In the Sumerian mythology, Inanna, the Queen of Heaven, had an older sister Erishkagal. Erishkigal , the Queen of the Underworld, was married to the Bull of Heaven. Inanna pressured her father An into giving her the Bull of Heaven, with the intention of using the bull to kill Gilgamesh. Unfortunately for the bull, he was slain by Gilgamesh and Enkidu.[i]
Inanna then descended to the Underworld, purportedly to attend the funeral of her sister’s husband, but her manner was aggressive.[ii] The angry Erishkigal struck her younger sister dead and hung her corpse from a hook. But before Inanna left for the underworld, she had the foresight to instruct her vizier the goddess Ninshabur/Nincubura to seek help from the three gods Enlil, Nanna and Enki, should she not return.[iii]
As told in the epic poem composed sometime between 3500 BCE and 1900 BCE,[iv] Ninshabur went to the three gods in turn. Two of the gods refused to intervene, saying that Inanna should face the consequences of her actions. But the third god Enki was “grieved” for Inanna. He created two beings, a kurgarra/kur-jara and a galatur/gala-tura, both described as “neither male nor female”.[v] Enki gave the food of life to the kur-jara and the water of life to the gala-tura, instructing them to go to the underworld to express empathy for the suffering Erishkigal.
The two non-binary agents infiltrated the Underworld, passing through seven gates without being detected. They validated Erishkigal's feelings as Enki instructed. When Erishkigal offered them a reward for commiserating with her, the kurgarra and gala-tura asked for Inanna’s corpse, which they revived with the food and water of life.
Psychologist Dr Mark Carlson-Ghost of Augsburg University speculates that the Descent of Inanna might have been told to explain how trans femme non-binary people came to serve the cult of Inanna.[vi] The kurgarra performed martial rites for the worship of Ishtar.[vii] The gala were professional lamenters who were regarded as gender non-conforming because laments were typically sung by women. Some gala took female names.[viii]
In a later Akkadian myth “Descent of Ishtar” derived from the Sumerian “Descent of Innana”, the kurgarra and galatur were replaced by a single non-binary character, Asu-shu-namir.
Notes:
[i] Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven: translation (ox.ac.uk)
[ii] Inana's descent to the nether world: translation (ox.ac.uk)
[iii] Descent Of Inanna.pdf (uncw.edu)
[iv] The Descent of Inanna into the Underworld: A 5,500-Year-Old Literary Masterpiece (news22.us)
[v] Inana's descent to the nether world: translation (ox.ac.uk)
[vi] Empathy for Ereshkigal: The First Psychotherapy Session Ever? – Mark Carlson-Ghost
[vii] Third Gender Figures in the Ancient Near East - World History Encyclopedia