Ereshkigal

**Ereshkigal** is a recurring supporting antagonist in the *Divine Comedy*.

She is a goddess of death and the underworld with her being the ruler of said underworld, named Kur, the wife of Nergal and the mother of Lamashtu. Like any chthonic ruler she takes her duties with utmost seriousness but unlike most other underworld deities she is also callous, cruel, and even sinister when she wants to be. Such traits all stem from her antagonistic relationship with her sister Inanna.

## History

### Background

Ereshkigal is a member of the Elohim or gods (with a small 'g') and likely partook in the Gigantomachy, the war between the Giants and the gods, alongside her fellow deities. After the war was won, Ereshkigal's activities were not fully explored though according to her the gods were pulling straws on who gets to have what and recalls how many tried to rig the game in order not to take the underworld which was the only available realm left.

During that time, Ereshkigal was much different than she is now, and while still not quite as social as the other gods, she was still rather amicable. She also met with Kur, one of Typhon and Tiamat's oldest sons, and the younger brother of Marduk. Despite the clear distinction between them on the count of being a goddess and the other a monster, the two were smitten by each other and developed a close romantic relationship. Soon, Kur would propose to Ereshkigal into being his wife to which she gladly accepted though they needed a place of residence, unfortunately for the two, their marriage would be cut short when Zeus struck against Typhon after seeing the threat that he and his ilk posed to the gods. The gods all turned against the monstrous children of Typhon and Tiamat, except for Ereshkigal and Kur with the former pleading to Kur to flee but refused as he insisted on staying with Ereshkigal.

Ereshkigal then decided to take Kur with her to the unoccupied underworld knowing the other gods would not follow. However, when Inanna spotted them she mistakenly thought that Kur was kidnapping Ereshkigal into the underworld and alarmed the others who promptly attacked Kur. Kur fought back against the gods fiercely but was defeated in the end and mortally wounded. Ereshkigal, in a rage, banished the gods back away from Kur with her powers and dragged her dying lover into the underworld to safety. Though she attempted to heal Kur, his wounds were too great and succumbed to them which greatly devastated Ereshkigal and sparked her hatred towards Inanna and the gods. Moreover, seeing that she is now bound to this underworld, she would come to rule over it and name it "Kur" in honor of her deceased love.

### Conflicts with Inanna

Gradually over the millennium, the relationship between Ereshkigal and her sister Inanna only worsened with Ereshkigal herself becoming embittered, cold, and callous. The situation only exploded when Inanna recruited Gugalanna, Ereshkigal and Kur's surviving son, to kill the demigod Gilgamesh for refusing Inanna's advances only to meet his demise at the hands of Gilgamesh's friend Grendel, the son of Delphyne and the mortal Lamech. When Ereshkigal was told by the gatekeeper Neti that Inanna was arriving to attend Gugalanna's funeral she utterly furious at the audacity but also took the opportunity to utterly humiliate Inanna and make her suffer for what she had done.

Her first act to humiliate Inanna was to instruct Neti to gradually strip Inanna of her garments all while she passed through Kur's seven gates that led to Ereshkigal's throne room. By the time she reaches her sister through the final gate, she stands before Ereshkigal naked and vulnerable much to her delight and Inanna's shame and dismay. Ereshkigal was not satisfied as Inanna does not feel the pain of being stripped of "everything" just as she did to Ereshkigal with Kur and Gugalanna. And so, Ereshkigal and the Annunaki (the judges of the dead) pass judgment unto Inanna and execute her before displaying her corpse by the first gate of Kur for all to see.

However, Inanna was wiley as she was seductive for apparently before descending to Kur, Inanna made a bargain with the gods to be resurrected knowing that Ereshkigal was going to kill her and so it was. Inanna was brought back to life and naturally Ereshkigal was deeply displeased by this. Ereshkigal then summons a hoard of demons, and threatens the gods that if Inanna is not returned or at least a soul is not given to her in exchange then Ereshkigal will unleash the demons unto humanity and the Earth. The gods, unable to call Ereshkigal's bluff, pleaded for Inanna to go back to which she stubbornly refused and instead begins to look for a substitute. She found one in her husband Dumuzid who was more occupied with partying and fornicating with other women than mourning his wife. Content with this substitute, especially since it was Inanna's husband, Ereshkigal dragged Dumuzid into the underworld.

### Marriage to Nergal

Once, the gods held a banquet celebrating the day they defeated the Giants and one which Ereshkigal could not come up to attend. Despite the tenuous relationship between the gods and the chthonic beings they at least tried to ease the tension with Zeus inviting her to send a messenger, and she sent her vizier Namtar in her place. Namta was treated well by most, the exception being Nergal, who treated Namtar with disrespect. However, this was all a ploy by Nergal to gain an audience with Ereshkigal for the goal to conspire alongside her in bringing down the gods.

When Nergal appeared before Ereshkigal he played into the queen's hidden grief and anger towards the gods for the wrongdoings they committed against her all while slyly slithering his own motivations and ambitions in taking down the gods for his own personal vendetta which in this case is the gods continuously confining Nergal from the Earth and fulfilling his duties as a god of war and destruction. Nergal ultimately took Ereshkigal's attention and whatever was left of her heart by aiding her taking Geshtinanna, the daughter of Dumuzid and Inanna, down to Kur just as Inanna took her son Gugalanna through Gilgamesh.

With the imprisonment of Inanna's husband and Dumuzid, Ereshkigal and Nergal continuous visits culminated in their eventual wedding. Together they bore Lamashtu but she was not exactly a prized possession of her parents with Nergal and Ereshkigal now ruling Kur together and awaiting the day to take vengeance on the gods.

## Trivia

* Ereshkigal is based on the goddess of the same name found in Mesopotamian mythology.
* In the *Divine Comedy*, Gugalanna is depicted as being Ereshkigal's son and separate from the Bull of Heaven of whom the latter is a child of Audumbla.