Goddesses of the Underworld: A Look at Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome

       Religion and religious practices all across the world developed for many different reasons, but for most the root reason began with the need to explain the natural phenomenons that occurred in the world. Phenomenons such as life, creation, death, agricultural cycles, and the afterlife. The occurrences that led to the need for explanation of natural phenomenons happened differently throughout the globe.

       For the Egyptians, that need began after “the unification of many village communities into a single kingdom, under one ruler, called the pharaoh” (Nigosan 28). Likewise, the Mesopotamian religions developed after a “succession of governments” developed and created the “Mesopotamian civilization,” ruled by a King (Nigosan 42). Greek religious roots go back as far “as the Neolithic times,” but the theme of the creation of a flourishing city, ruled by a single ruler, echoes that of the Egyptians and Mesopotamians (Nigosan 51). Similarly, the religions of Rome began with the settlement Indo-European peoples in northern Italy, that eventually built cities into empires that were ruled by emperors (Nigosan 68).

         Although each civilization had their own religious culture, “evidence of a religious center where the economic and political resources of the community were concentrated” is evident in each region and religion (Ascalone 158). Ascalone asserts the worship of gods and goddesses in temples, often located in the center of cities, “has always been central to the economic, social, and intellectual development” of societies (158). Through the intermingling of political rule with religion, rulers, kings, emperors, and pharaohs, all found legitimacy in their rule from the temples in which their followers worshiped. To further legitimize their rule, most were dubbed the mouthpiece of the gods for their civilizations; either by the gods themselves through priests, or through a government senate. Some ruled with benevolence, others with an iron fist. Religion, worship, and the influence of the gods in everyday life varied from civilization to civilization. 

       For the Egyptians “life was so precious that [they] placed great emphasis on extending it throughout eternity” (Ruiz 97). The Egyptians lived their lives stringently devoted to their gods, and they were especially concerned with death and the afterlife. To the Egyptians the gods were set apart from them; grander, wiser, and to be obeyed. Their kingdoms and governments reflected this concern with the importance of proper worship; from Pharaoh to peasant. The Greek gods were larger than life, omnipresent, immortals that were just like them, “they did everything people did (except die)” (Roberts and Barrett 23). The Greek gods were accessible, they fell in love, they became jealous; to the Greeks it was as if the gods lived side by side with the people. So much so they believed that “at any time, any passing stranger, could be a god” (Roberts and Barrett 23). The Roman pantheon of gods was almost exactly like that of the Greeks, only the names differed in most accounts. However, unlike the Greeks, the Romans did not get involved in the personal stories of the gods, “the Roman religion focused on the diverse functions of numina,” the “potency of a supernatural quality” which they invoked daily (Nigosan 71).  And according to Podany and McGee, “the Mesopotamians believed [and lived as if] their gods were always close by” (47). Mesopotamians believed their only purpose in life was to serve the gods and do the work that the gods did not want to do, therefore the gods stayed close by to keep a watchful eye on their work.

       Thus, life for many people of ancient cultures could be difficult. Often times children, and likewise adults, died young; some from natural deaths, and many from war. Death, funerary rites, and the afterlife was ever present in ancient civilizations. Although death is a natural part of the cycle of life, it was as painful to people in ancient civilizations to lose loved ones as it is to present day people. However, for many ancient cultures death and the afterlife was mystifying. People were curious about what happened after a person died. The possibility that nothing happened, good or bad, was not an idea that ancient people wanted to entertain--that possibility would have taken away the hope of something better. So, in order to deal with the grief of death, ancient civilizations turned to their gods and goddesses of the underworld, because the thought of life after death gave them hope. For many ancient religions a special place existed just for the dead; the underworld.

