Theancient Mesopotamian underworld (known inSumerian asKur,Irkalla,Kukku,Arali, orKigal, and inAkkadian asErṣetu), was the lowermost part of theancient near eastern cosmos, roughly parallel to the region known asTartarus fromearly Greek cosmology. It was described as a dark, dreary cavern located deep below the ground,^[1][2] where inhabitants were believed to continue "a transpositional version of life on earth".^[1] The only food or drink was dry dust, but family members of the deceased would pour sacred minerallibations from the earth for them to drink. In the Sumerianunderworld, it was initially believed that there was no final judgement of the deceased and the dead were neither punished nor rewarded for their deeds in life.

The ruler of the underworld was the goddessEreshkigal, who lived in the palaceGanzir, sometimes used as a name for the underworld itself. Her husband was eitherGugalanna, the "canal-inspector of Anu", or, especially in later stories,Nergal, the god of war. After theAkkadian Period (c. 2334–2154 BC), Nergal sometimes took over the role as ruler of the underworld. The seven gates of the underworld are guarded by a gatekeeper, who is namedNeti in Sumerian. The godNamtar acts as Ereshkigal'ssukkal, or divine attendant. The dying godDumuzid spends half the year in the underworld, while, during the other half, his place is taken by his sister, the scribal goddessGeshtinanna, who records the names of the deceased. The underworld was also the abode of various demons, including the hideous child-devourerLamashtu, the fearsome wind demon and protector godPazuzu, andgalla, who dragged mortals to the underworld.

TheSumerians had a large number of different names which they applied to the underworld, includingArali,Irkalla,Kukku,Kur,Kigal, andGanzir.^[3] All of these terms were later borrowed into Akkadian.^[3] The rest of the time, the underworld was simply known by words meaning "earth" or "sand", including the termsKur andKi in Sumerian and the worderṣetu in Akkadian.^[3] When used in reference to the underworld, the wordKur usually means "ground",^[3][4][a] but sometimes this meaning is conflated with another possible meaning of the wordKur as "mountain".^[3] The cuneiform sign forKur was written ideographically with the cuneiform sign 𒆳, a pictograph of a mountain.^[7] Sometimes the underworld is called the "land of no return", the "desert", or the "lower world".^[3] The most common name for the earth and the underworld inAkkadian iserṣetu,^[8] but other names for the underworld include:ammatu,arali /arallû,bīt^ddumuzi ("House ofDumuzi"),danninu,erṣetu la târi ("Earth of No Return"),ganzer /kanisurra,ḫaštu,irkalla,kiūru,kukkû ("Darkness"),kurnugû ("Earth of No Return"),lammu,mātu šaplītu, andqaqqaru.^[8]In the myth "Nergal andEreshkigal" it is also referred to asKurnugi.^[9]

All souls went to the same afterlife,^[1][3] and a person's actions during life had no effect on how the person would be treated in the world to come.^[1] Unlike in theancient Egyptian afterlife, there was no process of judgement or evaluation for the deceased;^[3] they merely appeared before Ereshkigal, who would pronounce them dead,^[3] and their names would be recorded by the scribal goddessGeshtinanna.^[3] The souls in Kur were believed to eat nothing but drydust^[11] and family members of the deceased would ritually pourlibations into the dead person's grave through a clay pipe, thereby allowing the dead to drink.^[12] For this reason, it was considered essential to have as many offspring as possible so that one's descendants could continue to provide libations for the dead person to drink for many years.^[13] Those who had died without descendants would suffer the most in the underworld, because they would have nothing to drink at all,^[14] and were believed to haunt the living.^[15] Sometimes the dead are described as naked or clothed in feathers like birds.^[3]

Nonetheless, there are assumptions according to which treasures in wealthy graves had been intended as offerings forUtu and theAnunnaki, so that the deceased would receive special favors in the underworld.^[2] During theThird Dynasty of Ur (c. 2112 –c. 2004 BC), it was believed that a person's treatment in the afterlife depended on how they were buried;[12] those that had been given sumptuous burials would be treated well,^[12] but those who had been given poor burials would fare poorly.^[12] Those who did not receive a proper burial, such as those who had died in fires and whose bodies had been burned or those who died alone in the desert, would have no existence in the underworld at all, but would simply cease to exist.^[14] The Sumerians believed that, for the highly privileged, music could alleviate the bleak conditions of the underworld.^[10]

A staircase led down to the gates of the underworld.^[3] The underworld itself is usually located even deeper below ground than theAbzu, the body of freshwater which the ancient Mesopotamians believed lay deep beneath the earth.^[3] In other, conflicting traditions, however, it seems to be located at a remote and inaccessible location on Earth, possibly somewhere in the far west.^[3] This alternate tradition is hinted at by the fact that the underworld is sometimes called "desert"^[3] and by the fact that actual rivers located far away from Sumer are sometimes referred to as the "river of the underworld".^[3] The underworld was believed to have seven gates, through which a soul needed to pass.^[1] All seven gates were protected bybolts.^[16] The godNeti was the gatekeeper.^[17][18] Ereshkigal'ssukkal, or messenger, was the godNamtar.^[19][17] The palace of Ereshkigal was known as Ganzir.^[16]

