Description acceptable. This mythical narrative inspired the title and subject matter of a 1992 epic by Alice Notley that uses copious quotation marks to pace Alette’s quest against the “tyrant.” In a recurring formula from this myth, a messenger cries out, “do not let your fragrant boxwood / Be cut into wood for the woodworker.” In Diana Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer’s translation of the poem that preserves this myth, it opens with the protagonist in the “Great Above,” opening an ear to the “Great Below.” In this myth, a (*) corpse hanging from a hook on the wall is sprinkled with the food and water of life by two sexless creatures created from fingernail dirt, the kurgarra and galatur. In this myth, the main character loses her breastplate, lapis beads, and robe as she passes through Neti’s seven gates. For 10 points, identify this Sumerian myth in which Dumuzi’s goddess wife visits the realm of Ereshkigal. ■END■
ANSWER: “The Descent of Inanna” [or “Inanna’s Descent into the Underworld”; accept descriptions of Inanna or Ishtar visiting or being rescued from the underworld or Kur; prompt on partial answers] (The Notley poem is The Descent of Alette.)
<JB, World Literature>
= Average correct buzz position