Inanna: AndrogInaynous Queen of Heaven and Earth

by Hazel Loveridge
Inanna was the deity revered as the planet Venus in ancient Sumer, located between the river Tigris
and Euphrates, in present-day Iraq. Known as Ishtar to the Accadians to the north, she held an
enduring appeal for the people of ancient Mesopotamia, her cult lasting nigh on 4000 years. She was
goddess of love, sexuality and war.
Accompanying her brother Utu the sun god, appearing now at twilight now at dawn, she governed the
borderlands, the magical, liminal realm between day and night, darkness and light. Radiantly beautiful
yet bloodthirsty and voracious, impatient yet serene, callous, heartless yet loving spouse, its easy to
see why Jacobsen refers to her as of infinite variety.(1) But before embarking on an analysis of the
cultural icon that is Inanna, a brief introduction to Sumerian cosmology and cosmogony is in order.
Inannas place in Sumerian cosmology
Sumerians believed the universe was made up of an-ki, heaven and earth. The earth was thought to
be flat and heaven was conceived of as being enclosed top and bottom by a solid vault and
surrounded by the primal waters. In between heaven and earth was lil, air, out of which the
luminaries, planets and stars were created. Heaven and earth were thought to have been one, and
once separated and once the heavenly bodies had been created, life on earth came into being.
Nammu was the goddess of the primeval sea and the original, primal mother who gave birth to
heaven and earth, the cosmic mountain. Her anthropomorphic offspring were An, the sky deity and Ki
the earth goddess. The fruit of their union was Enlil, Air god, who was responsible for separating sky
and earth. The union of Ninlil, Lady of the Air and Enlil produced Nanna, Moon god, who in turn would
go on to father Utu and Inanna with Ningal. So we see that Inanna is the great great grand daughter
of the primal goddess of the deep and great grand daughter of Ki .(2)
By 2500 BCE Enlil was the ruler of the pantheon, though it seems likely that at an earlier stage An
held that position and earlier still Ki held highest rank, as her name often preceded that of Enki, god
of the waters when the four gods were listed together.(3) She was also known as the mother of wild
beasts, Nintur, lady birth hut and the opener of the womb of all women. The Sumerian term for
womb, according to Jacobsen, is the pen or birth house of the inside. He goes on to assert that,
She is also called The lady of the womb (be-lit re-e-me) and her emblem, shaped like the Greek
letter omega, has been convincingly interpreted from Egyptian parallels as a representation of the
uterus of a cow.(4) Indeed, she presided over all womens mysteries. As great cow goddess, KiNinhursag was described as nourishing the early Sumerian rulers with her milk in countless royal
inscriptions and royal hymns.
Inanna as Queen of Heaven and Earth
The goddess associated with the dazzling, luminous body of the planet Venus in ancient
Mesopotamia is sometimes seen as encompassing the whole of the heavens. Then the zodiac is
described as her girdle and she proudly asserts, My father gave me the heavens, / gave me the
earth/..the heavens he set as a crown upon my head, / the earth he set as sandals on my feet.(5)
Similarly, in Enheduannas hymn to the goddess known as Nin-me-sara (Lady of countless cosmic
powers), Inanna is referred to as high as heaven and wide as the earth.(6)
Rochberg writes of the notion of the heavens being symbolically anchored to earth by means of a
rope, which she traces back to an Early Dynastic hymn from the 3rd millennium. Quoting from an
article by A R George we see Ishtar described as the goddess who holds the connecting link of all
heaven and earth.(7) She describes herself thus, I (Ishtar) am in possession of the symbols of the
divine offices, in my hands I hold the lead-rope of heaven.(8) This lead rope passed through the

