There are differences in the myth of the descent of Inanna with that of Ishtar? Thank you, your blog is wonderful
Hi Anon, thanks so much 💙
Yes a ton of them actually!
Ištar demands into Kur's gates or says she will break them and allow the dead to escape and consume the living
Inana requests in, to attend Gudgalana's funeral
Dumuzi plays the clear role of a replacement for Inana at the end. Which Inana grieves over.
According to what I have read, we aren't 100% sure of Tammuz's role. From one of my books which has a translation by E. A Speiser, this footnote: "The continuation of Ereškigal's instructions appears to be out of place here as regards to the Ninevah version, the older Ashur version speaks of a ransom before Ištar is led away. The mention of Tammuz is likewise startling in this context there is no indication in the Sumerian version–country to earlier assumptions— that Tammuz had gone down to the netherworld. The concluding part of the myth therefore will remain obscure in its allusions so long as additional material is not available"
Ereškigal has significantly different dialogue between the two
Ninšurbur goes to multiple Gods in plea for help, they reject until she reaches Enki who finally agrees
Papsukkal only goes before Ea who agrees to help
Inana is saved by two creatures, Galatura and Kurjara, who sympathize with Ereškigal while she is in pain, Ereškigal then offers good things to them but they reply they simply want the corpse on the hook (aka Inana) Ereškigal agrees to it.
Ištar is saved by a creature, Asušunamir, who tricks Ereškigal. Ereškigal then angered by the trick promtly curses that creature.
Here is Ištar's Descent translation (Her myth is recorded more than once with discrepancies. This is what I could find online because search engines only like to return results on Inana's)
Here is Inana's Descent translation
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