In the first days, in the very first days, everything needed was brought into being and the goddess Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, took her place in the center of the Sumerian pantheon. This myth was recorded at the beginning of history and describes a pivotal time in human civilization.
We’re reckoning with the developments of this time, today. Inanna’s myth can help us find a place– as individuals, communities, and countries– in the transformation that’s currently underway. This is the first in a four-part series.
Transcript of The Sumerian myth of Inanna: In the first days
Hello and welcome to Myth Matters an exploration at the intersection of mythology, creativity and consciousness. I’m your host Dr. Catherine Svehla. Wherever you may be in this wide beautiful crazy world of ours, I’m glad that you decided to join me here today.
This is episode 1 in a series about the Sumerian myth of the goddess Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth. This is the most useful and beautiful story I know, about the way life and love unfold, our necessary initiation into the mysteries and the transformation that brings. I’ll tell the story over several episodes, as I like to work with the larger myth cycle, which is something that not enough people do, in my opinion, and along the way I will hopefully also have a special guest.
I started working with the myth of Inanna more than 20 years ago, I remember that I first told the story to a friend on a camping trip one night, and this is the third time that I have taken up the myth in my podcast. Now I mention this because when you have an affinity for the story, for a story, any story, like the one that I have for this particular myth, you really want to dive into that, you want to make use of it.
You can return to a myth or a story that speaks to you over and over again. We change and our life circumstances change. The act of interpretation is creative and dynamic. A myth or story will offer something new every time you enter its space. In the case of Inanna, well, itimes past, I focused on the significance of this myth of Inanna for an individual at a particular stage in life, and this is the way that I shared it. I went back to this myth when I had breast cancer some years ago. Then I created a workshop for women around Inanna as the female face of the divine. I’ll share links to past episodes with the transcript of this episode, if you’d like to dive into other themes and perspectives I’ve considered in the past.
Now I’m wondering what can be drawn from this myth and its history that could be useful to us as a community. I see this time as a time of collective initiation. I’m watching things fall apart and wondering what will emerge? What is acting? Because there’s much more in play than, you know, the actions of a handful of human beings. And then, how do we participate?
You may see this initiation as a call to do shadow work, that is, surfacing and integrating repressed qualities and aspects of our individual psyches and also our national psyche. I think this is certainly happening. We can also use the language of transformation more generally, to hold space for profound change in many forms and on many levels. What is our responsibility and what are the opportunities, the possible openings for us as citizens and seekers, as psychologically mature human beings, or people who want to be psychologically mature? As people longing for meaningful connection, soul, love and spiritual freedom? I think Inanna is a great figure, and her story is a great story to sit with while we entertain these questions.
Today, I’ll enter the myth as I have in the past, at the beginning of Inanna’s story, at the dawn of time. The myth of Inanna has gotten more and more popular in recent years and I’m glad. This is a rich and complex myth with so much to offer us, but I do see many people jumping into the middle of her story and only handling that portion. I kind of see the attraction. That part of the story is very dramatic– it’s a descent to the underworld– and yet I think you miss a lot, in terms of the importance of this goddess and the significance of the journey that she makes, as well as the possibilities that Inanna holds for us in today’s world, the types of questions that she raises and the guidance that we might find in her story.
I’ll weave in my thoughts about this as we reflect on the story. For now, let me give you just a little bit of historical background. Sumer or Sumeria, was located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in what is now Iraq. Sumer was a late Neolithic culture of city- states and kings that began sometime between the 6th and 5th millennium BCE, well before the ancient Egyptians.
The Sumerians were a powerhouse of invention and laid the groundwork for later civilizations and for our image of human civilization. They invented time as 24-hour days, for example. They built irrigation systems for their fields and storehouses to save and distribute grain. They domesticated animals, made pottery and bread, brewed beer, established schools, and set up governmental and religious bureaucracies. They also developed the first writing system, cuneiform, and were the first literate inhabitants of Mesopotamia.
Inanna was the preeminent deity in the Sumerian pantheon for about 2000 years. Her myth, recorded as hymns and poems, was discovered on clay tablets that are about 4000 years old. The history of this myth and its survival fascinate me, as the ancient words convey desires and concerns that feel contemporary. I think Inanna’s myth transcends time and this is a really wonderful space to move into for meditating on one’s own life.
I think it also says a lot about the continuity in human experience and psychology over all of these many, many, many, many years, something for us to hold in mind and these times of transformation. What can be transformed? What do we want to transform?
