This was a fascinating conversation! Thank you so much for sharing the sections in the PGM that mention Ereshkigal. 🙏🏾 I truly enjoyed hearing about your personal experiences with the Goddess. Keep up the great work!
With regards to the section discussing Ereškigala and Nergal, something that I haven't seen mentioned before, but which I think polytheists should be more aware of, is the distinction between religious duty and civic responsibility in Mesopotamia, and how that division carries over into the Netherworld. From the available literature we know that Mesopotamian cities had two figureheads: the king in his palace, and the priest in the temple. We also know that these two seats of power governed different aspects of daily life. The palace controlled things like law and military campaigns, while the temple was responsible for ensuring the tutelary deity was pleased and decreed a beneficent destiny for the city and its residents. Nergal's name is written: 𒀭𒊊𒀕𒃲 (dig̃ir-ne-iri-gal), etymologically "Strength of the Great City." The expression "great city" (iri-gal) is a homophone of the word for "grave" (urugal), which is itself the Sumerian equivalent of the Akkadian Irkalla, a poetic name for the City of the Dead in the Netherworld. Connecting the dots, we can understand Nergal to be the "Strength of the Great City of the Dead," the figurehead responsible for maintaining civic duties, it's "king" if you will. Ereškigala, meanwhile, has both a šita-priest (the deity Ninazu) and an išib-priest (the deity Ning̃ešzida) in her service. These two positions exclusively served inside of temples and had no responsibilities in the city at large. Additionally, within the cuneiform corpus we almost exclusively encounter Ereškigala is a single place: 𒂍𒅖, e₂-saḫar or bīt epri, the "House of Dust" as it is famously called in the Poem of Gilgameš. The name of this place is written with the prefix/determinative: 𒂍 (E₂), used to designate temples and other places of worship. The "House of Dust" then is, at the very least, a temple, if not a fully functioning ziggurat. Continuing with this thought, in Akkadian the highest ranking male priest in a temple is its ēnu, a word written with the Sumerogram: 𒂗 (EN). Interestingly, the female equivalent, ēntu, is not written with the expected Sumerogram: 𒊩𒂗 (MUNUS-EN), but instead with the Sumerogram: 𒎏𒀭 (EREŠ-DIG̃IR), etymologically "Lady of the Deity." In god-lists, such as AN=Anum V:207-215 we find a variety of words for "netherworld" written with a divine determinative, primarily variations of the Sumerian ki and kur interpreted as the Akkadian amma, erṣetu, and irkalla. Not only does this mean that the Netherworld itself was sometimes envisioned as a deity (not an absurd concept for pagans and polytheists), but that we can interpret Ereškigala's name as "ēntu of the Netherworld," where "the netherworld" is the deity being referenced in the Sumerian form of the title. Taking all of the above into consideration, we have another way of looking at the relationship between Ereškigala and Nergal: he is responsible for the civic aspect of the Netherworld, maintaining its laws and norms, while she is responsible for its spiritual element, the rites and rituals practiced there. I also believe that the servant deities of the god Ning̃ešzida reinforce this interpretation. Ning̃ešzida's servants are: Nam-NIN-šu-du₇, potentially "perfects nin/ereš-ship;" and Ama-ku₃-ta, potentially "radiates from the woman's chamber," both of which could refer to Ning̃ešzida's duties as an išib-priest, purifying and perfecting Ereškigala's divinity within her cella in the inner sanctum of the House of Dust.
This was a fascinating conversation! Thank you so much for sharing the sections in the PGM that mention Ereshkigal. 🙏🏾
I truly enjoyed hearing about your personal experiences with the Goddess.
Keep up the great work!
Sara's description of the Underworld is fascinating!
I'm around to answer questions, if anyone has any. :)
With regards to the section discussing Ereškigala and Nergal, something that I haven't seen mentioned before, but which I think polytheists should be more aware of, is the distinction between religious duty and civic responsibility in Mesopotamia, and how that division carries over into the Netherworld.
From the available literature we know that Mesopotamian cities had two figureheads: the king in his palace, and the priest in the temple. We also know that these two seats of power governed different aspects of daily life. The palace controlled things like law and military campaigns, while the temple was responsible for ensuring the tutelary deity was pleased and decreed a beneficent destiny for the city and its residents.
Nergal's name is written: 𒀭𒊊𒀕𒃲 (dig̃ir-ne-iri-gal), etymologically "Strength of the Great City." The expression "great city" (iri-gal) is a homophone of the word for "grave" (urugal), which is itself the Sumerian equivalent of the Akkadian Irkalla, a poetic name for the City of the Dead in the Netherworld. Connecting the dots, we can understand Nergal to be the "Strength of the Great City of the Dead," the figurehead responsible for maintaining civic duties, it's "king" if you will.
Ereškigala, meanwhile, has both a šita-priest (the deity Ninazu) and an išib-priest (the deity Ning̃ešzida) in her service. These two positions exclusively served inside of temples and had no responsibilities in the city at large. Additionally, within the cuneiform corpus we almost exclusively encounter Ereškigala is a single place: 𒂍𒅖, e₂-saḫar or bīt epri, the "House of Dust" as it is famously called in the Poem of Gilgameš. The name of this place is written with the prefix/determinative: 𒂍 (E₂), used to designate temples and other places of worship. The "House of Dust" then is, at the very least, a temple, if not a fully functioning ziggurat.
Continuing with this thought, in Akkadian the highest ranking male priest in a temple is its ēnu, a word written with the Sumerogram: 𒂗 (EN). Interestingly, the female equivalent, ēntu, is not written with the expected Sumerogram: 𒊩𒂗 (MUNUS-EN), but instead with the Sumerogram: 𒎏𒀭 (EREŠ-DIG̃IR), etymologically "Lady of the Deity."
In god-lists, such as AN=Anum V:207-215 we find a variety of words for "netherworld" written with a divine determinative, primarily variations of the Sumerian ki and kur interpreted as the Akkadian amma, erṣetu, and irkalla. Not only does this mean that the Netherworld itself was sometimes envisioned as a deity (not an absurd concept for pagans and polytheists), but that we can interpret Ereškigala's name as "ēntu of the Netherworld," where "the netherworld" is the deity being referenced in the Sumerian form of the title.
Taking all of the above into consideration, we have another way of looking at the relationship between Ereškigala and Nergal: he is responsible for the civic aspect of the Netherworld, maintaining its laws and norms, while she is responsible for its spiritual element, the rites and rituals practiced there.
I also believe that the servant deities of the god Ning̃ešzida reinforce this interpretation. Ning̃ešzida's servants are: Nam-NIN-šu-du₇, potentially "perfects nin/ereš-ship;" and Ama-ku₃-ta, potentially "radiates from the woman's chamber," both of which could refer to Ning̃ešzida's duties as an išib-priest, purifying and perfecting Ereškigala's divinity within her cella in the inner sanctum of the House of Dust.
@@SephNite, when are you going to be a guest on the channel?! 😭
@@rodandring that's what I was thinking as I read that comment! lol!!