Dumuzi, public domain via Wikimedia
If you think migrating your website doesn’t edge into the realm considered mythic, try it— bwahahaha <evil laugh>. Wanting more creative control, I took the plunge and went to a self-hosted service when my WordPress premium upgrade payment came due again. First, a lot of nervous research went into which host to select. I ended up with Hostgator, whom a friend lauded for their help and responsiveness.
For the past few days I have held my breath at the migration, waited 48 hours for it to propagate over the globe, gasped appalled at the death of my color scheme and cutesy widgets, and then tried to learn wordpress.org plugins really quickly to restore them. The old girl is not quite up to par yet (website or me), but we’re both alive and working— and that’s something. So, as I rise back into the world, let’s take a moment and admire Inanna, the beautiful Sumerian goddess who survived a mythical descent of truly epic proportions. Her story goes back to at least 4000 BCE.
Inanna the Queen of Heaven decided to visit her sister Ninshuba in the underworld. Because of the danger of such an undertaking, she left explicit instructions with her minister to institute official mourning and mount a rescue if she didn’t return in three days and three nights. During the downward journey, the goddess encountered a series of seven gates guarded by severe gatekeepers. Each led to a lower realm of the underworld. She had to give up something of value at each post. Piece by piece Inanna removed her clothing and jewels until she stood alone and naked. At that time the merciless goddess of death Eriskegal gazed full upon Inanna, turning her into a wasting corpse.
Inanna’s father devised and implemented a rescue plan, and the goddess returned to her ethereal home and her original splendor. The natural law of the underworld, however, required that someone be substituted in the underworld for the goddess. Her beloved consort Dumuzi took her place. Some say he was forced to do so after he usurped her throne. At any rate, Inanna eventually forgave him and later managed to free him from the underworld for six months of every year.
This has always been one of my favorite myths. You can see correlations of the theme in stories from other locations, including Persephone’s journey to the underworld and Isis’ fervent love for her consort Osiris.
While writing this post I’ve discovered another plugin I need to look for— one giving the capability of undo and redo buttons!
Cheers & Happy Reading!
Flossie Benton Rogers, Conjuring the Magic with Paranormal Fantasy Romances
testing for you! Jillian
Looks like it’s working, Jillian. Thanks!
Great blog Flossie! I love the myths! Great archetypes to create characterizations!
Thank you, Ronnie! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Congrats on the new website. I wondered what happened to your Mythic Monday when I didn’t receive a notice of a new post. I just subscribed by email again so that should rectify it, but apparently the switch knocked my subscription amiss. Everything looks awesome!
As for Inanna–wow, those gods and goddess were rough–always trying to usurp each other. It’s a wonder there weren’t more clashes between them. I glad she made it safely back to her throne!
Yikes, that’s not good if all my subscriptions went by the wayside:( Thanks for hunting me down, Mae!