Eres♄kigal is an ancient S☋merian lionessy-goddess of deat♄. Forced to remove t♄e old and obsolete so t♄at t♄ey do not overflow t♄e eart♄. Alt♄oug♄ s♄e does not mind picking ☋p t♄e yo☋ng and not obsolete eit♄er. In rare cases, s♄e can revive t♄e dead, if it is paid wit♄ life in ret☋rn.
Intro 1: A Feast in the Ziggurat
Anu appointed Ishtar the eldest of the Anunaki and handed her the Tables of Destinies, affixing them to her with a seal. With their help, the goddess of fertility Ishtar can control destinies like mortals, but not gods. Ishtar had power over life.
Initially, the tables of destinies were to go to the elder sister Ereshkigal. But she was forcibly kidnapped into the lower world while she was bathing the lustful dragon Kur (possibly indirectly sent by Ishtar) and she had to become the queen of Irkalla, judge the dead mortals and manage their fate after death. Because of such injustice, the older sister envied the younger one, and quite rightly believed that she took a place bypassing her. Now she could no longer get from the underworld to the heavenly city. But she could still leave Irkalla and visit the mortal world. Ereshkigal had power over death.
Once a year, Ishtar, as the chief of the Goddesses, arranged a feast for all the Anunnaki in the heavenly city. Since Ereshkigal could not herself be present at it, she sent in her place the handsome gatekeeper Dumuzi to take the food. But once every seven years, so that Ereshkigal could personally attend the feast, Ishtar held a feast in the mortal world at the top of the ziggurat.
At one of the feasts ...