Inanna's 'Betrayal In From The Great Above'

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The story From the Great Above to the Great Below is a metaphor that represents an experience of betrayal which would benefit a person who is selfish. For example, Inanna goes to the underworld to accompany her sister since her husband has died but instead Ereshkigal forces Inanna to take off her garments until she is eventually naked and kills her. This is because Ereshkigal is jealous of Inanna for having the me and Ereshkigal believes that she has gone to see her in order to show off her royalness/power. This proves that Ereshkigal’s selfishness causes her to betray her own sister and she benefits from it because she gets vengeance and degrades Inanna. Another example is shown through Dumuzi and Inanna because when she tries to escape the …show more content…

She brought the art of women” and the list just keeps going. Also, she is praised by a lot of people. Inanna even has loyal followers like Ninshubur who “thr[ows] herself in the dust at Inanna’s feet,” Shara who “thr[ows] himself in the dust at her feet,” and Lulal who ‘thr[ows] himself in the dust at her feet” when somebody had to take her place in the underworld (69-71). However, looking at Ereshkigal, there is a much sadder mood that the writer sets up for her. Her domain is the place of the dead, she must be lonely, sad, and bored especially now that she has lost her husband. The only real person she has is Neti and Inanna but Ereshkigal does not see it that way because Inanna has so much more than her. Ereshkigal does not even have people willing to risk their life for her. Neti will probably not even risk her life unless she is told to. Ereshkigal also has the galla which are very loyal because “the galla, [are] demons who know no food, who know no drink. Who eat no offerings, who drink no liberations” however, they are demons with no emotions and feelings which really would not be able to relate to Ereshkigal (68). Ereshkigal is jealous of her sister because Inanna gets all this attention but she does not which is why Father Enki knows what to do when he finds out about Inanna being trapped in the underworld. He has two servants the Kurgarra and the galatur, …show more content…

The story is trying to show to the readers that when there is selfishness present, there is also betrayal because usually, people would put themselves first instead of others. However, when looking at the situation with Ereshkigal and Inanna, they both do not know the truth that they have for each other. For example, Ereshkigal does not find out that Inanna just wants to be a good sister for her and Inanna does not find out why Ereshkigal does not like her. They are back from where they have started but Ereshkigal now is not as lonely as she was before because she gets the attention she wants from the Kurgarra and the galatur. However, when looking at Dumuzi and Inanna it shows that most people would regret being selfish just like Inanna does when she has to face the fact that Dumuzi is now

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