Inanna: Goddess Queen of Heaven
- Sylvia Rose
- Nov 4, 2023
- 8 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Inanna (Ishtar) is the goddess of love, sexuality, fertility and war in ancient Mesopotamia. A divine protector, Inanna is fierce, strong-willed, seductive, and temperamental. Her reign of over 4500 years is the longest of any deity.
Inanna enjoys the longest and most widespread worship of any known deity. A supreme figure in cosmology of the ancient near East, she is revered in many cities and regions.
She's patron of prosperous Uruk. As well, temples are dedicated to her in Mari, Nineveh, Babylonia, Assyria, Akkad, Hittite Anatolia and Syria.
Inanna bears the title Queen of Heaven and countless epithets of beauty, youth and power. Like her sister Underworld Goddess Ereshkigal and Hurrian Allani she's called ṣuhārtu or šiduri, "young woman" in Akkadian.
Worshiped in Sumer since c. 4000 BCE, she's patron of the Eanna temple in Uruk and of the town itself. It's said the people of Uruk build her a beautiful house with priests, musicians, servants and gardeners, to attract her patronage.
Inanna is overjoyed, and pleased to move in. She brings gifts of knowledge to humanity and protects the common people. She is a goddess of women and embodies the female warrior aspect.
As a divine administrator she also helps the king receive tribute from other city-states. About half the revenue of ancient Uruk comes from tributes and taxes.
She's a goddess of many aspects, including love, war and fertility. She relates to beauty, sex, prostitution, political power and divine law. She's never seen as a mother goddess and no children, except possibly Nanaya, goddess of erotic love, prominent in her entourage.
Hittite King Hattusili III and Queen Puduhepa are devoted to her. In unwed life Puduhepa was a temple priestess for Shaushka, the Hurrian equivalent of Inanna. Hattusili credits Inanna / Ishtar for saving his life when he was a sickly child.
Her heavenly body is Venus, in Old English as morgensteorra (morning star) and æfensteorra (evening star). She connects to both morning and evening aspects of Venus. Scholars link some adventures of Inanna to the movements of Venus.
For later Romans the morning star is Lucifer, light bearer, while the evening star is Hesperus. Inanna influences the Greek and Roman versions of the Goddess of Love Aphrodite / Venus, to whom the planet is sacred.
Her myths are lively and complex. She's a joyful innocent, a clever manipulator, a caring protector and seductive siren. She personifies the ecstasy of sex. She's the hand of divine justice, and a force of warrior rage.
More myths surround Inanna than any other ancient deity. They include the journey of Inanna to the Underworld Kur (further below), her resurrection three days later and the fate of her consort Dumuzi.
Other tales include Inanna and the Huluppu Tree, in which Inanna plants a beautiful tree in her garden only to have it occupied by a serpent who would not be charmed, the young of the Anzu-bird, and the demonic "dark maid" Lilith. The tree may be the mahaleb cherry.
Hero King of Uruk, Gilgamesh, helps her rid her tree of the pests. He then cuts down the tree and Inanna fashions her holy objects from it. However she has a falling-out with the adventurous king.
Inanna is known for wheedling the Bull of Heaven from sky god Anu to kill Gilgamesh for allegedly spurning her advances. The tale ends badly for all but Gilgamesh.
She also gets water god Enki drunk and runs off with the mes or tablets of destiny, which are in his keeping. Enki's sukkal Isimud is tasked with getting them back and doesn't relish the task of confronting Inanna.
The mes tablets, containing everything relevant to humanity, represent the power of Uruk, city of Inanna, over Eridu, city of Enki. Finally, Enki has to admit defeat.
In some versions Inanna flees in high drama as her sukkal Ninshubur helps her fend off ravening monsters sent by Enki. She makes it back to Uruk in triumph. In the end Enki forgives her, and wishes her well in her reign.
Her parentage vacillates. In the story above Enki may be depicted as her father. Anu, whose White Temple sits atop the world's first ziggurat in Uruk, is occasionally named as her father.
In the most commonly accepted version, her father is Nanna (Sin) the moon, with his wife Ningal as Inanna's mother. Sun god Shamash is her brother and sometimes appears in her adventures.
