Inanna's Plan B
Consolidating Power Before Doing Something Shady
This is Part Two of an ongoing multi-part series. Part One, available in Modern Mythology, is called Inanna Descends to the Underworld in Real Time.
Visiting the Underworld is dangerous for Inanna. And it’s worth noting that the Me, her dubiously acquired powers, are the rules and norms of civilization - which she is prepared to violate. Neti, the gatekeeper, calls the path to the Underworld “the road from which no traveler returns.” Perhaps we should add the word: unchanged.
Some scholars suggest that attending her brother-in-law’s funeral is a pretext for a hostile takeover. Inanna is scheming to add Queen of the Underworld to her list of titles. Much could go wrong. She gives her plan B to Ninshubur, whom she calls “sukkal,” or wise counselor and “warrior who fights by my side.”
Let’s pause here and notice the myth’s casual mention of female warrior gods who are queens of heaven, earth, and the underworld. Not the image I was given of gendered work roles as a natural consequence of the Agricultural Revolution - as though we evolved from primitive to civilized and that capitalism is some pinnacle. But the brain and behavior of homo sapiens is essentially unchanged in 40 thousand years. The patriarchal division of labor, or the inevitability of inequality, is an old husband’s tale, which anthropologist David Graeber and archeologist David Wenblow blew up in their seminal study, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity.
Before she bangs on the gate, Inanna consolidates her power. She arranges for her privilege to come to the rescue if she isn’t back in three days. Ninshubur should dress like a beggar, tear at her eyes, mouth, and thighs, and raise an unholy ruckus of grief at the houses of other gods, especially those in Inanna’s family. There are three. Enlil, King of Gods, is Inanna’s father and the most powerful god after Anu, his father and Inanna’s grandfather. Enlil is described as an “unstoppable force who could not be questioned.” Nanna, Protector of Humanity, is a judge who decrees the fates of the living and the dead. He’s also Inanna’s brother. The third is Enki, Lord of Earth, the god of wisdom, and a long list of other things like fresh water, intelligence, magic, and trickery. That’s quite an array of privilege. It’s like having senators, congressmen, and the Supreme Court protecting your back. No surprise, Inanna thought she could get away with just about anything. Norms be damned.
We can see this part of the myth unfolding circa the Nixon administration. In reaction to the Civil Rights movement, the farm workers' boycotts, the feminist movement, and the Roe v. Wade decision, forces in American culture “opened their ear” to all that clamoring in the great below and began consolidating power. Young Mitch McConnel was a staffer for Kentucky Senator Marlow Cook, who was on the Judiciary Committee when two of Nixon’s Supreme Court nominees were rejected. He would go on, through political dark arts, to manipulate America’s judiciary - and not just the Supremes. In 1970, Roger Ailes was a Nixon consultant when he and others devised a “pro-administration” news source that would lead a “brutal, vicious attack on the opposition.” It would take time for Fox News (and now many other outlets) to become a political force. There were obstacles, such as legislation to codify the Fairness Doctrine for Reagan to veto.
So, with Plan B in motion, Inanna bangs loudly and cries in a fierce voice: “Open the door, Gatekeeper!”
This effrontery so horrifies Neti that he tells Inanna he must check with his queen. He shuts the door in her face and scurries down to Ereskigal’s palace. When he describes how Inanna has arrayed herself in all her powers and rudely demanded entrance, Ereshkigal slaps her thigh and bites her lip. She takes the matter into her heart and dwells on it. She tells Neti to bolt all seven gates. And then, as Inanna passes through, Neti should open the door a crack and remove an article of power so Inanna enters the Underworld naked and bowed low.
The myth predicts that there will be a price to pay for usurping power and playing fast and loose with societal norms—an awakening. And if you’ve ever experienced an awakening, you know how painful it can be. A worldview is lost through a process of death and rebirth.
Next time, we’ll look at the first gate and the removal of Inanna’s crown.
https://www.mifologia.com/myths-and-legends/sumerian-myths/inannas-descent-to-the-underworld-goddesss-reach-for-power/
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/how-mcconnell-and-the-senate-helped-trump-set-records-in-appointing-judges/
https://theweek.com/articles/880107/why-fox-new-created