DEMONIC, TRANSGENDER FLIES, A DIVINE STRIPTEASE AND THOSE PESKY POMEGRANATES
WTF is a katabasis and why should you bother reading about it ??
TLDR: A katabasis is a journey to the Underworld.
Individual experience varies. GREATLY.
Okay this is straight up one of my faaaavourite things I ever learnt about at uni. It’s such an enthralling, gripping concept AND it was probably the key thing that helped me find a way into Near Eastern mythology. The Near East, ancient Mesopotamia to be specific (now Iraq and Syria) is the literal blueprint of civilisation, kicking off agriculture, densely populated urban settlements, centralised government, social stratification AND organised religion. They are, therefore, considered to be one of, if not THE, cradle of civilisation. So when it comes to the mythical concept of a katabasis, they have irrefutable dibs. The Greeks totally nicked this one.
SO a katabasis is a journey to the Underworld, the subterranean realm of the dead as seen in most mythologies. The word comes from Greek, specifically from katabainein to go down, from kata- cata- + bainein to go. A whole bunch of people/heroes/divinities embark on these with wildly varying and quite chaotic results.
You may be wondering why you should read about something as niche as this. Well, first up, it is always good to dispel the notion that the Greeks came up with everything and, more to the point, it is incredibly comforting and humbling to trace back one of the most ubiquitous narratives to over three thousand, five hundred years ago. Secondly, this particular sort of narrative is just BRIMMING with deeper meaning. And thirdly, some of them involve some of the WILDEST mythology I’ve ever come across, namely a divine striptease and transgender demon-flies. With that, let’s delve into the descent of Inanna.
The Sumerian poem, The Descent of Inanna (1900-1600 BCE), tells of the goddess’s journey to the Underworld where she essentially does a strip tease along the way. She’s toddling down to visit her recently widowed sister, Ereshkigal, the Queen of the Dead.
The poem opens,
“From the Great Above she opened her ear to the Great Below
From the Great Above the goddess opened her ear to the Great Below
From the Great Above Inanna opened her ear to the Great Below.”
Wolkstein and Kramer, 52.
So Inanna starts OFF in just the finest kit, I’m talking JEWELS, I’m talking FINERY, a BREASTPLATE, a SCEPTRE and of course, a big-ass crown. Her sister Ereshkigal dictates that Inanna must remove a garment of royal clothing at each of the seven gates to the Underworld; she is, therefore, stark naked by the time she actually rocks up. She approaches her sister (ta-tas first probably) and is immediately condemned to DEATH as the “eye of death” is fastened on her (if you’ve ever received a thumbs up to a nude, imagine that but WORSE). The divine queen is then hung on the wall like some sort of ghastly hunting trophy. Her loyal servant, however, saves the day, coming to her rescue three days later, as per the goddess’s previous instructions. Ninshubur, said servant, approaches Enki, the king of the gods and Inanna’s father, receiving two ‘galla’, transgender beings who will help her in her recovery of the goddess. These ‘galla’ enter the Underworld and attach themselves like flies to Ereshkigal, causing her a great deal of pain, akin to labour. The transgender flies are then sympathetic (to the pain that they’ve caused??) so Ereshkigal offers them a gift in return. They quickly reply, saying all they’re after is the corpse on the wall. (There’s a sentence I never thought I’d type.) Inanna is revived by the lovely, if duplicitous ‘galla’, swiftly rising from the dead. BUT, just like the myth of dear Persephone, extricating oneself from the netherworld proves a tad TRICKY! A soul is demanded as a replacement. The ‘galla’ have a crack at Ninshubur, Inanna’s sons, even her beautician but it’s a flat no from the goddess as they are (appropriately) dressed in sacks to mourn her. Her lover Dumuzi, HOWEVER, is rocking around in his finery like nothing is amiss. I’m sure you can see where this is going. Inanna is, of course, apoplectic with rage, and sets the now-demonic flies on him. Dumuzi sooks to a sun god so is briefly transformed into a snake to escape but the demon flies find him. His sister offers to go in his place so an arrangement is made; he will spend half the year in the underworld and his sister will live out the other half (hopefully not on a hook on the wall). Yet ANOTHER parallel with darling Persephone. This Underworld-timeshare was used to explain the seasons in ancient Sumer just as Persephone’s flitting about explained it to the ancient Greeks.
First up, entering into the realm of the supernatural, of the undead, is just f*cking cool. This descent is also often the pivotal moment in one’s heroic quest. Getting EVEN deeper with it, (was that a katabasis pun??) this hostile subterranean world is laden with such great symbolic significance, later theorists have argued that a katabasis mirrors an exploration into one’s individual or collective unconscious. The psychoanalytical, Jungian interpretation of the descent of Inanna speaks to the psychological journey the goddess must go on to reach a sort of fulfilment, stripping off and confronting her dark side, her shadow self, in order to become whole.
