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Inanna and the Harrowing of Hell

Why does Inanna go down into Hell?

Neither the Sumerian nor the Akkadian versions of Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld tells us why she goes there. For over a century, since the texts/tablets were first discovered and translated, everyone assumed she went there to revive and rescue her lover and husband Dumuzi..

Before she leaves, Inanna instructs her faithful maidservant Ninshubur that if she does not return in three days she should give her prayers and funeral rites,and petition the high gods, Enlil and Nanna, the moon god, and Enki, the god of wisdom, to pretect and rescue her. But Inanna does not tell Ninshubur why she is risking her life by going down there.

When Inanna arrives at the first of the seven gates of Kur/Hell, she is challenged by the gatekeeper, Neti, to prove her ID and her purpose. But her answer makes no sense to him

'If you are truly Inanna, Queen of Heaven,
On your way to the East,
Why has your heart led you on the road
From which no traveller returns?”

Inanna answered:
'Because... of my older sister Erishkigal,
Her husband, Gugalanna, the Bull of Heaven, has died.
I have come to witness the funeral rites.
Let the beer of his funeral rites be poured into the cup.
Let it be done.'

Samuel Noah Kramer, a University of Pennsylvania epigrapher who spent six years deciphering and translating the Sumerian tablets, thinks Inanna is lying. He thinks her real motive is “still creating power,” so she comes to steal her sister’s throne and add the kingdom of the dead to her own, the land of the living. But feminist critics and scholars, including Diane Wolkstein (Kramer’s co-translator), see Inanna as seeking “knowledge” – not the “knowledge is power” sort that a man might seek, but a more intimate, intuitive, carnal knowledge that counts as “wisdom.” Such as knowing what it means to die, what dying is really like? If that’s what Inanna seeks, then she has come to the right place.

But Inanna’s older sister Ereshkigal seems to have her own instinctual, gut knowledge of what it is that Inanna seeks. And that’s a power grab: to seize her sister’s throne and add to her kingdom of the living her sister’s kingdom of the dead. But before she can see her, she must hear from her gate-keeper this awesome/terrifying picture of her:

'My Queen, a maid
As tall as heaven,
As wide as the earth,
As strong as the foundations of the city wall,
Waits outside the palace gates.
She has gathered together the seven me.
She has taken them in her hands.
With the me in her possession, she has prepared herself:
On her head she wears the shurgarra, the crown of the steppe.
Across her forehead her dark locks of hair are carefully aranged.
Around her neck she wears the small lapis beads.
At her breast she wears the double strand of beads.
Her body is wrapped inthe royal robe.
Her eyes are daubed with the ointment "let him come, let him come."
Around her chest she wears the breast plate called "come, man, come!"
On her wrist she wears the gold ring.
In her hand she carries the lapis measuring rod and line.'

This is not a picture of a pretty younger sister all dolled up and decked out in her finest finery. This isn’t Cinderella at the palace gates, ready for the ball. This is the Queen of Heaven.. And she is as tall as Heaven. And strong as a wall. And (three times the gate-keeper repeats for emphasis) she is armed with the seven me, the She is also, and quite literally, dressed to kill. She wears a stunning hair-do, gleaming eye paste, and a dazzling display of jewelry, Not mere baubles, but man-killing allure, and the gate-keeper feels their power,. And, finally, this::

In her hand she carries the lapis measuring rod and line.'
[See , with inks to, or insert: pics of the gold & lapis jewelry and crown from the Death Pits of UR, and of “Lilith” and or detail of Nanna-Sin?.]

Like her necklace, her rod and reel, her “measuring rod and line,” are made of lapis lazuli, a sky-blue stone. Like the mace and globe of modern rulers, these are the badges and instruments of power of ancient kings and queens, back to the dawn of civilization in Sumer.. Inanna’s father, the moon-god Nanna-Sin, is shown holding these instruments of power, used not only to lay out the dimensions of his temple(s) and cities, but also tomeasure the hearts of men, to lay down the law and execute justice. Inannahlds/wields them also.. Which is why the stunning terra-cotta plaque of Inanna’s man-killing hand-maid Lilith, who holdsup a rod and reel in each hand, is often said to be of Inanna herself. And why the gate-keeper saves them for last. And why her sister feels so threatened by his catalogue of her sister’s powers and regalia and powers over life and death, she insists she be divested of every one of them::

When Erishkigal heard this,
She slapped her thigh and bit her lip.
She took the matter into her heart and dwelt on it.
Then she spoke:
'Come, Neti, my chief gatekeeper of the kur,
Heed my words:
Bolt the seven gates of the underworld.
Then, one by one, open each gate a crack.
Let Inanna enter.
As she enters, remove her royal garments.
Let the holy priestess of heaven enter bowed low.'

