Introduction
It was my hope, in writing this entry, that I would be able to bring together all of the mythological elements associated with Lolth and show how she is connected to Ereshkigal, Demeter, the Black Madonnas, Lilith, and the various spider goddesses from across a wide array of cultures. Unfortunately, the difficulties in writing such an article were too numerous, and so while I hope to convey some of these ideas in future entries, I have chosen to focus this entry entirely on Lolth, and the goddess of the Sumerian underworld, Ereshkigal. By comparing these two goddesses, it is my intent to show that Lolth, like Ereshkigal, is a spiritually healing agent that helps orient women to the feelings they have had repressed by the patriarchal culture. It is also my intent to show how, in spite of appearances to the contrary, the goddess is not divisive, but rather an agent that demands only that women be acknowledged as equals to men.
Ereshkigal
Before we can begin to understand the similarities between Lolth and Ereshkigal, it is important that we understand a little bit aobut Ereshkigal herself. Ereshkigal, whose name means “Lady of the Great Place Below,” is the goddess of the Sumerian Netherworld, known as Irkalla. There are many legends associated with Ereshkigal and how she came to rule the Netherworld. According to one, she was carried off as a prize to the Netherworld, by the dragon god Kur.1 According to another, Ereshkigal- known initially as Ninlil, the grain goddess- followed her consort, Enlil (chief ruler of the gods), into the Netherworld, after he had been banished for having raped her.2 In the Netherworld, Ereshkigal becomes a creature of raw emotion, “full of fury, greed, fear of loss, and even of self-spite. She symbolizes raw instinctual feelings, split off from consciousness- need and aggression in the underworld.”3 After this transformation, Ereshkigal is banished forever, never again being allowed to return to the realm of the gods.
Lolth
With this knowledge of Ereshkigal in mind, we can begin to see the similarities between her and the goddess Lolth. Like Ereshkigal, Lolth was also originally known by another name, that of Araushnee, the goddess of elven destiny.4 After having tried to wrest power from her lover, Corellon Larethian, Araushnee was transformed into a spiderlike demon, and cast into the Abyss.5 This forced transformation, a symbolic violation of the female body, and banishment is not unlike the rape that Ereshkigal experiences at the hands of Enlil and Kur. Also like Ereshkigal, upon being banished to the Underworld, Araushnee changes her name to that of Lolth, the ruler of the Demonweb Pits. In this form, Lolth is described as “cruel and capricious,” which is not unlike the description given of Ereshkigal. Lolth’s transformation from Araushnee, the violation she experienced from her lover, her ultimate banishment to the underworld, her association with primal emotion; these are all aspects that are shared with the goddess Ereshkigal, suggesting that the two goddesses are part of the same archetype. With these parallels in mind, we can now begin to look at Lolth from a mythological and feminist perspective.
Lolth and Ereshkigal as Rulers of the Underworld
“From the perspective of the patriarchy, the rape of the goddess establishes masculine rule over conscious cultural life… and relegates feminine power and fertility to the underworld.”6 This quote, from Sylvia Perera’s essay “The Descent of Inanna: Myth and Therapy,” could just as easily apply to Lolth as it could to the goddess Ereshkigal. By violating her sacred body, and casting her into the Abyss, Corellon, a symbolic representation of the patriarchy, was attempting to establish his dominion over Lolth, a symbolic representation of the threat that women present to the ideals of the patriarchy. “But,” as Perera goes on to say, “from the perspective of magic-matriarchal consciousness… death is a transformation to which… the goddess willingly surrenders, and a process over which she rules.”In other words, by claiming rulership over the Demonweb Pits, the goddess transformed her defeat into a victory, claiming dominion over the aspects of the feminine divine that Corellon (the patriarchy) tried to suppress. Because of this action, Lolth’s power is still active in the world, reminding us that the feminine divine cannot be so easily denied or ignored.
