Re: Inanna's Descent

Hi Glen, thought you had given up the ghost following the emails
about Lake Tunguskaya and the lack of connection between East and
West Urals until Yamanaya and Andronova cultures coming from the west
(over the Urals).

> Hey folks, it's me gLenNy gEe just saying that I'm still alive.

Hooray! Hope

> you missed me. :) I neglected my email for a week and lived to

regret it

> (some 600 messages in my email and not even spam!)
>
> I still can't get enough of this Goddess thing. I feel that it

needs to be

> addressed fully in order to understand IE mythology. Afterall, IE

myth

> appears to have absorbed much of it.
>
> Now, Joao says:
> >There is similarities although I think this myth was not IE. The
>rescue of
> >a deity from Hell, whose ausence cause a decaying of nature >is

present at

> >Balder myth (Scandinavia), Osiris & Isis (Egypt), Inana, >Dumuzi

and

> >Ereshkigal (Mesopotamia).
>
> This is what is driving me bananas lately. It's the Inanna-Dumuzi-

Ereshkigal

> thing... and I agree that this is ultimately not an IE myth. "Why

is it

> driving me nuts," you ask? Well, it would appear that Inanna is

associated

> early on with the planet Venus. John can plead all he wants that

astral

> symbolisms derive from a culture in a "sunny climate" but it

doesn't make

> much sense in the end.
>
> Dumuzi seems to be the "sun" and Ereshkigal is certainly the Old

Hag or

> White Death Goddess of European-Anatolian prehistorical myth

represented

> astrally as the moon (and a perfect symbol to bring up just in time

for

> Halloween might I add since the moon is high and the pentagrams are

being

> drawn as we speak).

Sorry Glen, Dumuzi was the shepherd lord and fertility God, son of
Enki (Lord Earth) and Situr, husband of Inanna and has no real
assocation with the Sumerian Son God, Utu, son of Namma (Sumerian
moon) and Ningal (The great Lady). Utu did recommend Dumuzi to
Inanna as a possible husband and later aided Dumuzi in trying to
escape the galla demons who came back with Inanna from the underword
to take someone in her place. These associations seem to be
seasonal, as Dumuzi's descent was associated with the spring harvest,
prior to the Summer "Death" season (Sumerians saw the seasons
opposite to the Europeans - European winter was the season of death
(i.e. the white lady you speak of was the winter snows) - Sumerian
summer was the season of death. The summer season began with the
ocultation of the Bull of Heaven (Gugalana = Taurus) by the sun (i.e.
his death). His wife, Ereshkigal, older sister of Inanna (i.e.
Inanna in a more ancent aspect), was in mourning, and Inanna descends
to give her comfort. The descent of Inanna reflects the ocultation
of Venus as it travels between her evening and morning star aspect.

> I gather so far that Dumuzi is the "beautiful young man" and simply

a male

> version of the more common "beautiful young maiden" aspect of the

Goddess,

> representing fertility, creation, youth, etc. This would make the

planet

> Venus a symbol of the intermediate aspect of Her - the mother. The

mother

> can also be viewed as a symbol of fertility and especially _love_

as in

> motherly love which is exactly the portrayal of her from the very

start of

> history.

Inanna whilst associated with sex was not a mother. She was forever
maiden, forever virgin (in the sense of not being owned by a man!),
married each year in the reat Marriage Rite of the Hierosgamos, but
never conceiving.

>
> Further, we might envision the planet Venus as "giving birth" to

The Child

> (aka: the sun). Images of mother with child exist from 6000 BCE in

Anatolia.

> May I suggest that this imagery could have had an added astral

symbolism

> touching on the concept of "spring" as well as creation, fertility,

etc.

Sumerians never saw Inanna giving birth to anything. It was Ki
(Earth), aka Ninhursag (Lady of the Mountain), aka Ninmah (Exalted
Lady), aka Nintu (The "mother of all living" or "lady rib". This is
identical to the Hebrew Hwh (He Vau He) = Eve), who was the "mother
Goddess" par excellence. She was the wife of Enki (Lord Earth), also
called Ea (Hebrew = Yah) and often portrayed as a snake guaring the
tree of wisdom(hence the Garden of Eden serpent).

