Description
During recent excavations in the ancient Greek city of Hierapolis in western Asia Minor, archaeologists located the Plutonium mentioned by the classical writers Strabo and Pliny the Elder: a subterranean cave emitting deadly vapours and therefore in ancient times considered to be an entrance to the Netherworld. Strabo and Pliny report about the cave that while birds and bulls that are led into it drop dead immediately, the galli priests of Cybele, ‘who are eunuchs’, can enter unharmed. The archaeologists soon discovered that the deadly vapours described by these ancient writers are still active: several birds flying near the opening of the cave died. A recent report furthermore reveals that the deadly vapour is in fact a high CO2 concentration and explains how the galli priests might have found a way to circumvent the danger while performing their ceremonies. To an Assyriologist this story about devotees of a goddess who can enter the Netherworld unharmed sounds familiar. In the text Inanna/Ištar’s Descent to the Netherworld, Ištar’s devotees go down to the Netherworld to save the goddess, who is trapped there. In my paper, I first discuss the similarities between the cults of Ištar and Cybele with respect to these trips to the Netherworld based on textual and material sources. Next, I address the question often asked in such comparative enterprises between Greek and Mesopotamian cultures: are we dealing with influence or merely with similar but independent developments due to the Aegean-Asian cultural continuum? Other similarities between Ištar and Cybele’s devotees, such as a non-binary gender identity and the performance of loud music and war dances, have been noted before but remain largely unexplained. Taking into account these other similarities as well as circumstantial evidence of possible intermediaries and cultural interaction in the area, I argue that influence is the most likely explanation for these similar instances of going through the Gates of Hell… and back again.| Period | 20 Jul 2018 |
|---|---|
| Event title | 64th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Innsbruck, AustriaShow on map |