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The Brooklyn Museum

Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
The Dinner Party: Heritage Floor: Irkalla




signature image

Judy Chicago (American, b. 1939). The Dinner Party (Heritage Floor; detail), 1974–79. Porcelain with rainbow and gold luster, 48 x 48 x 48 ft. (14.6 x 14.6 x 14.6 m). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation, 2002.10. © Judy Chicago. Photograph by Jook Leung Photography

Irkalla
Mythic, worshipped by the Akkadians of Sumer (modern-day Iraq), circa 2350–2150 B.C.

Irkalla is the Babylonian name for the underworld as well as another name for its ruler, Ereshkigal. In the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, the hero's companion Enkidu is led to the "palace of Irkalla, Queen of Darkness, to the house from which none who enters ever returns, down the road from which there is no coming back."

Related Place Setting

Kali

Related Heritage Floor Entries

Alukah
Arianhrod
Coatlicue
Ereshkigal
The Furies
Hecate
Hel

Morrigan
Nephthys
The Norns
Rhiannon
Tuchulcha
The Valkyries

Last updated April 13, 2007.
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