nose of an animal or indeed the nose of a prisoner of war was seen as synonymous with this
cosmological feature. Of the Bull of Heaven in the Epic of Gilgamesh we read, Anu heard this
speech of Ishtar / the Bull of Heavens nose-rope he placed in her hands.(9)
There is a not insignificant connection here to the Sumerian temple, which evolved from the cow-byre
and sheepfold, associated with Ki-Ninhursag, Inannas grandmother as Nintur, into the ziggurat
temple representative of the original cosmic mountain. The ziggurat of Ur-Nammu, dating from the
end of the third millennium BCE, had three levels, representing the triune underworld, earth and
heaven. Levy notes that the temple was also known as the Bond of Heaven and Earth (Dur-an-ki)
This bond, like the tree pillar, connected Heaven and Earth, and the ziggurat was thus conceived as
a kind of Jacobs ladder... (10)
In a variation on the theme she is depicted as goddess of rains, thunderstorms and devastating
floods. In the poem entitled Loud Thundering Storm she is addressed thus, Proud Queen of the
Earth Gods, Supreme among the Heaven Gods, / Loud Thundering Storm, you pour your rain over all
the lands and all the people. / You make the heavens tremble and the earth quake.(11)
In this dark aspect she appears on cylinder seals accompanied by the lion-headed thunder bird
Imdugud, also linked to Ninurta, god of thunder storms and Ishkur, another of her brothers.
There seems to be a link here to her facet as goddess of war, hence Nor Halls description of her as a
symbol of the creative submission to the demands of instinct, to the chaos of nature.(12)
The New Year Festival sacred to Inanna
In the temples of all the major city-states of ancient Mesopotamia, daily offerings were laid before the
tutelary deities in the form of food, libations and incense. There were a great many festivals; the
calendar being lunar with an intercalary month to make up a 365 day year, regular feasts were held on
the day of the new, waxing quarter, full and waning quarter moons.
For the people of Mesopotamia sexuality and procreation were sacred and the cult of Inanna centred
on physical love and carnal union. This was viewed as a ritual of participation, a communing with the
energy of the divine. It was an expression of the divine because in their total abandonment to the
sexual instinct inspired by the goddess, men and women offered themselves as the vehicle of her
generative power.(13)
At the first new moon after the vernal equinox the new year celebration began, a festival lasting 12
days and nights to usher in the lush new life budding and unfolding as the whole of nature began to
burst into life once more. The central focus of the celebrations was the sacred precinct of the
goddess, the Eanna, her temple, populated by priests, priestesses, castrates, hierodules, musicians
and singers. The festivities culminated in a sacred rite known as the hieros gamos, probably enacted
in the ziggurat by the high priestess, Inannas representative on earth and the King of Sumer.
Ordinarily, the people of Mesopotamia slept on mats on the floor, but it seems likely that for ritual
purposes terracotta beds, inlaid with a woven basketry base were used. Wolkstein reports such beds
being found at a cemetery site in Mari. Then rushes are placed upon the bed and sprinkled with sweet
cedar oil. In the story of Enmerkar and Ensuhkesdanna two kings of Sumer vie for Inannas affections.
In this splendid bed..strewn with pure plants, Inannas twin lions at head and foot, Enmerkar, King of
Uruk lies with the goddess for thirty hours of ecstatic union.(14)
Stringed instruments, such as harps and lyres, were associated with potency and parallels are drawn
in texts between the sound they make and the thunder of the storm god. That actual bulls were used
to form the soundbox of lyres has been attested to in instruments excavated at the Royal Cemetery in
Ur.
Texts testify to the sacred nature of these temple instruments evidently offerings were laid before
lyres and musicians had to ritually purify themselves before playing. Allusions to the tautness of the
strings are found in Sumerian and Accadian love charms to ensure potency. It seems that the

