As Hiro crests the pass on his motorcycle at five in the morning, the town of Port Sherman, Oregon, is suddenly laid out before him: a flash of yellow loglo wrapped into a vast U-shaped valley that was ground out of the rock, a long time ago, by a big tongue of ice in an epochal period of geological cunnilingus. There is just a light dusting of gold around the edges where it fades into the rain forest, thickening and intensifying as it approaches the harbor -- a long narrow fjordlike notch cut into the straight coastline of Oregon, a deep cold trench of black water heading straight out to Japan.
Hiro's back on the Rim again. Feels good after that night ride through the sticks. Too many rednecks, too many mounties.
Even from ten miles away and a mile above, it's not a pretty sight. Farther away from the central harbor district, Hiro can make out a few speckles of red, which is a little better than the yellow. He wishes he could see something in green or blue or purple, but there don't seem to be any neighborhoods done up in those gourmet colors.
But then this isn't exactly a gourmet job.
He rides half a mile off the road, sits down on a flat rock in an open space -- ambush-proof, more or less -- and goggles into the Metaverse.
Librarian
Yes, sir
Inanna.
A figure from Sumerian mythology. Later cultures knew her as Ishtar, or Esther.
Good goddess or bad goddess
Good. A beloved goddess.
Did she have any dealings with Enki or Asherah
Mostly with Enki. She and Enki were on good and bad terms at different times. Inanna was known as the queen of all the great me.
I thought the me belonged to Enki.
They did. But Inanna went to the Abzu -- the watery fortress in the city of Eridu where Enki stored up the me -- and got Enki to give her all the me. This is how the me were released into civilization.
Watery fortress, huh
Yes, sir.
How did Enki feel about this
He gave them to her willingly, apparently because he was drunk, and besotted with Inanna's physical charms. When he sobered up, he tried to chase her down and get them back, but she outsmarted him.
Let's get semiotic," Hiro mumbles. "The Raft is L. Bob Rife's watery fortress. That's where he stores up all of his stuff. All of his me. Juanita went to Astoria, which was as close as you could get to the Raft a couple of days ago. I think she's trying to pull an Inanna.
In another popular Sumerian myth," the Librarian says, "Inanna descends into the nether world.
Go on," Hiro says.
She gathers together all of her me and enters the land of no return.
Great.
She passes through the nether world and reaches the temple that is ruled over by Ereshkigal, goddess of Death. She is traveling under false pretenses, which are easily penetrated by the all-seeing Ereshkigal. But Ereshkigal allows her to enter the temple. As Inanna enters, her robes and jewels and me are stripped from her and she is brought, stark naked, before Ereshkigal and the seven judges of the underworld. The judges 'fastened their eyes upon her, the eyes of death; at their word, the word which tortures the spirit, Inanna was turned into a corpse, a piece of rotting meat, and was hung from a hook on the wall.' Kramer.
Wonderful. Why the hell would she do something like that
As Diane Wolkstein puts it, 'Inanna gave up all she had accomplished in life until she was stripped naked, with nothing remaining but her will to be reborn ... because of her journey to the underworld, she took on the powers and mysteries of death and rebirth.
Oh. So I guess there's more to the story
Inanna's messenger waits for three days, and when she fails to return from the nether world, goes to the gods asking for their help. None of the gods is willing to help except for Enki.
So our buddy, Enki, the hacker god, has to bail her ass out of Hell.
Enki creates two people and sends them into the netherworid to rescue Inanna. Through their magic, Inanna is brought back to life. She returns from the netherworld, followed by a host of the dead.
Juanita went to the Raft three days ago," Hiro says. "It's time to get hacking.