The Great Earth Goddess

Head of Inanna, cement,1994, by B Heriz

I was delighted to watch Dr Amanda Foreman's programme "The Ascent of Woman", shown on BBC4, 2nd September, in which she recounted with great clarity the high status of women in many aspects of pre-Hellenic society.   She  looked at the earliest human settlement in Turkey where there is no evidence of hierarchical difference between men and women, and where statuettes of the Great Earth Goddess abounded. (This is true also of the earliest settlements in Pakistan, as related by Sona Datta in her programme "Treasures of the Indus", BBC4, 31st August - good, old BBC!!!!)  

Even after the cult of warrior hero became dominant within communities obliged to allocate resources to defense, the enterprising and majestic Inanna was still worshiped by the Sumerians, for whom priestesses continued to play an important role and women had rights under law.

It was the Hellenic Greeks who invented the idea that the female sex was a different and inferior species to man, and as male property had no rights in law and no role in public life.  Women of citizen class were subject to the dictates of male "honour", a more precarious status I imagine than that even of mere slave. As such it was a necessity to wear shawls and veils when entering public space.  Women of lesser status were either actual slaves or prostitutes, and the latter were of course actually forbidden to wear shawls or veils.

Thanks to Alexander the Great and other factors, this concept bled into the cultures of the near east and from there was adopted by Islamic and Christian practice.  However, it was not fully embedded in the cultural norms of the northern Celtic societies, nor that of the Scythians, where women, in spite of the warring nature of their societies, remained significant players, had rights of inheritance and the ability to hold power.

These exceptions demonstrate how the delegation of women to inferior status was not an inevitable progression.  Yet it came to be believed that humanity is defined by the 'heroic' warrior ego able to realise a determination towards combat for supremacy, followed by entitlement to plunder all resources, human and natural, for its own benefit.  As clans, tribes, nations, and now whole continents compete for possession and control of resources, any group not geared up for war and competition has been and still is desperately vulnerable to pillage.   Nevertheless a yearning for alternative beliefs and aspirations has always existed and is it not stronger than ever, thanks to the environmental, economic, political and social challenges that  face us all on an international scale?

It is astonishing to think how it is only so recently that women (along with low-status men, serfs and slaves!) have gained the right to vote in the democracies of the West, have gained property rights, legal representation and 'permission' to play an openly public intellectual, creative and political role.  But when one considers the millennia over which the human species has evolved, even the last three thousand years is only a fleeting moment: the flexible human mind is surely capable of modifying its narratives, however deeply embedded they may be, and inventing new metaphors (and, indeed, new words) that can transform behaviour and attitudes.  The archetype of the Great Earth Goddess has potential surely for reimagination?

Inanna, radiant Queen of Heaven and Earth

  

Above: Inanna, Mesopotamia, Old Babylonian period c 2000-1600BC, baked clay, 11.9x6.6cm, Paris Louvre AO 12456

Musician with harp, Mesopotamia Ur III period, c 2100-1800BC, baked clay, 7.3x8.5cm, Paris Louvre, AO 12454

Inanna in Ruin, Bronze, 27x34x15.5cm, 1991



"The musicians play for the queen:
They play the loud instrument which drowns out the southern storm,
They play the sweet algar-instrument, the ornament of the palace,
They play the stringed instrument which brings joy to all the people,
They play songs for Inanna to rejoice the heart."
from "Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth" by Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer
 
Jude Lockie gave me this glorious book as a present in 1986.  The story of Inanna dates back to the ancient Sumerians who lived in the alluvial valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, in what is now southern Iraq.  This land was first peopled in the 5th millennium BC by settlers who lived in villages, farmed, wove, worked leather, metal and clay.  By the 3rd millenium the culture of these people was fused with the incoming Sumerians to create an urban culture often referred to as "the cradle of civilisation".  They were a literary people with a cuneiform script which developed from pictographic to phonetic signs. The were technically advanced and enjoyed a rich visual and musical culture.  They also had advanced concepts of law and justice, with a law code and legal documents which have been excavated. I was fascinated by the Sumerians when I first learnt about them at school.

So I devoured this glorious book narrating the stories and hymns of Inanna, the great Sumerian goddess, so rich in wisdom, joy and humanity.  Inanna descends to the underworld where she is strippped of all her powers and hung on a hook like a corpse.  She is rescued by creatures, neither male nor female, that entered the gates underworld like flies, slipping through the cracks.  The win the gratitude of the Queen of the Underworld, Ereshkigal by displaying empathy - when she moans of her sufferiings  "Oh! Oh! My inside!", they repeat "Oh! Oh! Your inside!" and continue in this vein until Ereshkigal moved by these creatures sighing with her agrees to let them take the corpse of Inanna which they revive by sprinkling upon it the water of life.

I have always loved that passage, along with the moment when a fly appears to help her find her love, Dumuzi.  The fly bargains first, however, and Inanna says "If you tell me, I will let you frequent the beer houses and taverns.  I will let you dwell among the talk of the wise ones.  I will let you dwell among the songs of the minstrels."  The fly is blessed in its intimacy with human beings.  Everything is blessed by glorious Inanna and the people feast, dance and sing with joy in her honour.

And now we have these strange child-men smashing up the ancient wonders of Mesopotamia, the beautiful sculptures and reliefs that inspire with wonder.  There is nothing manly in their actions - you can observe in their movements and carriage how infantile they feel to attack defenceless objects with sledge hammers, drills and explosives, witnesses to the spirituality of our ancestors that no previous regime or invade has considered destroying.  But these are people of the Word and the Word progresses easily to the sword and to negation, as we know  from our own Christian heritage.  The Word serves authority well, in division and controlling creed.The ISIS men are carrying out a cultural war along with the slaughter of civilians.  And of course they are seeking to shock - publicity is all in this digitally connected world.  Whether you are an artist of the democratic west, or a soldier of radical Islam, your 'products' need to be commodified for public consumption.  Sensational and scandalous news bites are the most successfully and rapidly  distributed.  It is all so depressingly mindless - the vandalism of cultural brigands.

Like so many others, I feel unbearable grief to see such beauty created by the great civilisations of the past recklessly destroyed for momentary stuntmanship.  Future generations will never have the opportunity of being inspired by these ancient works.