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ISHTAR

(Akk. Ištaru)

The chief goddess of the Mesopotamian pantheon. In Sumerian she is identified as the goddess Inanna. Inanna/Ishtar possesses a multiplicity of characteristics, often viewed as irreconcilable — she is the goddess both of love and of war and attributed with aspects of fertility, sexuality, passion, and anger. The duality inherent in the goddess illustrates the mythological and cyclic features of an agrarian society, where survival depended upon the fertility and fecundity of the land. As an early Sumerian deity she is the consort of Dumuzi (Tammaz) and an integral participant in the hieros gamos, a sacred marriage ritual performed by the king and a priestess of Inanna/Ishtar to insure successful crops at the beginning of the agricultural new year. Later among the warlike Assyrians, Ishtar became the patroness of the military. Cuneiform royal inscriptions boast of her leading the Assyrian kings in battle and victorious conquests. Associated with the planet Venus, the morning and evening star, Ishtar is considered one of the astral deities: the daughter of the moon-god Nanna/Sîn, the sister of the sun-god Utu/Šamaš, and sometimes the consort of An, the god of the heavens.

Etymologically, her name was originally masculine and related to the Semitic god ʿAṯtar. In the 1st millennium b.c.e. she assimilated characteristics from other Assyrian deities as well as the complete appropriation of the Sumerian goddess Inanna. Ishtar has also been associated with the Canaanite deities Astarte and Anat. Akk. Ištar(at)u eventually became the generic word for goddesses.

Ishtar was worshipped universally in many temples throughout Mesopotamia, including her major cult centers at Arbela, Uruk, Akkad, Nineveh, and Babylon. Despite Ishtar’s popularity, she held no political rank among the national gods Assur and Marduk, reflecting the patriarchal bias of the ancient Mesopotamian society.

The cuneiform literature contains numerous myths and hymns concerning Ishtar. In one popular myth, which has both a Sumerian and Akkadian version, Ishtar descends into the netherworld, where she passes through seven gates, is stripped of her adornments, and held prisoner by the queen of the netherworld, her older sister Ereškigal. During Ishtar’s captivity procreation and fertility of the land cease. She is eventually rescued and released in exchange for her lover, Dumuzi, who must reside half of the year in the netherworld. In the Gilgamesh Epic Ishtar is presented as a seductress and an angry jilted lover. Gilgamesh, aware of her ill-treatment of her lovers, spurns her advances. His rejection fuels her wrath, and she calls upon An to send the Bull of Heaven to kill Gilgamesh.

Ishtar is not mentioned in the Bible, but some scholars have connected her with the “queen of heaven” to whom the women are making cakes and pouring libations (Jer. 7:18; 44:17-19, 25). Though Ishtar is called Akk. malkat šamami, “queen of heaven,” this epithet is common among the Phoenician, Canaanite, and Egyptian goddesses of the ancient Near East. The biblical mention may more accurately refer to one of the Canaanite goddesses.

Julye M. Bidmead

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ISHTAR

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)