Royal hymns and personal prayers directed to Ishtar for assistance are plentiful in
the first millennium. In liturgical compositions, Ishtar features as mater dolerosaand
appears as revengeful yet broken-hearted over the demise of Dumuzi/Tammuz. Her
angry and capricious nature continues to need calming: ‘May (various gods) pacify
your heart, calm your liver’. Prayers contain entreaties for alleviation of physical and
mental ills and its sources – witchcraft and sorcery – as well as social and economic
problems understood as punishment for sins and iniquities, known and unknown.
To regain the goddess’ favour, the sufferer stresses in his/her supplication the merciful
and protective nature of Ishtar while, in his/her invocation of the goddess, he/she
lauds her astral manifestation Ishtar-kakkabi, in particular that of the morning star,
ilat sˇerti, and her control of destinies, her military mien, her possession of the pars.u
and her exaltation among the gods:
I implore you, Lady of ladies, Goddess of goddesses
Ishtar, queen of all the inhabited world, who governs the people...
You are the luminary of heaven and earth, the valiant daughter of Sin
(the moon-god),
Who brandishes weapons, who prepares for battle,
Who gathers to herself all pars.u, who dons the lordly tiara.
O Mistress, splendid is your greatness, exalted over all the gods.
Planet for the warcry, who can make harmonious brothers set at one
another,...
You render final judgement and decision, the ordinances of earth and
heaven,...
You look upon the oppressed and abused and always set them right.
Have mercy, mistress of heaven and earth, shepherdess of the human race!
...
I myself call upon you, your exhausted, desperate, most stricken servant,
Look upon me, mistress, accept my entreaty.
(Great Prayer to Ishtar 1 – 9 , 13 , 26 – 27 , 42 – 3 ;
Zgoll 2003 : 42 – 54 )In addition to these themes seen above, two prayers petition her to safeguard offspring
and perhaps for conception. Ishtar thus derived her widespread popularity through
her intense involvement in human affairs.
As we have seen above, Ishtar could bless and curse with equal measure. Conse-
quently, she was invoked not only in prayers but also in mantic texts during the first
millennium. Love magic and potency incantations are addressed to Ishtar for her
intervention for the afflicted or frustrated lover and even to secure brisk trade at a
tavern. In addition to their story retold in the liturgy, the tragic relationship of Inanna
and Dumuzi is enshrined in a series of incantation rituals related to rites for the month
of Tammuz, the month when Dumuzi’s death was mourned:
In the month of Tammuz, when Ishtar causes the people of the land to weep for
her lover Dumuzi, (and when every) man’s family is assembled at an appropriate
place, Ishtar appears and deals with the affairs of people. She takes away disease— Joan Goodnick Westenholz —