MYTHOLOGY (noun.)
1. a collection of myths, especially one belonging to a particular religious or cultural tradition.
2. the study of myths
─ IN WHICH THE ADMINS GIVE YOU INFORMATION PERTAINING TO THE MANY BELIEFS OF MULTIPLE MMYTHOLOGIES
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THE GESHTINANNA
The ancient Sumerian goddess of agriculture, fertility, and dream interpretation, the so-called "heavenly grape-vine". She is the sister of Dumuzid and consort of Ningisida. She is also the daughter of Enko and Ninhursag. She shelters her brother when he is being chased be galla demons and mourns his death after the demons drag him to Kur. She eventually agrees to take his place in Kur for half the year, allowing him to return to Heaven to be with Inanna.
The Sumerians believed that, while Geshtinanna was in Heaven and Dumuzid in Kur, the earth becaame dry and barren, thus causing the season summer.
Geshtinanna is first attested in texts from Early Dynastic Illb Era. Her main cult centers were in the cities Nippur, Isin, and Uruk. She continued to be worshiped through the Akkadian Period, but her cult seemed to had disappeared during the Old Babylonian Era. Even after she ceased to be worshiped, her name was not forgotten; she is mentioned in various antiquarian works as late as the Seleucid Era. Geshtinanna was viewed as a mother goddess and was closely associated with the interpretation of dreams. Like her brother, she was a rural deity, associated with the countryside and open fields.
THE DREAM OF DUMUZID The Sumerian poem The Dream of Dumuzid begins with Dumuzid telling Geshtinanna about a frightening dream he has experienced. Then the galla demons arrive to drag him down to the Underworld as a replacement for his wife Inanna, who has been rescued from the Underworld by Enki, the god of water. Dumuzid flees and hide but the galla demons brutally torture Geshtianna as a way to get information on his location, but she refused to release the information. The galla go to Dumuzid's unnamed friend, who betrayed him and the galla demons find him. But Utu, the god of the Sun, who is Inanna's brother, rescues Dumuzid by transforming him into a gazelle. Eventually Dumuzid is recaptured and taken to the Underworld.
THE RETURN OF DUMUZID In the Sumerian poem The Return of Dumuzid, which picks up where The Dream of Dumuzid ends, Geshtinanna laments continually for days and nights over Dumuzid's death, joined by Inanna, who has apparently experienced a change of heart, and Sirtur, Dumuzid's mother. The three ladies mourn continually until a fly reveals to Inanna the location of her husband. Together, Inanna and Geshtinanna go to the place where the fly has told them. They find him there and Inanna determines that, from that point on, Dumuzid will spend half the year with her in Heaven and the other half of the year with her sister Ereshkigal in the Underworld.
