Above To The Great Below

“From the Great Above to the Great Below” is a story the majority of modern cultures are unfamiliar with. Being written in cuneiform, the text originates in ancient Mesopotamia, specifically Sumer. Thus, the text we have now is a translation, yet to the best of their ability the translators attempt to replicate the style and content of the original story. Because of this I find that the style the myth is written in creates some distance between the myth and a modern audience. For me, being able to study the myth in an academic setting helped with understanding the cultural background and overall history behind “From the Great Above to the Great Below” and changed how I perceived the text. To observe the impact and meaning this text would have
on modern people, I asked two participants if I could perform “From the Great Above to the Great Below” for them. I believed that they would be ostracized from the text due to not having a significant enough cultural background to understand it. After performing the story and seeing how the participants reacted, however, I would like to argue that while “From the Great Above to the Great Below” may be daunting, allowing for discussion and open interpretation from readers makes the myth more approachable to modern readers.
The first thing I noticed was that the repeated style of the text threw both of my participants off. Right from “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” they started questioning the reason for repetition (52). I believe that the reason they were so off put is due to the style of stories in our modern culture, and how we are used to more concise stories. Both participants understood this disconnect after I told them when “From the Great Above to the Great Below” was written, participant two even stating that the repetition made more sense, as repetition seemed to signify older texts to him. From the first lines the participants realized they would have a cultural and stylistic disconnect with the story, all because they took note of the repetition.
The subject matter of the repetition also drew the attention of my participants. Participant one called attention to the passage “In Uruk she abandoned her temple to descend to the Underworld…. In Akkad she abandoned her temple to descend to the underworld” and asked: why Inanna had to abandon all of the cities, and why do readers have to be told this (52). Participant two jumped in pointing out that Inanna was a divinity and could be in multiple places at once. Conversation then continued hypothesizing that the passage is meant to show how powerful she is, as she has so many temples. Through these examples we can see how the style of repetition can influence modern audiences and change how they perceive the story. I am also taking into consideration the fact that my participants have short attention spans. They would get lost on one detail in these repetitive stanzas, to the point where the text had to be read to them several times. Despite that fact, and my assumption that the repetition in the text would distract modern audiences, as the story went on my participants became more comfortable with the style.
Certain themes and terminology in the text initially distanced the participants from the text. The differences between when the Sumerian culture was prevalent and todays modern culture. For the most part however, the participants brought in their own knowledge and understanding to bridge the gap between today’s culture and the culture of the past. One example of this was after the text said “[Inanna] gathered together the seven me” participant one stopped me to ask what that meant. I explained to them that the me were objects that gave Inanna some of her power and influence in Sumer, and how the me represented the technology of the time. The same participant immediately brought up how the me were reminding her of stories she heard about Aphrodite, and how she had attendants to help her get ready and put on clothing that give her allure. This connection was brought up again by the same participant after Inanna “daubed her eyes with ointment called ‘let him come, let him come’”, she brought up Aphrodite again saying that it seemed like Inanna was going to seduce a man (53). Participant two seemed uncomfortable about this idea and explained that because of the age of the text he did not think such themes would arise as he thought it would be inappropriate. Both the theme of Inanna’s sexuality and the foreign term me caused my participants pause, but it was not unapproachable for them because they could bring in a figure from a more well-known myth to help them better understand “From the Great Above to the Great Below”.
The participants had some difficulties with things that the text did not fully explain. They questioned how Inanna has so much faith in father Enki after she said “Father Enki… Surely he will not let me die” (54). They wanted to know why he was singled out, and why all the other gods were also referred to as father. Participant one suggested that he could be her actual father. After that they focused more on trying to understand Inanna’s reasoning for going to the underworld. They felt that they had some sort of answer when Inanna talks to Neti and says “Because… of my older sister, Ereshkigal, / Her husband, Gugalanna, the Bull of Heaven, has died. / I have come to witness the funeral rites” as this was the reasoning she gave Neti (55). They did not question this motivation until after she was killed by Ereshkigal and then they started realizing that maybe Inanna had other objectives in the underworld. They came to a more resolute conclusion on both Inanna’s descent and father Enki, after they had completed the full story. Participant two made a comment that the whole story seemed pointless, backing up his argument by saying that it seemed that Inanna knew she was going to die and would need rescuing. He said that the fact that she went anyways for no purpose seemed to cause more trouble than have any benefit. To this participant one jumped in saying that the journey was more about showing that she could make the journey and gaining the experience from it, Participant one then brought up that this might have been the reason father Enki, who is referred to as the god of wisdom, would help her out of the underworld as he would understand the need to explore. I find that the text does not fully explain the motivations of the characters. That makes it hard for modern readers as they are used to having texts more flushed out with detail. Nevertheless, the participants could understand the story without those details and at the end and were able to come up with their own conclusions on the motivation of the characters.
The concept and mythology surrounding Ereshkigal also gave my participants pause.
This first happened with Ereshkigal’s physical reaction to being told that Inanna was in the underworld, “When Ereshkigal heard this, /She slapped her thigh and bit her lip./She took the matter into her heart and dwelt on it” (56). This point of the text caused the participants to have two different interpretations. Participant one felt that this was a reaction out of anger at Inanna for coming to the underworld, while participant two felt that Ereshkigal was laughing at Inanna for the attempt, and realizing that she now had a chance to pull one over on heaven. While the interpretations of the motivations of Ereshkigal change how the participants might see her as a character, both ideas show an assumption of a negative relationship between the heavens and the underworld. This was brought up before Ereshkigal killed Inanna, and therefore while the theme is present in the story, I find that this assumption is influenced by modern western culture’s view on the relationship between heaven and hell. Overall the mythology of this character raised many questions with the participants. Another point that shows this was the confusion caused in them after Enki described that Ereshkigal would be crying and moaning “with the cries of a woman about to give birth” (64). They didn’t understand why, and I did not have the knowledge at the time to explain, and told them such. This led to the participants talking among themselves discussing if she was having birth or if she was faking the noises to draw attention and sympathy. While not impossible to understand the text without it, I feel that the participants and my own confusion surrounding Ereshkigal’s motivation and mythology, that outside context and information are useful in bridging the gap of understanding of different
cultures. While “From the Great Above to the Great Below” did pose difficulties on a modern reader, through discussion and the ability of readers to bring in their own interpretation it became more approachable. Some aspects of the story, like repetition, just required the participants to get used to the style, as well as being more conscious of reading carefully on my part. The confusion over character motivations, while not understood in the original cultural context, was overcome through discussion between the participants and myself and the integration of modern ideas into the context of the story. Thus, while the myth can initially ostracize the audience due to the lack of cultural understanding, by allowing for open interpretation and discussion the text is not impossible for a modern audience to comprehend. This is important because modern readers might automatically assume that reading “From the Great Above to the Great Below” would be difficult for them. This might be true if they were reading it alone, but with some cultural research and other people’s opinions to help fill in the mythological and cultural context of the myth, it does become an accessible read, and allows the myth to gain meaning with modern audiences.