The Hero’s Journey is usually divided into four aspects: Separation, Descent, Initiation, and Return. In this commentary I will delve deeper into what the Descent looks like.
The story of the Descent of Inanna exemplifies, in a poetically vivid way, the “descent” of the Hero’s Journey as presented by Christopher Vogler in The Writer’s Journey. Imagine being stripped of everything you have; of everything you know about yourself; of every artifact that represents your life as you know it. This is what Inanna experiences in her descent. This is what rites of passage successfully do to the initiate. One phase of life is radically cut away.
The Descent of Inanna: Primary characters:
Inanna – Goddess of Love, aka Queen of Heaven or Great Above
Ereshkigal – Goddess of the Underworld or the Great Below
Enki – God of Wisdom
Ninshubur – faithful companion to Inanna
Dumuzi – shepherd and King
Neti – guardian of the seven gates
Anunnaki – judges of the underworld
Back Story
Through trickery, Inanna takes from Enki the gifts of the me, the arts pertaining to kingship, priesthood, warcraft, speechcraft, lovemaking, agriculture, and the trades or techne necessary for commerce and community. Enki allows her to keep the me when he sees she has added to it.
The journey to the Great Below is implicitly connected to the rejection of her lover, Dumuzi and his misuse of the me which Inanna has bestowed on him. She departs for the Great Below to restore balance.
Descent
She adorns herself with her queenly robes, jewels, and divine decrees (me) that she fastens at her belt. She readies herself to enter the “land of no return,” the nether world of death and darkness, governed by her enemy and sister goddess, Ereshkigal. In fear that her sister might put her to death, Inanna instructs Ninshubur, her messenger, to go to heaven and send out a cry for her in the assembly hall of the gods if after three days she should have failed to return.
There are seven gates through which Inanna must pass. Ereshkigal instructs Neti to open the seven gates to the queen of heaven, but to abide by the custom and remove at each portal a part of her clothing.
“Come, Inanna, enter.”
Upon her entering the first gate,
The shugurra, the “crown of the plain” of her head, was removed
“What, pray, is this?”
“Extraordinarily, O Inanna, have the decrees of the nether world been perfected,
O Inanna, do not question the rites of the nether world.”
Upon her entering the second gate,
The rod of lapis lazuli was removed.
“What, pray, is this?”
“Extraordinarily, O Inanna, have the decrees of the nether world been perfected,
O Inanna, do not question the rites of the nether world.”
Upon her entering the third gate,
The small lapis lazuli stones of her neck were removed.
“What, pray, is this?”
“Extraordinarily, O Inanna, have the decrees of the nether world been perfected,
O Inanna, do not question the rites of the nether world.”
Upon her entering the fourth gate,
The sparkling stones of her breast were removed.
“What, pray, is this?”
“Extraordinarily, O Inanna, have the decrees of the nether world been perfected,
O Inanna, do not question the rites of the nether world.”
Upon her entering the fifth gate,
The gold ring of her hand was removed
“What, pray, is this?”
“Extraordinarily, O Inanna, have the decrees of the nether world been perfected,
O Inanna, do not question the rites of the nether world.”
Upon her entering the sixth gate,
The breastplate of her breast was removed.
“What, pray, is this?”
“Extraordinarily, O Inanna, have the decrees of the nether world been perfected,
O Inanna, do not question the rites of the nether world.”
Upon her entering the seventh gate
All the garments of ladyship of her body were removed.
“What, pray, is this?”
“Extraordinarily, O Inanna, have the decrees of the nether world been perfected,
O Inanna, do not question the rites of the nether world.”
Naked, she was brought before the throne. She bowed low. The seven judges of the nether world, the Anunnaki, sat before the throne of Ereshkigal, and they fastened their eyes upon Inanna; the eyes of death.
At their word, the word which tortures the spirit,
The sick woman was turned into a corpse,
The corpse was hung from a stake.
Descent to the Great Below
The Commentary
If Joseph Campbell is correct and the Hero’s Journey is a magnification of rites of passage, this portion of the journey is where the hero enters into a womb-like environment to be reborn symbolically; or in rites of passage, the initiate faces a similar descent so as to be reborn psychologically.
The descent is a deepening of the problem of the first threshold and the question is still in balance: Can the ego put itself to death? Inanna arrives naked before the throne of Ereshkigal and the seven judges, the Anunnaki; they fasten their eyes upon her and she is turned into a corpse which is hung upon a stake. She loses everything and is left dead; a naked corpse hanging on a meat hook. That is descent. And, that is what your protagonist faces in this phase of the Hero’s Journey.
Another well known descent is Dante’s Inferno
Often, if a meaningful story is well constructed and well told, the hero goes through this process in the course of the narrative intertwined with the plot and theme. If you use the Hero’s Journey as a tool to structure your story, a comprehensive understanding of what is meant by “descent” will inform and enrich your characters and their actions as they descend in their story. Stories such as Descent of Inanna
Post Script
Inanna’s story does not end here. To finish the story see Descent of Inanna