The descent into death
The story is of a queen willingly subjecting herself to death by traveling into the underworld to attend a funeral for her brother-in-law. She is the queen of the heavenly and earthly realms, but the underworld is not her domain, so she is also abdicating authority to travel through trials and tribulations with more vulnerability than a goddess might be expected to want. She is going on an archetypal hero's journey that will demonstrate her true authority.
Confidence as power at rest
Inanna is a demonstration of an archetypal kind of power. She shows a different kind of authority than the patriarchal myths of some cultures, and her power is found in ways that are not passive, but are also not aggressive. She is confident and self-aware, and she navigates situations with precision and grace, and her heroism comes not from her extreme nature, but from her repose, the confidence she finds in her power.
The dynamics of the pantheon
The mythic quality of this story lends itself to the interpretation of the dynamics that exist among the pantheon. Inanna realizes that she is leaving herself available to mutiny by undertaking such a trip. But, she willingly does so expecting that honor and justice will protect her. She returns from hell to find that her husband has betrayed her, so she executes vengeance on him, showing that the betrayal she expected was more intimate and personal than she hoped, but she is correct: her justice does win her the day.
The underworld as chaos
The underworld is past the limits of order, where the societal and cultural rules stop which normally define waking life on earth. So, Inanna is an agent of order who is subjected to chaos by willingly traveling into death where her power no longer applies. The underworld is the land of demons and ghosts, and there are sublime deities that are not exactly friendly with the heavenly deities, so she subjects herself to great risk to undertake the journey.
Inanna as a symbol of order
Ultimately, Inanna proves herself as an agent of true order, because the chaos of the underworld does not contain her or defeat her. Her return to the land of the living is like a rebirth, like she rose from the dead. This shows the measure of her power, because her orderly nature is not fragile or rigid; on the contrary, she is able to undergo much stress and still survive and return to her rightful place. She doesn't go on the trip to prove herself, but she does incidentally prove her power.
