Who is this Goddess?
 
Inanna and Ishtar are essentially two sides of the same coin. Inanna came first, the goddess of the Sumerians. Ishtar came after, the goddess of the Babylonians and Assyrians. She was found in either her original form or in another form around the world including in Arabia, Armenia, Canaan, Carthage, China, Cilesia, Crete, Egypt, Ephesia, Greece, India, Israel, Japan, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Phrygia, and Pontus.

Some say that she was the daughter of Anu, the Mesopotamian creator god, similar to the Greek Zeus, while others claim that she was the daughter of the Moon god Sinn. She was often depicted as winged, wearing a starred rainbow necklace, with burning eyes (the symbol of the spiritual light) and a burning navel (the symbols for the fertility of the land and her people). Because of her descent to and return from the Underworld, she is linked with Demeter, and to further this connection, she is often shown with ears of corn (grain) sprouting from her shoulders. This associated her as the Mother Earth Goddess with the fertility of the land; it is from her that the world received nourishment. This goddess, as Sharrat Shame, the Queen of Heaven, ran the natural world; she was in charge of wool, the rain, meat and grain. In this aspect, her worshippers gave her offerings of Kamanu, sacrificial cakes.

Inanna was known as the One With Many Names. Variations of her name include Anna, Nana, Inninna, Nina, Nanna or Nin-me-sar-ra (the Lady of a myriad of Offices). Later, she was transformed into Ishtar during the Mesopotamian periods. She was Ma in Pontus and Mama in Sumeria. She was called Kwan Yin in China and Kwannon in Japan. In Canaan and Israel, she was called Aschera, Ashara, Ishara, Ashtart, Ashtaroth, Ashtoreth and Astarte. In Crete she was called Ariadne. Libyans knew her as Neith. Armenians called her Anaites. In Cilesia she was called Ate. To the Assyrians she was also known by other names including Anatis, Anat and Atagatis/Ataigates. In Cypress, she was called Aphrodite. In Greece she was known as Nix, then Hemera, then Gaea, then Aphrodite and Athena. In Egypt, she was called Mut, then Nut, then Hathor and then Isis. In Phoenicia and Carthage, she was known as either Astarte or Tanit/Tanith. In Phrygia, she was Cybele. Indians called her Inda. The Ephesians knew her as emis/Diana. There are also other names for her, including Anatu, Anunit, Atar, Athtar, Gumshea, Irnini, Mylitta and Eshter.
 
Because she was many things to many people, she held many titles. As the goddess of the heavenly Upperworld, she was known as the Lady of Heaven, the Queen of Heaven, the Ruler of the Heavens, the Goddess of the Moon, the Shining One, the Torch of Heaven and Earth, the Mother of All Deities, the Leader of Hosts, and the Possessor of the Tablets of Life’s Records. As the goddess of the earthly Middle-World, she was called the Great Mother, the Great Goddess, the Bestower of Strength, the Light of the World, the Opener of the Womb, the Producer of Life, the Creator of the People, Guardian of the Law, Righteous Judge, Framer of All Decrees, Forgiver of Sins and the Lawgiver. As the goddess of physical love, she was known as the Goddess of Love and the Goddess of the Evening. A the Goddess of War, she was called the Guardian of Law and Order, the Lady of Victory, the Lady of Sorrows and Battles and the Lady of Battles and Victory.

As the goddess of the mysterious Underworld, she known as the Source of the Oracles and Prophecy and the Lady of Vision. It’s possible that the worship of Inanna-Dumuzi and the worship of Ishtar-Tammuz was the seed for many other forms of worship. In 1700 BCE, the worship of Isis, her husband Osiris and their son Horus is comparable. Later, in 1500 BCE, the worship of Astarte (or Aschera) and her son Baal took place with the Canaanites, the Hebrews and the Phoenicians. Another example took place in 900 BCE in Phrygia (what we today call Turkey) with the worship of Kybele (Cybele) and Atties (Attis).

“To the Lady of Heaven and Earth,
who receives prayers,
who harkens to the petitions,
who accepts beseechings;
To the merciful goddess who loves righteousness;
Look upon me O Lady,
so that through thy turning toward me the heart of thy servant may become strong.”

INANNA

Pronounced “ee-NAH-nah”, her name means “Queen of Heaven”. Inanna was the Sumerian Mother Earth Goddess who was likely the “ancestor” of the Mother Goddess of Paleolithic and Neolithic deities. Some speculate that she likely descended from the Creator Goddess Nammu, the Mesopotamian goddess of the watery depths. Inanna’s sanctuary was at the Eanna temple which was in the city of Unug (Uruk). Her shrines date as far back as 4500 BCE and Inanna’s stories were recorded on Sumerian cuneiform (wedge-shaped) tablets that date back as much as 3200 BCE. These tablets are from the most ancient civilized literature that we know of and are from the region that we currently call Iraq and the Middle East. What we know of this culture comes from archeologists and scholars and there is still much to learn as more Sumerian artifacts are being discovered.

