Inanna

A leading Sumerian goddess and the most popular deity in all of ancient Mesopotamia. Inanna (also Ishtar or Astarte) was known as the goddess of love and sexual passion, but she was also associated with war and was seen as a protector of kings and ruling dynasties. The great conqueror Sargon of Akkad, for instance, called on her to support him in battle. In addition, sometime in the third millennium b. c. she merged with a Semitic goddess, Ishtar, thereby becoming “queen of Heaven” and gaining an association with the planet Venus. As a result, one of her symbols was a star.

In her role as the sex goddess, Inanna was both selfish and inexhaustible, choosing, using, and discarding male lovers at will. Her chief lover, Dumuzi, for example, ended up spending half of his time in the dark reaches of the underworld because of her, as told in the epic poem The Descent of Inanna. Not surprisingly, Inanna was a patron deity of prostitutes, and some of her priestesses may have served her as sacred prostitutes. Inanna had temples and shrines all across Mesopotamia, but her principal one was the Eanna, or “House of Heaven,” at Uruk. Other important shrines were at Kish, also in Sumeria, and Nineveh, in Assyria.

Many hymns and other forms of written praise were composed for Inanna over the course of more than two millennia. The following example, phrased to make it sound as if the goddess herself is speaking, is Sumerian and dates from the late third millennium b. c.

I am Inanna! Which god compares with me? [The chief god] Enlil gave me the heavens and he gave me the Earth. I am Innana! He gave me lordship, and he gave me queenship. He gave me battles and he gave me fighting. He gave me the storm-wind and he gave me the dust cloud. He placed the heavens on my head as a crown.

He put the earth at my feet as sandals.

He wrapped [a] holy. . . garment around my body. He put the holy scepter in my hand. The [other] gods are [like] small birds, but I am the falcon. ... When I enter the Ekur, the house of Enlil, the gate-keeper does not lift his hand against my breast; the minister does not tell me, “Rise!”

The heavens are mine and the Earth is mine. I am heroic! Which god compares with me?

See Also: Descent of Inanna, The; Dumuzi; sacred prostitution