During a feast at Eridu, Enki gives Inanna the divine powers called the me, which she carries towards Uruk despite his attempt to recover them. She reaches Uruk with the powers, transferring their possession from Enki to herself without any stated bargain or condition.

Inanna and Enki: The Taking of the Me

Inanna travelled to Eridu and came before Enki. She entered the feast that Enki held there. While the feast continued, Enki gave her the divine powers called the me. The me belonged to the divine order. Inanna received them during the feast. No bargain or condition accompanied the gift. Enki did not keep the me with him after he gave them to her.

Inanna gathered the me and carried them away from Eridu. She travelled towards Uruk and intended to bring the powers into her possession there. Enki did not accept their removal. He tried to recover the me from Inanna while she travelled. The attempt did not stop her journey. Inanna continued towards Uruk and carried the me with her. She reached Uruk with the divine powers, and Enki failed to take them back. The me therefore passed from Enki at Eridu to Inanna at Uruk. Inanna remained in possession of them, and the powers came under her control in Uruk.

Inanna and An: The Claiming of Eanna

Inanna challenged An over possession of Eanna. The challenge had no stated setting. Inanna gave no recorded speech, and An gave no answer. No action followed between the challenge and its result. The dispute was not settled through a stated agreement, force, judgement, or other act. Inanna secured Eanna and its authority for herself and Uruk. No later event followed.

An, also called Anu, was the father of the gods and the sky god. He was the upper heavens and the firmament, not the air that moved over the earth. One Sumerian genealogy made him the first-born of the primeval sea. Each city had its own protecting deity, and that deity’s house stood within the city walls. These wider traditions did not add an action, speech, or settlement to Inanna’s challenge.

In one telling of Anu’s succession, Alala ruled in heaven for nine years before his son Anu deposed him. Anu was later succeeded by Kumarbi. In another telling, Babylonian divine arrangements included Anu being bound by Marduk. These were separate struggles over divine succession, not events in Inanna’s dispute. The story ended with Inanna holding Eanna and its authority for herself and Uruk.

Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld

Inanna descended to the Underworld, the Land of No Return, to visit her sister Ereshkigal. Before she left, she instructed her vizier, Ninshubar, to perform mourning rites if she did not return within three days. She also ordered him to ask the high gods to intervene on her behalf.

At the gates, Ereshkigal sent word that Inanna could enter only if she removed her clothes. Inanna followed this instruction at each stage of her passage. The demand was a trick, and it left her naked and vulnerable. When she reached Ereshkigal, the queen of the Underworld ordered her sister killed. Inanna’s body remained in the Underworld, and reproduction ceased across the earth.

Ninshubar sought help, and the god Ea, also called Enki, intervened. Ea hastily created two beings whose sole purpose was to rescue Inanna. They entered Ereshkigal’s realm and deceived her into releasing Inanna’s body. They then used the food and drink of divine immortality to restore Inanna to life. Reproduction immediately resumed across the earth.

Inanna could not leave the Underworld permanently without finding a substitute to remain there in her place. Guarded by some of Ereshkigal’s demons, she returned to the surface and searched for a replacement. She chose her mate, Tammuz, the Sumerian Dumuzi. Tammuz’s sister, Geshtinanna, tried to rescue him, but she failed. The major parties later reached an agreement that Tammuz and Geshtinanna would alternate residence in the dark depths of the Underworld.