Irkalla: Encyclopedia - Irkalla

Irkalla

Gods

• Enlil and 7 who decree fate
• Ishtar and planet Venus
• Tiamat and Tablets of Destiny
• Annunaki and astronauts
• Marduk and Babylon
  

Heroes

• Utnapishtim and world-flood
• Tammuz and new life
• Gilgamesh and Cedar Forest
• Enkidu, the man-beast
  

Monsters

• Zu, the lion-eagle
• Kingu, mankind's blood
• Resheph, plague and war
• Namtar, deadly illness

Related

• Me, divine decrees
• Ma, primeval land
• Kutha/Irkalla, the underworld
• Babylonian/Assyrian religion
• The Fertile Crescent
  

In Akkadian and Sumerian mythology, Irkalla (also Ir-Kalla, Irkalia) is the Hell-like underworld from which there is no return. Irkalla is ruled by the death god Nergal and his consort Ereshkigal.

The Sumerian nether world was a place for the bodies of the dead to exist after death. One passed through the seven gates on their journey through the portal to the netherworld leaving articles of clothing and adornment at each gate, not necessarily by choice as there was a guardian at each gate to extract a toll for one's passage and to keep one from going the wrong way. The living spirits of the dead are only spoken of in connection with this netherworld when someone has been placed here before they are dead or wrongly killed and can be saved. This is not like the "Hell" of other religions but rather a "recycling" area for the bodies of the dead. The spirits are separated and either become deities like Marduk or lesser gods and helping spirits. It was a terrible place to imagine because of the decomposing flesh of its inhabitants.

Compare with Hades.

Irkalla is sometimes referenced as the name of an androgynous death deity.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Irkalla", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki