“On this day I will descend to the underworld. When I have arrived in the underworld, make a lament for me on the ruin mounds. Beat the drum for me in the sanctuary. Make the rounds of the houses of the gods for me,” the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna declares in one of the oldest written accounts of an underworld journey. The goddess removes her adornments and finally her ego itself as she is transformed into a hunk of rotting meat, hung on a hook. Her final ascent back into the world of the living is made possible only by the help of others: a fly, whom she declares sacred and gifts “the beer house and the tavern”, her underworld sister Ereshkigal, and finally the sacrifice of her lover Dumuzi. The underworld is not the land of the individual. Inanna must shed every piece of jewelry and clothing that identifies her as special in order to enter. The underworld is woven with contaminated culpability and messy mutual aid. And it is in this biotic slush that beings bump and clump into the multicellularity of new mythologies. The underworld is a womb where the above world is gestated, as demonstrated by Persephone’s creation of the seasons. The harvest depends on her ability to yearly follow the seeds deep into the ground. Persephone, too, as connected with the Eleusinian mysteries, only finds her own fecundity in her descent, conceiving the son Zagreus also known as the vegetal god Dionysus. Dionysus in turn will circle back to his origins when he is torn apart by the Titans and mulched back into the world of soil from whence, he came. Orpheus plays his most transcendent music after his failed attempt to save his lover from the Underworld. The mission then was not a rescue but a mentorship in songs that outlive the individual singer. After his own dismemberment, his head is said to have continued singing as it floated down the river to Lesbos, inaugurating a tradition of Orphic hymns where anyone could step into the role of the poet-hero. Anyone could pick up “the head”. The underworld taught Orpheus that true creation requires us to relinquish ownership.
Wonderful post, thank you Sophie! I looked for a link but cannot figure out how to "support the paid version of this newsletter". Please advise. Oh and who is the artist that created the illustration?
Wonderful post, thank you Sophie! I looked for a link but cannot figure out how to "support the paid version of this newsletter". Please advise. Oh and who is the artist that created the illustration?