No ancient deity has captivated the minds of gods and people as Inanna, the goddess of love and beauty, has.
It is rare to find a chief deity, from Anu, the god of the sky, to Dumuzi, the god of shepherding, who has not been linked to her in love and marriage.
She is not always constant in these relationships because she has two faces: one of a lover and one of a betrayer.
We must be cautious not to confuse Inanna being a popular goddess of love, beauty, and pleasure with some describing her as a Sumerian goddess. This can lead to many intellectual and mythological errors and problems.
Her ancient name was ‘Inin’ or ‘Inonit,’ then it began to be written differently as In-an-na, which phonetically merges to become Inanna, meaning ‘Queen of the Sky.’
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| goddess Inanna-Leo the lion symbol |
As for the name Ishtar, it is also of Sumerian origin, mentioned in astronomical sources as (GESH-DAR), where ‘Gesh’ means the male organ and ‘Dar’ means split or cut, possibly indicating the female organ. Thus, the name Geshdar signifies both the male and female organs. The name Ishtar carries a deeper meaning; it may signify the dual male-female nature of the goddess who was always a goddess of love and war, invoking contradictions. The secret symbol of the goddess Inanna is (15), which is half the secret number of her father, the god Nanna.
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| Inanna-Dumuzi |
Inanna’s symbols are diverse in the Sumerian era. In the Uruk period, around the fourth millennium B.C., her symbol was a city reed marked with three notches, with three rings on each side. In the same era, her famous symbol was two curved reeds, each with six notches and two silk tails at their heads. This symbol was derived from the shepherd’s reed, which was associated with the goddess Inanna.
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| Inanna’s symbols |
In later Sumerian times, it took the form of an eight-petaled daisy, representing the tree of life, a geometric shape that may have evolved in the Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian periods into an eight-pointed or sixteen-sided star within a circle, indicating Ishtar, not the Sumerian Inanna. The symbol of the winged sun or the winged cross appeared early in Sumerian artifacts to denote Inanna and divinity in general, a symbol that later came to represent the god Assur.
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| winged sun |
It seems that her warlike aspect was not clearly emphasized during the Sumerian era; instead, the emotional aspect was fundamental. She was the goddess of love and pure pleasure, and her sister Ereshkigal represented her dark, warlike underside.
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| inanna goddess of love |
Despite her marriages and relationships, she was described as a virgin, yet at the same time, she played the role of mother, sister, and wife.
Uruk is considered the city of the goddess Inanna, where her temple, known as Eanna, existed around the fourth millennium B.C. It is likely that there were other layers in Uruk with dual temples for her and her husband Dumuzi.
We see that Inanna is one of the deities around whom myths revolved, whether in Sumer, Babylon, or other ancient world myths. Her character merged with the mother goddess and became a symbol of feminine divinity. Her warlike or evil traits were not clear in the Sumerian ages, where her sister Ereshkigal took on this role. However, these traits became apparent with the emergence of Akkadian and then Babylonian myths and took their full warlike form with Assyrian myths. The symbol of the god Assur, used since the Sumerian days (as seen in the Victory Stele of Naram-Sin), referred to the deities in general and matched the symbol of the goddess Inanna.
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| Inanna Goddess of War |
Children of Inanna
Despite Inanna’s fickle emotions and her connections with many deities, she is commonly associated with the god Dumuzi. There are four children of Inanna, most of whom are thought to be from Dumuzi:
Ishara: The goddess of marriage, symbolized by the scorpion, seems to revive the symbol of the mother goddess from the Neolithic era in the Samarra culture. The scorpion signifies fertility and motherhood because when it gives birth to its offspring from its eggs inside its body, they emerge by tearing through her back, after which the mother scorpion dies for her young to live. This was seen by the Neolithic people as the ultimate expression of fertility and motherhood. Ishara is specialized in executing oaths taken before the gods and is called the mistress of judgment and sacrifices. She shares some of the warlike traits of Ishtar, which aligns with the god Shar, and Ishara’s symbol was the scorpion. She is also described as the mother of seven sons (the scorpion’s children), believed to be the seven evil spirits or the spirits of Septu.
Shara: The god of the heavenly springs, i.e., the god of rain.
Lulal: also called Latrak.
Ishkar, the Sumerian origin of the Semitic god Adad, who took an important place in the Akkadian and then Babylonian pantheon, is the god of rain, storms, and winds.
For those who prefer visual content, you can watch the video below that covers the same topic in detail.