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Inanna
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Inanna ; ) is the Sumerian goddess of sexual love, fertility, and warfare.
Alternative Sumerian names include Innin, Ennin, Ninnin, Ninni, Ninanna, Ninnar, Innina, Ennina, Irnina, Innini, Nana and Nin, commonly derived from an earlier Nin-ana "lady of the sky", although Gelb (1960) presented the suggestion that the oldest form is Innin (DINNIN) and that Ninni, Nin-anna and Irnina are independent goddesses in origin.
Her Akkadian counterpart is Ishtar.
na is the goddess of love and is one of the Sumerian war deities, who was seen swaggering around the streets of her home town, dragging young men out of the taverns to have sex with her.
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Encyclopedia
Inanna ; ) is the Sumerian goddess of sexual love, fertility, and warfare.
Alternative Sumerian names include Innin, Ennin, Ninnin, Ninni, Ninanna, Ninnar, Innina, Ennina, Irnina, Innini, Nana and Nin, commonly derived from an earlier Nin-ana "lady of the sky", although Gelb (1960) presented the suggestion that the oldest form is Innin (DINNIN) and that Ninni, Nin-anna and Irnina are independent goddesses in origin.
Her Akkadian counterpart is Ishtar.
Character
Inanna is the goddess of love and is one of the Sumerian war deities, who was seen swaggering around the streets of her home town, dragging young men out of the taverns to have sex with her. Despite her association with mating and fertility of humans and animals, Inanna was not a mother goddess, though she is associated with childbirth in certain myths. Inanna was also associated with rain and storms and with the planet Venus. She is always depicted with a shaved pubic region.
Origins
As early as the Uruk period (ca. 4000 to 3100 BCE) it would appear Inanna was associated with the city of Uruk. The famous Uruk vase, found in a deposit of cult objects of the Uruk III period, depicts a row of naked men carrying various objects, bowls, vessels, and baskets of farm produce, and bringing sheep and goats, to a female figure facing the ruler, ornately dressed for a divine marriage, and attended by a servant. The female figure holds the symbol of the two twisted reeds of the doorpost signifying Inanna behind her, whilst the male figure holds a box and stack of bowls, the later cuneiform sign signifying En, or high priest of the temple.
She figures prominently in one of the earliest legends, Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, in something like a kingmaker role, transferring her personal abode and favour, and thus hegemony, from the court of Aratta's king to that of Uruk.
Seal impressions from the Jemdet Nasr period (ca. 3100-2900 BCE) show a fixed sequence of city symbols including those of Ur, Larsa, Zabalam, Urum, Arina, and probably Kesh. It is likely that this list reflects the report of contributions to Inanna at Uruk from cities supporting her cult. A large number of similar sealings were found from the slightly later Early Dynastic I phase at Ur, in a slightly different order, combined with the rosette symbol of Inanna, that were definitely used for this purpose. They had been used to lock storerooms to preserve materials set aside for her cult.
Inanna's name is commonly derived from Nin-anna "Queen of Heaven" (from Sumerian NIN "lady", AN "sky"), although the cuneiform sign for her name (Borger 2003 nr. 153, U+12239 ??) is not historically a ligature of the two.
In some traditions Inanna was said to be a granddaughter of the creator goddess Nammu or Namma.. These difficulties have led some early Assyriologists to suggest that Inanna may have been originally a Proto-Euphratean goddess, possibly related to the Hurrian mother goddess Hannahannah, accepted only latterly into the Sumerian pantheon, an idea supported by her youthfulness, and that, unlike the other Sumerian divinities, she at first had no sphere of responsibilities
The view that there was a Proto-Euphratean substrate language in Southern Iraq before Sumerian is not widely accepted by modern Assyriologists.
Worship
Along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers were many shrines and temples dedicated to Inanna. The temple of Eanna, meaning "house of heaven" or "house of An" in Uruk was the greatest of these. The god of this fourth-millennium city was probably originally An. After its dedication to Inanna the temple seems to have housed priestesses of the goddess. The high priestess would choose for her bed a young man who represented the shepherd Dumuzid, consort of Inanna, in a hieros gamos or sacred marriage, celebrated during the annual Akitu (New Year) ceremony, at the spring Equinox. In late Sumerian history (end of the third millennium) kings established their legitimacy by taking the place of Dumuzi in the temple for one night on the occasion of the New Year festival.
Iconography
Inanna's symbol is an eight-pointed star or a rosette. She was associated with lions — even then a symbol of power — and was frequently depicted standing on the backs of two lionesses. Her cuneiform ideogram was a hook-shaped twisted knot of reeds, representing the doorpost of the storehouse (and thus fertility and plenty).
Myths
Inanna and the mes
According to one story, Inanna tricked the god of culture, Enki, who was worshipped in the city of Eridu, into giving her the 'Mes'. The 'Mes' ("maes") represented everything from truth to weaving to prostitution, granting power over, or possibly existence to, all the aspects of civilization (both positive and negative). Inanna traveled to Enki's city Eridu, and by getting him drunk, she got him to give her hundreds—the exact number is unknown, because the text breaks off—of Mes, which she took to her city of Uruk. Upon sobering up, Enki sent mighty Abgallu (sea monsters, from ab, sea or lake + gal, big + lu, man) to stop her boat as it sailed the Euphrates and retrieve his gifts, but she gave him the slip. This story may represent the historic transfer of power from Eridu to Uruk.
Inanna's descent to the underworld
Most curious is perhaps the story of Inanna's descent to the underworld, which is known from a poem on a relatively intact set of tablets.
