The two epithets húd‘morning’ and sig‘evening’ describe the goddess as two
manifestations of the planet Venus, one shining in the morning and one in the evening
sky. Although only a temple to the evening aspect of Venus is mentioned in the
administrative records, each manifestation of Venus was honoured with its own festival,
and different sets of offerings were presented to each of them (Szarzyn ́ ska 2000 ). This
veneration of Inanna reflects the cycle of the planet Venus during which the planet
is visible twice for a period of about eight months. During one period, Venus rises
and sets in the east as the morning star and during the other, Venus rises and sets in
the west as the evening star. Between these two periods, when it is closer to the Earth
(inferior conjunction), the planet is invisible for about three days during the winter
and about two weeks in the summer and at its furthest point from Earth (superior
conjunction), the planet is invisible for two months and some days. Her astral symbol
is the rosette/star.
The myth, which we know from later sources, that explains the periodic invisibility
of Venus is named by modern scholars as Inanna’s Descent to the Netherworld(Katz
1996 , 2003 : 93 – 98 ). It tells of her journey to the realm of the dead, situated in the
kur, literally ‘mountain’ (rather than netherworld),^4 her attempt at usurpation and
arrest there and her release through Enki’s contrivance. It is based on the periodic
disappearance of Venus from sight and her reappearance. According to the phrase
‘descending/ascending to/from the kur’^5 in the list of Inanna’s mes, she descended to
and ascended from the realm of the dead repeatedly. In the myth, she is portrayed
as entering the realm of the dead from the Mountain in the west; she gives the excuse
for her passage to the gatekeeper that she is passing through going to the east. The
myth is based on the speculations of the Sumerians on her course behind the mountain
ridges outside the north-eastern borders of Sumer.
The last aspect of Inanna of Uruk, but one for which no offering texts have been
found, is Inanna-kur, literally ‘Inanna, the mountain’ for which various interpretations
have been offered such as Inanna, (from) the ‘mountain’ in which kur may indicate
the mountainous place of her birth and appearance (Szarzyn ́ ska 2000 ). Moreover,
Inanna frequently travels to the kur, the mountain lands around the Mesopotamian
plane, not only to enter the realm of the dead but also for other reasons. For instance,
‘the young woman went up into the mountains, holy Inanna went up into the
mountains. To detect falsehood and justice, to inspect the Land closely, to identify
the criminal against the just, she went up into the mountains’ (Inanna and Shukaletuda
lls. 4 – 8 , ETSCL No. 1. 3. 3 ). Further, it might be possible to understand the epithet
Inanna-kur as the well-known epithet of Inanna which appears more fully as nin-
kur-kur-ra ‘Mistress of (all) the lands’, Inanna in her aspect of political mastery over
the inhabited world.
Among the proto-cuneiform texts from various cities at the turn of the fourth
millennium, there is a distinctive group of tablets each of which bears a sealing on
which the names of several cities are recorded and each of which concludes with lines
tallying offerings sent to Inanna in Uruk. What this evidence seems to indicate is
that, in the earliest period, there existed a pan-Mesopotamian religious league centred
on Uruk and its chief deity, Inanna.
— Inanna and Ishtar in the Babylonian world —