    The underworld was seen as a place of mystery, darkness, and the dead. A place that, according to the many different cultures, has been ruled by many different gods. Most people are familiar with the male versions of these gods: Hades (Greek), Pluto (Roman), Osiris (Egyptian), and possibly even Nergal (Mesopotamia), but there were also many goddesses that ruled the underworld. Goddesses that were revered as “Queens of the Night,” “Queens of the Underworld,” and even “Friends of the Dead”. Each of these formidable goddesses of the underworld were represented differently by each of their respective cultures.

   

The Mesopotamian goddess of the underworld was Ereshkigal. She was known as the “Queen of the Underworld,” “Queen of the Night,” (Gurney 109) and the “Goddess of Death” (Feld para 2). This goddess of the underworld was feared and formidable. Tales of the murder of her younger sister, Ishtar “The Queen of Heaven”, by her own hand varied from entrapment, poison, and hanging her on a meat hook (Feld para 3). As a result of the death of Ishtar, all crops on earth failed to grow, causing a “great suffering among men and gods,” an occurrence that did not seem to bother Ereshkigal at all (Feld para 3)). Ereshkigal was the darkness to Ishtar's light. This is a sentiment that rings true for almost all of the goddesses of the underworld; not only do they have male god consorts, but they have female goddesses of heaven or light that contrast their darkness. However, not all goddesses of the underworld, goddesses of heaven, or goddess sisters detested each other.

    
For example, in Egypt the goddess of the underworld was

Nephthys, and her sister was known as the “Queen of Heaven,” the goddess Isis (Laukens). Unlike the Mesopotamian goddess sisters, these sisters were often seen as working together, or more notably wailing together; symbolism of the two goddesses that began after they found the deceased body of their brother Osiris. Indeed, these two goddess sisters were very close. Although Nephthys was the goddess of the dead, death, decay, and funerary services, she was not perceived as a dreadful goddess—she was instead viewed as an empathetic goddess (Marks). This empathy is evidenced when Isis went to her sister Nephthys, crying of Osiris’s death. The response of Nephthys was to cry and wail alongside Isis, then she offered her help to Isis in any way she could (Marks). This tale of the two sister goddesses played a great part in the funerary rites of ancient Egyptians (Bleeker 2). Official wailing women, that represented Nephthys and Isis, were procured for funerary rites of Egyptians—rites that ensured Nephtys would peacefully accompany the soul of the deceased to the land of the dead (Bleeker 3).

When comparing the Egyptian goddess of the underworld with that of the Mesopotamian goddess of the underworld, the two goddesses could not be more different. This vast difference could be because of each culture's different geographic locations, or it could be because of each culture's beliefs as to why the gods existed in the first place. The cruel and formidable goddess of the underworld in Mesopotamia could be a direct result of the Mesopotamian belief that humans were only in existence to serve the gods, therefore death and the underworld would not be a place of respite (Podany and McGee 47). The opposite is true of the Egyptians, they had many elaborate rituals connected to death, and believed they would be rewarded in the afterlife, so their goddess of the underworld displayed more empathy (Ruiz 97).

However, for the Greek and Roman goddesses of the underworld, it would seem that they were very much one in the same. This can be attested to the fact that, “the Romans had no belief in a realm of future happiness or misery” before they absorbed much of the Greek culture; therefore, the Romans “had no god of the lower world,” which meant they also lacked a goddess of the underworld (Berens). Still, where the Romans did not have a single representation of the underworld, the Greeks had two; Nyx and Persephone—both having an identical Roman equivalent, Nox and Proserpina. Nyx, much like the Mesopotamian goddess Ereshkigal, was known as the “Goddess of the Night,” and she was considered to be “the mother of everything mysterious and inexplicable, such as death” (Berens). Nyx, like the other goddess of the underworld, also lived in the dark regions of the underworld (Berens).

