Ishtar was the goddess of love and war to the ancient Babylonians. This same goddess was also worshiped throughout the Near East and Mediterranean worlds from the beginning of recorded history until the predominance of Christianity.Her name varied from place to place, but it was the same goddess who was known as Inanna, Innin, Astarte, Ashtar, and Aphrodite among other names. Ishtar first arose among the Sumerians sometime in the third millennium.They created an entire pantheon of gods who were like humans - only better. The gods of Sumer reflected the general pessimism of the Sumerians, but also their belief that the human mind could divine the minds of gods by observing perceivedsupernatural activity.
The
Sumerians' views were a major influence on their contemporaries
(especially the early Semites) as well as on their successors, the
Babylonians.
They also influenced the Hittites, Assyrians, Elamites,
and those living in Palestine. Certain Sumerian gods made the leap to
Greece and later to Rome, and Ishtar was such a deity. She became
Aphrodite to the Greeks. They stripped her of her war-making aspect and
focused almost solely on her nature as goddess of love (especially
sexual) and beauty. From the Greeks, the Romans adopted this goddess as
their own under the name of Venus. All forms of Ishtar under all of
their different names were associated with the planet we now know as
Venus and which was first known as the morning and evening stars. Thus
we are able to see how the worship of this goddess has reached across
the void oftime and touched us in some small way.
Ishtar was born in Sumer in
very ancient times. She did not start out with all of the traits which
made her such a great and powerful goddess. In fact, many scholars
believe that this goddess began as a simple Neolithic fertility
goddess. Ishtar gradually usurped many of the functions of the Mother
Goddess, Ninhursag, and even took her place as Anu's spouse. Anu was
the king of the Sumerian gods at this time and Ninhursag was his
original wife. She continued to absorb what had been functions of
preceding goddesses until the name Ishtar came to mean "goddess". She
was the supreme female deity in the pantheons of most of the
civilizations in the Near East. Ishtar became goddess of love,
fertility, passion, and war. She was Lady of Battle and Queen of Heaven.
In fact, Ishtar may have
been the most ambitious goddessever di......
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Sumarian Gods
Jesus' Alien Ancestors
Sumerian Mythology
The Legend of Semmiramis
Sumerian Culture and the Annunaki