Depending on who you ask, Inanna is either the daughter of the Moon God Nanna or the God of Heaven An (Anu). She is the sister of Sun God Uta and the Storm God Iskur. Inanna is the handmaiden of An and is attended by a minor goddess named Ninsubar. Inanna is usually shown with wings, wearing a horned crown and a tiered skirt. As a Goddess of War, she had weapon cases at her shoulders. As a goddess of the harvest, ears of corn were there instead. Inanna was a goddess of light and love, life and death, and the Morning and Evening Star, which is the planet Venus. The stone Lapis Lazuli was sacred to her. She was also the Queen of the Moon and was associated with the planet Uranus with the title Queen of the Universe.

Inanna’s Holy Lap held the Waters of Life; the life-blood that pumped through the Mother Goddess’ veins which were rivers, springs and wells. As the Lady of Prosperity, Inanna brought fertility to her matriarchal people and bounty to the land. She did this through her Sacred Marriage to the vegetation god Dumuzi. She granted rain and healing and possessed great power over the destinies of both cities and lovers. In 2350 BCE, the daughter of the king Agade, Enheduanna, wrote a lengthy hymn to Inanna. Called “The Exaltation of Inanna”, it told the story of her struggle with Nanna the god of the Moon as well as the High God An finally accepting her.

She is probably best known for her journey into the Underworld where she overcame great adversity. Inanna became a goddess of transformation during this ordeal; she worked through fear and conquered death itself. Because of this experience, she is able to come to the aid of humans who find themselves in a tight spot. Inanna was the precursor for the goddess Ishtar.

ISHTAR

Her name means “Star of Heaven”. Ishtar, also known as Ashar or Astarte, was also the Great Mother goddess, in this case in Babylon and Assyria. She was worshipped form 2500 BCE to 200 AD. The Assyrians took Ishtar for their own goddess, both as a Goddess of War and as a wife for the god Asshur, the father of the Assyrians who named themselves after him.

In Babylon, Ishtar’s consort was the vegetation god Tammuz. The name Ishtar is Semitic for the goddess Inanna of Sumeria. According to legend, she was the either daughter of the Great God Anu or the Moon God Sinn and the sister to the Sun God Shamash. She was considered the benevolent creator of the human race by the Babylonians and she held her massive breasts to prove it. To show her generosity to her people, she was depicted as pouring life-giving water form a jar that never emptied. She was called the Green One and the Mistress of the Field.
 
Like Inanna, she too was the Goddess of the Morning and Evening Star (Venus). This linked her with the sexual healing of the temple “prostitutes” (sacred “prostitution” was part of the religion as Ishtar was the courtesan of the gods”). Ironically, she was also considered an eternal virgin and fought with anyone who tried to take her virginity. Ishtar was the patroness of the temple priestesses.

During matriarchal times, here were 180 shrines dedicated to Ishtar and women arrived daily to pray, meditate and socialize with one another. Also similar to Inanna, Ishtar was associated with the planet Neptune and water, the Moon, and the planet Uranus with the title the Lady of Heaven. She was also considered a “wise old woman” as a judge and counselor, and her people strove to emulate her in their courts and in their everyday lives.

Also like Inanna, Ishtar was a goddess of many dualities; love and war, water and fire, life and death, positive and negative, tears and joy, enmity and fair dealing, and the lighting and extinguishing fires. She was the Giver of All Life as well as the Destroyer. In her Goddess of Love aspect, physical love or sex to be precise, she was depicted either fully or partially nude. On the other side of the coin, as the Goddess of War, she was famous for being a fierce warrioress and took the protection of her people very seriously. Sometimes she even had a bad temper and was feared by the other gods, causing them to tremble in their sandals.

Ishtar possessed a litany of weapons and one of her totems was the lion, which represented the power of her ferocity. Ishtar was called the Lady of Battles, the Queen of Attack, The Lady of Victory, Queen of Hand-to-Hand Fighting and the Guardian of Law and Order; all linking her to the planet Mars.
 
Worship of Ishtar spread throughout the Middle East including Egypt and Greece. The Egyptians revered her healing powers and Emenhotep III used a statue of her to heal his abscessed tooth. Her power was quite extensive; she was known as the Possessor of the Tablet’s of Life’s Records and she was the one the people called upon for overcoming obstacles.
 
Ishtar was also known for communicating with her people, and their leaders, through dreams. It was believed that Ishtar was an oracle and gave prophecy and secret knowledge through dreams. The Assyrians knew that the deities could speak to humans while they slept, sometimes through symbolism, sometimes with a clear message. While some dreams were thought to be the work of demons, most dreams came to the person through divine will. It was said that the gods stood at the head of the sleeping person, which leads one to believe that the gods entered the body of the dreamer through their head.

Another theory was that the god would carry the soul after it left the body. Either way, Ishtar’s ability to communicate with her people is likely due to her association with the Moon which brings illumination and enlightenment to the darkness of the night. The kings of Babylon and Assyria relied on these divine dreams to properly rule their country. With the help of the gods, these leaders planned battle or building their cities. As the goddess of War, Ishtar came to Asshurbanipal, the king of Assyria, in a dream when he was feeling poorly about an upcoming battle the she herself told him to wage on a neighboring land. In this dream, Ishtar not only promised to lead the march, but also promised victory.

Much love to you all
Ishtar )O(