Eros Innana
By Bethany Frasier (via Calliope) From Sapphic Tales, the Innana cycle

The song of love has echoed long
A chorus through the ages
And bards have offered words enough
To fill a million pages

From harlots moans to poets rhymes
The chorus has been lifted
And ever have the gods allowed
Desire to be gifted

Oh fairest femme in all ideals
Art thou the single thought
That fills the endless yearnings
Our desire has ever sought

For beauty did the gods bestow
The daughters they endowed
With tempting form and faces fair
That they would carry proud

But Eros is the fevered love
Which cannot be restrained
By mortal hand or human heart
It will not be contained

For though the gift the gods have sent
Is precious beyond measure
They proffer too a guiding hand
With such a baneful treasure

Personified in spirit form
Both beautiful and mighty
Innana they have given forth
And also Aphrodite

Though some may say these haughty femmes
Are one and all the same
Their tales are told in different times
Of how they both became

Though Aphrodite rose in foam
From 'neath the coastal sea
Her sister roamed the Sumer steppes
'Fore Cyprus came to be

Daughter of the moon they claim
And sister to the Sun
Innana played at love intense
A battle to be won

Her beauty fierce, an iron will
That would not be forsaken
She dared descend the underworld
But her life was cruelly taken

Her sister-god declared her false
Erishkigala cried
That fair Innana came to steal
Her throne in endless pride

Innana lay alone in death
For days they counted three
But two would follow through the gates
Of hell to set her free

Ugala were the demons called
That Enki brought to life
Gala Tura and Kur Jara
Together faced the strife

Through seven gates did they descend
In secrecy and peril
Regathering her lapis jewels
And all her fine apparel

Into the depths of hell they brought
Her periapts of power
To face the fell Ereshkigal
In aspect cold and dour

For though her doom was cruelly cast
Innana lay in state
Awaiting yet another turn
In her untimely fate

To endless drums of requiem
Her acolytes did grieve
But knew that their Innana fair
From death would they retrieve

Upon her throne Ereshkigal
The Galla did beseech
With soothing tone and sympathy
Her soul they sought to reach

And in her pride and arrogance
Ereshkigala fell
To hollow praise and flattery
Her vanity did swell

She offered them abundant gifts
Of grain and water too
But more than grain would she endow
The Galla demons knew

For on the wall Innana hung
Upon a hook impaled
And though they feared the queen's reply
Her mercy had prevailed

Innana's corpse though deathly cold
Was given to their care
They warmed her with their soft caress
And spoke a holy prayer

The Daughter of the Moon awoke
To breathe the breath of love
And with her shone a rim of light
The new moon far above

For to the sky do lovers look
To build into a fire
The spark of passion kindled by
The Goddess of Desire

Bethany Ariel Frasier - (c)2008