What follows is a sort of “Dance of the Seven Veils, a strung-out oriental strip-tease like that of Sheherazade’s “Dance of the Seven Veils” before ??? (Bible . ref). But here it is the man, the gatekeeper, who is in control. Or rather, he's the instrument of the divine laws (me?) of the place. Modern feminists, aghast that a mere man, and servant at that, is put in charge of Inanna’s divesiture or strip-tease.

One by one and gate by gate, Inanna is divested of her regalia and her powers, until she stands/bows stark naked before her sister and the powers of darkness. .

It’s interesting to see how the poet distributes the items from Neti’s list/inventory across/among the seven gates. (For some reason, the seven me are not now/here mentioned /or included.) Note that of the other items, none are Inanna’s natural charms or endowments. They are all artificial, gifts of art and artifice.

Two are cosmetic (her hairdo and eye paste), Besides her robe, six are ornaments or jewels of metal or stone:: her crown, lapis necklace,, breast beads and breast plate, her gold spangle or wrist ring; and finally her two instruments of rule: her rod or mace, and her coiled measuring cord. .Of these ten items, Inanna is allowed to keep only her coiffure and eye paste.

Curiously, this elaborate rite or ritual of divestiture is no “dance” insofar as Inanna seems quite passive. The tablets do not say she takes these items off and hands them to him, only that each one “was removed.” This passive voice suggests that, unlike Scheherezade, it’s not the lady who’s in charge. It’s the man, the gate-keeper. We are free to imagine he takes them off himself. I suspect, though, that instead he orders her to take them off and hand them over to him.

In any case, at the first gate Inanna loses her crown; at the second her lapis necklace, at the third sixth her breast beads; at the fourth her breast plate; at the fifth her wrist ring; at the her measuring rod and line; and at the seventh her royal robe. [In the Akkadian version, the last thing to go is her loincloth].

At each gate, the formula is repeated/the same: “From her [body part X] the [article Y] was removed.” Here’s the seventh::

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.'

Note.And here, the only variation from the list of articles he gave Ereshkigal is that the last thing removed from Inanna is not her measuring rod and line but her royal robe. This is to show that she has now lost everything she ever had, that stripped bare of her queenly powers and , she has become a mere mortal like the rest of us, and that, as we say, “You can’t take it with you,” but that she is now stripped completely bare like the newborn she was when she entered the world, and to this helpless, infantile state she has now returnedreturned.

Stripped of everything,

Naked and bowed low, Inanna entered the throne room.
Erishkigal rose from her throne.
Inanna started toward the throne.
The Annuna, the judges of the underworld, surrounded her.
They passed judgement against her.
Then Erishkigal fastened on Inanna the eye of death.
She spoke against her the word of wrath.
She uttered against her the cry of guilt.
She struck her.
Inanna was turned into a corpse,
A piece of rotting meat,
And was hung from a hook on the wall.

Note that the third line, “Inanna started toward the throne,” leaves unclear whether she is throwing herself on her mercy, humbly crawling forward to greet and perhaps even plead with her sister, or whether she is making an aggressive move to seize it/replace her. Vut stripped of all her powers, she has nothing left to fight with.===Compare the Akkadian version here: more aggressive, feisty, threatening? … fight

“When at last she comes before Allat, she throws herself upon her in order to wrest from her in a terrible struggle the life of Dumuzi; but Allat sends for Namtar, her messenger of misfortune, to punish, the rebellious Ishtar:
"Strike her eyes with the affliction of the eyes
strike her loins with the affliction of the loins
strike her feet with the affliction of the feet
strike her heart with the affliction of the heart
strike her head with the affliction of the head
strike violently at her, at her whole body!"
(Tr. Hamiilton? Jastrow?)

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