Speaking of stripping off and confronting one’s dark side… let’s move on to HADES AND PERSEPHONE.
Now THIS is one of the most well-known, adored myths of all time, particularly in 2022, and for that we have to credit Lore Olympus, the online webtoon that retells the romance between Hades and Persephone just fabulously.
There are oh so many interpretations of this myth it is, frankly, dizzying but let’s just stick to the actual myth for a hot second. As the old school story goes, Persephone was wandering around picking wildflowers with her fellow nymphs when all of a sudden Hades, the god of the Underworld, split the earth open and popped out atop a horse-drawn carriage to drag her back to Underworld with him (Zeus had promised Persephone to Hades because female agency was not even slightly a thing). So Persephone is down there having a miserable time, missing her nymph pals and her mum, the goddess Demeter. Demeter is still above ground, desperately searching for her lost daughter, begging the other gods to tell her of her whereabouts. Helios the sun god lets her know where exactly Persephone has been dragged to and Demeter makes a beeline for Zeus, fuelled by her horror, grief and rage. Zeus is unmoved (ugh). So Demeter moves on to plan B. She draws upon her immense powers as the goddess of the harvest and essentially halts agriculture, sending a famine rocketing through Greece. Nevermind all the mortals that can’t EAT, Zeus gets into a bit of a sulk because he is missing his tasty sacrifices and libations. So he’s like fine, fine, fiiiiiiiiiine Persephone can come home as long as she hasn’t eaten or drunk anything while she was in the Underworld.
MEANWHILE, back in the Underworld, Persephone has been miserable, i.e., not eating or drinking. UNTIL Hades oh so innocently offers her some pomegranate. She eats a handful of pomegranate seeds, to the absolute horror of her mother who realises Persephone has consigned herself to the Underworld. Luckily, they all manage to come up with a compromise. Persephone will spend half the year above ground with her mother, and the other half in the Underworld with Hades. And BAM that’s why the seasons happen. (Demeter is so inconsolable when Hades is away, she refuses to let any plants grow. Another proportionate response from the gods.)
This myth, of course, echoes the story of Inanna in so many wonderful ways but it has its own, saucier side. A more modern interpretation (and my personal favourite) is that Persephone actually went willingly, following her erotic desires, wanting to be seen as a woman rather than a girl, and escaping her mother in order to do so. The eating of the pomegranates is a particularly sexual metaphor, reflecting the idea that sex is consumptive and sexual initiation is irreversible. (Also pomegranates look ridiculously vaginal so there’s that). Persephone’s katabasis initiated her into the adult, sexual world, thereby endowing her with a fuller sense of herself, much like Inanna confronting her darker side. Both Inanna and Persephone are made vulnerable through their katabasis, Inanna being literally stripped of her clothes and Persephone stripped of her girlhood. Both of their katabases are also followed by an anabasis, a return to the upper world. Persephone rejoins her mother, secure in the formation of her own adult identity (and with a fine Heathcliff/Mr Darcy type to boot) whereas Inanna rolls up to find her lover flitting about without a care in the world (Dumuzi you could’ve at least worn black or something.)
The katabases of other figures, such as Odysseus, Heracles or Orpheus, often involve the vanquishing of monsters; I would argue that both Inanna and Persephone achieve this, albeit in a more nuanced/less stabby way. Whether confronting their own innocence or arrogance, both goddesses undergo a sort of symbolic death and are reborn as new, stronger, more fully formed gals. As to why they don’t have to fight Cerberus, the three-headed dog, or other such beasties, perhaps it’s because the earth itself is seen as a feminine domain so it is easier, or more straightforward at least, for a woman to enter into. Traditionally male heroic figures embarking upon a katabasis would, therefore, be venturing into hidden, feminine recesses, as symbolised by the feminine, cavernous earth, facing monsters along the way. Perhaps because the gals felt more at home this freed them up to do a bit more soul-searching, having a more reflective, psychologically enriching katabasis.
References:
Linda Lappin. Using Myth: a Focus on Katabasis. European Association of Creative Writing Programs. 2013.
Paul Salmond. Friday essay: journeys to the underworld – Greek myth, film and American anxiety. The Conversation. 2017.
Resende, Pedro & Martinez, Mateus. (2020). C. G. Jung’s katabasis- from ancient myths to modern visionary experiences. 38. 87-100.
Katabasis Definition and Meaning - Merriam Webster.
Hot bonus TIP courtesy of @zaynzayns on Instagram ~ Dumuzi is an agriculture God so once he goes to the underworld everything stops growing too ! 🍁🍁