At night, the sun-godUtu was believed to travel through the underworld as he journeyed to the east in preparation for the sunrise.^[20] One Sumerian literary work refers to Utu illuminating the underworld and dispensing judgement there^[21] andShamash Hymn 31 (BWL 126) states that Utu serves as a judge of the dead in the underworld alongside themalku,kusu, and theAnunnaki.^[21] On his way through the underworld, Utu was believed to pass through the garden of the sun-god,^[20] which contained trees that bore precious gems as fruit.^[20] The Sumerian hymnInanna and Utu contains anetiological myth in which Utu's sister Inanna begs her brother Utu to take her to Kur,^[22] so that she may taste the fruit of a tree that grows there,^[22] which will reveal to her all the secrets of sex.^[22] Utu complies and, in Kur, Inanna tastes the fruit and becomes knowledgeable of sex.^[22]

A number of deities were believed by the ancient Mesopotamians to reside in the underworld.[3] The queen of the underworld was the goddess Ereshkigal.^[16][17][1] She was believed to live in a palace known as Ganzir.^[16] In earlier stories, her husband isGugalanna,^[16] but, in later myths, her husband is the godNergal.^[16][17] Her gatekeeper was the god Neti^[17] and hersukkal is the godNamtar.^[16] In the poemInanna's Descent into the Underworld, Ereshkigal is described as Inanna's "older sister".^[23]

Gugalanna is the first husband of Ereshkigal, the queen of the underworld.^[16] His name probably originally meant "canal inspector of An"^[16] and he may be merely an alternative name forEnnugi.^[16] The son of Ereshkigal and Gugalanna isNinazu.^[16] InInanna's Descent into the Underworld, Inanna tells the gatekeeper Neti that she is descending to the underworld to attend the funeral of "Gugalanna, the husband of my elder sister Ereshkigal".^[16][24][23]

During theAkkadian Period (c. 2334 – 2154 BC), Ereshkigal's role as the ruler of the underworld was assigned to Nergal, the god of death.[1]^[17] The Akkadians attempted to harmonize this dual rulership of the underworld by making Nergal Ereshkigal's husband.^[1] Nergal is the deity most often identified as Ereshkigal's husband.^[25] He was also associated with forest fires (and identified with the fire-god,Gibil^[26]), fevers, plagues, and war.^[25] In myths, he causes destruction and devastation.^[25]

Ninazu is the son of Ereshkigal and the father ofNingishzida.^[27] He is closely associated with the underworld.^[27] He was mostly worshipped inEshnunna during the third millennium BC, but he was later supplanted by the Hurrian storm godTishpak.^[27] A god named "Ninazu" was also worshipped atEnegi in southern Sumer,^[27] but this may be a different local god by the same name.^[27] His divine beast was themušḫuššu, a kind of dragon, which was later given to Tishpak and then Marduk.^[27]

Ningishzida is a god who normally lives in the underworld.^[28] He is the son of Ninazu and his name may be etymologically derived from a phrase meaning "Lord of the Good Tree".^[28] In the Sumerian poem,The Death of Gilgamesh, the heroGilgamesh dies and meets Ningishzida, along withDumuzid, in the underworld.^[29]Gudea, the Sumerian king of the city-state ofLagash, revered Ningishzida as his personal protector.^[29] In the myth ofAdapa, Dumuzid and Ningishzida are described as guarding the gates of the highest Heaven.^[30] Ningishzida was associated with the constellationHydra.^[31]

Dumuzid, later known by thecorrupted form Tammuz, is the ancient Mesopotamian god of shepherds^[32] and the primary consort of the goddess Inanna.^[32] His sister is the goddess Geshtinanna.^[32][33] In addition to being the god of shepherds, Dumuzid was also an agricultural deity associated with the growth of plants.^[34][35] Ancient Near Eastern peoples associated Dumuzid with the springtime, when the land was fertile and abundant,^[34][36] but, during the summer months, when the land was dry and barren, it was thought that Dumuzid had "died".^[34][37] During the month ofDumuzid, which fell in the middle of summer, people all across Sumer would mourn over his death.^[38][39] An enormous number of popular stories circulated throughout the Near East surrounding his death.^[38][39]

