Ancient sumerian text tells the story of goddess queen inanna. Ishtarinanna as a warrior presenting captives to the king public domain among the worlds oldest poems. Shes in love with tammuz, and her love for him is central to the dualistic nature of the goddess as youll see later in this article. Ishtar is the akkadian counterpart of the west semitic goddess astarte. When the greeks came along, they rendered her name as astarte. Inanna was entrusted by enlil and ninlil with the capacity to gladden the heart of those who revere her to turn a.
Great queen inanna, expert at fomenting wars, destroyer of the enemy countrylike a. Queen of heaven was a title given to a number of ancient sky goddesses worshipped throughout the ancient mediterranean and near east during ancient times. Inanna was known to semites as ishtar and referred to as the first born daughter of the moon and the morning and evening. Cuneiform tablets date her back to prehistoric sumer, some 500,000 years ago. Inanna was the sumerian goddess of love, fertility, and war, known in akkadian as ishtar. The name is particularly associated with her worship in the ancient levant among the canaanites and phoenicians. When egypt coopted ishtar she became a deity known as astarte. Mackenzie, an early popularizer of mythology, draws a parallel between the love goddess aphrodite and her dying god lover adonis on one hand, and the love goddess ishtar and her dying god lover tammuz on the other. Her name, when translated, means enduring star, and indeed she was identified with the evening star. One of the oldest of these eye temples, dating back to about 3000 bce, is at tell brak in eastern syria. What does this mean, isis astarte diana hecate demeter. For example, when the peleset philistines killed saul and. She was known to the canaanites as astarte, to the sumerians, she was known as inanna, to the babylonians, she was known as ishtar to the assyrians and the akkadians, ashtart, ashtoreth, asherah, and astoreth, to the egyptians, isis, ashet and aset, to the phoenicians, she was known as tanitashtart and ashtaroth.
She was also adopted much later by the greeks, though she was not widely worshipped among the greeks because she overlapped with aphrodite. Essays to honor paul friedrich pdf, montreal, quebec. Inannaishtars most famous myth is the story of her descent into and return. Ishtar, akkadian, sumerian inanna, in mesopotamian religion, is the goddess of war and sexual love. Inanna ishtar is both female and male in one place stating though i am a woman i am a noble young man as articulated in one sumerian hymn to inanna. Ishtar also called inanna was an important god of west asia. Ishtar, goddess of love and war connecting with ishtar. Divine goddess goddess art mother goddess kali goddess wicca book of shadows pdf image digital study pictures digital art gallery. Ishtar was one of two untheric goddesses of love and war the other was her progenitor, inanna. The ancient mesopotamian deity ishtar or istar is the assyrian and. Transformation of a goddess held at keio university, tokyo, japan, from august 2526, 2011.
She was originally worshiped in sumer and was later worshipped by the akkadians, babylonians, and assyrians under the name ishtar. When she finally passes the seventh gate, she is naked. Astarte, goddess of war and sexual love, shared so many qualities with her sister, anath, that they may originally have been seen as a single deity. I have said before that the qliphothicgoetic deity astarte, and that the venusattributed deities inanna, ishtar, isis, and athtar are aspects of the same deity. There are seven gates that inanna must pass through to go down to the underworld which probably are the five wandering planets plus the sun and moon. Inanna ishtar queen of heaven and earth the mysteries of ancient times become real when we discover there is evidence to support the stories presented as myths.
She is the counterpart to the sumerian goddess inanna and to the cognate northwest semitic goddess astarte. Ishtar inanna astarte goddess by fougout on etsy ishtar. Astarte and ishtar when the goddess called my name. Inanna is an ancient mesopotamian goddess associated with sex, war, justice, and political. Astarte, great goddess of the ancient middle east and chief deity of tyre, sidon, and elat, important mediterranean seaports. Their names together are the basis for the aramaic goddess atargatis. Inanna is a sumerian goddess associated with the planet venus. Inanna, the forerunner of the akkadian ishtar, appears in the earliest known forms of the sumerian religion. According to, in her levantine homelands, astarte is a battlefield goddess. Weve been saying for years that it was just a matter of time before the babylonian chief goddess ishtar a. At each gate, ishtar has to shed one article of clothing. She is mesopotamian goddess ishtar in babylon or inanna in sumer.
In one form or another, she was the face of god for 4,000 years. Found inside were thousands of figurines of the eye goddess, each with staring, wide, owllike eyes which are coiled like snakes. Esherzidguru house clad in splendor temple of inannas in. The image above is not very good, but it allows us to see the main attributes of ishtar inanna. The female form, the helmet, the weapons arrows on the back, mace or ax in left hand, standing. Symbols of astarte include the dove, the sphinx, and the planet venus. In her place, she left her portfolio and the right to use her name and appearance to the mulhorandi goddess isis. Inanna,ishtar,lilith,amazons,astarte,ashera, inanna. Rain goddess, possibly inannaishtar, holding streams of rain and standing on the storm gods lionbird. The early images of inannaishtar show her wearing a flounced dressa kaunakeswhich was a superarchaic sumerian garment with long tufts of wool pulled out to make it look like a sheepskin. The ancient mesopotamian deity ishtar or istar is the assyrian and babylonian goddess of sexual love, fertility, and warfare. Ishtar myth encyclopedia mythology, greek, god, story. She is the counterpart to the sumerian inanna, and is the cognate for the goddess astarte.
