Magic in The Descent of Innana and Sappho

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Magic in The Descent of Innana and Sappho

In the ancient text The Descent of Innana and the lyric poetry of Sappho, language is viewed as magic. Not only are the words themselves acting as magic, as in an invocation, but other things manifest themselves as magic throughout the works. The most common throughout the works of Sappho is that of love. Sappho also shows us the magic of everyday life in many of her poems. Finally, the writing down of the works performs a magic all of its own; the magic of continuation. Through the writing of their works the story of Innana and the poetry of Sappho will live on forever.

The most obvious use of language as magic is in The Descent of Innana. This text is actually all about language as magic. It originated as a ritual that was reenacted along with group participation as part of a religion. Innana is the earth goddess and in this ritual the story of the past is invoked to reproduce the happenings in it and guarantee the passing of one season to the next. The words also held the power to unite people in the cause. At certain times, the priestess would say a line such as “my lady abandoned heaven, abandoned earth, to the nether world she descended. Innana abandoned heaven, abandoned earth, to the nether world she descended. Abandoned lordship, abandoned ladyship, to the nether world she descended (Descent 790)”, the audience would have chimed in on the repetitive parts of the lines. It is also possible that, due to the repetitive nature of the ritual, people memorized the ritual and would recite along with the priestess. This shows how the ancient people bound themselves together through language, they had a common ritual, which they took part in and knew the...

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...s could also have eternal life. This is another way that these works are sacred magic. The Descent of Innana is one of the first written pieces of literature we have. Sappho is one of the earliest lyric poets that we have a record of. These works are an example of the idea of the magic of writing itself coming to life. The idea that something can be written down and outlast the writer is truly something the Greeks would have held as magical.

As you can see, the writing of ancient Greeks shows sacred magic in many ways. There is magic in it’s most literal form in the ritual of The Descent of Innana. Magic also manifests itself within these texts. There is magic in love, everyday life, and in the writing of these texts, which brings about eternal life. Seen in this way, it is easy to see why people would agree that these texts hold sacred magic.

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