Ishtar was a goddess of love and war in Mesopotamian religion. Ishtar, an Akkadian name, was the name she was known by to the Babylonians. However, the worship of Ishtar gradually merged with the worship of Inanna, a Sumerian goddess of love and possibly of fertility. Later myths about Ishtar and Inanna therefore refer to the same goddess.
Ishtar is a complex figure in Mesopotamian religion and myth, sometimes known as the daughter of the sky god, An, and sometimes as the daughter of Enki, the god of the earth. She is also seen as the daughter of the moon god, Nanna, and sister of the sun god, Utu.
Shulgi, a king of the Sumerian city of Ur, was referred to as Ishtar’s lover as a way of emphasizing his importance. Another Sumerian city, Erech (present-day Warka), was a center for followers of Inanna/Ishtar, and her marriage was celebrated there in a city festival around 3500 BCE. A temple dedicated to Ishtar has been excavated at Erech. In the Assyrian city of Nineveh, there was an important temple of Ishtar that flourished after 2000 BCE until the city was finally destroyed in 612 BCE. In Akkadian myth Ishtar was an astral deity. She was linked to the planet Venus, and her symbol may have been a star with six, eight, or sixteen rays, sometimes shown inside a circle.
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A VISIT TO THE UNDERWORLD |
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In one myth that has been preserved in writing, Ishtar took a hazardous journey to the underworld. After a struggle for power in the world of the dead, Ishtar was defeated and the living world became infertile. The earth god, Enki, then had to use all his skill to bring Ishtar’s body back from the underworld. Enki provided magic water that restored her to life but only on condition that she leave someone else in the world of the dead. Ishtar discovered that the god Dumuzi, her lover and a fertility figure who is also associated with Inanna in Sumerian myth, had not mourned her. Ishtar then chose him to take her place. Dumuzi tried his best to escape, but he was eventually captured and taken to the underworld. Taking turns with his younger sister, Dumuzi had to spend the six summer months in the world of the dead so that Ishtar could stay in the world of the living and make the land fertile.
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Powerful and ambitious, Ishtar was a popular figure in Mesopotamian religion and mythology. The tale of the hero Gilgamesh tells how he rejected Ishtar’s love. In another story Ishtar journeyed to the city of Eridu and, in a drunken bet, won valuable symbols of power from her father, the earth god Enki. The ending of this story is unclear because the clay tablets on which it was written are not well preserved.