Nonetheless, the Greek goddess Persephone is most often

recognized as the “Queen of the Underworld” (Cartwright). Yet Persephone, like her Roman counterpart Proserpina, was not bequeathed the crown as queen of the underworld by choice. Persephone having been kidnapped by the god of the underworld, Hades, prompted a panicked search for her by her mother; Demeter. Demeter was known as the Greek goddess of the grain; her Roman counterpart was Ceres (Cartwright). Because the gods would do nothing to help Demeter/Ceres bring back Persephone/Proserpina, she withdrew from the world and created a drought to force the other god’s hands to help her, and eventually Zeus helped. Unfortunately, because Persephone/Proserpina ate of the food in the underworld she had to remain there at least half of the year, thus becoming the reluctant “Queen of the Underworld” (Cartwright). According to the Mark Cartwright, “the tale of Demeter and Persephone was perhaps symbolic of the changing seasons and the perennial change from life to death...the changes from summer to winter and the return of life in spring.” For the Greeks, and subsequently the Romans, the goddesses of the underworld were not feared, they were seen as unwilling participants turned care takers of the dead, and their return from the underworld each Spring was a celebrated event.

Perhaps the goddesses of the underworld residing in their underworld homes only during the cold and dark months was the very reason the Greeks needed two goddesses to represent death, and the underworld. Persephone lived in the underworld for only half of the year, whereas Nyx resided in the underworld year round. Where Demeter/Ceres gave birth to Persephone/Proserpina the eventual goddess of the underworld; the second underworld goddess Nyx/Nox quite ironically gave birth to the “Goddess of Day,” Hemera/Dies (Nyx), yet again revealing the light versus darkness aspect of these goddesses, which are comparable to that of the Egyptian and Mesopotamian goddesses. Considering the theme of agricultural failure, the Mesopotamian and Greek/Roman goddesses have similar tales overall. Stories that go along with an agricultural theme, whereby the crops on earth failed because of the death of Ishtar in Mesopotamia or because of the kidnapping of Persephone/Proserpina in Greek/Roman tales.

Whether arduous and full malevolence like Ereshkigal, full of empathy and obligation like Nephthys, or reluctant participants in a cosmic balance like Persephone and Proserpina; each goddess of the underworld had an important and specific role they represented for each of their respective cultures. Explaining the natural phenomenons of earth was just the tip of the proverbial iceberg for these “Queens of Darkness.”




Works Cited

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    Ascalone, Enrico.” Mesopotamia.” Berkeley: U of California, 2007. Print.

    Berens, E. M., and Joe Larkins. “The Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome.” Luton: Andrews UK, 2011. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 2 Feb. 2017.

    Bleeker, C. J. “Isis and Nephthys as Wailing Women.” Numen, vol. 5, no. 1, 1958, pp. 1–17. www.jstor.org/stable/3269492.

    Cartwright, Mark. "Persephone." Ancient History Encyclopedia. N.p., 24 Mar. 2016. Web. 30 Jan. 2017.

    Feld, Evelyn Dana. "The Descent of Ishtar into The Underworld." Calliope 11.3 (2000): 26. MasterFILE Elite. Web. 2 Feb. 2017.

    Gurney, O. R. “The Sultantepe Tablets (Continued): VII. The Myth of Nergal and Ereshkigal.” Anatolian Studies, vol. 10, 1960, pp. 105–131. www.jstor.org/stable/3642431

    Laukens, Dirk. "Isis: The Goddess of Fertility." Isis: The Egyptian Goddess of Women and Fertility. N.p., Nov. 2015. Web. 02 Feb. 2017.

    Marks, Joshua J. "Nephthys." Ancient History Encyclopedia. N.p., 13 Mar. 2016. Web. 30 Jan. 2017.

    Nigosian, S. A. "Mesopotamian Religion." World Religions: A Historical Approach. 4th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 42-49. Print.

    Podnay, Amanda H., and Marni McGee. “The Ancient Near Eastern World.” New York, New York: Oxford UP, 2005. Print.

    Roberts, Jennifer Tolbert, and Tracy Barrett. “The Ancient Greek World.” Oxford; New York: Oxford UP, 2004. Print.

Ruiz, Ana. “The Spirit of Ancient Egypt”. New York: Algora Pub., 2001. Print