Descent into the Netherworld/Hell

I. Ancient Near East

In ancient Near Eastern literature several myths survive, which describe the phenomenon of a de-
ity’s descent to the Netherworld, and his/her subsequent ascent, the most prominent being the
myth of Sumerian origin, Inanna’s Descent to the Nether- world. One of the words for
Netherworld in Sume- rian is kur, which can also be translated as “mountains,” often designating
the enemy of gods in combat myths. Overcoming the kur could mean both the defeat of a cosmic
monster and ascending from the Netherworld; the two myths referred to the same spiritual
reality. Like the distant mountains, the Netherworld was inhabited by demons and malicious
beings, capable of holding divine personae in captivity. As the verb used for both de- scending
and ascending is identical in Sumerian (ed3), the concept of “descending into the netherworld”
was closely related to “ascending the mountain”, the acts of which usually form the two
complementary parts of the same myth. The descent myth is not complete without an ascent
motif. The clearest example of such belief is the daily journey of the sun-god Šamaš, who was
thought to descend to the Netherworld for every night, in order to as- cend to the mount of
sunrise in the morning (Heimpel). The end of the myth of Inanna’s descent relates the story of
her ascent and how her lover Dumuzi was taken down to the Netherworld as a substitute for the
goddess, and how the arrange- ment was established that thereafter each would spend half the
year down below. Close parallels to this myth in other mythologies from the Aegean to India,
such as the rape of Persephone in Greek myth, demonstrate that similarities are due to a common
intellectual heritage going back to prehistoric times (Lambert).
The death of Dumuzi was mourned in summer, in the 4th month of the standard Mesopotamian
calendar, named after him. An important calendar text, the so-called Astrolabe B, describes the
month Dumuzi as follows: “the month of heaping up of seed, of sprouting of the early sowing …
the month the shepherd Dumuzi was bound.” The Nippur Compendium, an important cultic text,
also refers in the description of the month to “captivity of the shepherd” and to “descent to the
grave” (Cohen: 31516). Dumuzi, as the symbol for power of grain and herds was mourned at the
time when the fields were harvested. His period below was from midsummer to midwinter,
when the vegetation languishes and dies. The six-month sentence of the goddess was from the
midwinter to midsummer, when animals do not copulate. Presumably, the 10th month Ṭebe¯tu
marked the time when the goddess was thought to enter the Netherworld. The As- trolabe B
refers to “the high festival of Anu, the month of the splendour of Ištar” as the most important
calendar events of the month (Cohen: 335). The cuneiform sources do not mention the mourning
for the goddess in this month, which is only at- tested in a much later Syriac source. T. bar
Konai’s Liber Scholiorum 1.312 tells the tragic love story between the shepherd Tammuz and
Balti, or Astarte, and among other things he says about the goddess that “her father mourned
over her for seven days in the month of Tabit”.
The existence of a belief in “dying and rising deities” in ancient Near Eastern and Classical reli-
gions has been debated since The Golden Bough by
G. Frazer, and most recently discussed in a careful study by T. Mettinger. The most difficult
problem, however, is to find adequate terms for describing the meaning of the belief in “death
and resurrection”. Is it a myth about vegetation only, understood to reveal the seasonal cycles of
natural reproduction, or had it some other aspects of interpretation as well, perhaps connected to
the ideas of salvation and divine incarnation? As the ancient myths must have beared more than
just one layer of possible interpretations, it is not far-fetched to assume that the descent myth also
conveyed the message of incarnation, defilement, and salvation of the cosmic soul. The
redemption of the fallen soul takes place through her reunion with Dumuzi, which was enacted in
the ritual of sacred marriage, in which the earthly king incarnated Dumuzi as the redeemer for his
fallen soul-bride, who was striving to return to her father in heaven (Lapinkivi). Also Origen was
aware of deeper layers of the descent myth when he wrote about the wailing of Adonis and
