Homage to Ereshkigal

Dark sister, my blood, my DNA, my other half,
Remind me of all that I am!
Messenger from the other worlds that I so crave,
calling to me, calling to me...
Ground me!   Pull me downward,  inward,
Let me never scorn you,
you dear sister Goddess who represent
all that is hard, all that is besmeared, difficult, ugly,
unplanned, unforeseen, all that, deep down, is life itself.
Remind me of all that I am.
Hold me close within the dark Earth,  Ereshkigal,
close to you.

Annelinde Metzner

December 2009

Ereshkigal (pronounced ay-RESH-kee-gal) is the Sumerian Goddess of death and Queen of the Underworld. She is the daughter of Nammu, Goddess of the primordial sea, and Anu, God of the sky, and twin sister of Enki, God of the waters. Shortly after her birth, she was carried off by the dragon Kur to the Underworld, where she became its ruler. She is also said to be the older sister of Inanna, Goddess of love, war, and fertility, and she is mostly known from the myth of Inanna’s descent to the Underworld. Ereshkigal’s husband Gugalanna, the Bull of Heaven, had been killed after Inanna sent him to punish Gilgamesh, and Inanna went to the Underworld to pay her respects to her sister. Ereshkigal feared that Inanna was actually coming to take over the Underworld, and had her servant remove an article of Inanna’s clothing at each of the seven gates that she had to pass through. When she finally arrives naked at the foot of Ereshkigal’s throne, Ereshkigal strikes her sister dead and hangs her body from a hook behind her throne.