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- Ishtar was held to be the great Mother Goddess in ancient Assyrian and Bablyonian mythology. It was believed she was the daughter of the sky-god, Anu, or the moon god, Sin. Gradually over time, she absorbed characteristics of various goddesses and represented various aspects. Her worship spread throughout the Middle East, Greece, and Egypt.
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Who is Ishtar in Mesopotamia?
Aug 23, 2024 · Ishtar, in Mesopotamian religion, goddess of war and sexual love. Ishtar’s primary legacy from the Sumerian tradition is the role of fertility figure; she evolved, however, into a more complex character, surrounded in myth by death and disaster, a goddess of contradictory connotations and forces.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Star of Ishtar or Star of Inanna is a Mesopotamian symbol of the ancient Sumerian goddess Inanna and her East Semitic counterpart Ishtar. The owl was also one of Ishtar's primary symbols. Ishtar is mostly associated with the planet Venus , which is also known as the morning star.
The Mesopotamians equated Ishtar with the moon god, Nanna, as she embodied the moon’s cycles and its influence on fertility and agriculture. This connection solidified Ishtar’s status as a deity closely tied to the natural world and its rhythms.
Ishtar was more of a women’s goddess, whereas Sin (also known as Nanna), the God of the Moon, controlled water, time, and fertile land. This is quite at odds with most other ancient civilizations where the powerful sun was male and the nocturnal moon female.
- Importance
- Sources
- The Epic of Gilgamesh
- Ishtar's Descent to The Netherworld
- Other Myths
- Representation in Art
- Kingship & Legacy
- Love & Social Connections
Evidence for Ishtar comes from Mesopotamia, an area of the Ancient Near East generally considered to be placed geographically between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Although there is much debate about Mesopotamia's exact territorial extent, it is considered to roughly correspond with modern-day Iraq, Kuwait and parts of Syria, Iran, and Turkey. M...
Inanna/Ishtar is frequently presented anthropomorphically in myths. In Sumerian love poetry, she is depicted as a young woman who lives at home with her mother, Ningal, and her father, Nanna (the Mesopotamian moon god, Sin). Her twin brother is Utu (Semitic Shamash), the solar deity, who is connected to the concept of justice. Ishtar herself is als...
The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the world's earliest known works of epic literature, surviving in numerous versions. The story tells of the journey of the young hero Gilgamesh, semi-divine king of the city of Uruk. In the Standard Babylonian Version of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Ishtar appears most prominently in Tablet VI. Here, Gilgamesh is described...
Ishtar and her shepherd husband, Tammuz (Sumerian Inanna and Dumuzi), are the divine protagonists of one of the world's oldest known love stories. Despite having an intimate and loving relationship in Sumerian poetry, the romance does not end in lasting happiness for the pair. Once Ishtar and Tammuz have united, they are soon separated by disloyalt...
Beyond the Descent myth and Gilgamesh lies a wealth of further textual evidence for the deity. Inanna/Ishtar appears in royal hymns, several myths, prophetic texts, magic spells, and even proverbs. The earliest poems to Inanna/Ishtar were written by Enheduanna, the world's first known author to be individually identified. Enheduanna (circa 2300 BCE...
In artistic works, the imagery of the goddess is a dominant motif of gravegoods, and she appears alongside kings in royal iconography. Barrett has convincingly argued that the famous Burney Relief, with its depiction of the nude, winged goddess, represents an “underworld form” of Ishtar. Several features of the Relief indicate that the goddess is b...
Ishtar had a special relationship with the human rulers of Mesopotamia. In her association with Mesopotamian kings, Ishtar/Inanna is represented as spouse, lover, sister, and mother—sometimes all within a single composition. Although her role shows flexibility, the textual evidence is thematically linked through an emphasis on the goddess' physical...
Ishtar, the world's first known goddess of love, is connected to many forms of emotional intimacy. While this association certainly includes sexual love, it encompasses a variety of other types of loving bonds. The goddess has caring relationships with her divine family, and her maidservant, Ninshubur. Love connected the goddess to the historical M...
- Louise Pryke
Some myths say that Ishtar was the daughter of the moon god Sin and sister of the sun god Shamash. Others mention the sky god Anu, the moon god Nanna, the water god Ea, or the god Enlil, lord of the earth and the air, as her father.
Aug 9, 2024 · The Sumerian moon god was Su-en (or Sin or Nanna), who was the son of Enlil (the Lord of the Air) and Ninlil (the Goddess of Grain). Sin was the husband of the reed goddess, Ningal, and the father of Shamash (the sun god), Ishtar (goddess of Venus), and Iskur (god of rain and thunderstorms).