In Sumer the Underworld was a dreary, dark place; a home to deceased heroes and ordinary people alike. Based on their behavior they could be afforded better treatment or positions in the underworld.
Inanna's reason for visiting the underworld is unclear. The reason she gives to the gatekeeper of the underworld is that she wants to attend her brother-in-law Gud-gal-ana's funeral rites. However, this may be a ruse; Inanna may have been intending to conquer the underworld. Ereshkigal , queen of the underworld and Inanna's sister, may have suspected this, which could explain her treatment of Inanna.
Before she left, Inanna instructed her minister Ninshubur to plead with the gods Enlil, Nanna, and Enki to save her if anything went wrong.
Inanna dresses elaborately for the visit, with a turban, a wig, a lapis lazuli necklace, beads upon her breast, the 'pala dress' (the ladyship garment), mascara, pectoral, a golden ring on her hand, and she held a lapis lazuli measuring rod. These garments are each representations of powerful mes she posesses. Perhaps Inanna's garments, unsuitable for a funeral, along with Inanna's haughty behaviour make Ereshkigal suspicious.
Following Ereshkigal's instructions, the gatekeeper tells Inanna she may enter the first gate of the underworld, but she must hand over her lapis lazuli measuring rod. She asks why and is told 'It is just the ways of the Underworld'. She obliges and passes through. Inanna passes through a total of seven gates, each removing a piece of clothing or jewelry she had been wearing at the start of her journey, thus stripping her of her power.
When she arrives in front of her sister she is naked. "After she had crouched down and had her clothes removed, they were carried away. Then she made her sister Erec-ki-gala rise from her throne, and instead she sat on her throne. The Anna, the seven judges, rendered their decision against her. They looked at her -- it was the look of death. They spoke to her -- it was the speech of anger. They shouted at her -- it was the shout of heavy guilt. The afflicted woman was turned into a corpse. And the corpse was hung on a hook."
Ereškigal's hate for Inanna could be referenced in a few other myths. Ereškigal is seen as an accidental 'black sheep' of sorts. She can not leave her kingdom of the Underworld to join the other 'living' Gods and they can not visit her in the Underworld or else they can never return. Inanna symbolized love (in the sense of eros) and fertility and was the polar opposite of Ereškigal.
Three days and three nights passed and Nincurba following instructions went to Enlil, Nanna, and Enki's temples and demanded they save the Goddess of Love. The first two gods refused saying it was her own mess but Enki was deeply troubled and agreed to help. He created two sexless figures (neither male nor female) named gala-tura and the kur-jara. He instructed they were to appease Ereškigal and when asked what they wanted they were to ask for Inanna's corpse and sprinkle it with the food and water of life. However when they come before Ereshkigal, she is in agony like a woman giving birth, and she offers them what they want, including lifegiving rivers of water and fields of grain, if they can relieve her; nonetheless they take only the corpse.
Things went as Enki said and the gala-tura and the kur-jara were able to revive Inanna. Demons of Ereškigal's followed (or accompanied) Inanna out of the underworld and demanded she wasn’t free to go until someone took her place. They first came upon Nincurba and asked to take her. Inanna refused saying she had helped her as she had asked. They next came upon Cara, Inanna's beautician, still in mourning. The demons said they would take them but Inanna refused for he had been there for her. They next came upon Lulal also in mourning. The demons offered to take him but Inanna refused.
They next came upon Dumuzi, Inanna's husband. He was sitting in nice clothing and enjoying himself despite his wife supposedly still being missing in the underworld. Inanna, displeased, decrees that the demons shall take him - and herself uses the same "look of death" etc that were previously used upon her by Ereshkigal. Dumuzi tried to escape his fate but a fly told Inanna and the demons where he was. However, Dumuzi's sister, out of love for him, begged to be allowed to take his place. It was then decreed that Dumuzi spent half the year in the underworld and his sister take the other half.
Interpretations of the Inanna descent myth
The union of Inanna and Ereshkigal
Additionally, the myth can be described as a union of Inanna with her own "dark side", her twin sister-self, Ereshkigal, as when she ascends it is with Ereshkigal's powers, while Inanna is in the underworld it is Ereshkigal who apparently takes on fertility powers, and the poem ends with a line in praise, not of Inanna, but of Ereshkigal. It is in many ways a praise-poem dedicated to the more negative aspect's of Inanna's domain, symbolic of an acceptance of the necessity of death to the continuance of life. It can also be interpreted as being about the psychological power of a descent into the unconscious, realizing one's own strength through an episode of seeming powerlessness, and/or an acceptance of one's own negative qualities, as it is by Joseph Campbell.
Related deities
Inanna is the daughter of the moon god Nanna, and sister to the sun god Utu and the rain god Ishkur. Her sister is Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld.
As the goddess of the planet Venus, Inanna was identified by the Akkadians with their own Venus deity, who may have been male. Although the Akkadian name for the goddess was Ishtar, the Akkadians used Sumerian as a religious language; so their hymns, written in Sumerian, use the name Inanna.
Further reading
- Jeremy Black, Graham Cunningham, Eleanor Robson, and Gábor Zólyomi (2004) The Literature of Ancient Sumer (Oxford University Press) ISBN 0-19-926311-6
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- Halloran, John A.
- Voorbij de Zerken: a Dutch book which "contains" both Ereshkigal and Inanna.
- Pereira, Sylvia Brunton, Descent to the Goddess (Inner City Books, 1981). A Jungian interpretation of the process of psychological 'descent and return', using the story of Inanna as translated by Wolkstein and Kramer. ISBN 978-0919123052
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