and

soaked the weapons of her

enemies in blood and gore. In

the hymn, Inanna’s battle cry

shook the earth and the gods

prostrated themselves at her

feet. “Her wrath is a devastating

flood which no one can

withstand ... she abases those

whom she despises.”

Edheduanna was a prolific

writer, composing a set of

temple hymns and dozens of

poems on many themes. She

was influential in politics, too,

and at least once fled a rebellion

but was restored to power.

chief Mesopotamian deity, who

had set down the decrees that

established the foundations of

civilized society. Before leaving

heaven, Inanna told her attendant

Ninshubur to seek the gods’ help

if she did not return.

When Inanna reached the

entrance to the Underworld, the

gatekeeper ran to tell Ereshkigal

and was told to immediately lock

the seven gates against the new

arrival. To gain entry through each

gate, Inanna had to relinquish her

divine powers. Item by item, she

was compelled to remove her

turban and ornaments, and to give

up the rod and measuring tape.

Finally, at the last gate, she also

had to take off her clothes, so that

she was naked like everybody else.

In the Akkadian version of the

story, something else happened

when Inanna descended into ❯❯

When she entered the seventh

gate, the pala dress, the

garment of ladyship, was

removed from her body.

The Descent of Inanna

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