The Mesopotamian Goddess Ereshkigal reigns for hundreds of years, beginning c. 2900 BCE and fading away about 600 BCE. She's one of several Mesopotamian underworld deities and has authoritative power.
The main temple of Ereshkigal is in Kutha, on the Upper Euphrates river. As polytheism is a world-wide practice at this time, gods and demi-gods abound. They're sometimes specific to a town or region.
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Ancient Mesopotamia flourishes in the area of today's Iraq and Syria. Languages include Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian (together sometimes known as Akkadian); Amorite and later Aramaic. The first form of writing develops, the "cuneiform" or wedge-shaped script. It was deciphered in the mid-19th century.
In Sumerian, the name Ereshkigal means Queen of the Great Earth. She's known as Goddess of the Night. She rules Kur, the Underworld or Land of the Dead, which is also called Irkalla.
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Sometimes the Goddess is also called Irkalla, in the cross-cultural tradition of fusing deities with the elements they represent. She appears this way in later myth, perhaps ruling with her consort Nergal.
A major God of Mesopotamia, Nergal is the deity of war, death, and disease. He's been described as the god of inflicted death. In early myth he reigns over Kur on behalf of his parents, primordial nature Gods.
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In later versions he rules because he married the Goddess Ereshkigal. Before the happy event he had up to two previous wives, Mamitu, a goddess connected with the underworld, and/or Las, a goddess connected to medicine.
The Goddess Ereshkigal is a senior member of the Mesopotamian pantheon, considered to have authority over the "transtigridian snake gods" who apparently developed on the boundary between Sumero-Akkadian and Elamite culture. The marriage of Ereshkigal and Nergal may be symbolic of cultural unification among the Mesopotamians.
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Ereshkigal has an envoy or sukkal to carry out her desires in the world, called Namtar. He is her attendant, a minor god and demon of disease. His name means "fate" in Sumerian. In some myth versions, Ereshkigal has an earlier husband, Gugalana. He's a shadowy background figure and eventually diffuses into Nergal.
One of the snake gods, Ninazu, is sometimes seen as her partner or consort. In other myths he's her son, and in others they co-exist as entities of the same category, both related to the Underworld. In some lore, Ninazu rules the Underworld until the emergence of Ereshkjgal.
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The vegetation god Ningishzida has to descend to her kingdom each year, a version of the Greek Persephone story. In Sumerian mythology Ereshkigal is mother of Nungal, goddess of prisons. Nungal means Great Princess.
Ereshkigal is recognized by the ancient Greeks who equate her with Hecate, Greek goddess of magic, witchcraft, the night, moon, ghosts and necromancy. References appear to Hecate Ereshkigal. She appears in god lists of Babylon and other Mesopotamian regions and is equated with the Hurrian underworld goddess Allani.
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Her status and identity are well known during the Bronze Age and after, though they may have become obscured by later authors. The actual Cult of Ereshkigal seems to have remained around her home but her name has entered other mythologies. Her tenure of activity lasts over two thousand years.
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