> The so-called young (as well as older and bearded) Master of the

Animals

> that Gimbutas refers to all the time may therefore be viewed as a
> representation of the sun or the power of the sun to induce plant

growth on

> Mother Earth - thus a direct ancestor of Dumuzi. Because of this

last

> quality of our "Dumuzi", we might also consider the sun not only as

a son of

> Venus but also a _consort_ of Her, fertilizing Mother Earth with

His rays

> (Can you say "Oedipus Complex"??!). Therefore the two males that

sometimes

> exist flanking the Goddess on either side may be one and the same,
> representing The Sun and His Fertility both as Son and as Consort.

Glen, you have the Sumerian cosmology back to front. The sun did not
engender plant growth in Sumeria but ended it. It was the winter
season which was the season of growth of grain, summer brought on the
harvest, and storage of grain. You forget it is the winter rains in
Middle East which brings on plant growth (hence the importance of
storm gods like Canaanite Hadad, Hurrian-Hittite Teshub and
Phoenician Baal.)

> So if I have all the answers, what's driving me nuts? Well, the

question I

> started out with in my cutesy research and still haven't quite

answered

> satisfactorily as of yet is: "Was the sun originally male or female

when the

> IEs came along to warp the myths with their own native concepts?"
>
> Of course, we could say that the sun was neither male nor female,

assexual

> (animism), but all the symbolisms seen in prehistoric artifacts in

Europe

> and Anatolia seem to be majoritarily gynofocal. So... I guess we

should

> think that the sun started out as "female" in Europe and viewed as

a young

> Creatrix aspect of the Goddess. But... how does Dumuzi fit in the

big

> picture then?
>
> My latest thinking is that maybe at around 7000 BCE or so, a shift

in

> Anatolia concerning the Goddess happened. The sun, being initially

a

> beautiful young maiden and daughter of Herself as the Preservatrix,

came to

> be viewed as a _son_ instead.

Sorry Glen, in Anatolia down tio classical times the sun was viewed
as female, never male. Wurusemu (the sun goddess of Arinna, mistress
of the Khatti and adopted by the Hittites like much of the Khatti
pantheon) was always female. She married Taru (Hittite Tarhunt
Etruscan Tarquin = the storm God Tehsub ibn another guise), and was
the mother of the storm God Nerik, whom she aids in returning from
the underwords (Shades of Anath and Baal).

Perhaps such a shift could be caused by the

> assexual nature of children. The sex is particularly unimportant

for the

> Creatrix aspect since it is _youth_ and _creation_, neither of

which are

> sex-specific, which is the main concept here. This is opposed to

the greater

> importance of sex regarding the intermediate aspect, The Mother and
> Birth-Giving Goddess - fathers just can't lay Cosmic Eggs or give

birth to

> children no matter how hard they push :)
>
> Gives a whole new meaning to "The Father, The Son, and The Holy

Ghost",

> doesn't it? Or should I say... "The Mother (Venus), The Child

(Sun), and the

> Old Hag (Moon)".

So Glen we have Venus was never portrayed as a mother, but as
consort, lover and maiden only. The Sun, portrayed as Male in
Sumeria, but always Female in Anatolia, and the Moon, Nammu in
Sumerian also as male in Anatolia too (Kashku). Three stikes and you
are out!

> BTW, the rivalism between the Sun and the Moon (aka: Dumuzi and

Ereshkigal)

> is obvious since this is a metaphor for the change between Spring-

Summer

> (young season dominated by day and sun) and Fall-Winter (old season
> dominated by night and moon).

Glen get your Sumerian seasons right. Fall winter to the Sumerians
was the seaon of youth, of the passionate love between Inanna and
Dumuzi.

> Inanna the Mother here acts as mediator and
> intermediate between Dumuzi and Ereshkigal.

Hannahanna (Inanna's Hurrian predecessor) is mother to all the Gods.
Inanna is mother to no-one. It wasn't Inanna who was the
intermediary between Dumuzi and Ereshkigal, but his sister
Geshtinanna (Lady of the Grape) whose harvest was in autumn at the
time the grain (Dumuzi) which had been planted in the ground, began
to grow again.

Glen, please try to study the reality of the envronment of the Middle
East and its environment, before you go trying to graft on
inappropriate later Indo-European derived myths onto the origins of
farming peoples in the area.