Sacred Display: Divine and Magical Female Figures of Eurasia By M ...

tells us, while Inanna, goddess of life and love, is hanging on a peg, a slab of rotting meat, Ereshkigal, the goddess of death, is in the process of giving birth:

The underworld goddess, the death goddess, in the throes of birth pangs, is giving birth to life. Like Ereshkigal with her leek-like hair, as we will see, the snaky-haired Greek Medusa is also a birth-giver. But in Medusa's case, she gives birth as she is dying, whereas in the earlier Sumerian myth the process of death led to regeneration—that is, the very ancient goddess who presided over death also presided over rebirth.

Ereshkigal and Inanna overlap in their functions, and both are erotic and ferocious. Ereshkigal is the fierce underworld goddess who also makes love with Nergal for six days and six nights (twice!).³⁵ Although Ereshkigal is highly erotic, it is Inanna who is lauded as the love goddess.