Ereshkigal Meaning: Queen of the Mesopotamian Underworld

Ereshkigal was the Mesopotamian goddess who ruled the underworld, the realm of the dead that texts call the "Land of No Return". Her name means "Lady of the Great Earth", the great earth being the world below. She is best known from two myths: her sister Inanna's descent into her kingdom, and her marriage to the god Nergal.

Lady of the Great Earth

The name is Sumerian, ereš-ki-gal, and ORACC's guide to Mesopotamian gods translates it "Lady of the Great Earth". She was not a goddess of punishment: the Mesopotamian underworld was simply where all the dead went, a dim realm beneath the earth, not a place of reward and torment.

Inanna's descent

In the Sumerian poem of Inanna's descent to the underworld, Inanna, goddess of love and war, travels down to her older sister's realm. At each of its seven gates she must surrender part of her regalia, until she stands before Ereshkigal stripped of everything, and she is killed. She is revived only through the god Enki's intervention, and the underworld demands a substitute, which leads to the fate of her husband Dumuzi.

Nergal and Ereshkigal

A later Akkadian myth tells how Nergal, a god of war and plague, came down to the underworld and became Ereshkigal's husband and co-ruler. ORACC notes that her earlier consort was Gugal-ana, by whom she was mother of the god Ninazu, and that her minister Namtar was also her son. Her main temple stood at Kutha, a city associated with Nergal.

Ereshkigal and Inanna

The two goddesses are distinct figures, though ORACC points out that Ereshkigal, like her sister, holds opposites together: a goddess of death who is also associated with birth. Modern readers often cast her as Inanna's dark mirror, which is an interpretation, but a revealing one.

Ereshkigal in jewellery

An Ereshkigal design references Mesopotamian myth, the underworld and one of antiquity's most compelling goddesses. You can see the AURYN Ereshkigal charm, compare the Egyptian Duat, or read our guide to Mesopotamian gods and symbols.