In another myth Inanna is violated by a gardener while sleeping. She shakes heaven and earth with murderous wrath in fierce destruction as he hides in terror. Eventually she finds and slays him horribly.
People of ancient Uruk worship Inanna in three forms: morning Inanna (Inana-UD/hud), evening Inanna (Inanna sig), relating to the phases of her corresponding planet, Venus; and princely Inanna (Inanna NUN).
She may be shown as a winged goddess, as below. From c. 4000 - 3100 BCE a ring-headed doorpost is a representation of Inanna. The Star of Ishtar, an eight-point star, often represents or accompanies her in art.
Her symbols include lions, doves, rose, owl and barley. Doves adorn cultic objects of Inanna from third millennium BCE. At Aššur, dating to the thirteenth century BCE, lead dove figurines are found.
A fresco from Syria shows a deific dove emerging from a palm tree in the Ishtar temple. The goddess might also appear as a dove. Another of her symbols is the owl, also associated with Ereshkigal.
The lion or lioness is a powerful symbol of Inanna. Lions relate to courage, protection, Fire, the Sun, dominance and wealth. They represent monarchy, ferocity and pride.
Women in the ancient near East worship Inanna with unleavened loaves or cakes baked in ashes (kamān tumri).
“Oh Istar, merciful goddess, I have come to visit you. I have prepared for you an offering, pure milk, a pure cake baked in ashes (kamanu tumri), I stood up for you a vessel for libations, hear me and act favorably towards me.”
Akkadian hymn
Inanna is a patron of sex workers. When Gilgamesh kills the bull she stands on the walls of Uruk cursing him. She calls on all ''the crimped courtesans, prostitutes and harlots'' of the city to mourn with her over the Bull.
At Mari, Syria, several clay cake molds are found, shaped like naked women with large hips, holding their breasts. These are used to make temple offerings and may be a representation of the goddess.
Until the conquest of Sargon the Great (c. 2334 - 2154 BCE), Inanna is a local goddess. After Sargon she becomes powerful in the known lands, with temples erected in her honor throughout Mesopotamia.
Sargon's conquests result in unification. Any disparity between Ishtar and Inanna disappears and the goddesses are one. The Assyrians honor her as the highest-ranking deity in their pantheon, above their own national god Ashur.
In one of the famous myths of Inanna, she goes to the Underworld, Kur, saying she wants to attend a funeral. Ereshkigal, suspicious, tricks her into removing her garments.
Nonetheless Inanna pushes her sister from the throne of the Underworld and sits on it herself. This is the ultimate insult. Ereshkigal orders Inanna killed, for she has no real power here, and hangs her corpse on a hook.
Fortunately for Inanna she anticipates the outcome and has told her deific supporters to plead her case with Enlil, Nanna (Sin), Anu and Enki if she fails to return after three days. None pleads as hard as her devoted sukkal Ninshubur.
The first three gods have no sympathy and say it's her own fault, but Enki feels badly for her. He either intervenes himself or fashions a sexless being, Asushunamir, to bring her the bread and water of life. Revived, she flees.
Galla demons pursue her, demanding a replacement. Once a person is dead it's highly irregular to get up and leave. To punish her consort Dumuzi, who frolics with dancing girls while she's hanging dead on a hook, Inanna gives him to the demons.
Later she regrets her impulsive decision. She forgives Dumuzi, but he must now go to the Underworld for six months of the year, while his sister Geshtinanna takes his place the other six months.
While Dumuzi is in the Underworld, nothing grows and the land is hot and dry. The sixth month, the hottest, is named Dumuz-id after him.
In the early 20th century, at Babylon, the world-famous Ishtar Gate is unearthed. It's constructed c. 569 BCE by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II as part of a grand walled processional way leading into the city.
The walls are finished in glazed bricks, mostly blue, with lions, dragons and deities in low relief at intervals. The gate is 15 meters high, with the original foundations extending another 14 meters underground.
The Cult of Inanna continues until the 5-6th century AD. The spread of Christianity causes a decline in worship of pagan deities. After over 4500 years, Inanna takes her leave. She lives now in the Realm of the Gods, forever young.
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