The Descent of Inanna
Also known as: Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld, Inanna's Descent
Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, descends to the netherworld, is judged by Ereshkigal, killed, and hung on a hook. Rescued through Enki’s craft and life-giving rites, she rises but must provide a substitute, leading to Dumuzi’s partial, seasonal fate.
Description
The Sumerian poem recounts how Inanna prepares for a deliberate descent to the realm of her sister Ereshkigal, passing seven gates where her royal me-regalia are stripped away. Before the "Great Below" she is judged, struck down, and hung on a hook like carrion, suspending the balance of life above. Her faithful vizier Ninsubur appeals to the high gods; only Enki responds, crafting the kurgarra and galatur from the dirt beneath his fingernails and sending them with the food and water of life to revive the goddess. On her ascent, galla demons insist on a substitute; Inanna spares the loyal but delivers Dumuzi, who had not mourned. Pursuit, divine interventions, and the compassion of Geshtinanna resolve in a cyclical arrangement, dividing the year between the siblings and binding fertility to descent and return.
Historiography
The poem survives in fragmentary Sumerian tablets primarily from Old Babylonian contexts, with lines reconstructed from multiple manuscripts. Modern editions synthesize overlapping witnesses and parallel motifs from related Dumuzi–Geshtinanna texts. The work is distinct in language and structure from the Akkadian "Ishtar’s Descent," though the two are often compared. Scholarly translations vary in line numbering and sequence due to lacunae and duplications in the tradition.
Date Notes
Composed in Sumerian, with Old Babylonian tablet copies; distinct from the later Akkadian "Ishtar's Descent".
Themes
Symbols
Major Characters
- Inanna
- Ereshkigal
- Ninsubur
- Dumuzi
- Geshtinanna
- Neti
- Enki
Myths
- Inanna’s Descent through the Seven Gates
- The Death of Inanna and Her Hanging on the Hook
- Enki’s Rescue by the kurgarra and galatur
- Dumuzi’s Substitution and the Cycle of Return
Facts
- The poem is Sumerian and predates the Akkadian "Ishtar’s Descent," though the two share motifs.
- Inanna is stripped of her me-regalia at each of the seven gates, signaling loss of status and power.
- Ereshkigal and the Anunna judge Inanna, leading to her ritual death and suspension.
- Enki alone answers Ninsubur’s pleas and engineers Inanna’s revival via created emissaries.
- The galla demons accompany Inanna upward to claim a substitute for her release.
- Dumuzi becomes the primary substitute, inaugurating a seasonal alternation with Geshtinanna.
- The narrative encodes fertility cycles through descent, death, and partial return.
- Tablet witnesses are fragmentary; modern editions rely on composite reconstruction.
- Names and episode order can vary slightly across manuscripts and translations.
- The text influenced later Mesopotamian and Near Eastern descent narratives.