Share a myth II

- From “World Mythology”, a Parragon Publishing book with Arthur Cotterell as its general editor (2005 edition), I put forward this sequel of “Share a Myth”. A series of entries relating mythical stories with this particular entry acting as the second.
From Sumerian Mythology I desire to share with you one of the stories involving Gilgamesh, and bits of information regarding some of the characters portrayed in the story.

(Chapter1-P.14)
Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Netherworld

Inanna grows a Huluppu tree at the banks of the Euphrates and later has it transplanted to her shrine at Uruk, planning to fashion a bed and chair from its wood. However, she discovers that she is unable to cut it down because it is inhabited by three demonic creatures, a serpent, a raptor bird and a female demon. Gilgamesh volunteers to help her and with his mighty battle-axe fells the tree and kills the snake, whereupon the demon and bird fly away.

Apart from the furniture, Inanna makes two objects from the timber, which she presents to Gilgamesh as a reward- but for some reason they fall into the Underworld.
His servant Enkidu volunteers to retrieve them. Gilgamesh gives him careful instructions as to how to behave there, as all the normal rules of behavior are inverted. Enkidu goes down to the Underworld, but promptly forgets all his warnings and breaks every single taboo.

Through the mediation of Enki, Gilgamesh summons the spirit of Enkidu through a hole in the ground and is told of the conditions in the Land of the Dead, where one with three sons has water to drink, one with seven sons is close to the gods, but those whose bodies are never buried are destined to roam forever without rest.

Character Information:

(P.17)Enki is the son of the sky god An and his mother is Nammu, a goddess of water and creation. He lives in Apsu, the watery depths below the earth, the source of all fertility and organic life. Since water in Mesopotamia also had an important magical role, Enki was invoked in magic spells and rituals and hence was regarded as wise among the gods and the one called upon to find solutions to difficult problems. On the other hand his sexual appetite and his weakness for drink account for less than perfect conditions of life on earth. He is not a war-like god and his major adversaries are various goddesses, most notably Inanna who tricks him into giving away divine prerogatives and powers.

(P.19)Inanna is a Sumerian goddess with a complex mythological persona, perhaps the result of a theological/philosophical combination between a local Sumerian deity associated with Uruk and the west-Semitic Venus-star deity Ishtar. Introduced by the Akkadian ruling dynasty in the middle of the second millennium BCE. The former was regarded as the daughter of the supreme sky god An, the latter as the daughter of the moon god Nannar. The dual nature of the planet Venus was conceptualized as a bisexual deity, and this accounts for Inanna’s association with warfare, aggression and lust for power, as well as childbirth and erotic attraction. The myths about Inanna either stress her irascible nature and the fatal consequences of her anger, and/or her sexuality.

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