The Exultant Myth Cycle of the Sumerian Goddess Inanna: A Myth for our Times

Inanna is the older sister the Goddess Ishtar. Her Descent to the Underworld is thought to be the mythic source for the famous “Dance of the Seven Veils.”

The complete translation of Inanna’s myth cycle would take many hours to perform. There are five stories: The Huluppu Tree; Inanna and The God of Wisdom as well as the three in Jenni’s rendition: The Courtship and Marriage, the Descent and the Return. The seminal text of the Inanna myth isInanna queen of heaven and earth: Her stories and hymns from Sumer by Diane Wolkstein and Noah Samuel Kramer (see below). Diane was New York's storyteller- in- residence. 

Sumer was ‘the cradle of civilisation’, for here the first system of writing was developed and the first urban centres came into being. The kingdom of Sumer began around 3000BC and ended in 1750BC when the reigning Sumerian King was conquered by a Babylonian King. But even then, the Sumerian language and literature continued to be used by schools and academies throughout the land.

The songs and hymns to Inanna were written down in about 2000 BC. (About the same time that the sun worshippers in Ireland were creating the mother mounds at Newgrange where the triple spiral is inscribed.) More hymns and prayers, poems and stories of Inanna have been discovered than of any other Sumerian deity. Like many fertility Goddesses, Inanna was constantly in cycle like the moon, the seasons and nature. She began the year as a young woman, matured into ripe woman, married, then grew into the crone or wise woman, to be reborn a young woman with the New Year.

In ancient times the high priestesses would perform this myth cycle over seven days and nights, including mating with the King to establish his virility, earn his Divine Right of Kingship from the Goddess and ensure the fertility the land. For the first thousand years of their civilisation, the Sumerians were farmers and so each year at the sacred rite, Inanna mated with and married the King, who was a farmer. Then came the Akkadians, the northern invaders, who were shepherds with different ways. So the myth changed and Inanna began marrying the shepherd Dumuzi, who usurped the farmer. However Dumuzi retained some functions of the vegetation God who died and was reborn each year, as a reflection of the cycles of nature. 

Dumuzi’s descent helped resolve two facts that were theologically perplexing for the Sumerians: that the King who was meant to be divine and not die, did in fact die like a mortal. But if he were vegetation God this could be accepted as all knew the Vegetation God died each year. Also how could their deities allow all vegetable life to be decimated in the hot, summer months? Well, the myth explains that they must merely wait for the Gods return and reunion with his Goddess, then life will again flourish.

There are other reasons why Dumuzi descends to the Underworld. He was perhaps also a reminder to those in power, that it is wise to remain humble and reverent towards the divine ‘Source’. Otherwise, one can become obsessed with power, riches and glory.

If Dumuzi’s fate seems unfair, it may help to consider that in a sense, Inanna did take her fair share of time descending downwards, as Gesht-inanna can be seen as another aspect of Inanna. 

This ancient myth is indeed a myth for our times, as it reminds us of the consequences, now being played out, of focusing on material wealth, without sufficient reverence for the finite resources of the natural world.

Sources:

Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer, Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her stories and Hymns from Sumer, Harper and Row, New York, 1983

Excerpted from J. Elder, The Descent of Inanna: Magic is the art and science of changing consciousness at will. www.jelder.com/mythology/inanna.html

See also, Starhawk’s The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religions of the Great Goddess, Harper Collins, San Fransisco, 1979,1989) 

and her version of Inanna for children in:
Starhawk, Diane Baker & Anne Hill, Circle Round: Raising Children in the Goddess Traditions, Bantam, New York, 1998.