Ishtar is not strictly Sumerian
The title calls Ishtar a Sumerian goddess, but Ishtar is an Akkadian name. The Sumerians worshipped Inanna; the Akkadian-speaking peoples, and later the Babylonians and Assyrians, worshipped Ishtar. The two are generally treated as the same goddess, with the Semitic Ishtar absorbing the Sumerian Inanna’s myths, titles and symbols from around the time of the Akkadian kings, in the later third millennium BCE. Some scholars think Ishtar may have had Semitic roots that were older than this merger, but the details are debated.
This article therefore focuses on what changed after the name changed: where Ishtar was worshipped, how her warlike side was emphasised and how cult practice differed from Sumerian Inanna worship. The Sumerian myths of Inanna, such as the descent to the underworld, are covered in the separate article on that goddess.
One goddess, several Ishtars
A distinctive feature of the Ishtar cult is that she was not one figure but several. Major cities had their own Ishtar, with her own temple, priests and character. Texts speak of Ishtar of Uruk, Ishtar of Akkad, Ishtar of Nineveh and Ishtar of Arbela (modern Erbil), among others. In Assyrian and Babylonian ritual texts these could be treated as distinct deities, sometimes named together in oaths and treaties.
Scribes also drew on the planet Venus. Ishtar was the morning and evening star, and astronomical observations of Venus are among the oldest records in Babylonian astronomy.
Nineveh and Arbela
In Assyria, the Ishtar of Nineveh was among the most important deities after the national god Ashur. Her temple at Nineveh, usually called Emashmash, was repaired and enlarged by a number of Assyrian rulers over the centuries, and the city’s rulers regarded the goddess as a protector of the dynasty. Ashurbanipal, whose library gave us the Gilgamesh tablets, acknowledged Ishtar in his inscriptions.
The Ishtar of Arbela had a particular role in prophecy. Under the Assyrian kings of the seventh century BCE, such as Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal, collected oracles delivered by male and female prophets in the name of Ishtar of Arbela promised the king victory and long rule, and urged him to trust her. These texts are a valuable record of how religious authority and royal policy overlapped. The Assyrian Empire used the goddess’s voice to support its aims.
Babylon and the Ishtar Gate
In Babylon, the chief god was Marduk, and Ishtar stood in a supporting role, though a visible one. Excavations at Babylon revealed a temple dedicated to her and a famous gate decorated with blue-glazed brick and processions of animals. The Ishtar Gate was built under Nebuchadnezzar II in the sixth century BCE; it was one of the city’s ceremonial entrances and was associated with the goddess, although the processional way through it served the festivals of Marduk. The gate carried images of lions, bulls and dragon-like creatures, and the lion was Ishtar’s own animal.
Babylon’s wider religious life is described in discussion of Babylonian religion, in which Ishtar is one of many deities with a specific local setting.
Ishtar in battle
In war, Ishtar was an active presence. Assyrian royal inscriptions regularly credit her with victory, and kings described her marching at their side. She was shown in art standing on a lion, armed with quivers, wearing a horned crown and sometimes winged. Images of this kind appear on Assyrian cylinder seals and in other art.
The war aspect was present in Sumerian Inanna worship too, but under the Assyrians it became part of state ideology. War was seen as a religious duty carried out for Ashur and the other gods, and Ishtar’s role was to bring the field of battle to the king’s advantage. The same goddess could also be addressed in prayers as a compassionate listener to those in distress, and ordinary people’s personal prayers to her are preserved. That mixture, severity and tenderness, runs through the sources.
Ishtar in myth
The Akkadian myth of Ishtar’s descent to the underworld parallels the Sumerian one and survives in several versions, including a first-millennium one from Nineveh. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Ishtar proposes to the hero, is rejected and sends the Bull of Heaven against Uruk. These stories show the goddess as powerful and dangerous, someone who should not be crossed.
Cult practice and how it differed
The Ishtar cult had a number of features that show up more clearly in later sources than in Sumerian ones.
- Specialised personnel. Texts refer to cult performers such as the assinnu and kurgarru connected with Ishtar’s rites, who took part in processions and lamentations. Their precise roles and social standing are still discussed, and modern interpretations vary.
- Festivals and processions. Her statue was carried out of the temple on festival days. Offerings of food, drink and incense were made daily.
- Oracles. The Assyrian practice of consulting Ishtar through prophets is better known than similar practice in Sumer.
- Royal cult. Assyrian kings tied her closely to the dynasty and the army.
The Greek writer Herodotus claimed that every woman in Babylon had to sit in the temple of Aphrodite once in her life and have sex with a stranger. Most modern scholars doubt this account, since cuneiform sources do not support it. The idea of widespread “sacred prostitution” in Mesopotamia has been widely questioned, and the evidence is open to interpretation, so it should not be stated as a fact. The same caution applies to later references to Phoenician religion and other Near Eastern cults.
Later history
Ishtar’s worship continued for many centuries and may have influenced goddess figures in neighbouring cultures, such as Astarte among the Phoenicians, though the relationship between these goddesses is complex. In Mesopotamia, the cult continued for a very long time, well after the fall of the Assyrian and Babylonian kingdoms in some places. Her image as a powerful, independent woman who also commanded armies is one reason she still draws attention today.