Inanna and Ebih
Also known as: Inanna and Ebiḫ, Inana and Ebiḫ, Inanna and Mount Ebih, Inana and Ebih
Inanna confronts the mountain Ebih for refusing obeisance, secures divine sanction, arms for battle, and devastates the mountain, asserting cosmic sovereignty and instituting cultic order.
Description
This Sumerian narrative poem recounts how Inanna, affronted by Mount Ebih’s refusal to bow, vows to subdue it. After addressing An for acknowledgement of her terror and mandate, she arms herself with fearsome weapons and unleashes fire, flood, and storm upon the mountain. Ebih’s forests are cursed, its rocks shattered, and its creatures scattered as Inanna asserts dominion. The poem closes with her establishment of authority and cult performers, celebrating the goddess’s warlike prowess and the restoration of cosmic hierarchy in which divine sovereignty demands submission.
Historiography
The text is preserved principally through Old Babylonian-era tablets and scholarly composites such as ETCSL’s transliteration and translation. While ancient tradition links the composition to Enheduanna, direct autograph evidence is lacking, and attribution remains debated. The work is cited within broader hymnic traditions to Inanna and intersects with episodes referenced in other compositions like the Exaltation of Inana. Modern editions rely on collating fragmentary manuscripts and catalog notices to reconstruct sequence and lineation.
Date Notes
Traditionally attributed to Enheduanna (Akkadian Empire). Survives in Old Babylonian copies (c. 19th–17th c. BCE); authorship attribution is debated in scholarship.
Major Characters
- Inanna
- Mount Ebih
- An (Anu)
- Enlil
Myths
- Inanna’s War against Mount Ebih
Notable Quotes
How can it be that the mountain did not fear me in heaven and on earth?
I shall set fire to its thick forests; I shall make Gibil do his work at its watercourses.
The mistress, in her rage and anger, opened the arsenal and pushed on the lapis lazuli gate.
I have killed you and brought you low.
Facts
- Narrative centers on Inanna’s punitive destruction of Mount Ebih for refusing obeisance.
- Traditionally attributed to Enheduanna, high priestess of Nanna at Ur, though attribution is debated.
- Preserved in Old Babylonian manuscripts; modern text relies on composite reconstructions.
- ETCSL edition numbers 184 lines in the standard translation.
- The poem includes hymnic praise sections and a direct address to An.
- Weapons and forces invoked include a seven-headed šita weapon, fire, flood, and storm imagery.
- Curses target Ebih’s forests and fauna, symbolizing total subjugation of the mountain.
- Concludes with establishment of authority and mention of kurǝara, gala, and pilipili performers.
- Situates Inanna as embodiment of terror, kingship mandate, and cosmic sovereignty.
- References lands and locales such as Aratta and the Lulubi mountains.