Now Inanna earned her throne but her bed was still empty. At first she refuses Dumuzi, the Shepard her brother chooses to be her husband, but Damuzi is adamant, bragging about his assets and asserting that his family from the steppes is as good as theirs from the delta. Inanna is hesitant when they first meet, but Dumuzi's obvious delight in her arouses her passion:

Inanna speaks:

My vulva, the horn, The Boat of Heaven, I full of eagerness like the young moon. My untilled land lies fallow.

...Who will plow my vulva? Who will plow my high field? Who will plow my wet ground?

Dumuzi eagerly replies:

Great Lady, the king will plow your vulva I, Dumuzzi the King, will plow your vulva.

Inanna:

Then plow my vulva, man of my heart! Plow my vulva!

At the king's lap stood the rising cedar Plants grew high by their side Grains grew high by their side Gardens flourished luxuriantly.

Inanna rejoices:

He has sprouted, he has burgeoned; He is lettuce planted by the water. He is the one my womb loves best.

My well stocked garden of the plain. My barley growing high in the furrow. My apple tree which bears fruit up to its crown. He is lettuce planted by the water.

My honey man, My honey man sweetens me always My lord, the honey man of the Gods. He is the one my womb loves best. His hand is honey, his foot is honey. He sweetens me always.

The Goddess does not merely symbolize or represent well being; she IS well being. She is both the fertile womb and the fertile field. Over and over again the poets praise her overflow, abundance and prosperity. She is life giving waters.

As she cast her eyes over all the people and found Dumuzi and exalted him over all the people and be became godship of the land, he is both human and the incarnation of the Shepard King. He is the vital spark of new life in nature. His sexual energy is needed to claim the all giving earth, Inanna's breast, and to plow the soil, Inanna's vulva, that she may be the fertility of the land.

As the poets proclaim:

The sacred bed, hewn from the the tree of life; which is the symbol of new life emerges out of the ground into the light and grows toward the heavens. The tree has the axis of the three worlds, connecting the underworld, the earth and the heavens. the wonder of the tree continues to exist today, for although we cannot explain the mystery of the first seed, we can take the seed with our hand and say, "here is the beginning of life". Inanna knows that when she holds a man in her arms, the bed will murmur to them both the secrets of life and death, light and darkness.

and so the sacred ritual of union begins with;

Over the bed was spread a specially prepared coverlet; and Inanna was washed and soaped and laid on the bed; the king then "proceeded to the holy lap", with "lifted head", on ground fragrant with cedar oil, and blissfully