preview

The Sumer Poem 'Inanna'

Better Essays
Open Document

The Sumer poem of Inanna is a metaphoric tale of a woman who surreptitiously acquires her birthright, an inheritance of dominance and provision for her people. Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth possess seductive powers of persuasion, uses her wits and prowess to rejoin the heavens and earth with the underworld. The poem begins with the story of creation -- “… and when heaven had moved away from the earth, and the earth separated from heaven” (P 4) so were the gods separated from the underworld. A deep desire arose within Inanna’s grandfather Enki, the God of Wisdom and the Waters. Enki missed his granddaughter Ereshkigal, who was deigned to reign over the underworld. Ereshkigal was also imprisoned by her kingdom and could not leave. When …show more content…

Since they had been separated by creation, she needed a form of transportation in the form of royal bed and throne. The chore would not be simple because trees were not common in her world. Inanna saw the tree floating by as she walked along the Euphrates where she had been praised as “a woman who walked in fear of the word of the Sky God, An” (p 6). Inanna brought the tree home to “plant in her holy garden” (p 7). Inanna knew the importance of the tree and what it would bring her. In effect, Inanna rescued the tree, and in return, the tree would produce for her the holy throne and bed that she would need on her journey. “I will make a shining bed and a shining throne” (P 5). These would symbolize her maturation, fertility, and seductive prowess, raising her goddess rank. Ten years of protecting her tree and Inanna discovers danger lurking in her garden -- a snake and a wild spirit that inhabited the tree. Inanna required help and pled with her warrior brother Utu, the Sun God, to help her defend the tree, but she was ignored. It was Gilgamesh, (P 9) the artist and craftsman, the one with a vision who cuts down the tree and carved a bed and a throne for Inanna. It will take more than the might of Utu to overcome the underworld. Creating these items required passion, and a mastery in approach. Inanna learned from Gilgamesh the importance of strategy and …show more content…

Inanna must arm herself with powers and she chose the following me: a crown, lapis beads, a royal robe, she anointed her eyes, bound a breastplate around her chest, slipped a gold ring over her wrist and took the lapis measuring rod and line in her hand (P 53). Inanna is not sure if she has chosen the correct me for this task, so she instructs her sukkal as to a backup plan in case she does not return. When Inanna is at the gates of the underworld, she is asked why she has come. She says she wants to witness the funeral rites of her dead brother in law, however, she is not coming to her sister Ereshkigal in truth. The aspects of the me are a mix of tangible and intangible concepts. “The crown, the robe, the colorful garment”, are all physical tangible aspects of her superiority. Inanna chose not to use “the art of lovemaking, the art of the elder or the art of power” (P 17). She carefully selected seven me to take on her journey to the underworld. All were tangible aspects of her status in life, a ruler, a lawmaker, seductive and fertile – all things her sister was not. He sister is dismayed (P 57) at the display, and orders that each of the seven gates to the underworld be bolted, until Inanna agrees to strip off another of her garments, so that by the seventh gate, Inanna will appear before her sister naked and completely exposed, “naked and bowed low (P 60). Truth was not one of the gifts Inanna brought with her. As Inanna

Get Access