Inanna in the Underworld

Installment number two of the myth of Inanna. It's a sign of her wisdom I think, that she makes the plans with Ninshubur. Inanna is doing something very unusual and dangerous and she has respect for the powers she will encounter, something that we would do well to learn. Failure is a possibility. To borrow Rilke again, "what we choose to fight is so tiny!" but we are sometimes too arrogant or ignorant to understand this.

On with Inanna: The journey to the Underworld was quite dangerous and few had the courage or the chutzpah to imagine it. Inanna told her faithful maidservant and loyal warrior Ninshubur of her plans. The goddess asked her to keep watch over the place of her descent and to go to the gods for help if she didn’t return in three days and nights. "Go first to Father Enlil, God of the Air," Inanna instructed, "and then to my father Nanna, God of the Moon, and finally to Enki, God of the Deep and of the Waters. Enki possesses the water and food of life and he won't let me die." Ninshubur agreed.

When Inanna arrived at the outer gates of the underworld she called out and knocked on the gates to rouse the gatekeeper. “Let me in” she demanded. But he shrugged and asked, “Who are you?” Unimpressed with her answer, the guard made Inanna explain the nature of her visit. He kept her waiting outside the gate while he went to the queen Ereshkigal to see what she wanted to do. “Your sister is here at the gate” he reported, “dressed up very fine and anxious to comfort you.”

Ereshkigal bit her lip and thought about this for a moment. “Let her in” she finally said, “but strip her of her finery, piece by piece, at each of my seven gates.”

So Inanna was allowed to pass, but at each gate something was removed: her crown, her string of small lapis beads, her double strand of beads, her breastplate, her gold ring, the lapis rod and line used to weigh and measure, and finally her robe. Each time Inanna protested. At each gate she was told: “Quiet Inanna, the ways of the underworld are perfect. They may not be questioned.”

Naked and bowed low, Inanna entered the throne room and knelt in the presence of her sister Ereshkigal. The judges of the underworld murmured and passed judgment upon her and Ereshkigal looked at her with the eye of death. Ereshkigal struck her.

Inanna was a corpse.
Inanna was hung like a piece of rotting meat on a hook on the wall.

Tough going for Inanna, who as you might suspect, is about to undergo a profound transformation.

Happy Thanksgiving!