sexuality, which leads to reproduction, new life, and through generations, a means of conquering death. It is presided over by a Goddess crazy with grief as, one after the other, the children she produces are stillborn. The sexual liaisons between Nergal and Ereshkigal, each lasting for seven days, do not produce a child (or at least no mention is made of one). Given Ereshkigals history this is probably for the better. In Inannas Descent, when Dumuziis being taken to the netherworld as a substitution for Inanna, his sister laments, Woe, my brother who will not wed a wife, will not have a child. Enkidu never conceived. In all the readings, those beings who descend to the netherworld are generally messengers or servants of the gods, and I assume they have no offspring. The rangers, who ascend with Inanna from the netherworld, besides not eating or drinking, have no fathers, mothers, wives, brothers, sisters, or children. Basically, the only beings who have access to the netherworld are those who are not involved in reproduction, who do not live on through the generations. Perhaps this hellish afterlife is only the fate of those humans who do not bear children? More likely, this all just alludes to the fact that when a person dies, only part of him is irrevocably lost, while another part of him is maintained through his offspring. Thus, the terrible image of Ereshkigal and her stillborn children. The Goddess of the netherworld is creating only death.In the Enuma Elish, when Tiamat and Apsu comingle their waters to produce the gods, each is described as representing an advancement over their parents. Today, we view the concept of evolution in terms of progressive advancement, though this is not inherent in the theory. This is because the lines of evolution eventually lead to us. Death, in this view, is integral to the process of advancement, for if nothing died then nothing would change. Once again, In the Enuma Elish, the world we inhab...
