Inanna in the Chapter Entitled:

Inanna

In the chapter entitled: "The Huluppu-Tree" the verse begins with the repetitious: "in the first days, in the very first days" and speaks of the "very first nights" and the "very first years" and goes on to say that the "name of man was fixed" which reminds the writer of the story of Genesis when man was placed on earth and seems to convey that consciousness of mankind had begun. The Sky God, named an took the heavens as his domain while the Air God, Enlil took the earth and that Ereshkigal was appointed to be the Queen of the Great Below or the Underworld. A tree sprung up in the garden, the huluppu-tree and it grew by the Euphrates River but was uprooted and was carried away by the river and found by Inanna who cared for it. When the serpent came to make its home at the root of the tree and Lilith build herself a home in the trunk Inanna cried. Lilith is representative of something dark and evil and in many interpretations of who Lilith actually is, and in the writer's interpretation due to her connection to the serpent; it is believed that Lilith is the feminine form of the serpent or Satan. Inanna turns to Utu, her brother the Sun God for assistance but he will not help but her other brother Gilgamesh comes to the tree and with his bronze axe tames the creatures with a very large bronze axe. It appears that somehow the underworld is tamed through the civilization of mankind in this story. This bronze axe seems to be representative of the age of civilization in which Inanna is living. Inanna is able to then carve for herself a bed and a throne from the tree and awards Gilgamesh with two mysterious objects a 'pukku' and 'mikku' which may be a flute and drum. The huluppu-tree is reminiscent of the 'tree of good and evil' in the 'garden of Eden' in the Old Testament Book of Genesis and just as in the Book of Genesis the serpent concerns itself with the tree to create problems for the inhabitants or in this case for Inanna.

In the descent of Inanna, Inanna goes to the underworld to see her sister and to issue the funeral rites of her sister's dead husband. In this chapter she passes through seven gates and at each of these gates one of her royal pieces of attire are removed from her. The writer is reminded of the descent of Jesus into hell or into the bosom of Abraham during the time that he died and the cross and arose from the dead and just as Christ arose from the dead Inanna too is brought back to life by the God of Wisdom's "food of life" and "water of life." As she re-enters the world above she is accompanied by demonic beings who offer first to take her daughter and then to take her two sons instead of following her, but Inanna refuses. The demons then attempt to take her husband but are thwarted from doing that. The seven 'me' are the crown, the beads, the royal robe, the ointment, the breastplate, the gold ring, and the measuring rod and line. These objects are all reminiscent of biblical objects and especially the ointment applied to her eyes as she enters the underworld being representative of the ointment that was used on the dead body of Jesus in the burial tomb.