ANA MARIA SEGHESSO
DUMUZI
The Pantheon of Mesopotamian Mythology has been divided, for greater understanding, into Sumerian and Semitic divinities (3)
First there were the Sumerian gods who were later adapted by the Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Arameans and Chaldeans, all Semitic peoples.
Hades or Tartarus of the Greeks, Hell of the Christians, Gehenna or Sheol of the Jews are places where the dead go, but whose significance varies significantly.
The spaces of existence after death can be of terrible suffering, like the Christian one, neutral, like the Jewish Sheol, or sad due to the lack of light and vitality like the Greek one.
The Sumerians, more than a thousand years before the Hebrews wrote the first books of the Bible and the Greeks the Iliad and the Odyssey, created a literature of myths, epics, hymns, proverbs, fables and natural studies.
INANNA
All this creativity was transcribed in cuneiform writing, one of the oldest forms of written expression conceived at the end of the 4th millennium BC.
They were among the first peoples to record through their writing a Cosmology, that is, the general laws of the origin and evolution of the Universe, which could explain it.
Also first in determining sentences, codes of laws, establishing moral ideals, pharmaceutical treaties, conceiving the first parliament to govern themselves, and creating urban architectural patterns.
The first Flood and the first Paradise were also written on clay tablets in cuneiform by the Sumerians.
The lower world was conceived by these people as a place where the bodies of the dead had a place after death.
To get there, you passed through seven doors, in each one giving the guardian everything you owned, clothing, ornaments and jewelry.
In Sumerian mythology Inanna is the goddess of love and war, summarizing the two poles of
love - hate,
peace - war.
Among the Greeks and Romans these functions are shared with the gods Ares, in Greece, Mars, in Rome.
Inanna is identified with Aphrodite, Venus, Ishtar and Astarte, all goddesses of love and beauty from Greece, Rome, Babylon and Phoenicia.
Her power is annexed to the Universe because she is also the "Queen of Heaven" or "Great One of the Heights.”
Inanna is the daughter of Sin, god of the Moon, younger sister of Ereškigal, goddess of the Underworld and twin sister of Šamaš, god of the Sun. Her husband is Tammuz, in Sumerian, Dumuzi.
It is associated with the planet Venus, morning and evening star, Morning Star and Vesperus, symbolized in an eight-pointed star. His favorite animal is the lion.
One of the most representative Myths, which stands out for its originality and its cultural characteristics, is the "Journey of Inanna to the Land of No Return" also called Irkalla.
The Myth tells that the goddess of Heaven was extremely ambitious, capable of risking her life to obtain the power she lacked in the World of the dead, belonging to Ereškigal. He then sets out to reign in the "Great One below", descending to the Underworld to carry out his plan.
She dresses up in her queen's dresses, adorns herself with her best jewelry and leaves for the "Country of No Return."
The queen of Hell, elder sister and her worst enemy, is cruel and dangerous, so Inanna prepares her plan with the greatest scruples, foreseeing all the possible inconveniences that could arise in her audacious attempt to take possession of her adversary's kingdom.
He carefully instructs his minister and advisor Ninshubur on the steps he must take if he is not back in three days.
The first thing will be to raise a lamentation in the room where the gods have their assemblies. Then he will go to Nippur, the city of Enlil, god of Creation, and beg him to intercede so that Inanna is not sacrificed in Hell.
In the event that Enlil does not want to save her, he must go to Ur, the city of Nanna, god of the Moon, to intercede for his daughter. If the god refuses, she will go to the city of Eridu, city of the god of Wisdom Enki, "knower of the filter of life", who will surely help her.
After making all the recommendations to Ninshubur, the goddess descends to the "Great One Below" heading to the temple of Ereškigal, built in lapis lazuli.
The custodian Neti asks him the reason for his visit and after receiving his queen's order he allows him to cross the seven doors of the Infernal World.
At each door they take away her clothes and jewelry, ignoring her protests, arriving at the last door naked, without any symbol of her power, forced to prostrate before Ereškigal and the Anunnaki, the seven implacable Judges of Hell, who they direct their "deadly gaze."
Inanna dies and her corpse is hung on a nail.
After three days and three nights, Ninshubur executes his Lady's orders. As predicted Enlil and Nanna deny her help in saving her; Enki accepts and conceives a ruse to bring her back to life: he models with clay two sexless creatures, kurgarru and kalaturru, to whom he entrusts the "nutrition and vital filter", ordering them to go down to Hell and sprinkle them on Inanna's corpse.
The provisions are fulfilled and the goddess is resurrected.
However, in the “Country of No Return” there is a law that anyone can transgress, whoever has entered cannot move forward unless there is someone who can replace them. Inanna cannot be exempt, if she is only allowed to suffer on earth, but not alone, the merciless demons will accompany her, with the order to return her to Hell unless another divinity replaces her.
Thus begins a pilgrimage in different cities, depriving the terror of the protective Gods when the visitors from the world of the dead who accompany the God of Heaven appear.
If they hide from their rags and cling to the heart of Inanna, they, moved by humility, do not allow the demons to exchange them.
They continue their journey and arrive at the city of Kullab, where Queen Dumuzi, husband of Inanna and shepherd god of the city, is located.
(Dumuzi, through the Sacred Marriage with Inanna, had become the protector of God).
When the god appears in the company of the Anunnaki, she does not worry about the situation of his wife in the power of the demons.
In her husband's condition, Inanna does not think much about humiliating herself in rags and kneeling asking for mercy; on the contrary, she adorns herself with sumptuous robes and sits on the throne with a proud gesture.
The husband's actions strengthen Inanna.
He scans it with the "vision of death" and presents it to the demons, eager to take it away.
Dumuzi turns pale and raises his hands to heaven asking for help from Utu, god of the Sun and brother of Inanna, but he is sealed by fate and is being taken to Hell.
INANNA AND DUMUZI
The Myth of "Inanna's Journey to the Land of No Return" was not immediately known in its entirety by translators and its meaning remained obscure.
The fired clay tablets with cuneiform inscriptions discovered at that time had numerous gaps that prevented the complete history from being reconstructed. Until two pieces of the same tablet were found, probably broken at the time it was unearthed.
One piece was found in the University Museum of Philadelphia and the other in the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul.
It is because of these circumstances that many scholars believed that Inanna's "Journey to the Land of No Return" was due to her desire to rescue her husband.
The hypothesis was false, the result of modern mentality.
The true characteristics of the "Queen of Heaven" were not taken into consideration, capable of imposing her will and punishing anyone who dared to diminish her hierarchy.
Power and authority belonged to him and he exercised them against anyone who tried to diminish it.
There is no doubt that contemporary culture has modified the polytheistic behavioral paradigms, which are very far from the current ones in the dominant mentality.
The complete account was published in 1937 in the Paris "Magazine of Archaeology", by the world-famous Assyriologist and scholar, S.M.Kramer.
(1) Dumuzi.
Ereškigal improved his luck by allowing him to return to the land in the summer months, to promote fertility, while his sister Geshtinanna replaced him.
(2) Sacred Marriage, Hierogamy,
It is the central Rite of the cult of Dumuzi, related to the cult of Fertility. Its meaning varied in the various communities that celebrated it. For fruit tree growers, Marriage represented the fullness of the seasons of the year, the time of harvest, the rich and complete wedding feast of all kinds of fruits available.
For animal breeders, the importance was concentrated on mating, the Fertility Rite coincided the generating power of the gods with the reproduction of livestock.
(3) The polytheistic religion is characterized by the faith and worship of various divinities. Monotheism is faith in one god.