In those days the pavement of the house of ishtar, my lady. This temple was dedicated to the worship of the goddess ishtar inanna. Like ishtar, the greek aphrodite and the aramean northwestern semitic astarte were love goddesses. Astarte was worshiped in egypt and ugarit and among the hittites, as well as in canaan. The goddess istar inanna in sumerian was without a doubt the most im. In grecoroman times hera, and her roman aspect juno bore this title. Ishtar is the east semitic, akkadian, assyrian, and babylonian goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex. Inanna, an important goddess in the sumerian pantheon, came to be identified with ishtar, but it is uncertain whether inanna is also of semitic origin or whether, as is more likely, her similarity to ishtar caused the two to be identified. Inannaishtar as paradox and a coincidence of opposites. Ishtar in akkadian astarte in hebrew, inanna in sumerian is the mesopotamian goddess of both love and fertility and war. A pair of rituals i performed with a partner, performed within the context of qliphothic.
Hebrew scholars now feel that the goddess ashtoreth mentioned so often in the bible is a deliberate conflation of the greek name astarte and the hebrew word boshet, shame. Inannas prowess as a warrior is a recurring point of emphasis in the sumerian literary texts. Texts that speak of her are far fewer than of ishtar or inanna but she is well attested to in egyptian writings. Later in canaan she was called ashtart, ashtoret, ashtaroth or astarte. The akkadian ishtar is also, to a greater extent, an astral deity, associated with the planet venus. The descent of inanna is thought to have been composed at some point of time between 3500 b. In the ancient near east, ishtar was an important and widely worshiped mother goddess for many semitic peoples. Inanna is an ancient mesopotamian goddess associated with sex, war, justice, and political power. Sugimoto this volume is a result of the international conference on ishtar astarte aphrodite. She departed the world of toril soon after enlil did. Inannaishtar is both female and male in one place stating though i am a woman i am a noble young man as articulated in one sumerian hymn to inanna.
In her celestial aspect, inanna is the planet venus, the morning and the evening star. This story parallels what the planet venus does in the sky. In her role as a warrior goddess, one who is dominant and fearless, she is sometimes portrayed wearing a set of bull horns. But i know you as the eternal moment in me beltis quotes from texts beltis inanna sometimes ninlil sometimes as inanna. Sugimoto this volume is a result of the international conference on ishtarastarte aphrodite. There are several manifestations of astarteishtar in the syria and mesopotamia temples. Descent of ishtar to the nether world inanna and ebih inanna and enki the transfer of the arts of civilization from eridu to erech inanna s descent to the nether world. Inannaishtar frequently has been described by ancient near eastern scholars as a complex, multifaceted goddess. In one of her aspects she was known as ashera, and the hebrew tribe of asher took that name to use as their own. See more ideas about mother goddess, ancient art and ancient goddesses. Ishtar, lady of heaven it is known in literature as that of venus and adonis, or, to use the traditional phoenician names, astarte and eshmun, the same pair in babylonia appearing as ishtar and tammuz, and in egypt as isis and osiris. In rage, ishtar throws herself at ereshkigal, but ereshkigal orders her servant namtar to imprison ishtar and unleash sixty diseases against her. Inanna ishtar astarte was a goddess whose favor brought enslavement, pain and even death on her lovers.
Who was ishtar and what is her connection to easter. The ishtar gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of babylon. She was known as the queen of heaven and was the patron goddess of the eanna temple at the city of uruk, which was her main cult center. Inannaishtar was known as the eye goddess and she had eye temples. Goddesses known to have been referred to by the title include inanna, anat, isis, ishtar, astarte, astghik and possibly asherah by the prophet jeremiah. Like ishtar, astarte seems to have had strong connections with both war and. The gatekeeper lets ishtar into the underworld, opening one gate at a time. Inanna in babylon, isis in eygypt, astarte or aphrodite in greece and libertasvenus in rome to name just a few would once again rise to prominence in world affairs not merely. Descent of ishtar to the nether world inanna and ebih inanna and enki the transfer of the arts of civilization from eridu to erech inannas descent to the nether world.
All middle eastern statues and plaques for including, inanna, ishtar, lilith, amazons, astarte, ashera and inanna. There are several manifestations of astarte ishtar in the syria and mesopotamia temples. Sculptural relief representing the ancient near east sumerian akkadian babylonian assyrian hebrew ashtoreth,goddess ishtar inanna astarte with her. Ishtarism coming out of the closet in american churches.
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