Geshtinanna is a rural agricultural goddess sometimes associated withdream interpretation.^[40] She is the sister of Dumuzid, the god of shepherds.^[40] In one story, she protects her brother when thegalla demons come to drag him down to the underworld by hiding him successively in four different places.^[40] In another version of the story, she refuses to tell thegalla where he is hiding, even after they torture her.^[40] Thegalla eventually take Dumuzid away after he is betrayed by an unnamed "friend",^[40] but Inanna decrees that he and Geshtinanna will alternate places every six months, each spending half the year in the underworld while the other stays in Heaven.^[40] While she is in the underworld, Geshtinanna serves as Ereshkigal's scribe.^[40]

Lugal-irra and Meslamta-ea are a set of twin gods who were worshipped in the village of Kisiga, located in northernBabylonia.^[41] They were regarded as guardians of doorways^[42] and they may have originally been envisioned as a set of twins guarding the gates of the underworld, who chopped the dead into pieces as they passed through the gates.^[43] During theNeo-Assyrian Period (911 BC–609 BC), small depictions of them would be buried at entrances,^[42] with Lugal-irra always on the left and Meslamta-ea always on the right.^[42] They are identical and are shown wearing horned caps and each holding an axe and a mace.^[42] They are identified with the constellationGemini, which is named after them.^[42]

Neti is the gatekeeper of the underworld.^[44] In the story ofInanna's Descent into the Underworld, he leads Inanna through the seven gates of the underworld,^[44][45] removing one of her garments at each gate so that when she comes before Ereshkigal she is naked and symbolically powerless.^[44][45]Belet-Seri is achthonic underworld goddess who was thought to record the names of the deceased as they entered the underworld.^[46]Enmesarra is a minor deity of the underworld.^[47] Seven or eight other minor deities were said to be his offspring.^[47] His symbol was thesuššuru (a kind ofpigeon).^[47] In one incantation, Enmesarra and Ninmesharra, his female counterpart, are invoked as ancestors ofEnki and as primeval deities.^[47] Ennugi is "the canal inspector of the gods".^[16] He is the son of Enlil or Enmesarra^[16] and his wife is the goddessNanibgal.^[16] He is associated with the underworld^[47] and he may be Gugalanna, the first husband of Ereshkigal, under a different name.^[16]

The ancient Mesopotamians also believed that the underworld was home to many demons,^[3] which are sometimes referred to as "offspring ofarali".^[3] These demons could sometimes leave the underworld and terrorize mortals on earth.^[3] One class of demons that were believed to reside in the underworld were known asgalla;^[48] their primary purpose appears to have been to drag unfortunate mortals back to Kur.^[48] They are frequently referenced in magical texts,^[49] and some texts describe them as being seven in number.^[49] Several extant poems describe thegalla dragging the god Dumuzid into the underworld.^[18] Like other demons, however,galla could also be benevolent^[18] and, in a hymn from KingGudea ofLagash (c. 2144 – 2124 BC), a minor god namedIg-alima is described as "the greatgalla ofGirsu".^[18] Demons had nocult inMesopotamian religious practice since demons "know no food, know no drink, eat no flour offering and drink no libation."^[50]

Lamashtu was a demonic goddess with the "head of a lion, the teeth of a donkey, naked breasts, a hairy body, hands stained (with blood?), long fingers and fingernails, and the feet ofAnzû."^[51] She was believed to feed on the blood of human infants^[51] and was widely blamed as the cause ofmiscarriages andcot deaths.^[51] Although Lamashtu has traditionally been identified as a demoness,^[52] the fact that she could cause evil on her own without the permission of other deities strongly indicates that she was seen as a goddess in her own right.^[51] Mesopotamian peoples protected against her usingamulets andtalismans.^[51] She was believed to ride in her boat on the river of the underworld^[51] and she was associated with donkeys.^[51] She was believed to be the daughter ofAn.^[51]

Pazuzu is a demonic god who was well known to the Babylonians and Assyrians throughout the first millennium BC.^[53] He is shown with "a rather canine face with abnormally bulging eyes, a scaly body, a snake-headed penis, the talons of a bird and usually wings."^[53] He was believed to be the son of the godHanbi.^[54] He was usually regarded as evil,^[53] but he could also sometimes be a beneficent entity who protected against winds bearing pestilence^[53] and he was thought to be able to force Lamashtu back to the underworld.^[55] Amulets bearing his image were positioned in dwellings to protect infants from Lamashtu^[54] and pregnant women frequently wore amulets with his head on them as protection from her.^[54]

Šul-pa-e's name means "youthful brilliance", but he was not envisioned as a youthful god.^[56] According to one tradition, he was the consort of Ninhursag, a tradition which contradicts the usual portrayal of Enki as Ninhursag's consort.^[56][57] In one Sumerian poem, offerings are made to Šhul-pa-e in the underworld and, in later mythology, he was one of the demons of the underworld.^[56]

• Ancient Mesopotamian religion
• Ghosts in Mesopotamian religions
• Land of Darkness – Mythical land
• Sumerian religion – First known Mesopotamian religion
• World of Darkness – Underworld in Mandaeism
• Descent of Inanna into the Underworld