There is another story about Inanna descending to the underworld. In it, she tells her brother Utu to take her to kur because she wants to learn about love-making. When he takes her there, she eats a fruit that gives her the knowledge she requires. It's this source, under "Inanna and Utu":
I don't think the fruit in that story is specified, but your description of its exoticism sounds like a good explanation for including it in the Greek story. I wonder if Persephone's story originally had a sexual implication to the pomegranate as there was in the Inanna story--in other words, she had to stay married because she'd lost her virginity.
Interesting. I never realized that pomegranates were a relatively late introduction to the Aegean.
I do know, however, that while Egyptians and Mesopotamian cultures drank beer the from earliest times, wine orginated in the Caucasas region - modern Georgia and Armenia. That would explain why Euripides and others portray Dionysos as a new god "from the east".
Thank you kindly for this terrific insight. I thought it was odd the pomegranate (or some fruit) was missing from the Inanna story and yet it pops up in the Persephone. But there it is, the fruit in the underworld with the sexual connotation. And yes, the choice of the pomegranate as the bonding fruit in the Greek story is absolutely intentional for the reason you cite and, no doubt, others, based on the shape of the fruit, its color, its resemblance to blood, its seeds. It really is a very good fruit for symbolism and metaphor. Thanks again.
There is another story about Inanna descending to the underworld. In it, she tells her brother Utu to take her to kur because she wants to learn about love-making. When he takes her there, she eats a fruit that gives her the knowledge she requires. It's this source, under "Inanna and Utu":
https://archive.org/details/ADictionaryOfAncientNearEasternMythology_201812/page/n105/mode/2up
I don't think the fruit in that story is specified, but your description of its exoticism sounds like a good explanation for including it in the Greek story. I wonder if Persephone's story originally had a sexual implication to the pomegranate as there was in the Inanna story--in other words, she had to stay married because she'd lost her virginity.
Interesting. I never realized that pomegranates were a relatively late introduction to the Aegean.
I do know, however, that while Egyptians and Mesopotamian cultures drank beer the from earliest times, wine orginated in the Caucasas region - modern Georgia and Armenia. That would explain why Euripides and others portray Dionysos as a new god "from the east".
Thanks for sharing!
Very cool! I learned something new and interesting. Turns out, the pomegranate was the ancient world's equivalent of a retweet from Persia to Greece.
Thank you kindly for this terrific insight. I thought it was odd the pomegranate (or some fruit) was missing from the Inanna story and yet it pops up in the Persephone. But there it is, the fruit in the underworld with the sexual connotation. And yes, the choice of the pomegranate as the bonding fruit in the Greek story is absolutely intentional for the reason you cite and, no doubt, others, based on the shape of the fruit, its color, its resemblance to blood, its seeds. It really is a very good fruit for symbolism and metaphor. Thanks again.