The Huluppa Tree {Version 2}

The Huluppa Tree {Version 2}

Wolkstein, Diane & Samuel Noah Kramer. (1983). Inanna queen of heaven and earth: Her stories and hymns from Sumer. New York: Harper & Row.

(Texts: All Artifacts, Color Coding, & Writings in Bold Type With Italics Inside Parenthesis, are Added by Editor R. Brown, not the Authors, Translators, or Publishers!)

(gods in blue …mixed-breed demigods in teal…)

(Enkidu = Ninhursag’s creature creation)

Narrator: In the first days, in the very first days /

In the first nights, in the very first nights

In the first years, in the very first years /

In the first days when everything needed was brought into being /

In the first days when everything needed was properly nourished

When bread was baked in the shrines of the land

And bread was tasted in the homes of the land

When heaven (Nibiru‘s orbit) had moved away from earth

And earth had separated from heaven

And the name of man was fixed /

When the Sky God, An, had carried off the heavens,

              (Sky God Anu & Air God Enlil)

And the Air God, Enlil had carried off the earth,

When the Queen of the Great Below,

Ereshkigal, was given the Underworld for Her domain.

At that time, a tree, a single tree, a huluppu tree

Was planted by the banks of the Euphrates

The whirling South Wind Inanna, pulling at its roots

And ripping at its branches

Until the waters of the Euphrates carried it away

  (Sky God An / Anu hovering above in his sky disc)

A woman who walked in the fear of the word of the Sky God, An,

  (Air God Enlil)

Who walked in the fear of the Air God, Enlil,

Plucked the Tree from the river and spoke:

(Lights focusing on Inanna, who will be ‘planting and taking care of’ a tree)

Inanna: ‘ I shall bring this tree to Uruk I shall plant this tree in my holy garden”.

Narrator: Inanna cared for the tree with her hand

She settled the earth around the tree with her foot She wondered:

Inanna: “How long will it be until I have a shining throne to sit upon?

How long will it be until I have a shining bed to lie upon?”

Narrator: As the years passed by, five years, then ten years, Inanna kept wondering about her throne and bed.

               (Inanna seated on her throne in Uruk, city of gods & earthlings)

Who could help Inanna in her quest for

Sovereignty to share?

Only a hero on the make could he be

A hero seeking for the Goddess without and within.

Finally he came, at the coming of the dawn, the hero came

   (Gilgamesh, his mother Ninsun, & his companion Enkidu)   

Gilgamesh, hero of Uruk,

Display Inanna and Gilgamesh sitting under the Tree

From the trunk of the tree Gilgamesh carved a throne for his holy sister

From the trunk of the tree Gilgamesh carved a bed for Inanna

From the roots of the tree she fashioned a ring for her brother

From the crown of the tree Inanna fashioned a rod for Gilgamesh

Thus Goddess and Hero sit together as Friends

 (Gilgamesh, Enkidu, Gilgamesh, naked Inanna, Inanna)

And so this Great Myth (tales of Inanna & Gilgamesh) begins.