The Descent of Ishtar
Also known as: Ishtar's Descent to the Underworld, The Descent of Ishtar to the Netherworld, Descent of Ishtar
Ishtar, goddess of love and war, descends to the underworld to confront her sister Ereshkigal. Stripped of her powers at seven gates and confined, her absence halts fertility above; through divine intervention she is released on condition that Tammuz serve as her substitute for part of the year.
Description
The Akkadian poem recounts Ishtar’s perilous descent to Kurnugi, the land of no return. At each of seven gates she surrenders a garment or emblem of power before standing helpless before Ereshkigal. With Ishtar imprisoned, procreation and desire cease in the living world. The gods secure her release through appeals to Ereshkigal, but a substitution is required: Tammuz is seized to take her place in the netherworld, his fate ritually lamented and seasonally reversed through alternating service. The narrative compresses cosmology, royal ideology, and cultic logic into a stark underworld drama that explains cycles of barrenness and return.
Historiography
Preserved on Old Babylonian tablets with later first-millennium copies, the poem circulates alongside, and likely depends on, related Sumerian descent traditions. Names and roles vary across recensions (e.g., epithets of Ereshkigal; the naming of the gatekeeper), and some scholia connect the substitution of Tammuz to ritual laments. Modern editions typically derive from composite reconstructions due to fragmentary lines and variant ordering.
Date Notes
Akkadian redaction likely adapted from earlier Sumerian traditions (notably "Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld").
Major Characters
- Ishtar
- Ereshkigal
- Ninsubur
- Tammuz
- Neti
- Ea
Myths
- Ishtar’s Descent to the Underworld
- The Seven Gates and the Stripping of Power
- Release through Ea’s Stratagem
- Tammuz’s Portion of the Underworld
Facts
- Akkadian adaptation of earlier Sumerian descent lore centered on Inanna.
- Seven gates mark progressive loss of Ishtar’s regalia and divine authority.
- Imprisonment of Ishtar halts erotic desire and reproduction in the world above.
- Ereshkigal rules the underworld with Namtar as vizier and a gatekeeper often called Nedu.
- Divine negotiation secures Ishtar’s release only with a substitute occupant.
- Tammuz (Dumuzi) becomes the substitute, linking the myth to seasonal cycles and lament rites.
- The poem survives in Old Babylonian and later first-millennium copies with textual variants.
- The narrative explains fertility’s ebb as a ritual-cosmic necessity rather than mere caprice.
- Titles and epithets vary by recension, including alternate names for Ereshkigal in Akkadian tradition.
- The work is frequently paired in scholarship with "Inanna's Descent" and "Nergal and Ereshkigal" for comparative analysis.