Neti- Mesopotamian GodDeity"Chief Gatekeeper"

Guardian of the Seven Gates

Neti served as chief gatekeeper of Kur, the Mesopotamian underworld. He answered directly to Ereshkigal, queen of the dead, and carried out her commands at the seven gates separating the realm of the dead from the world of the living.

Inanna's Descent

Neti's defining role unfolds in Inanna's Descent to the Underworld. When the goddess of heaven arrived at the outer gate claiming she had come to attend the funeral of Gugalanna, Ereshkigal's husband, Neti did not simply admit her. He went first to his mistress and received specific instructions: bolt the seven gates, then open each one only a crack, and as Inanna enters each gate, remove one article of her divine regalia.

Neti obeyed with meticulous precision. At the first gate, he removed her shugurra crown. At the second, her lapis lazuli measuring rod and necklace. At each successive gate, another emblem of her power was stripped away. When Inanna protested, Neti replied: "Be silent, Inanna. The decrees of the underworld are perfect. They may not be questioned."

By the time she passed through the seventh gate, Inanna was naked and powerless, stripped of every mark of divinity. The goddess who had descended in full glory now stood before Ereshkigal with nothing.