Why does inanna go to underworld

She was not entirely sure what her twin wanted. But remember, she has to shed one by one her royal garments, when she passes each gate. And when she does enter the final gate to reach here, let her head be bowed low! Why these rules for me? The ways of the Underworld are perfect.

Inanna removed her shugarra, her crown and handed it to Neti. She passed through the first gate, opened just a crack to let her through. At the second gate she took her lapis beads from her neck, at the third the double strand on her chest and her breast plate at the fourth. At the fifth gate, she removed her gold ring from her wrist and at the sixth she gave up her lapis sceptre.

Finally at the seventh and the last gate she shed her royal robe. As she moved towards her sister seated on her throne, in order to embrace her, the Annuna, the judges of the Underworld, surrounded her and fearing an attack on their goddess Ereshkigal, passed judgment against her. Perhaps they feared that Inanna would take her sister back to the Earth or the Heavens. Disclaimer : We respect your thoughts and views!

But we need to be judicious while moderating your comments. The battle element is a strong case against the Descent of Inanna being an epic — we get battles in Homer, Virgil, Milton, etc. If that can be called an epic, as it repeatedly has been, our definition of the form is once again thrown into confusion! Open questions are probably the most interesting. A fascinating story, I hope I can read it soon. Yet, I was under the impression that to fall into the epic genre a text should tell of a struggle within a community, like in Beowulf, or aclash between peoples.

But as is so often the case with form and genre, these things cannot be firmly and objectively categorised in many respects. Scholarly puts the period of BC as the start of the Mahabharata War. This puts the war in the middle period of the Indus Valley Civilization, of which the known earliest sites date from the 8th millenium BC in Haryana, India and Mehrgarh, Pakistan. No one really knows when the Epic of Gilgamesh was composed. A dance of the 7 veils! I did not know this piece of work. I do wonder if these 7 that one must give up are part of a death ritual to guide the dying through death.

Enter your email address to subscribe to this site and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address. Inanna decides to visit her sister in the Underworld whose husband has just died.

At the first gate to the Underworld, Inanna is stopped and asked to declare herself. The gatekeeper follows orders. This is symbolic of the descending order of the chakras, from the crown to the root in a process of purification. Ereskigal kills Inanna. Her corpse is hung on a hook, where it turns into a side of green, rotting meat. After three days, when Inanna fails to return, Ninshubur sets in motion her instructions to get help for her release.

Both refuse to meddle in the exacting ways of the underworld. Restored to life, Inanna is reminded that she will need to send a substitute to take her place. When the gods sprinkle her with the water of life, she recovers and returns to earth. What occurs in the story of Ishtar and Tammuz? In this Babylonian equivalent of the Persephone myth, Ishtar sends her son Tammuz to earth and ""wherever he walked, the earth brought forth fruit and crops and the green of the land.

Ishtar, growing envious, orders him killed. Why was Inanna important? Inanna is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess associated with sex, war, justice, and political power. She was known as the "Queen of Heaven" and was the patron goddess of the Eanna temple at the city of Uruk, which was her main cult center.

Who is Aphrodite in Egyptian mythology? Aphrodite was the patron goddess of the Lagid queens and Queen Arsinoe II was identified as her mortal incarnation. Aphrodite was worshipped in Alexandria and had numerous temples in and around the city. What is Ishtar holding in her hands? There is some confusion about what exactly Ishtar holds in her hand. Some see the shape similar to the Ankh, which is a symbol of life. Her hands are not closed over the Ankh or Rod, they are open.

What does the star of Ishtar mean?