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274 of Darkness, translates her title as “Handmaiden." But in the tale of Inanna/Ishtar's escape with the ME's that she had tricked out of Enki, Ninshubur is a match for the male Isi- mud/Usmu and is called by the goddess "my warrior who fights by my _ side"—patently a male role. The diplomatic talents of this emissary were employed to the full when In- anna/Ishtar decided to visit her sister Ereshkigal in the Lower World, in defiance of a prohibition; in this instance the great Sumerologist Samuel N. Kramer (Inanna's Descent to the Nether World) referred to Ninshubur as a "he"; so did A. Leo Oppenheim (Mesopotamian Mythology). The enigmatic bisexuality or asexuality of" Ninshubur is reflected by her/his contesting with other beings—mostly hut not only the creations of Enki—that seem to be neither male nor female as well as neither divine nor human, a kind of android—automatons in human form. The existence of such enigmatic emissaries, and their baf- fling characteristics, come to light in the above-mentioned text that deals with Inanna's unauthorized visit to the domain of her older sister Ereshkigal in the Lower World (southern Figure 94 DIVINE ENCOUNTERS