A review by outcolder
Inanna by Diane Wolkstein

5.0

The goddess Inanna is a much more admirable supernatural being than most of the jerks you meet in mythology. Wolkstein's translations and glosses grabbed me and transported me to ancient Sumer and I liked it there, at least among the gods. The bit where Inanna hooks up with Dumuzi is sexy in a nice way. The essay where she puts the Inanna stories in the context of other myths and legends got a little confusing. Kramer seems like a great guy, staring at bits of ceramic in museum backrooms half his life and figuring out what it all means. Throughout the book there are images from museum pieces that Kramer explains in notes in the back, and those are awesome. I'd look at one of the pictures, and be like, "cool," and then read what Kramer thinks is going on in there, look at it again, and it's epic. Lion-headed thunder birds tormenting people, naked goddess standing on lion backs, priest-kings and high priestesses in ritual embraces... and lots of wavy lines and rosettes. Any one of them would make a kick-ass belt buckle. I wish I'd gotten a taste of this back in the 70s and 80s when they were feeding me the Iliad, the Odyssey, Beowulf, and the Christian stuff like King Arthur and Narnia. Wondering now if there isn't some Iraqi Wagner out there with an Inanna opera?