I constructed my version of the myth from the English translation Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, the result of a collaboration between the storyteller, Diane Wolkstein and Sumerian scholar, Samuel Noah Kramer. This is the source I recommend, if you want to read the myths and get excellent background, in English.
Now, I invite you to relax, listen, and enter the space the story. Let the words take you where you need to go right now. Note the moments or the details that catch your attention. Attending to what speaks to you is one of the ways that stories can help you, teach you or heal you. The old myths and stories are mirrors, and even the themes or the figures that you may reject illuminate your present moment.
Inanna and Huluppu Tree
In the first days, in the very first days; in the first nights, in the very first nights; in the first years, in the very first years; everything needed was brought into being. Everything needed was properly nourished. Heaven and earth separated. The Sky God An took the heavens for his kingdom and Enlil, the Air god took the earth as his realm. Ereshkigal, the Queen of the Great Below, was assigned the underworld.
At this time, Enki, the God of Wisdom and the Sweet Waters, set sail for the underworld. The underworld fought back and a great storm arose. His boat was pelted with stones and hail.
At this time, a single tree was planted by the banks of the Euphrates. The whirling South wind arose and pulled at its branches and tugged at its roots and tore it from the bank. The tree was carried away by the river—until Inanna discovered it.
Inanna pulled the tree from the river. “I shall bring this tree to my city of Uruk” she said, “and plant it in my holy garden. I’ll tend this tree and when it is grown I will make from it a throne and a bed.”
She planted the tree and cared for it with her own hands. She wondered how long it would take to grow. Five years passed, then ten, and the tree grew thick. But a serpent who would not be charmed took up residence in its roots. Then the Anzu bird, who craves knowledge and power, set his young in the branches of the tree. And the dark maid Lilith made a home in the trunk.
Inanna wept. She implored them to leave her tree but they would not.
Inanna went to her brother, the Sun God Utu. She told him the story of the early days and how Enki set sail for the underworld and how it attacked him, and about the tree that was torn from its banks until she replanted it in her garden. She told him about the creatures living in the tree but Utu would not help her.
The second morning, Inanna went to the hero Gilgamesh and told him the story. Gilgamesh, the hero of Uruk, stood by the goddess. When she finished, he strapped on his armor that was so heavy it took ten normal men to lift it. He took up his great ax that was so heavy that it took ten normal men to lift it, and went with Inanna to her garden.
Gilgamesh struck the serpent who would not be charmed. The Anzu bird and his young flew away. Lilith smashed her home in the tree and ran out to the wild places. Then Gilgamesh loosened the roots of the tree and cut off the branches. He carved a shining throne for Inanna and made her a bed.
Inanna made a gift for her brother from the roots of the tree, and a gift for Gilgamesh from the branches of the tree. Now Inanna had her shining throne and her bed.
Inanna and Enki the God of Wisdom and Sweet Waters
Inanna placed her crown on her head and went to the apple tree. Leaning back against the tree, her vulva was wondrous to behold. Inanna rejoiced in herself. In her ripening was readiness. She said, “I am the Queen of Heaven. I will go to visit Enki, the God of Wisdom and the Sweet Waters, in his holy temple and honor him.”
She set out by herself. Long before she arrived, Enki perceived her arrival and called his sukkal, that is his minister, ally, and friend, Isimud. “Isimud,” he said, “The young woman Inanna is on her way here. When she arrives, give her refreshments and treat her as an equal.” When Inanna arrived, Isimud welcomed her. He gave her butter cake to eat and cool water to drink. He offered her beer.
Enki came to join Inanna. He poured himself some beer. The two filled up their great bronze cups time and time again, and offered toasts to each other. They drank more and more beer together. Now Enki was swaying on his feet. He toasted Inanna and said, “In the name of my power, I give my daughter Inanna the high priesthood, and the godship. I give her the crown and kingship. I give her the holy staff and scepter!!”
“I’ll take them,” Inanna replied.
Enki toasted Inanna again. “In the name of my power, I give my daughter Inanna the truth. Descent into the underworld. Ascent from the underworld. The art of lovemaking and the kissing of the phallus, the colorful garment and the loosening of the hair!”
“I’ll take them,” Inanna replied.
Enki raised his cup to Inanna a third time. “In the name of my power, I give my daughter Inanna the powers of the high priestess, the setting up of lamentations and the rejoicing of the heart. The giving of judgment and the making of decisions. The art of forthright speech. The art of treachery. The art of kindness!”