Tammuz (Sel. Ezech. 8.12): “Those who are knowledgeable about the deeper interpretation of the
Greek myths and what is called mythic theology say that Adonis is the symbol of the fruits of the
earth, which are mourned when they are sown, but which rise, thereby causing joy among the
farmers when the seeds grow up” (Mettinger: 129). In some Babylonian mystical texts, various
deities, who in the mythological texts were conceived of as defeated and sent to the Netherworld,
were equated with specific types of grain. Both Tammuz and Christ are symbolically identified
with a grain, which is sowed and descends to the earth, and sub- sequently rises up like a plant,
after overcoming the forces of death in the Netherworld (Annus: 8). The seasonal myth of
vegetation becomes a salvation myth by a simple application.
Descent to the Netherworld was often thought to take place through the water as well. According
to various Mesopotamian texts, the waters at the edge of the world, which one may ride down or
cross to get down to the lower world, are the same waters that the baby travels on its way to be
born. The Mesopotamian literature possessed a clear image of a netherworldly river, which
carries away the souls, usually called the Ikurra in Sumerian and Ḫubur in Akkadian (Frymer-
Kensky: 598–603). Its waters separated the world of the dead from the world of the living and
had its depths in the subterranean ocean Apsu, which was occasionally considered as a form of
Netherworld. This river is a part of the world view that sees human life and the universe as
surrounded by water. In the judicial river ordeal, which was technically termed with the word
ḫurša¯nu– “mountain”, the accused descends to the river as the access to the Netherworld. The
river then indicates the guilt or the innocence of the accused by beginning to carry or not to carry
the person down to the Netherworld (Frymer-Kensky: 595–96). The term “mountain” for this
procedure refers to Netherworld, whose synonymous appella- tion kuris used for adversaries of
the gods in the conflict myths. The phenomenon of a cosmic enemy also filling the role of judge
at river ordeals is well reflected in the epithet of Yam as “the Judge River” in the Ugaritic
mythology. By the way of a comparison, as the first stage in the process of divine incarnation
according to early Syrian fathers, the Christ descends into the Jordan river, and his baptism in it
was seen as an analogue of his death and descent to Netherworld (Annus: 21).
The outline of conflict between Baal and Mot in the Ugaritic Baal cycle comprises the mythemes
of Baal’s decent to death and his return to life (Met- tinger: 55–81). The descent of Baal into the
Nether- world takes place through the mouth of voracious Mot, the personified Death (KTU 1.6
II:13–23). Baal’s absence badly affects furrows of the plough land, at his revival and return
“skies rain oil, the wadis run with honey” as a sign (KTU 1.6 III:12– 13). Both in ancient
Mesopotamian and Syrian texts, the conflict myth and the descent myth are related to each other,
both reveal the mysteries of life, death, and redemption, often using the symbolism connected to
vegetation and seasonal cycles.
Bibliography: ■ Annus, A., “The Survivals of the Ancient Syrian and Mesopotamian Intellectual Traditions in
the Writings of Ephrem Syrus,” UF 38 (2006) 1–26. Cohen, ■

M. E., The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near East (Bethesda, Md. 1993). ■ Dietrich, M. et al. (eds.), KTU (AOAT 24/1; Neukirchen-Vluyn 1976). ■ Frazer, J. G., The Golden
Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, 12 vols. (London 31911–15).
• Frymer-Kensky, T. S., The Judicial Ordeal in the Ancient Near East (Ann Arbor, Mich. 1977). ■ Heimpel, W., “The Sun at Night and the Doors of Heaven in
Babylonian Texts,” JCS 38 (1986) 127–51. ■ Lambert, W. G., “A New Babylonian Decent to the Netherworld,” in Lingering over Words: Studies in Ancient Near Eastern
Literature in Honor of W. L. Moran (eds.
T. Abusch et al.; Atlanta, Ga. 1990) 289–300. ■ Lapinkivi, P., The Sumerian Sacred Marriage in the Light of Comparative Evi- dence (Helsinki 2004). ■ Mettinger, T. N. D.,
The Riddle of Resurrection: “Dying and Rising Gods” in the Ancient Near East (Stockholm 2001).
Amar Annus

Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 6 (© Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston 2012)