IANNA
I went there of my own free will.
I went there in my finest gown, with my rarest jewls, and my Queen of Heaven
Crown.
In the Underworld at each of the seven gates, I was stripped seven times of all
that I thought I was, till I stood bare in who I realy am.
Then I saw her she was huge and dark and smelly and hairy with a lions head and
lions claws, devouring everything before her.
Ereskigal, my sister.
She was all that I am not.
All that I have hidden.
All that I have burried.
She is what I have denied.
Ereskigal, my sister
Ereskigal, my shadow
Ereskigal, my SELF
Ianna
Sumerian Queen of Heaven, Ianna pronounced (eh-na'na_ tricked her father, Enki,
God of Wisdom, into giving her the hundred objects of culture, which she then
gave to human kind.
Desiring to pay a visit to her sister,Ereskigal, she journeyed to the
Underworld. There she was stripped and killed, and left to hang on a hook for
three days and three nights. Ianna was allowed to leave the underworld only if
she found a substitute. She chose her sun-lover, the shepherd Damuzi, who in her
absence, had usurped her place on the throne of heaven.