“I’ll take them,” Inanna replied.
Enki raised his cup to Inanna 14 times. Every time he gave her 5, or 6, or 7 mé, that is the powers and ordering principles of life and civilization. And every time, Inanna accepted them. She accepted the mé from Enki.
Now Enki said it was time for Inanna to go home to her city of Uruk. He told Isimud to load the mé onto the Boat of Heaven and to make sure that she got home safely. The boat was loaded and Inanna set sail. After a time, the beer started to leave Enki. His head began to clear and he looked around his holy temple for the mé.
He called Isimud to him. “Where is the high priesthood,” he asked, “and the godship, the crown and kingship?” “You gave these to Inanna,” said Isimud. “Where is the truth,” asked Enki, the descent and ascent from the underworld, the art of lovemaking and the kissing of the phallus?” “You gave them to Inanna,” said Isimud. “And where is the power of the high priestess, the setting up of lamentations and the rejoicing of the heart and the giving of judgments and the making of decisions? Where is the perceptive ear and the power of attention?” asked Enki.
“You gave them to Inanna, said Isimud. “My king, you gave all of the mé to your daughter Inanna.”
“Where is the Boat of Heaven with the holy mé now?” asked Enki. “About a mile away,” said Isimud. “Take some of my smaller monsters, the ones like scorpions,” said Enki “and go get the boat and the mé back.”
Isimud took the scorpion-like small monsters and went to Inanna. “Enki sent me to you with a message,” he told her. “You have to give back the mé and I am here to retrieve them.” “What!” said Inanna. “Enki gave the mé to me. He promised them to me in the name of his power. No!”
The scorpion like monsters seized the boat. Inanna called her sukkal, her minister, spiritual ally and friend, Ninshubur. “Ninshubur, you were once Queen of the East. Your hand has not touched water and your feet have not touched water. Save the Boat of Heaven and the holy mé for me.”
Ninshubur sliced the air with her hand and let out an earth-shattering cry. The monsters ran away. They rowed on toward Uruk.
“Where is the Boat of Heaven with the holy mé now?” asked Enki. “About two miles away,” said Isimud. “Take some of my wild haired monsters,” said Enki, “and go get the boat and the mé back.”
The wild haired monsters seized the boat. But Ninshubur sliced the air with her hand and let out an earth-shattering cry. The wild haired monsters ran away. They rowed on to Inanna’s city.
“Where is the Boat of Heaven with the holy mé now?” asked Enki. “About three miles away,” said Isimud. “Take some of my huge sea monsters” said Enki, “and go get the boat and the mé back.”
The huge sea monsters seized the boat but once again, Ninshubur defended against them.
Enki sent monsters to retrieve the holy mé six times. And every time Ninshubur rescued the boat. Now she said to Inanna, “We are almost to your city of Uruk. When we arrive, let the life-giving waters flow into the city and let our boat sail swiftly to the docks. “Yes,” said Inanna, “and there will be a big party too! All of the people will gather and laugh and dance and sing.”
And so, it was. Inanna made the life-giving waters flow into the city and the boat sailed swiftly to the docks. All the people gathered to celebrate. Enki called Isimud to him the 7th time. Where is the Boat of Heaven now?” he asked. “Inanna has landed at her dock in her city of Uruk,” Isimud told him.
“Queen Inanna has aroused wonder,” Enki said, “she has aroused wonder.”
The holy mé were unloaded and presented to the people and an interesting thing occurred. More méappeared, more than Enki had given Inanna. They were also presented to the people. Inanna said “This place will be known as the Lapis Lazuli dock.” Enki spoke to Inanna and said, “In the name of my power, I bless you and your city of Uruk.”
That’s as far as I’m going to go with the myth today.
Now where to begin to unpack this? One thing that I notice is the teamwork, the assistance that Gilgamesh provides and later the presence of Ninshubur on the Boat of Heaven, beating back Enki’s monsters. And even Enki, for that matter, has Isimud his own sukkal. This is an interesting image of the hero from the perspective of today, where we have all of these superheroes who act on their own and see themselves as alone.
Inanna is not alone, nor does she see herself as someone who has to act alone. She has her friend, a very powerful goddess in her own right, Ninshubur, who’s got her back. And that’s reminiscent of another Sumerian myth about Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu. So, there’s something here about the heroic and heroic deeds requiring more than one person/goddess.
