As all young love, it ends in tragedy with the death of Dumuzi at the hands of
bandits. Inanna and his sister search unceasingly for him. Among the rituals mentioned
in connection with Inanna in the Neo-Sumerian period, there are wailing ceremonies
of Inanna performed at full moon, month’s end, and possibly also at its beginning.
At some point in time, the death of Dumuzi becomes linked to his relationship to
Inanna. It is only at a later stage that the myths of Inanna’s victory over death (The
Descent of Inanna) and of her erotic relationship with Dumuzi found in the love songs
were combined to make Inanna responsible for the death of Dumuzi at the hand of
the underworld demons who claim a substitute for her to remain in the underworld
when she departs their realm. In later millennia, the tale of Inanna’s ill-fated descent
to the netherworld, resulting in the demons seizing her husband Dumuzi as her
substitute, was a fertile source for new compositions not only in Sumerian but also
in Akkadian which retold, elaborated upon, and alluded to, this story. It is the only
Inanna myth that survived as an Ishtar myth.
Dumuzi was not only a god but also an antediluvian legendary king, a shepherd
who was the king of the city of Bad-tibira. Some of the love poems praise the reigning
king as Dumuzi. The Sumerian divine love poetry in which the king takes the role
of Dumuzi probably had its cultic context in ‘sacred marriage’ rituals as well as its
entertainment setting in courtly love poetry.
Mesopotamian theologians structured the expanding pantheon by creating additional
kinship ties between individual gods. Previously, Inanna was placed after her father,
the moon-god Sin, and before her spouse, Dumuzi, now she is followed by a daughter
Nanaya and sons Lulal, Latarak and Shara. Thus, from the theological and perhaps
political angle, came the image of Inanna as a mother goddess although her maternity
is of no consequence. The father of the children is not Dumuzi and her sons play no
role in her mythology or worship.
Second millenniumThe multiplication of manifestations of the goddess Inanna/Ishtar reaches its zenith
in the second millennium – a cult of Inanna and/or Ishtar is performed in most major
cities – before the reaction sets in and syncretism begins its sway in the first millennium.
Characteristic also is the worship of different forms of Ishtar in the same city. In this
period Ishtar became the generic name for goddess and isˇtaratu, a plural form of her
name, the term for goddesses: ‘Ishtar holds in her hand the nose-rope of the people,
Their goddesses (isˇtaratasˇin) attend to her word’ (Agushaya A ii 12 , Groneberg 1997 :
75 ).
Ishtar has become the most prominent goddess among goddesses; the Babylonian
mindset is gender oriented in their social constructions and this is reflected in their
view of the divine world. One Old Babylonian god list arranged the deities according
to their gender. Not only does Inanna appear now after her spouse Dumuzi, but all
various Inanna manifestations and other female deities are grouped together. Even
the consort of Marduk, Zarpanitum, is listed among these Inanna goddesses. Another
list, which becomes the basis of the standard Babylonian god list, placed all Inanna
manifestations together after the various courts of the male gods.
Royal rhetoric shifts its focus. Only through Enlil, the executive leader of the
Sumerian pantheon, could other gods partake of political power:
— Inanna and Ishtar in the Babylonian world —