Inanna

Sometimes rendered as Inana, with just two Ns (Inana), usually as Inanna with three, she was an early incarnation of Ishtar; or simply Ishtar was Akkadian, later Assyrian, Inanna Sumerian. In the Myth of Etana she is referenced as Innina and, early on, was considered the twin sister of Utu (Shamash) the sun god. She was En-Lil's mother in the Sumerian versions, the goddess of Love and War; and for the former of those, Love in the fullest sense, of fully liberated, unrepressed, female as well as male sexuality, passion, fertility, pleasure, male and female prostitution, bisexuality, the lot.

Being the goddess of love and war inevitably made her the most popular and beloved of all the Sumerian pantheon. She features prominently in several of the best known and frequently copied stories, myths and hymns of Sumer - among them, "The Descent of Inanna", "Inanna and the God of Wisdom", "The Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi", "The Huluppu Tree", "Inana and Enki", "Inana's Descent into the Underworld", "Inana and Shukaletuda", and most famously the "Epic of Gilgamesh" - and is listed among the seven primary deities of Sumer early on along with Anu, En-Lil, Enki, Nin-Hursag, Nanna, and Utu. Sargon of Akkad (Sargon the Great) invoked Inanna for protection and victory in battle and for guidance in politics and his daughter, Enheduanna, was the Chief Priestess of Inanna at Uruk and the composer of many hymns and songs to her.

Her husband was Dumuzi, her marriage arranged without her knowledge or consent by her brother Utu, though in some versions of the myth her husband is Utu himself, and in yet other variations Utu-Dumuzi is regarded as the same deity - in the same way that Apollo, Bacchus and Dionysus began in the Greek world as separate deities, and gradually merged as a homogeneously centralised culture replaced disparate local cultures. In yet other versions her husband is Shamas, the sun-god, who becomes Shimshon (Samson) in the Danite and Philistine myths, though really Shamas is just another dialect variation of Dumuzi-Tammuz.

Importantly for our understanding of the Biblical world, this "sacred marriage" was celebrated in a formal ceremony as part of the annual New Year festivities, with the high priestess coupling publicly with the ruler of the land, both serving as surrogates for the god and goddess, with the child born from the rite given back to the temple as a tribute to the god and goddess, and thereby both an assurance of prosperity and abundance, and a thanksgiving for it. This sacred marriage is particularly reflected in the marriages of Ya'akov and Davidis unquestionably what is happening when Hadassah becomes Ester, and may also be reflected in that of Yoseph with Asnat and Mosheh with Tsiporah, in both of these instances the bride being the daughter of the high priest. The May-King May-Queen rituals of the pre-Christian Oester (Easter) celebrations across Europe were themselves a survival of this rite, with the Maypole equivalating to the Asherim or sacred trees of the Mesopotamian and Biblical tales.

Inanna's principal city was Uruk, though she was carried in pilgrimage to all her cities through the year, culminating in her sacred ceremonies at Eridu; both of these were in that region from which Av-Ram's family was supposed to have originated (Genesis 11), and, perhaps more significantly, that region where the Yehudan exiles were taken as captives after 586 BCE. Her other known cities included Bavel (Babylon), Larsa, Nippur, Sippar, Shuruppak and Ur itself, all of them referenced at some point in the Tanach.

"Inana's Descent into the Underworld" appears to be an early version, possibly even the source, of the Greek myth of Persephone, which became the Roman myth of Proserpine. Just as Inanna travels back and forth between Eridu and Uruk, so also she travels back and forth between this world and the Underworld, where she dares to sit on her sister Ereshkigal's throne, upsetting the Underworld gods by doing so; she is turned into a corpse and requires the help of the god Enki (Ea in the Ishtar version) to be restored to life and the upper world - this the feminine version of an identical tale told of Utu-Dumuzi-Tammuz, as it was of Osher (Osiris) in Egypt, and of Jesus later on. In both the male and female versions, the myth is an aetiological parable of the cycles and seasons of earthly vegetation and fertility.

The illustration at the top of this page shows the Sumerian Uruk Vase (sometimes called the Warak Vase). It depicts Inanna both as a reed bundle and as a gatepost, the latter being the entrance to the Underworld as a metaphor for the entrance to the womb. Sadly the Vase was looted at the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003, along with hundreds of other artefacts in the Iraqi National Museum; but was later returned, anonymously, and broken.

She is often depicted riding on a lion and referred to as "The Queen of Heaven". Her older sister was Ereshkigal. She was the foremost goddess and patron of the city of Uruk, to whom she was said to have given the sacred "me" (laws), which were given her in a drunken revel by the god of wisdom, Enki. Many of the compositions concerning her depict her as highly sexual, unmarried, and able to "turn men into women" with passion. 

She was associated with the planet Venus, and as such was represented by an 8-pointed star (octagram). Anthropomorphic images of her mostly used red, carnelian and lapis lazuli blue - the same triplet of colours with which the Virgin Mary is depicted in all European Christian art. Her name is thought to mean "Our Lady of the Dates", which would connect her with Tamar, the date-goddess of the Tanach (Genesis 38 and 2 Samuel 13).

In later Greek culture she became identified with Aphrodite and Venus, the former her waxing (new moon) aspect, the latter her Madonna (full moon) aspect.

Not to be confused with NANNA, her twin-brother - click here to learn more about him.

Yes to be confused with ISHTAR, who is rrally the same goddess in a different incarnation - click on the link for more on her, and see also the pages on ASTARTE and ANAT, who are regional variations.

Copyright © 2020 David Prashker

All rights reserved

The Argaman Press