tambourine is also associated with sexual love and seduction; they feature amongst the mes which
mysteriously materialise in the Boat of Heaven as Inanna docks triumphantly at Uruk and appear on
cylinder seals held by nude females and in one example by Inanna herself.
During the festival the people of Sumer beat the holy drum, play the holy harp and wear the sword
belt, dressed in their finery. Male prostitutes drape the cloak of the gods about their shoulders.(15)
There are games, competitions, skipping ropes and coloured cords. The young men carry hoops
while the young women carry swords and the double edged axe. Rivkah Harris writes of Inannas
cultic celebrations as being times of disorder and antistructure, (16) akin to the traditional mayhem
and pagan rites associated with the Beltane festival in Britain. She is, one might say, externalized
into unordered, carnivalesque celebration that demonstrates a reaching beyond the normal order of
things and the breakdown of norms. The goddesss festivals are institutionalised license. They
celebrate and tolerate disorder.(17)
Ritual theatre was performed with masks and costumes. In the Games text, at one time thought to be
simply a list of childrens games, mention is made of improper speech, lewd and bawdy behaviour and
flaunting of taboos. Rivkah Harris refers to what may be a shamanic element to the festival, where
celebrants don lion masks perhaps in honour of the goddess Inanna in her guise as labbatu (lioness).
(18)
Inanna as Union of Opposites
Part of Inannas enduring appeal lies in her bipolar nature. Hymns and texts portray her in her guise
as evening star as associated with nightfall, sexual pleasure, the holy tavern, food and rest, whereas
as morning star heralding the new day, her qualities are those of judgement and administration of
justice, clarity and discrimination. One exception to this is a hymn mentioned by Jacobsen from the
time of Iddin-Dagan of Isin which tells how at the new moon she holds court for the gods to hear their
petitions, how music is played for her and war games staged by her guardsmen attendants, ending in
a mock parade of prisoners and a perhaps not so mock shedding of blood.(19)
What is without doubt is that Inanna is able to embrace the opposite sides of her nature as evidenced
in the hymn Loud Thundering Storm, where she is able to go from playing havoc with all heaven and
earth, to serenely donning her royal robes, fastening combat and battle to your side;/ You tie them
into a girdle and let them rest.(20) This done, she regally ascends to her royal throne alongside her
husband Dumuzi, ready to decree the fate of the gods of heaven and earth..(21) It is worth noting
that this transformation occurs On the seventh day when the crescent moon reaches its fullness ....'
(22) Wolkstein points out that there appears to be a link between the wild, anarchic side of Inanna and
the dark of the moon, which may also explain the new moon rites referred to above. Thus the
moment each month when the crescent moon took its shape was a time of great import for Sumer, for
it symbolized the time when the raging Inanna purified herself and assumed her role as divine woman,
wife of Dumuzi and guide to her people.(23)
Additionally, Inanna is depicted as embodying both male and female qualities. She says, Though I am
a woman I am a noble young man.. (24) Her androgyny is attested to in her cultic personnel, which
included eunuchs and transvestites and during her festival young men carried hoops, a feminine
symbol, while young women carried swords. The(25) In-nin-sa-gur-ra says, She (Ishtar) [changes]
the right side (male) into the left side (female), she [changes] the left side into the right side, she
[turns] a man into a woman, she [turns] a woman into a man, she ador[ns] a man as a woman, she
ador[ns] a woman as a man. For Sjoberg this merely refers to the changing roles of men and women
in cult ceremonies, but given the world-turned-upside-down nature of her cultic festivities an element
of gender role reversal does not seem unfeasible. As Harris says, Inanna was a deity who
incorporated fundamental and irreducible paradoxes. She argues that through her embodiment of
these opposing qualities she succeeded in transcending them.
It is clear from the evidence of the many myths and hymns recorded in Sumer that Inanna was
revered as Queen of heaven in her dual role as spouse of the sky god An and as giver of omens,
From the base to the zenith of heaven/ you are the great queen... (26) Descending from the

heavens, she was the cosmic force(27) that awakened love in the hearts of men and women and
quickened life on earth in her role as spouse of the vegetation god Dumuzi and queen of earth. She
is both the chaos and raw power of nature and the radiance of the morning and evening star. She is
undeniably majestic and at the same time intrinsically fragile, since she is destined forever to make
the perilous descent to the underworld. But her cycle is perfect, she arises in perfectness!
In addition, as a reading of the stories of the Inanna cycle will reveal, Inanna is and has to be both
canny and feisty, persuading her grandfather Enlil to bequeath her the divine offices in what is
arguably a test of initiation. Part of her bipolarity can be found in the offices themselves, with their
central notion of antithesis and contradiction. (28)
It goes without saying that, unlike her foremothers Ki and Nammu, her powers are not a given but
something she has to stand up and fight for. And yet could she who holds the lead rope of heaven and
earth, the original world tree, have originally been the all powerful matriarchal goddess? It is
important not to lose sight of the fact that Inanna was revered for millennia and inevitably will have
undergone many changes and may be an amalgamation of a number of goddesses. Arguably
however, it is what became the essentially precarious nature of her situation that made her so
compelling and enigmatic.
In an attempt to get to the bottom of this, lets return for a moment to Inanna as planet Venus.
Astronomically speaking, a key to understanding her essentially paradoxical nature lies in the
phenomenon whereby as morning and evening star, she grows brighter and more brilliant even as she
wanes.(29) Her strength and magnificence lie both in her beauty and the fact that despite her
vulnerability she always returns triumphant. She can also be defined by the fact that she defies
categorisation, dwelling as she does at the threshold, a place of becoming and changing, between
night and day and also historically speaking, between matriarchy and patriarchy, She represents the
liminal, intermediate regions, and energies that cannot be contained or made certain and
secure.she symbolizes consciousness of transitions and borders, places of intersection and
crossing over... (30)
Hazel Loveridge