Now the two of them, Inanna and Gilgamesh, but then really, later on Inanna and Ninshubur– they really kick ass and that adds another layer of complexity to this goddess. Inanna is ambitious and astute and free to behave as she wants. She is unpredictable and violent as well as sexual and loving. She protects her people as well as feeds them. And this complexity is something that we lose as we move closer to our times. The attributes and qualities of the goddesses that we are given as models of the female and the feminine and as women, that becomes more limited and they get sliced into more specific little slivers, as if you can’t be a mother and be an Athenian intellectual, for example. That’s not the case with Inanna and this isn’t something you’d necessarily pick up on, I don’t think, if you hopped into the middle of her story. Again, reason to start at the beginning.
Inanna doesn’t fit within the parameters of some common definitions of “the” goddess or “the” feminine that are put forth as defining aspects of a goddess/feminine archetype. She acts in domains that we now consider male and the symbolic language that surrounds her like her totem animal the lion- you may have seen that image of her. I’ll post it with the transcript to this episode– reveal the shifts in meaning that take place in culture. Shifts in meaning that take place in culture because culture is a construct, right? We make it up. The lion for example, comes to be the companion of kings and a symbol of solar consciousness as a male attribute but this was not the case in Sumeria. The lion and that solar consciousness were attributes of the goddess Inanna.
Another example of this shifting meaning and constructs is the moon. The moon is not always female, feminine. The moon is male in Sumerian mythology. The moon is Inanna’s father and Inanna as the primary goddess of life, vitality, fertility, and everything that makes the human world work, has a particular relationship to the moon. First as her father and then later as male, as consort. This something that I’ll talk about more in the next episode.
So, here we have Inanna. She’s life. She’s abundant life. She tends the one tree. And the implication here is that through her tending, trees multiply, although that particular tree becomes the tools of her two realms of power, life and civilization, bed and throne. Inanna is life and she is a warrior, the head of state, and these things are not contradictory.
Now, what about the scope of her powers? How I love the list of the holy mé. And there’s so much more in the poem. I merely scratched the surface in my telling, she has so many powers. And again, these powers show the unity between nature and civilization, two realms that, they’re really almost separate worlds in the way that we think about these things in the dominant culture today, and when I’ve told this story, I have had people object to the fact that she cuts down the tree.
But first of all, that was a very different kind of action wasn’t it, thousands of years ago, before we had, you know, mechanized chainsaws and bulldozers and millions and billions of people, you know, taking trees by the truckload. And also, you have to remember that Inanna is the divine in nature, the immanent. In the words of Judy Grahn, Inanna is the mind inside nature. Inanna is the tree, the tree and the goddess as one who unifies the realms, the heaven and earth and underworld, just as a tree reaches up into the sky and roots down into the soil and offers its gifts of shade and home and beauty and perhaps blossom and fruit, to the middle realm of Earth’s surface.
All of this again will come forward more as we get deeper into the story. And if you think about what I said at the beginning, about Sumeria and how incredibly inventive this time was, and this culture, you see that reflected in the mé. Also Inanna’s myth is a statement of these new concepts and tools and rituals and social constructs coming into the being. It was the time of the beginnings of so much. So that takes me to one other thing I want to note for today.
The myth of Inanna has interested many people for lots of reasons, one being that it’s evidence from what we now see as being a very pivotal time, a transitional time from goddess cultures to the rise of the sky gods, the Father Gods and patriarchy. The devaluing of the Goddess. And I don’t have any quarrel with that. I think that’s true, that there is something transitional going on. All you have to know, really, is about all of the new developments that were taking place in the way that humans were living. I want to focus for just a second on the relationship between Inanna and later gods, and agriculture and the domestication of animals, which did so much as you know, to increase our human population.
It was also, one can argue, the beginning of our separation from nature and an opening up of the space that would allow a more abstract and transcendent image of divinity to arise, a God that doesn’t live on Earth because the Divine is not in nature. Paul Shepard talks about this quite a bit in his book The Others, How Animals Made Us Human. He points out that once we started controlling and regulating the food producing dimension of earth and accumulating wealth well, we changed our whole image of what our place was on the planet and how much power we held.
So, from this perspective, it’s kind of ironic to me that the goddess holds all of these powers and she occupies a period in which these advancements are seen as part of her bounty, and at the same time, in retrospect, may be part of a cycle or a celebration of new powers that ultimately bring her down and make the goddess, the Earth, the female, women, one that is controlled as well.
