Gugalana

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Gugalana, the Sumerian "Great Bull of Heaven", a reference to the constellation Taurus, (from Sumerian Gu=Bull, Gal=Great, Ana,An,Anu=Heaven, Sky).

Gugalana was the first husband of the Goddess of the Underworld, Ereshkigal (Eresh=Under, Ki=Earth, Gal=Great), who was dispatched by Inanna to punish Gilgamesh for his sins. He is slain and dismembered by Enkidu, and for this the hero must die. Inanna visits her sister to console her in her grief, and must be rescued from the underworld by Enki, God of Wisdom.

In the time in which this myth was composed, the New Year Festival, or Akitu, at the Spring Equinox, due to the Precession of the Equinoxes did not occur in Aries, but in Taurus. At this time of the year, Taurus would have disappeared as it was obscured by the sun.