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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Ishtar Biography ISHTAR, The name of the chief goddess worshiped by the Semitic Babylonians, the Assyrians, and apparently also by the Gutians and the Lulubians. Either because of the meaning of the name, which is unknown, or the important position gained by this deity, Ishtar became a generic name for goddess. It is uncertain whether she was originally the local numen of some Akkadian community in Babylonia or a goddess worshiped by the Akkadians before they invaded this country. The latter is suggested by the fact that the name, somewhat differently pronounced, is found in all parts of the Semitic world; Athtar in Arabia, Astar in Abyssinia, Atar among the Aramaeans, Ashtar in Moab, Ashtart in Canaan and Israel. But it has been maintained that the Ishtar cult is likely to have spread from Babylonia in different directions. The circumstance that the sex varies, so that Athtar, Atar, Astar, and probably Ashtar represent a male deity, Ashtart a female, and Ishtar either a male or a female, seems to point to an object that could be conceived of as either. Such an object is the planet Venus, which, like sun and moon, is now male, now female, and with which the Arabian Atarsamain and the Canaanitish Ashtart are closely related as Ishtar. In the absence, however, of a satisfactory etymology it is impossible to determine whether Ishtar was originally a designation of Venus, characterizing it, perchance, as the one that "musters" the heavenly hosts, or the name of a deity concerned with the fertility of the soil and of animal and human life, only subsequently identified with the planet. In either case the name seems to have been given by the Akkadians to Sumerian goddesses like Nanai of Erech (q.v.), Anunit of Akkad (see ACCAD), and others. It probably supplanted a Nina of Nineveh and some local goddess of Arbela. Ishtar of Erech was especially connected with the evening star, while Ishtar of Akkad was connected with the morning star. The latter was regarded as male (zikarat), in distinction from the former as female (zinnishat). which shows the vacillation as to sex within Babylonia itself. The goddess of Erech is represented as unmarried, but having a number of lovers, the most famous of them Tammuz, to whom she brings death and destruction. She is surrounded by priestesses of different grades, who symbolize their devotion to her service by rites of an obscene character. She also had male hierodules. Withal she was a goddess of a violent type, who encouraged her subjects in the fray and punished those who disobeyed her with fatal diseases. This warlike side of her nature is emphasized by kings like Hammurapi (2124-2081 B.C.), who appeared prominently in the role of conquerors. Ishtar of Arbela seems to have preserved more of the character of the stern virgin goddess of the chase and of war, while Ishtar of Nineveh was more of a goddess of love. The former gave, through her prophets and prophetesses, oracles to the Assyrian kings. In the theological system Ishtar is represented as the daughter of Anu or Enlil and as the sister of Shamash, forming a part of the triad Shamash, Sin, and Ishtar, but occupying a place after the sun god and the moon god. By virtue of this preeminence in the heavenly host, she is known as the queen or mistress of heaven. Besides being identified with the planet Venus, she at times appears as the goddess representing the star Sirius; and as both Shamash and Sin were regarded in Babylonia and Assyria as male deities, she became the great mother goddess, the mother of mankind. In the representations of the goddess both sides of her nature, the destructive and the life-giving, are brought out. Among the Assyrians she is pictured generally as clad in flames, with a quiver hanging to both sides, a bow in one hand, and a sharp sword in the other; while in Babylonia the type that early became popular was that of the naked goddess, with prominent breasts and the organs of generation strongly emphasized, or the mother with the child at her breast. At Ras el-Ain in Mesopotamia a veiled Ishtar has been found. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 418-419. |