- Author
- Not stated (Wikipedia contributors)
- Published
- Last edited 4 November 2026
- Kind
- Encyclopedia article, collaboratively written
- Original
- en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descent_of_Inanna_into_the_Underworld
- Subject
- Occult, myth and religion
- Themes
- Belief at work
What it is
A long reference article with sections on epigraphy, characters, the narrative, themes and later influence. It draws on many scholars, mostly French and English.
What it says
- The Sumerian version has 400 lines and dates to about 1700 BCE. The Akkadian version has 138 lines.
- Inanna is stripped at seven gates and killed by Ereshkigal. Beings made by Enki revive Inanna.
- Inanna must supply a substitute and picks Dumuzi. The damaged text allows several readings of how Dumuzi and Geshtinanna split the year.
- Scholars disagree on whether Inanna is guilty. They also differ on what the nudity means.
- Rites for Dumuzi are documented at Mari and Nineveh. Tammuz laments reach the Bible and later cults.
- The article lists psychological readings from Campbell, Harding and Wolkstein, and a 2026 Kurdish film.
What evidence it gives
The article cites a large body of scholarship. It has block quotations from translations of both versions. It gives named scholars for each competing reading. It is a secondary summary, not an original analysis.
Interests and limits
Wikipedia text can change. This reading is of the version edited on 4 November 2026. Some markup and citation fragments appear garbled in the extracted text. The reference list was not checked against the cited works. Parts of the article rely on single scholars' views.