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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 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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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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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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