Gugalanna

Gugalanna is a name that appears at exactly one hinge and a story that appears at another, and whether they are the same bull is an old argument. In the Descent, Inanna tells the gatekeeper that she has come for the funeral of Gugalanna, her elder sister's husband — a lie, or at least a pretext, but one that requires the bull to be dead and Ereshkigal to be mourning. In Tablet VI of the epic, Ishtar, refused by Gilgamesh, demands the Bull of Heaven from Anu and looses it on Uruk, and Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill it. Read together, the goddess kills her sister's husband twice over. The registry keeps the identification as reported and flags that it is disputed.

Variant accounts

• Whether the Gugalanna of the Descent is the Bull of Heaven of the epic is debated.Gugalanna is named as Ereshkigal's husband in the Descent and the name means 'great bull of heaven'; the Bull of Heaven of Gilgamesh Tablet VI is the animal Anu gives Ishtar. Many treatments identify the two; others hold that the epic's bull is an instrument rather than the underworld queen's consort, and that the identification is a modern harmonisation. The record states both readings.Reference treatment noting the long scholarly debate over the dual identity of Gugalanna as celestial consort of Ereshkigal and as the punitive Bull of Heaven of the Epic of Gilgamesh. (secondary)

Domains

• sky

Relations

• consort of: EreshkigalHis death is the machinery of the Descent: it gives Inanna a reason to be at the gate, and it gives Ereshkigal a mourning that Inanna's arrival interrupts.Descent of Inanna: the funeral rites of Gugalanna, the husband of Ereshkigal. (primary)
• enemy: EnkiduKilled by the two of them at Uruk after seven years of famine were promised with him; the killing is the second capital offence charged against Enkidu.Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet VI: Enkidu seizes the Bull of Heaven and Gilgamesh kills it. (primary)

Sources

• Gugalanna, 'the great bull of heaven', is the husband of Ereshkigal whose funeral rites give Inanna her pretext for descending, and is identified in the epic tradition with the Bull of Heaven killed by Gilgamesh and Enkidu.: Descent of Inanna; Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet VI. (primary); Reference treatment of Gugalanna as the Bull of Heaven and first husband of Ereshkigal, and of the scholarly debate over that identification. (secondary)