I’m going to talk about this more in the next episode as I do think that the relationships between male and female, and our concepts of gender and what’s appropriate are ripe for transformation and are part of our collective conversation right now.
Whatever you know about ancient historical context of Inanna’s myth and theories about the goddess and patriarchy and how we ended up where we are today, which may be a lot or maybe not much, I think this myth is a useful mirror in which to see our personal attitude about males and females, about what is appropriately masculine and appropriately feminine. Right now, today, we review history and conclude that Inanna’s story is part of a profound cultural transition. It was and people were probably aware of that and also not aware of that at the time. And I wonder, will future generations point to our time and societies and say something similar, that this was a transitional time, and will they also wonder then whether or not we knew it?
So, just to give you an example of what I mean by questioning your reactions to the story and your opinions about the various characters, about Inanna and the others in her myth. One example could be when Inanna turns to Gilgamesh for help to clear the intruders out of her tree. Is this an example of her feminine weakness? I mean, does this make you think of, you know, the caricature of the woman who hops up on a chair and squeals at the sight of a mouse for her male partner to come and get it, you know, to get a mouse or a spider? Or do you see her ability to get help and to get a hero like Gilgamesh as evidence of Inanna’s great authority and value? Or are these truly fearsome creatures, creatures that should be met by a warrior and not only a warrior, but one who is expendable?
Myths and history are full of stories of rulers who do not meet the enemy themselves, but rather send their most skillful fighters in their stead because they and their subjects cannot afford for them to be killed or wounded. Now Inanna is a goddess, so presumably she couldn’t be killed but as we’re going to see, there’s a slippery line there in Sumerian mythology. But my point is that that moment in the story can be taken as evidence that Inanna doesn’t have what it takes to deal with Lilith and Anu and the serpent, but it can also be seen as a further argument for her powers. That it is her right to summon Gilgamesh and to bestow honor on him because he helps the goddess.
In any event, I’d be curious to know what kinds of flip side conversations you could have with yourself about the myth and, you know, email me and share that with me if you’re so inclined. So obviously, I’m going to be coming back to Inanna in the next episode and I hope that you’ll join me for that. We have a lot more mythic territory to explore!
I want to close today with an excerpt from a poem written by a high priestess in the temple of Inanna from around 2300 BCE. But first, a big welcome to new email subscribers: Anna, Monica, Dottie, Linda, Ryan, Marilyn, Gary, Darlene, Paula, Barbara, Cathy, Lorna Welcome!
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Now a few more words about Inanna, written many centuries ago by the priestess and poet Enheduanna. Enheduanna is the first poet in history that we can identify by name. Her words were collected by Betty De Shong Meador in Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart. This excerpt is taken from a poem titled “Lady of Largest Heart” (pg 122).
She is Inanna
Bearer of Happiness
whose strapping command
hip-dagger in hand
spreads radiance over the land
fish dragged from the deep
in her stretched-out net
never will slip through
birds trapped in her nimble cast
thrash in the fine-eyed mesh
what she has crushed to powder
never will rise up
the scent of fear stains her robe
she wears
the carved-out ground plan
of heaven and earth
who seek her word
does not look to An
the great god assembly
prattles in confusion
cannot fathom her plan’s execution
she holds the life of heaven
with her single hand
fierce Lady Wildcat
sovereign of the Annuna
Inanna
you draw men into unending strife
or crown with fame a favored person’s life.
(An is the god of heaven and Inanna’s great grandfather. Annuna is the council of the gods).
That’s a pretty extensive set of influences owned by our Lady Inanna.
If we have a better understanding of our need for myth, and all that our old stories offer, we can live more satisfying lives. We can inhabit a better story and create a more beautiful, just and sustainable world.
And that’s it for me, Catherine Svehla and Myth Matters. Take good care of yourself my friend and until next time, keep the mystery in your life alive.
Previous investigation of the Sumerian myth of Inanna:
Myth in the Mojave 2016. I posted a five-part series on Inanna. Here’s the link to the first episode as the others are posted sequentially: https://mythinthemojave.buzzsprout.com/284203/episodes/1053975-the-sumerian-myth-of-innana-part-1-of-5-queen-of-heaven
Myth Matters 2020-2021. I posted a four-part series on the myth. Here’s the link to the first episode as the others are posted sequentially:
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