Woohooo! Successfully presented at IshtarFest, and I think it went pretty well if I do say so myself! Now all that’s left for my summer presentation schedule is the 2025 S/He Creatrix Studies online conference – yay! It’s hosted by Mago Academy, and the theme is: “Motherize! Motherhood, Matriarchy, and Matriverse Re-deemed in the Cosmic Mother.” It’s all happening next weekend, June 12-15. I’ll be presenting a paper on Friday the 13th (my lucky day!) as part of a group of four presenters, and our session is from 8:00 am to 9:30 am. My (admittedly short but hopefully still interesting!) paper is titled: “’Everyone Gets Lifted Up’: How Spiritual Matrifocal Families Can Enhance Lives and Reduce Systemic Patriarchal Oppressions.” Yes, I know it’s a mouthful, but still: hope to see you there!
Also, hello to any IshtarFolks who’re stopping by here. This was my first IshtarFest, and I had a fantastic time – thank you all so much! Since I had a request for a bibliography for my presentation, “Inanna and Ebih: Garden of Eden or Arrested Childhood?” I did a hasty run through the house to collect up both my own books, and the library books which I used and not yet returned – and I think I have everything here? I apologize if I missed anything – but please, if you find something new and fascinating about Inanna, feel free to let me know!
Quick Reference List
Frymer-Kensky, Tikva. In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture, and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth. Ballantine Books, 1912.
Grahn, Judy. Eruptions of Inanna: Justice, Gender, and Erotic Power. Nightboat Books, 2021.
Kramer, Samuel Noah. Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C. Revised edition, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972.
McBride, Nuri. “The Goddess & the Rose.” Plantings issue 22, 2023. https://worldsensorium.com/the-goddess-and-the-rose/.
Meador, Betty de Shong. Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart: Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess Enheduanna. University of Texas Press, 2001.
—–. Princess, Priestess, Poet: The Sumerian Temple Hymns of Inanna. University of Texas Press, 2009.
—–. Uncursing the Dark: Treasures from the Underworld. Chiron Publications, 2013.
Monaghan, Patricia, ed. Goddesses in World Culture, vol. 2. Revised edition, New World Library, 2014.
Plumwood, Val. Feminism and the Mastery of Nature. Routledge, 1993.
Pryke, Louise. “Ishtar.” World History Encyclopedia, 2019. https://www.worldhistory.org/ishtar/
Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Goddesses and the Divine Feminine: A Western Religious History. University of California Press, 2005.
Veldhuis, Niek. “Levels of Literacy.” The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture. Karen Radner and Eleanor Robson, eds., online edition, Oxford Academic Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199557301.013.0004
Wikipedia. “Me (mythology).” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_(mythology)
Wolkstein, Diane and Samuel Noah Kramer. Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer. Harper Perennial, 1983.
Many of these books give only an overview of the Inanna stories written down by Enheduanna, and thus will not bring anything new to the table for the serious student/worshipper of Inanna. In this category I include the books of Tikva Frymer-Kensky, Patricia Monaghan, and Rosemary Radford Ruether. I should also note Monaghan’s Goddesses in World Culture is a collection of three books – make sure you get volume two! I unfortunately wasn’t careful enough, and had to go back to the library for the correct one… after paging through volume 3 in growing confusion as to how Inanna was going to fit in with the Mesoamerican goddesses! Obvious answer: She didn’t. ;)
I honestly don’t really recommend the Kramer books (though I went through them to be a completist), for two reasons. First, there tends to be an unpleasant thread of misogyny in Kramer’s interpretations of the Inanna stories. Second, the book Wolkstein wrote with him is quite poetic, but doesn’t contain the story of Inanna and Ebih, as it was still too newly being translated and interpreted, at that time. However, if you’re a mythology nerd like me, definitely read the one with Wolkstein – she does lovely work, despite her co-author’s rather, um… antiquated views on women. I always thought it was a pity she didn’t write a book on Inanna herself alone, you know?
Next, I highly recommend both Grahn and Meador – they’re engrossing writers, and their literary translations are simply gorgeously lush! Also, they’re unafraid to present Inanna in all her facets, without that sort of snarky or titillated demeanor which some authors use to emotionally detach themselves from sexual topics.
Val Plumwood’s book is a brilliant philosophical review of the structures of patriarchy. Fair warning: it’s heavy going! But if you can soldier on through, definitely well worth it. Confession time: it took me three tries to finish the book, since I had to keep putting it down and walking away for at least a week, because it was so rich and full of amazing and revelatory ideas that I needed mental-digestion time! Finally, the rest of the books or articles were all interesting for various reasons, and I think folks might like them. Hope this is fun and useful for you all!
