A Sumerian Myth: Queen Inanna's Descent
How Two Sisters Reconcile the Light and Dark Forces Between Them
Aug 2, 2008
Inanna, the Sumerian Queen of Heaven, has everything a girl could want: money, power, love and fame. Why then does she voluntarily descend into the underworld? The journey proves to be far more than she had bargained for in this myth from Sumeria.
Sisters at the Gates of Hell
There are seven gates through which she must pass, alone. At the first gate she meets the chief gatekeeper and servant to the queen of the underworld, her sister Ereshkigal -- her exact opposite, as dark is to light. (This story is about many things, but in this brief discussion it is about the reckoning of opposites that occurs within families, relationships, and within the psyche itself.)
As Jungian analyst, teacher and writer Christine Downing states in her essay Sister and Brothers Casting Shadows, "For a woman the sister is the other most like ourselves of any creature in the world. …Yet this other so like myself is, ineluctably, other." The tension between these opposites can last a lifetime. Despite this shadow aspect of the other, it is to one's sister, says Downing, that one most often turns for comfort in times of stress, says Downing.
The Descent
So with Queen Inanna the descent proceeds, at each of the seven gates another item of jewelry or clothing forfeited. Also, at each gate the proud Inanna asks,
"What is this?"
To which she is told,
"Quiet, Inanna, the ways of the underworld are perfect. They may not be questioned."
The same question, the same reply as at gate after gate another item is forfeited.
"Only humbled and naked can my sister enter this realm," decrees Ereshkigal.
Here is the stripping down of the psyche, a winnowing back to its true proportions beyond the royal persona, beyond inflation and falsely identified ego. This is how Inanna must enter the gates:
at gate 1: the royal crown or Shugurra is lifted from her head
at gate 2: the lapis beads are lifted from her neck
at gate 3: the gold breastplate worn across her heart removed
at gate 4: the gold wrist band at her wrist removed
at gate 5: the gold wrist band on her other wrist removed
at gate 6: the lapis lazuli measuring rod and line in her hand removed
at gate 7: the royal robe itself, -- finally removed
So, naked and humbled Inanna enters the royal thrown room where her dark sister waits.
Letting Go the False Self
On a psychological level, what has occurred is a letting go of all false aspects of the self. These are aspects of the persona which have become hardened and rigid, preventing Inanna from acting from her true self. Nor can this essential truth be challenged. What does not belong to one’s essential nature does not belong, period. Whatever is not hers has become burdensome, whether she recognizes it or not. The symbols of royalty Inanna once eagerly embraced must now be lifted.
As in the throne room the dark sister meets the light, the scene proceeds as follows:
- the two queens stare at one another
- Inanna dares to take the first step forward, but is halted
- judges of the underworld, a swarm annuha surround her.
- Ereshkigal fastens on her sister the eye of death
- Ereshkigal speaks words of "wrath" against Inanna
- Ereshkigal cries "guilt" against Inanna
- Ereshkigal strikes Inanna -- hard
- Inanna at once is turned into a corpse
- She is left to hang from a hook on the wall—"a piece of rotting meat."
Redemption and Return
All ends well, however. The god of wisdom sends two saviors in the form of flies:the kurgarra and the galatu. They enter the underworld. Here sits Ereshkigal weeping and moaning over her dead sister’s corpse. The flies do as they’ve been instructed. They drip life-saving liquids onto Inanna’s corpse. Inanna stirs and gradually awakes.
With these acts of empathy from the dark sister, this moaning and rocking in her grief, there is a coming together of these opposing forces. And so Inanna is restored to life and allowed to return to her realm of gold and light. As in all myths and legend, she returns from the underworld forever changed. Henceforth, Inanna embodies the gifts from the dark sister; now as Queen she is reconciled to the part of herself projected onto her sister. Reclaiming this part of herself, she is at last whole.
References:
See this useful and informative book by Noah Kramerbooks.google.ca/books
Downing, C. Sisters and Brothers Casting Shadows from Meeting the Shadow, eds. Zweig, C & Abrams, J. (1991). New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Wolkstein, D. & Kramer, S. N. (1983). Inanna Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her stories and Hymns from Sumer. New York: Harper & Row.
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