CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
INANNA AND ISHTAR
IN THE BABYLONIAN WORLD
Joan Goodnick Westenholz
I
nanna (in Sumerian) and Ishtar (in Akkadian) were the most revered and popular
goddesses of ancient Mesopotamia. As it says in the Great Prayer to Ishtar: ‘Where
is not your name, where are not your daises, where are not your powers?’ (Boghazköy
version lls. 17 ′– 18 ′, Zgoll 2003 : 57 ). Despite their notoriety, these goddesses present
an enigma. Controversy surrounds the figures of Inanna and Ishtar both in scholarly
and popular literature. Although there is consensus concerning the factual evidence,
scholars differ greatly on the interpretation of that evidence. The etymology of their
names,^1 their genealogy, consorts, children, and manifestations are all unsettled and
debatable topics.
When looking at Inanna/Ishtar’s variety of contradictory traits, it seems as if one
is peering through a kaleidoscope which sees diffused and shifting patterns of the
goddess’ manifestations. Each turn of the kaleidoscope comes from a different type of
literature, from a different time, and reveals different patterns. Gazing at Inanna/Ishtar
through the pattern of mythology, one beholds the young maiden Inanna, a beautiful
young girl self-absorbed and materialistic, who holds out the promise of sweet delight
to her beloved. She is also the rebellious teenager that can break all bonds. She confronts
various father figures: she contends with An, the god of the heavens, in The Capture
of Eanna (ETCSL 1. 3. 5 )^2 and competes with Enki the god of the depths in Inanna
and Enki (ETCSL No. 1. 3. 1 ). Her rivalling her elder sister, the Queen of the
Netherworld, is narrated in The Descent of Inanna (ETCSL No. 1. 4. 1 ).
Examining Inanna/Ishtar through the pattern of theology, one discerns her shifting
importance according to the religious scholars trying to arrange the divine world.
The ancient theologians were concerned with systemising the constellations of gods
in god lists by devising hierarchical and genealogical relationships. While one
hierarchical roster lists Inanna after the high god of the heaven, An, and the executive
head of the pantheon Enlil and before the mother goddess, a genealogical catalogue
places Inanna in sixth place after her father, the moon-god Sin.
Looking at Inanna/Ishtar through the pattern of royal rhetoric, one sees her relationship
to the body politic of Sumer, Akkad and Babylonia in general and to the holders of
political power in particular. The essential role of Inanna in the legitimation myth
of kingship was expressed through the Sumerian doctrine of ‘king by love of Inanna’