Neti stands as chief gatekeeper at the seven gates of Kur, controlling passage between the world of the living and the land of no return, where even gods must submit to his authority at each threshold.
Ereshkigal rules Kur, the land of no return, from her lapis lazuli throne. All who enter her realm — mortal or divine — fall under her absolute authority, stripped of rank and power at each of the seven gates.
Nergal stormed into Kur, the land of no return, overpowered Ereshkigal, and claimed co-sovereignty over the underworld through their marriage — ruling the dead alongside the queen who had reigned there alone.
Dumuzi spends half the year in the Kur (underworld) as Inanna's substitute and returns for the other half when Geshtinanna takes his place. This cyclic descent and return became the mythological basis for the seasons in Mesopotamian thought.
On his deathbed, Enkidu dreamed of the Kur — the House of Dust where the dead eat clay, wear feathers like birds, and dwell in eternal darkness, providing one of the most vivid descriptions of the Mesopotamian afterlife.
Gilgamesh's pukku and mekku fell into Kur, prompting Enkidu's fatal descent to retrieve them. After his own death, Gilgamesh was deified and became a judge of the dead in the underworld.
Inanna descended through the seven gates of Kur, surrendering a divine garment at each threshold until she stood naked before Ereshkigal, who struck her dead and hung her corpse on a hook — only to be revived by Enki's intervention and released at the cost of providing a substitute.
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