Gothic Charm School: pretty things

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Mythology Meme: 3/3 - Mythological Places : Irkalla

The Sumerian netherworld was a place for the bodies of the dead to exist after death, ruled by Ereshkigal. One passed through the seven gates on their journey through the portal to the netherworld leaving articles of clothing and adornment at each gate. There was a guardian at each gate to extract a toll for one’s passage and to keep one from going the wrong way. The living spirits of the dead are only spoken of in connection with this netherworld when someone has been placed here before they are dead or wrongly killed and can be saved. The bodies of the dead decompose in this afterlife, as they would in the world above.