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Myth
Inanna descends from the great above to the great below. She abandons several temples and heads for open country. She gives precise instructions to her companion—Ninsubur: Inanna says "if I don't return in three days, go to the temples and plead on my behalf." At the netherworld she enters and goes through seven gates before she is turned into a corpse. Ninsubur follows the instructions and tells Inanna's father Enkil what happened. He helps her by sending two a-sexual creatures to sneak in and bring her back to life. Once Inanna is alive she ascends while being escorted by demons from the netherworld. The demons allow her to trade her husband Dumuzi in her place.
Belief system
Sumerian religion refers to spiritual beliefs practiced from ca. 4500-1900 BCE in Mesopotamia, or modern-day southern Iraq. Many deities were diffused into other Mesopotamian cultures.
Deity
Inanna (Sumerian: 𒀭𒈹) was one of the oldest deities in the Sumerian pantheon. She was later adapted into the Akkadian pantheon of deities under the name Ištar.
Myths cited
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Artifacts cited
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Library works
Seminar paper · 2019
"Inanna's Descent" outlines all the scholarship related to the Sumerian afterlife myth named "Inanna's descent to the netherworld." The work contains a chronological survey of the scholarship, as well as an appendix of over forty artifact pictures and citation details. The work was produced by Dedović while he was studying death and burial rituals in the ancient world at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD.
Ph.D. dissertation · 1974
"Inanna's Descent" is a Ph.D. dissertation created by William R. Sladek in 1974. It is focused on "Inanna's Descent," a Sumerian afterlife myth, and includes a full translation and transliteration of the myth. Sladek published this work while earning his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. His 1974 publication includes comprehensive translations of seven artifacts that were previously neglected from the full translation of the 412 line myth. His contribution to the scholarship of "Inanna's Descent" is very well-regarded by other cuneiform scholars, despite the fact that he did not actively continue publishing more work on the same topic.
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Cite this work
ChicagoSjöberg, Åke W. "Miscellaneous Sumerian Texts, II." Journal of Cuneiform Studies 29, no. 1 (January 1977): 3–45.