Lolth and Ereshkigal as Healers
There is another quote from Perera’s essay, about Ereshkigal, which could just as easily apply to Lolth, and which is helpful in understanding the nature of the goddess. “When we are reduced to such depths of numb pain and depression, to timelessness, preverbal chaos and emotionality- all that we call awful or infantile and associate with the archaic dimensions of consciousness- we can know that the goddess we must serve and revere is [the goddess of the Underworld]. Contact with her grounds a woman. It coagulates feminine potency to confront the patriarchy and the masculine as an equal.”7 To put it another way, identification with the underworld goddess is identification with all that has been suppressed by the patriarchal culture. Lolth, like Ereshkigal, is the goddess that helps women make sense of their feelings of being treated as less than men. Her challenge to Corellon is a challenge to the idea that men have authority over women, giving women the power to make that challenge themselves. Her fury at having been given power over the destiny of the elves by Corellon is fury over the patriarchal concept that feminine power is extrinsic, not inherent, and that it must be given to women by the patriarchy. Acknowledging Lolth is acknowledging that the feminine and the masculine are equal, that anger is appropriate, that one must be willing to sacrifice everything- status, relationships, and security- in order to be acknowledged. There are no ‘shoulds’ in the presence of Lolth, no expectations of social or political correctness. She is the goddess who forces women to acknowledge their own thoughts, their own feelings, their own needs, and she is the one that orients them in a world that is otherwise hostile to and suspicious of feminine power.
Lolth and Ereshkigal as Feminists
There is one more subject about Lolth that needs to be addressed. To the uninitiated, the goddess of the underworld appears malicious, chaotic, terrifying, ugly, threatening, and anathema to everything that is masculine. Because of this, it is not surprising that some have described Lolth as “the original psycho feminist supremacist.” By trying to kill Corellon, and usurp his portfolio, it appears that Lolth is trying to exert her dominance over men. However, if we turn again to Ereshkigal, we begin to understand Lolth’s behavior. In one myth, the arrogant god Nergal refuses to stand in the presence of Namtar, Ereshkigal’s servant. Enraged, Ereshkigal demands that Nergal be brought before her so that she might kill him. After consulting with Ea, the god of Wisdom, Nergal agrees to descend into the Netherworld, where he overpowers Ereshkigal’s servants and threatens to kill her. Before he can slay her, however, she says to him, “Don’t kill me, my brother! Let me tell you something… you can be my husband, and I can be your wife. I will let you seize Kingship over the wide Earth! I will put the tablet of wisdom in your hand!”8 After hearing her words, “[Nergal] picked her up, kissed her and wiped away her tears, saying – in sudden enlightenment; ‘It was but love you wanted of me from months long ago to now!’”9 In other words, Ereshkigal’s reaction- which appears, at first glance to be a threat to the masculine divine- stems from a desire to be treated as an equal, one who is worthy of respect. Considering that Lolth and Ereshkigal share so many of the same qualities, it seems logical to conclude that Lolth’s desire to kill Corellon also stems from the desire to be treated as an equal, and makes one think that if the elven god had acknowledged her, then perhaps the wounds between the elven nations could be healed.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, unlike Nergal, Corellon never acknowledges Araushnee’s desire to be treated as an equal. Instead, he does just the opposite. By stripping her of her power, and expelling her into the Abyss, Corellon is trying to ignore her demands of acceptance. However, as Corellon has undoubtedly learned, the power of the goddess cannot be so easily suppressed. Her fury remains ever strong, and she waits in the Demonweb Pits for his acknowledgment. Perhaps, the players, by acknowledging the goddess’s fury, and by paying her the proper respect, might be able to heal the wounds of history between these two deities, and bring peace between the elven nations that the gods themselves could not.
1. “Inanna and the Huluppu Tree”
http://www.piney.com/BabHulTree.html
2. “Enlin and Ninlil”
http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr121.htm
3. Perera, Sylvia “The Descent of Inanna: Myth and Therapy.” Feminist Archetypal Theory, p. 151. Lauter, Estella , and Carol Rupprecht. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1985.
4. Boyd, Eric L. and Erik Mona Faiths and Pantheons p. 40. Renton: Wizards of the Coast Inc., 2002.
5. Williams, Skip Races of the Wild p. 26. Renton: Wizards of the Coast Inc., 2005.
6. Perera, Sylvia “The Descent of Inanna: Myth and Therapy.”
Feminist Archetypal Theory, p. 150. Lauter, Estella , and Carol Rupprecht. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1985.
7. Perera, Sylvia “The Descent of Inanna: Myth and Therapy.” Feminist Archetypal Theory, p. 154. Lauter, Estella , and Carol Rupprecht. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1985.
8. “Nergal and Ereshkigal” (Amarna Version)
http://ereshkigal.net/
9. Stuckey, Johanna “Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld” Matrifocus Cross-Quarterly for the Goddess Woman. Beltane 2005 Volume 4-3
http://www.matrifocus.com/BEL05/spotlight.htm
