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Ishtar, Lady of Heaven
"It is known in literature as that of Venus and Adonis, or, to use the traditional Phoenician names, Astarte and Eshmun, the same pair in Babylonia appearing as Ishtar and Tammuz, and in Egypt as Isis and Osiris."
- Donald Harden, The Phoenicians
"Each of the goddesses [Inanna, Hathor, Anat, Athena and Kali among others] is explicitly described as a celestial body, identifiable with the planet Venus; and the imagery surrounding each goddess is consistent with that universally associated with comets (e.g., long, dishevelled hair; serpentine form; identification with a torch; association with eclipses of the sun; etc.)."
- Efemeral Research Foundation, "Exploring the Saturn Myth"
"The Goddess Inanna or Ishtar was the most important female deity of ancient Mesopotamia at all periods. Her Sumerian name Inanna is probably derived from a presumed Nin-ana, 'Lady of Heaven', it also occurs as Innin. The sign for Innana's name (the ring-post) is found in the earliest written texts. Ishtar (earlier Estar), her Akkadian name, is related to that of the South Arabian (male) deity 'Ashtar' and to that of the Syrian goddess Astarte (Biblical Ashtoreth), with whom she was undoubtedly connected.
"The principal tradition concerning Inanna made her the daughter of An [the sky god and father of all gods], and closely connected with the Sumerian city of Uruk. According to another tradition she was the daughter of the mood god Nanna (Sin) and sister of the sun god Uta (Samas). She was also regarded as daughter of Enlil ['King of the Foreign Lands'] or even of Enki [the water god] in variant traditions....The fact that in no tradition does Inanna have a permanent male spouse is closely linked with her role as the goddess of sexual love. Even Dumuzi, who is often described as her 'lover', has a very ambiguous relationship with her and she is ultimately responsible for his death. Nor were any children ascribe to her (with one possible exception, Sara).
"It seems likely that with the persona of the classical goddess Innana/Ishtar a number of originally independent, local goddesses were syncretized. The most important of these was certainly the Innana of Uruk, where her principal shrine E-ana ('House of heaven) was located."
- Black and Green, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia
"Sovereign goddess, lady of the nether abyss, mother of gods, queen of the earth, queen of fecundity....As the primordial humidity, whence proceeded all, Belita is Tamti, or the sea, the mother of the city of Erech, therefore, an infernal goddess. In the world of stars and planets she is known as Ishtar or Astoreth."
- M. P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled
"The story of her [Inanna/Ishtar's] descent into the underworld in search presumably for the sacred elixir which alone could restore Tammuz to life is the key to the ritual of her mysteries."
"At the first gate the great crown is removed from her head, at the second gate the earrings from her ears, at the third gate the necklace from her neck, at the fourth gate the ornaments from her breast, at the fifth gate the girdle from her waist, at the sixth gate the bracelets from her hands and feet, and at the seventh gate the covering cloak of her body. Ishtar remonstrates as each successive article of apparel is taken from her, but the guardian tells her that this is the experience of all who enter the somber domain of death. Enraged upon beholding Ishtar, the Mistress of Hades inflicts upon her all manner of disease and imprisons her in the underworld.
"As Ishtar represents the spirit of fertility, her loss prevents the ripening of the crops and the maturing of all life upon the earth...The gods, realizing that the loss of Ishtar is disorganizing all Nature, send a messenger to the underworld and demand her release. The Mistress of Hades is forced to comply, and the water of life is poured over Ishtar."
- Manly P. Hall, Masonic, Hermetic, Quabbalistic & Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy
The myth about Innana and her descent "deals with the time of year when food supplies are at their most critical point, which is late winter when the stores in the storehouse dwindle and finally come to an end....Her actual death, the final inability of the storehouse to function as food supply, the myth dramatically symbolizes by the cut of tainted meat into which she is turned in the netherworld"
"Thus, at its simplest, we would see the death of Inanna in the emptying of the storehouse, her revival and the resultant death of Dumuzi in the replenishing of the storehouse with fresh meat when the flocks return from the desert and its withering pasturage in late spring and early summer."
- Thorkild Jacobsen, The Treasures of Darkness
"In art, Innana is usually represented as a warrior-goddess, often winged, armed to the hilt, or else surrounded by a nimbus of stars. Even in this aspect she may betray - by her posture and state of dress - her role as goddess of sex and prostitutes. In Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian art, a female, shown full frontal and nude, or nude from the waist down, who has wings and wears the horned cap of divinity, probably depicts Ishtar more specifically in her sexual aspect.
"Ishtar's beast was a lion. Her usual symbol was the star or star disc. She may also have been symbolized for a time by the rosette."
- Black and Green, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia
Ishtar "was a very complex deity. She was the goddess of fertility and sexual activity, the goddess of war, and in her astral manifestation, she was the Venus star in the sky."
- Magnus Magnusson, BC - The Archaeology of the Bible Lands
"Ishtar is clothed with pleasure and love,
She is laden with vitality, charm and voluptuousness.
In lips she is sweet, life is in her mouth.
At her appearance rejoicing becomes full.
She is glorious; veils are thrown over her head.
Her figure is beautiful; her eyes are brilliant.
The goddess - with her there is counsel.
The fate of everything she holds in her hand.
At her glance there is created joy,
Power, magnificence, the protecting deity and guardian spirit..."
- Hymn of Ishtar
"On Middle Assyrian lead figurines depicting intercourse, the man stands and the woman always rests upon a high structure, usually interpreted as an altar. These figurines may very likely represent ritual intercourse, although definitely not the earlier Sacred Marriage, which involved a bed, and not an altar. Instead they are probably in some way associated with the cult of Ishtar as goddess of physical love and prostitution, and were, in fact, found in her temple at Assur."
- Black and Green, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia
"...At the temple of Aphrodite (Ishtar) in Cyprus it was the custom for women to prostitute themselves to strangers prior to their becoming married. Frazer tells us in The Golden Bough that in Babylon, regardless of their social status, women were obliged to submit themselves to strangers at the temple of Mylitta (Ishtar), and money received for these services was donated to the goddess."
- David Wood, Genisis
"The jeweled maidens on the cushioned seats,
Now babbling hailed the King, and each entreats
For sacred service, silver or of gold,
And to him, all, their sweetest charms unfold."
- The Epic of Ishtar and Izdubar, Tablet IV, Column III
"Herodotus, writing about Babylon in the fifth century BC, state that every woman once in her life had to go to the temple of 'Aphrodite', i.e. Ishtar, and sit there waiting until a stranger cast a coin in her lap as the price of her favors. Then she was obliged to go with him outside the temple and have intercourse, to render her duty to the goddess. The story is probably highly imaginative. However, the second-century AD writer Lucian describes, apparently from personal knowledge, a very similar custom in the temple of 'Aphrodite' (probably Astarte) at Byblos in Lebanon."
- Black and Green, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia
"In the sanctuary of the great Phoenician goddess Astarte at Byblos at the annual mourning for the dead Adonis, the women had to shave their heads, and such of them as refused to do so were bound to prostitute themselves to strangers and to sacrifice to the goddess with the wages of their shame. Though Lucian, who mentions the custom, does not say so, there are some grounds for thinking that the women in question were generally maidens, of whom this act of devotion was required as a preliminary to marriage."
- Sir James George Frazer, The Illustrated Golden Bough
"The servers included religious prostitution, both women and boys. Such a practice was common form in Phoenician sanctuaries, at least in the east. Herodotus records it in Cyprus, and the early fathers have much to way of it in Phoenicia. It also existed in the west, for representations of 'temple boys' occur more than once on Carthage stelae.
- Donald Harden, The Phoenicians
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