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Hospitality in Hell
Feb. 13th, 2007 04:38 pmAnne Draffkorn Kilmer argued in a 1971 paper that the reason Erishkigal was forced to hand over the slain Inanna/Ishtar to her rescuers is that the oath She makes just beforehand obliges Her to them as host to guest. Perhaps so - although as so often happens it's other, incidental stuff in the article that piqued my interest!
Kilmer discusses Ishtar's motive in visiting the Netherworld. She notes that in the Sumerian version, Inanna claims She's there for the funeral of Ereshkigal's husband; but Kilmer argues that, in all Her finery, Inanna is "inappropriately dressed for funereal rites" as well as "haughty and demanding" - and hence is stripped and humbled.
Kilmer also deals with the rescuers, whose ambiguous sexuality is often interpreted as the key to their free entrance of the Underworld. In the Sumerian story, there are the kurgarra and kalaturra, often interpreted as "sexless creatures"; Kilmer suggests they are instead "some kind of transvestites, or male prostitutes, or even 'hermaphrodites', but who were entertainers by profession, perhaps female impersonators." In the Akkadian story, there's just one rescuer: Asušu-namir, often interpreted as a eunuch, "but whose name implies 'His face is pretty'" - so Kilmer suggests he might be the same as the Sumerian rescuers. He's cursed by Ereshkigal in a similar way to the curse against the female prostitute in the Epic of Gilgamesh. I'm intrigued by these liminal figures and hope to learn more about them.
Finally, in a footnote, Kilmer refers to the story of Philemon and Baucis from Ovid's Metamorphoses: "because they alone of all their countrymen gave hospitality to two divine visitors, were the only persons spared from the all-destructive flood that was brought as punishment for that inhospitability." Is there any link between this and the story of the inhospitable Sodom? In an effort to show that the Mesopotamians must have had a hospitality code, despite a lack of textual evidence for it, Kilmer refers to the codes of the Hebrews and Bedouin.
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Kilmer, Anne Draffkorn. How was Queen Ereshkigal tricked? A new interpretation of the Descent of Ishtar. Ugarit-Forschungen 3 1971, pp 299-309.
Kilmer discusses Ishtar's motive in visiting the Netherworld. She notes that in the Sumerian version, Inanna claims She's there for the funeral of Ereshkigal's husband; but Kilmer argues that, in all Her finery, Inanna is "inappropriately dressed for funereal rites" as well as "haughty and demanding" - and hence is stripped and humbled.
Kilmer also deals with the rescuers, whose ambiguous sexuality is often interpreted as the key to their free entrance of the Underworld. In the Sumerian story, there are the kurgarra and kalaturra, often interpreted as "sexless creatures"; Kilmer suggests they are instead "some kind of transvestites, or male prostitutes, or even 'hermaphrodites', but who were entertainers by profession, perhaps female impersonators." In the Akkadian story, there's just one rescuer: Asušu-namir, often interpreted as a eunuch, "but whose name implies 'His face is pretty'" - so Kilmer suggests he might be the same as the Sumerian rescuers. He's cursed by Ereshkigal in a similar way to the curse against the female prostitute in the Epic of Gilgamesh. I'm intrigued by these liminal figures and hope to learn more about them.
Finally, in a footnote, Kilmer refers to the story of Philemon and Baucis from Ovid's Metamorphoses: "because they alone of all their countrymen gave hospitality to two divine visitors, were the only persons spared from the all-destructive flood that was brought as punishment for that inhospitability." Is there any link between this and the story of the inhospitable Sodom? In an effort to show that the Mesopotamians must have had a hospitality code, despite a lack of textual evidence for it, Kilmer refers to the codes of the Hebrews and Bedouin.
__
Kilmer, Anne Draffkorn. How was Queen Ereshkigal tricked? A new interpretation of the Descent of Ishtar. Ugarit-Forschungen 3 1971, pp 299-309.
