Ishtar

Ishtar, known as Inanna in Sumerian tradition, is a major deity in Mesopotamian religion, worshiped from the Early Dynastic period through the Neo-Babylonian era. She presided over love, beauty, sexuality, and fertility, and also war, combat, and political power. Ishtar is closely associated with the planet Venus, viewed as both the Morning Star and the Evening Star. Her symbols commonly include the eight-pointed star and the lion.

Ishtar’s cult center was the city of Uruk, where the Eanna temple complex was dedicated to her, and she was venerated across Sumer, Akkad, and Babylonia. One of her best-known myths is Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld, in which she enters the realm of Ereshkigal and is temporarily deprived of power before being restored. She is also linked to the shepherd-god Dumuzi (Tammuz) as her consort, whose annual death and return symbolize seasonal fertility. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, she plays a pivotal role by appealing to Gilgamesh and provoking the Bull of Heaven when spurned.

The worship of Ishtar continued into later Mesopotamian periods and influenced art and architecture, including the Ishtar Gate of Babylon (built under Nebuchadnezzar II in the 6th century BCE). The deity’s name and image endured in later Near Eastern religion as a symbol of love and war, and she remained a central figure in Mesopotamian religious thought, reflected in astronomical, literary, and cultic traditions.