by Janet Lee

Some of these rituals were forerunners of what is told in the Christian gospels, where the Christ child is born in the middle of winter - at the time of the Dionysian rites - and dies and is reborn in the spring - the time of Easter is still fixed according to the phases of the moon, just as the astrological star in the east foretold the birth of the Christ child.  Shamans (medicine men or folk healers) are found in all primitive cultures and descend to the underworld or journey to other worlds to retrieve souls or parts of the soul which have been lost and thus bring about healing.  Theatre was born in Greece from such ritual, in which participation was key to the health of the whole community, the collective. 

These myths continue to resonate down the centuries and across continents.  Sir James Fraser's major work, The Golden Bough, brought these ancient myths and rituals to fin-de-siecle attention when it was first published in 1890, an era of great archaeological discovery.  Arguably, it was the resonance of myth and ritual which really gave birth to the tenets of psychoanalysis and contemporary therapy.  Freud's favourite works of literature included Greek Tragedy, such as Oedipus, and also the works of Shakespeare, which are full of esoteric and magical ritual which came back to light in the Renaissance (literally the re-birth).  However, it was Freud's early pupil and friend, Carl Gustav Jung, and his followers such as Marie Louise von Franz and M Esther Harding, who wrote about, and explored, extensively how ancient myths and folk tales mapped the psyche's journey to wholeness.

One of the earliest myths is from Sumer (ancient Iraq) and tells the story of the Great Mother goddess Inanna, goddess of the city of Uruk, who journeys to the underworld.  As the story goes, Inanna, Queen of the Heavens (the ancients knew her as Venus, the morning and evening star), hears of the death of the Bull of Heaven who goes to join his wife, Inanna's sister, Erishkegal, who is queen of the forbidden and dangerous underworld.  Inanna decides to journey there to witness his funeral rites but as a precaution she instructs her trusted female aide and friend, Ninshubur, to appeal to the gods if she does not return in three days.  And so Inanna "abandoned heaven, abandoned earth - to the Netherworld she descended."

Arriving at the gates to the underworld, Inanna demands to be admitted into the land of no return.  Erishkegal instructs the keeper to refuse her entry unless she enters as any other - "naked and bowed low".  And so Inanna passes through each of the seven gates of the underworld and is stripped one-by-one of her crown, robes, jewels and other regalia until she is left standing completely naked before her sister.  

When she arrives, she tries to seize her sister's throne.  The Anuna, a group of judges (whom this writer believes are the stars known to the Greeks as the Pleiades), intercede.  They fix on her the eye of death, kill her and hang her body on a hook. Meanwhile, Erishkegal writhes on the floor in agony, as if giving birth.

Three days pass, and Inanna does not return to the Heavens.  Ninshubur appeals to Enki, the God of Water and Wisdom.  He creates two little creatures from the dirt under his fingernail and sends them into the underworld.  Being so tiny, they slip through the seven gates undetected, until finally emerging in the great chamber of Erishkegal. 

They approach Erishkegal and share her agony.  Each time she speaks, they gently repeat back her own words until she is restored.  In gratitude, she promises them whatever they want.  They ask for the body of Inanna and give her the bread and water of life.  Inanna ascends through the seven gates, reclaiming at each one what she has lost, until she emerges into the light, safe and ready to begin anew. 

But she must send replacements to the underworld.  When she finds her husband, Dumuzi, the king of Uruk, on her throne, she offers him.  But he resists until his sister, Geshtinanna, agrees to share the task and replace him in the underworld during half the year.

Other myths which feature Inanna include the Huluppu Tree; Inanna taking the Me, the arts of civilisation, from the god Enki; and the sacred marriage between Inanna and Dumuzi.