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Inanna  (Ishtar)

Inanna is Queen among the Dingirrene.  She especially rules over sex, fertility, and war.  Her worship seems to have expanded among the Sumerians from an early personification as the spirit of the granary to a recognition of her more cosmic role.  Indeed, her symbol, the eight-rayed star, became the cuneiform notation used to distinguish the names of all deities.

Inanna is associated with the planet Venus.  In this, and in her relationship with the shepherd Dumuzi (Akkadian Tammuz), we see that she is the source of the Hellenic Aphrodite, who had the beautiful, mortal boy Adonis as a consort.  At first, Inanna wants a husband who is associated with farming rather than herding, but her brother Utu (Shamash) makes sure that they meet, and that is all it takes.  (Does this represent a sort of dynastic alliance between the earlier pastoral people and the more settled Sumerians?  Myths can always be read on at least four levels.)

Inanna is the subject of one of the most evocative stories surviving from Sumer, the Descent of Inanna to the Underworld (the third part of the Inanna Cycle).  Prefiguring the Hellenic myth of Persephone, but with sex roles reversed, this powerful story is worthy of careful study.

"When, after three days and three nights, Inanna had not returned, Ninshubur set up a lament for her by the ruins.  She beat the drum for her in the assembled places.  She circled the houses of the gods.  She tore at her eyes; she tore at her mouth; she tore at her thighs.  She dressed herself in a single garment like a beggar."  (Wolkstein and Kramer, tr.)

Inanna is rescued from Attalu but the Annunaki insist that a substitute must be sent back in her place.  A delegation of galla (underworld demons) accompanies her.  They encounter Inanna's children and her servant Ninshubur, all of whom are in mourning for Inanna, so Inanna will not allow the galla to take them.  On their return to Uruk, they encounter Dumuzi, who is taking his leisure in Inanna's temple, dressed in his finery and seated on his throne - which is only his because he is married to Inanna.  Inanna "turns the eye of death on him" and he is dragged off to the underworld, where he now spends every winter.

Inanna and Dumuzi are associated with light and with the cycle of the seasons.  Observances connected with them are often similar in intent and feel to some Neopagan celebrations.

References:
"Inanna."  Encyclopedia Mythica.
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/i/inanna.html
[Accessed January 11, 2003.]

"Inanna."  Gateways to Babylon.
http://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/gods/ladies/ladyinanna1.html
[Accessed January 11, 2003.]

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