Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld

Inanna’s reason for visiting the underworld is unclear. The reason she gives to the gatekeeper of the underworld is that she wants to attend the funeral rites of her sister Ereshkigal’s husband, Gugalana, the Bull of Heaven, which was killed by Gilgamesh and Enkidu. (In some myths, Ereshkigal’s husband is also the plague god, Nergal).Before leaving, Inanna instructs her minister and servant, Ninshubur, to plead with the deities Enlil, Sin, and Enki to save her if anything goes amiss. The attested laws of the underworld dictate that, with the exception of appointed messengers, those who enter it could never leave.Inanna dresses elaborately for the visit, with a turban, a wig, a lapis lazuli necklace, beads upon her breast, the ‘pala dress’ (the regal garment), mascara, pectoral, a golden ring on her hand, and she holds a lapis lazuli measuring rod. These garments are each representations of powerful mes she possesses.Following Ereshkigal’s instructions, the gatekeeper tells Inanna she may enter the first gate of the underworld, but she must hand over her lapis lazuli measuring rod. She asks why, and is told ‘It is just the ways of the Underworld’. She obliges and passes through. Inanna passes through a total of seven gates, at each one removing a piece of clothing or jewelry she had been wearing at the start of her journey, thus, by the time she crosses all seven gates, she is naked, and that is how she arrives in front of her sister. Then Inanna makes her sister rise from her throne, and takes the throne herself, but Ereshkigal calls upon the Anna, the seven judges, who render a decision against Inanna.  And Inanna is turned into a corpse and hung on a hook.Ereshkigal hates her sister and is pleased at Inanna’s decision, but she, too, is bound by the laws of the underworld; she cannot leave her kingdom of the underworld to join the other ‘living’ deities, and they cannot visit her in the underworld, or else they can never return.Three days and three nights pass, and Ninshubur, following Inanna’s instructions, goes to Enlil, Sin and Enki’s temples, and demands that they save Inanna. The first two gods refuse, saying it is her own doing, but Enki agrees to help. He creates two asexual figures named galatura and the kurjara from the dirt under the fingernails of the gods, and he instructs them to appease Ereshkigal, and he tells them that when asked what they want, they are to request Inanna’s corpse and sprinkle it with the food and water of life. However, when they come before Ereshkigal, the queen of the underworld is in agony like a woman giving birth, and she offers them what they want without any questions.  She also offers life-giving rivers of water and fields of grain, if they can relieve her; but they take only the corpse.Things go as Enki said, and the galatura and the kurjara are able to revive Inanna. However, the demons of Ereshkigal follow Inanna out of the underworld and insist that she is not free to go until someone takes her place. They first come upon Ninshubur and attempt to take her, but Inanna refuses, as Ninshubur is her loyal servant, who rightly mourned her while she was in the underworld. They next come upon Cara, Inanna’s beautician, who is still in mourning. The demons want to take him, but Inanna refuses, as he too mourned her. They next come upon Dumuzi, Inanna’s husband. Despite Inanna’s fate, and in contrast to the other individuals who properly mourned Inanna, Dumuzi is lavishly clothed and happily resting under a tree. Inanna, displeased, decrees that the demons take him, using language which echoes the speech Ereshkigal gave while condemning her. Dumuzi is then taken to the underworld.Source: Samuel Noah Kramer (from the exam for Mythology 257)