Inanna:

Queen Of Heaven And Earth

Cover

Title Inanna: Queen Of Heaven And Earth

Author Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer

ISBN 0-06-014713-X (Hard cover)
0-06-090854-8 (Paperback)

Publisher Harper & Row

Category Nonfiction: Ancient Cultures

Shira's Rating (On a scale of 0 to 5)

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What It's About

Meet Inanna, the great goddess of ancient Sumer. The myths, epic tales, hymns, love songs, and other literature of Sumer are the most ancient written words known to modern-day scholars. Inanna, known later as Ishtar, ruled the sky, the earth, and the underworld.

This book relates the myths that focus on Inanna as their central character. It speaks of her as a young woman, as a seductress, and as a bride. The most thought-provoking story is that of her descent to the Underworld and her return. Also included are hymns to her.

Its Good Points

Unlike scholarly mythology books, this one reveals Inanna with the flair of poetic storytelling. Its authors are a noted Sumerologist (Samuel Noah Kramer) and a professional folklorist, DianeWolkstein. Kramer provided the knowledge of ancient legends, and Wolkstein brought them to life by casting them in the words of a storyteller. She chose poetic form instead of prose because it seemed to best capture the spirit of the original text.

If you're interested in learning about the mythology of ancient Sumer, this book is a great place to start because it focuses on the stories featuring one particular pivotal goddess. You can ease into an unfamiliar world with a minimum of characters and their relationships to memorize, and then, if you enjoy it, you can always do further reading in other books.

I found Wolkstein's presentation captivating. For me, it strikes just the right balance between poetic repetition and moving the plot forward.

The story of Inanna's descent to the underworld is one of the great legends from ancient times. Even though I had already read the text for myself, I was mesmerized when I heard Delilah from Seattle read it aloud while her husband Steve quietly played a frame drum in the background. Here is a sample of the text:

When she entered the first gate,
From her head, the shugurra, the crown of the steppe, was removed.

Inanna asked:
     "What is this?"

She was told:
     "Quiet, Inanna, the ways of the underworld are perfect.
     They may not be questioned."

When she entered the second gate,
From her neck the small lapis beads were removed.

Inanna asked:
     "What is this?"

She was told:
     "Quiet, Inanna, the ways of the underworld are perfect.
     They may not be questioned."

If you're the kind of person who likes to go back and re-read your favorite parts, you'll enjoy the great index at the end of the book.

Inanna is illustrated with many pictures, mostly taken from the carvings on cylinder seals. They help set the tone for the accompanying text, and help transport the imagination to 5,000 years in the past.

On The Negative Side....

Only about 89 pages of this 200-page book are actually dedicated to telling stories about Inanna, and I found myself wanting more. Although the rest of the book is good to have for those interested in further study (hymns to Inanna, plus extensive footnotes and bibliography), I wanted more stories!

This book was written in 1983, and at the time it gave excellent coverage of the Inanna myths that were known at the time. However, when I compare it to another, more scholarly book about Sumerian mythology that was written in 1969, it's apparent that Sumerologists learned a great deal from the texts that were translated over the 14-year period between the publication of the two books. That leads me to suspect that since Inanna was published, scholars have probably made a comparable level of progress in expanding their knowledge of the contents of the ancient texts. Therefore, I would find it fascinating to see Wolkstein and Kramer issue a new edition of their work that incorporates new information uncovered by the translation efforts of the past 15 years.