Thread: Since we're talking mythology and the Bronze Age civilians have the dopest of mythologies let's talk about one of my favorite Inanna/Ishtar myths.

(Blossom of the Bone by Randy P. Conner has this myth and a ton of others. It's great.)

Inanna/Ishtar, the Queen of Heaven, (who I'm just going to call Inanna from here on out) went to the Underworld to see her dead lover and ends up pissing off the Queen of the Dead who just so happens to be her sister Ereshkigal.

Ereshkigal uses her 'Queen of the Dead' powers and bitch slaps Inanna with every illness known to humanity and traps her in the Underworld.

To save Inanna, the other gods create "A being of light called, Asushunamir."

Asushunamir is absolutely beautiful, "clothed in stars," etc etc.

Asushunamir is also neither/both male nor/and female.

(I've seen different tellings go either way but it seems the generally accepted telling is that they were 'neither male nor female.')

So, Asushunamir sets off to the Underworld to save Inanna.

They cozy up to Ereshkigal who "dreamed of taking this beautiful being to her bed and of keeping [Asushunamir] forever with her in the Land of the Dead."

Asushunamir pulls some "I need to save Inanna" shenanigans and convinces Ereshkigal to let them see the Water of Life which would totally cure Inanna allow her to escape the Underworld.

"Ereshkigal cried out, “Namtar, bring the jug with the water of life. I shall grant the wish of this charming creature.”"

(Aka Ereshkigal REALLY wanted to bang Asushunamir.)

And it can sort of be gleamed that they might have because this telling jumps to Asushunamir sneaking away with the Water of Life while Ereshkigal was sleeping.

Asushunamir finds Inanna and sprinkles the water on her, which cures her, and they start to make their escape.

Buuuuut Ereshkigal wakes up and sees what has happened.

She gets super pissed and curses Asushunamir before they can escape.

"“The food of the gutter shall thou eat,” cried Ereshkigal, her every word a curse.“The water of the sewer shall be your drink. In the shadows you shall abide, despised and hated by even your own kind.” Having pronounced the curse, Ereshkigal banished Asushunamir.""

When Inanna hears about Asushunamir being cursed she is absolutely beside herself with grief.

However, she says that Ereshkigal's powers are too great and that no one dares defy her.

But Inanna tries to "soften" the curse.

Now, I'm going to post Inanna speech in its entirety because it's significant.

"Yet I may soften her curse upon you, as spring arrives to banish winter. Those who are like you, my assinnu and kalum and kugarru and kalaturru, lovers of men, kin to my sacred women..."

"...shall be strangers in their own homes. Their families will keep them in the shadows and will leave them nothing. The drunken shall smite them, and the mighty shall imprison them. But if you remember me, how you were born from the light of the stars to save me..."

"...and through me the earth, from darkness and death, then I shall harbor you and your kind. You shall be my favored children, and I shall make you my priestesses. I shall grant you the gift of prophecy, the wisdom of the earth and the moon and all that they govern..."

"...and you shall banish illness from my children, even as you have stolen me from the clutches of Ereshkigal.” “And when you dress in my robes, I shall dance in your feet and sing in your throats. No man shall be able to resist your enchantments.”"

Now, it's important to keep in mind that ancient cultures had no real concept of the structures gender identity or sexuality.

They really wouldn't know what it means to be cisgender or gender non-conforming.

HOWEVER

Inanna says some very interesting things.

"Those who are like you, my assinnu and kalum and kugarru and kalaturru, lovers of men, kin to my sacred women..."

You'll find a few different translations for "assinnu" and "kalum" but they both seem to indicate some kind of gender non-conforming element.

But the Akkadian language didn't really have words to accurately convey 'transgender' and 'nonbinary' so 'neither/both male nor/and female’ can be fairly interpreted as a blanket term for gender minorities.

In fact, one potential translation for "kalum" is "male-bodied priestess""

So, it looks like Inanna/Ishtar had gender non-conforming individuals as priestesses and temple prostitutes.

The Sumerian telling of this myth differs slightly, but Asushunamir is probably the oldest example of a gender non-conforming and/or trans person in human history.

And that they are the beloved children of Inanna/Ishtar.

Anyway, just a cool story that dates back thousands of years.

Also, fun tidbit:

The Sumerian goddess Inanna became the Babylonian goddess Ishtar who became the Phoenician goddess Astarte who became the Greek goddess Aphrodite.

#ImportGoddessesFTW

One last thing: this is the Lady of Uruk. It's widely believed to be a depiction of Inanna.

It dates back to roughly 3100 BCE and is believed to be the earliest representations of an anatomically correct human face.

It's currently in the National Museum of Iraq.