Notes
1. Jacobsen, Thorkild, The Treasures of Darkness (Newhaven and London: Yale University Press,
1976) [hereafter Jacobsen, Darkness], p. 143
2. Kramer, Samuel Noah, The Sumerians, their History, Culture and Character, (Chicago and London:
University of Chicago Press, 1963)
[hereafter Kramer, Sumerians], p.123
3. Kramer, Sumerians, p.122
4. Jacobsen, Darkness, p.107
5. Zimmern, H., Sumerische kultleider aus altbabylonischer Zeit, I-II, VS II, X (Leipzig, 1912-1913), no.
199 rev. I 8-9, 17-18 in Jacobsen, Darkness, p.138
6. Anon., Nin-me-sara at www.angelfire.com/mi/enheduanna/Ninmesara.html [accessed on 24
November 2006]
7. Rochberg, Francesca, The Heavenly Writing ( Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004)
8. Ibid
9. George, Andrew, The Epic of Gilgamesh ( London: Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 1999) [hereafter
George,Gilgamesh], p. 51

10. Levy, Gertrude Rachel, The Gate of Horn (London: Faber and Faber, 1948), p.169
11. Wolkstein, Diane and Samuel Kramer, Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth (New York: Harper
and Row, 1983) [hereafter Wolkstein, Inanna], p95
12. Hall, Nor, The Moon and the Virgin (London: The Womens Press Ltd., 1980), p11
13. Baring, Goddess, p.197
14. Berlin, Adele, Enmerkar and Ensuhkesdanna (Philadelphia: The University Museum, 1979) p.45,
in Wolkstein, Inanna, p.154
15. Wolkstein, Inanna, p.97
16. Harris, Rivkah, Inanna-Ishtar as Paradox and Coincidence of Opposites, History of Religions,
Vol. 30, No. 3. (Feb., 1991) [hereafter Harris, Paradox], p.273
17. Harris, Paradox , p.273
18. Harris, Paradox, p.272
19. Ibid, p.138
20. Wolkstein, Inanna, p.96
21. Ibid, p.96
22. Ibid, p.96
23. Ibid, p.70
24. The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of Chicago, vol. M/2, p.306
25. Sjoberg, A.W., In-nin-sa-gur-ra: A Hymn to the Goddess Inanna, Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie 65, no.
2 (1976) p.225
26. Nin-me-sara, p.8
27. Wolkstein, Inanna
28. See Wolkstein and Kramer, Inanna for the Inanna cycle
29. See Sobel, Dava, The Planets, (London:Harper Perennial), p.57
30. Brinton Perera, Descent, p.16

Bibliography
www.angelfire.com/mi/enheduanna/Ninmesara.html
The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of Chicago, vol. M/2
Baring, Anne and Jules Cashford, The Myth of the Goddess Evolution of an Image, (London: Arkana,
1991)
Brinton Perera, Sylvia, Descent to the Goddess A Way of Initiation for Women,
( Toronto: Inner City Books, 1981)
George, Andrew, The Epic of Gilgamesh, (London: Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 1999)

Hall, Nor, The Moon and the Virgin, (London: The Womens Press Ltd., 1980)
Harris, Rikvah, Inanna-Ishtar as Paradox and a Coincidence of Opposites, History of Religions, Vol.
30, No. 3, (Feb. 1991), pp. 261-278
Jacobsen, Thorkild, The Treasures of Darkness, (Newhaven and London: Yale University Press,
1976)
Kramer, Samuel Noah, The Sumerians Their History Culture and Character (Chicago and London:
The University of Chicago Press, 1963)
Levy, Gertrude Rachel, The Gate of Horn, (London: Faber and Faber, 1948)
Rochberg, Francesca, The Heavenly Writing, (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2004)
Sjoberg, A.W., In-nin-sa-gur-ra: A Hymn to the Goddess Inanna Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie 65, no. 2
(1976)
Wolkstein, Diane and Samuel Kramer, Inanna Queen of Heaven and Earth,(New York and Toronto:
Harper and Row, 1983)