Sumerian · 8 min read
Inanna and the Seven Gates
Death, mourning, forced undressing, a body hung on a hook and the taking of a substitute. These events are described without graphic detail.
Before the descent
Inanna left her temples and prepared to enter the underworld. Her elder sister Ereshkigal ruled there, in a place from which travellers did not ordinarily return. Inanna dressed for the journey with the signs of her own authority: a crown, blue lapis beads, ornaments across her breast, a golden ring and a royal garment. In her hand she carried a measuring rod and line. She intended to arrive as a queen.
Before leaving, she gave instructions to her minister, Ninshubur. If three days and three nights passed without her return, Ninshubur must mourn for her and ask the great gods for help. She was to go first to Enlil, then to Nanna, and finally to Enki. Inanna trusted that Enki would know how to rescue her. With this last arrangement made, she took the road down to her sister’s realm.
What the gates require
At Ganzer, the palace of the underworld, Inanna demanded entry. The gatekeeper Neti asked why she had come. She said she wished to attend the funeral rites of Ereshkigal’s husband. Neti went inside to report her arrival, describing the powers and ornaments she carried. Ereshkigal ordered him to bolt the seven gates and admit her sister through them one at a time. At each passage, something was to be removed.
The first gate took Inanna’s crown; the second, her lapis necklace. At the third and fourth she lost the ornaments across her breast. The fifth took her golden ring, the sixth her measuring rod and line. At the seventh, her royal garment was removed. Each time she questioned what was happening, Neti told her that these were the rites of the underworld and she must not challenge them. Nothing she had brought could change the terms of entry.
The waiting above
Inanna reached the throne room stripped of her finery. She made Ereshkigal rise and took her seat. Then the seven judges of the underworld gave their verdict against her. Their terrible gaze and words struck her down. Inanna died, and her body was hung on a hook. Above, three days and three nights passed. No message came, and the queen who had left in all her splendour did not return.
Ninshubur carried out her instructions. She mourned, sounded the drum in the sanctuaries and put on a poor, simple garment. Enlil refused to help: Inanna had wanted power over the world below as well as heaven. Nanna refused for the same reason. But when Ninshubur reached Enki, he was troubled. From dirt beneath his fingernails he made two small beings, the gala-tura and kur-jara, and gave them the water and plant of life.
Two small visitors
Enki told the beings how to enter unnoticed and what to do when they found Ereshkigal. They slipped through the doors and came upon her in distress. When she cried out about her heart, they answered her pain. When she cried out about her body, they answered again. They stayed with her words rather than making a demand of their own. Ereshkigal wanted to know who these visitors were, who responded so closely to her suffering.
She offered them water and grain, but they refused those gifts and asked for the body hanging on the hook. When it was given to them, they used the life-giving plant and water, and Inanna rose. Yet being alive did not mean she could simply leave. As she prepared to ascend, the judges stopped her. She must provide someone to take her place. Demons surrounded her and followed her toward the world above.
Someone in her place
Ninshubur met Inanna in mourning clothes and fell at her feet. The demons wanted to take her, but Inanna refused: this was the minister whose loyalty had saved her. She also protected Shara and Lulal, who mourned her in their own cities. Then she found her husband Dumuzid splendidly dressed and seated on a throne. Inanna turned on him in anger and handed him over. He wept and appealed to Utu, who helped him escape for a time.
The surviving text becomes broken here. It shows Inanna grieving for her husband and searching for him, then assigns half the year below to Dumuzid and half to his sister. The details between these moments are not all preserved. Inanna has returned, but someone else must now leave the living world in her place. The poem’s final praise belongs to Ereshkigal. Below the seven gates, she remains the ruler of the dead.
About this telling
The Sumerian poem Inana’s Descent to the Nether World
This adaptation follows the ETCSL composite text, including its main sequence of ornaments removed at the gates. Manuscripts differ, and the ending has gaps. The surviving lines divide time below between Dumuzid and his sister; they do not supply a complete explanation of the seasons. Common spellings Inanna and Ninshubur are used. Repeated speeches and bodily harm are condensed.
Version note
Rewritten and translated in Codex in September 2026, with source checks. This is an AI-assisted editorial revision, not a certified specialist or native-speaker review.
Sources
These sources informed the retelling. The wording was written for Mythic Dream.
- Inana’s Descent to the Nether World — Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, University of Oxford
A scholarly translation of the Sumerian descent, rescue and demand for a substitute. Manuscript differences and gaps in the ending remain uncertain.