Resolution
Inanna’s grief over the death of her husband Dumuzi is heartfelt. As a fertility goddess and a warrior, her love for him was fierce and sexual – their sacred union made the land of Sumer fruitful. She will miss his…
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The Death of Dumuzi
After demons of the Underworld captured and killed Inanna’s husband, the people of Sumer raised a great cry. “Woe for Inanna’s house! Woe for her city!” they lamented. They grieved for the death of Inanna’s “wild bull” – the young…
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Escape and Capture
The first time Inanna’s husband Dumuzi escaped the demons of the Underworld, Utu, the Sun God, transformed him into a snake and he wiggled away on his belly into the underbrush. When the demons found him in the ditches of…
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Betrayal
Even under torture, Dumuzi’s sister Geshtinanna refused to betray his whereabouts to the demons of the Underworld. But Dumuzi’s friend accepted the demons’ bribes and told them to look among the grasses of Sumer. But, he hedged, “I do not…
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A Sister’s Sacrifice
In my previous post, we left Inanna’s husband Dumuzi and his sister Geshtinanna sitting by a river with a sympathetic friend. As the three of them grieved over Dumuzi’s dream – a dream that foretold his death – Dumuzi happened…
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Dumuzi’s Dream
“A myth is a story about the way things never were but always are.” -Thomas Mann If a myth is a collective dream full of impossible happenings, Dumuzi’s dream is a dream within a dream – a personal dream full…
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Inanna’s Choice
When Inanna returns to the land of Sumer, she is trailing demons who want someone to take her place in the Underworld. This woodcut depicts whom she chose. Here’s the story. The first person Inanna meets upon surfacing is Ninshubur,…
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Inanna Ascending
Never before has anyone left the realm of the dead. After the River God’s little creatures have brought Inanna’s corpse back to life, the judges of the underworld make up a new rule. As Inanna starts to leave, they seize her…
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The Gift
Among the pantheon of Sumerian Father Gods, only the River God Enki responds to Inanna’s faithful helper Ninshubur who begs him to rescue Inanna from death in the Underworld. Enki pares out mud from under his fingernails. (Of course the…
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The River God
Three days and three nights after Inanna’s death, her fellow warrior and closest advisor Ninshubur set up a lament. She beat the drum for her in the assembly places. She circled the houses of the gods. She tore at her…
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On the Hook
After Inanna was declared guilty by the seven judges of the Underworld, her sister Ereshkigal stepped down from her throne. The poet tells us: Then Ereshkigal fastened on Inanna the eye of death. She spoke against her the world of…
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The Judgement
Having squeezed through the last gate to the Underworld, Inanna is now in the realm that belongs to her voracious, angry sister Ereshkigal. “Naked and bowed low, Inanna entered the throne room. Ereshkigal rose from her throne. Inanna started toward…
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The Seventh Gate
When she entered the seventh gate, From her body the royal robe was removed. Inanna asked: “What is this?” She was told: “Quiet, Inanna, the ways of the underworld are perfect. They may not be questioned.” The seventh gate to…
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The Fourth Gate
At the second gate and third gates of the Underworld, Inanna gave up her blue lapis beads – a pair of “small” ones plus a “double strand”. This was a big loss. While Mesopotamia was rich agriculturally, it had no…
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The First Gate
When Inanna arrives in the Underworld, her sister Ereshkegal orders all seven gates to be bolted. She then instructs the gatekeeper to open them one by one, each one no more than crack, to let Inanna through. “As she enters,…
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Queen of the Underworld
The Sumerian Underworld is ruled by Inanna’s older sister Ereshkegal whose husband, Gugalanna (aka the Bull of Heaven) has died. When, at the start of the poem, Inanna opened her ear to the Great Below, I imagined her hearing her…
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On the Brink
In this second woodcut, I imagine Inanna on the edge of a downward spiral to the Underworld. It is a journey from which no one has ever returned and as she hesitates on the first steps, she sets up a…
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Discovering Inanna
A dozen years ago, when I was struggling with a fog of depression and Fibromyalgia, at the insistence of a worried friend, I dutifully started seeing his therapist. She is a wonderfully wise and caring woman and in the course…
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