Qualche pensiero sulla discesa di Ištar agli Inferi

Résumé

The present article deals not only with the general interpretation but also with the specific explanation of some critical passages of the Akkadian composition “Ištar’s Descent”. First of all the author investigates the reasons that drove the goddess into the netherworld. He suggests for example that her death and resurrection belonged to an initiation process that was compulsory to her career advancement within the Mesopotamian pantheon. In the second part of the contribution Saporetti focuses on the final section of the work trying to solve some interpretation doubts by means of comparison with the preexistent Sumerian version of the myth.