Repetition in Inanna's Descent

One of the features of Inanna’s Descent that caught my attention, especially in the first half, was its focus on repetition. Throughout the story, the constant replication and imitation of certain lines and stanzas is a transparent characteristic that I believe is meant to both simplify and clarify the narrative’s plot and character development.

The imitation that is seen across the first six stanzas demonstrates my thesis almost perfectly. The first three stanza’s describe Inanna’s goal of coming down from the heavens and taking over the “netherworld.” These stanzas not only make her purpose clear by repeating the lines “from the upper heaven/ her heart set/ on the netherworld” (206) multiple times, but they also clarify who Inanna is by, before each of the above descriptions, describing her in different ways: “the goddess/… Inanna” (206). The next three stanzas further break down her mission and character. Within these stanzas, Inanna’s background is completed in terms of her mission. It is declared that she forsook heaven, earth, lordship, and queenship and “went down to Hades” (206). The first six stanzas set the precedent of repetitive description that permeates the first part of the story.

Aside from immediate repetition such as the first few stanzas, there are also parallels that are more spread out within the story that have the same effect of simplification and clarification. The best example that I found was Inanna’s description of her “page/ of fair words/ (her) envoy/ of true words” (208) and with Inanna’s instructions to her page to go to the different deities for help should Inanna not return. After Inanna is killed in Hades, the exact same lines are repeated to describe Ninshubur, her page, and Ninshubur’s actions that Inanna had originally stated. This repetition makes it clear that Ninshubur is a loyal assistant to every last word that Inanna instructs her. This repetition also makes it obvious where the tale is going and lets the reader follow the plot quite easily.

The repetition present in Inanna’s Descent allows both the characters and plot to be developed and executed with a degree of clarity and simplicity.