Inanna

The most prominent goddess of Mesopotamia

## Family & Relationships

### Parents

Usually Nannar and Ningal, sometimes the father is An, Enlil and Enki and an unnamed mother

### Children

Usually none, but sometimes Lulal, Shara or Nanaya

### Counterparts

Astarte, Pinikir, Shaushka, Aphrodite, Athena, Venus, Minerva, Hathor, Isis, Rati, Anahita, Freyja

**Inanna**, later known as **Ishtar**, was the Mesopotamian goddess of sex, war, justice, and political power, as well as the patron goddess of the ancient city of Uruk.

## Overview

### Family tree

Inanna's parentage varies, though she is usually seen as the daughter of either An, the primeval sky god, or Nanna, the moon god, and his consort Ningal. Enlil, the king of the gods, and Enki, god of the Abzu, are also sometimes listed as her father. Her siblings usually include Utu, the sun god, Iškur, the storm god, and Ereshkigal, the goddess of the underworld. The goddess does not appear to have a permanent male spouse, though the god Dumuzid being her most famous lover.

Her common symbol is the Huluppu Tree.

### Sexuality

Inanna was neither a marriage nor mother goddess, and was instead associated with sex outside of marriage as well as prostitution. She often had affairs with various male lovers, which often ended in tragedy for them. Gilgamesh, the legendary demigod of Uruk, declined a relationship with the goddess due to this within the narrative of the *Epic of Gilgamesh*.

### War

Inanna was also a goddess of war, being an aggressive conquer, who often siding with the human kings she preferred. Some of her notable military campaigns were stealing of the me (the Sumerian divine decrees) from Enki, her descent into the underworld and her war against Mount Ebih. As Ishtar she was much more violent and passionate.

### Descent into the underworld

Inanna was identified with the planet Venus, the morning and evening star, and was connected to her descent into the underworld. Her descent into the underworld was usually caused by her desire for to visit it and possibly to take the realm over from her sister Ereshkigal. She descended through the seven gates of the underworld, but had to get rid of one piece of clothing or decoration at each gate, until she was naked in front of her sister and the judges of the underworld, who didn't approve of Inanna's expansive intentions. The goddess was sentenced to death, put on hooks and started to rot.

Ninshubur, the *sukkal* (or vizier) of the heavenly gods, was saddened by the lost goddess and started to lament, which saddened the other gods, including Enlil, though as they held no authority over the underworld, they could not do anything. Ninshubur conspired with Enki, who created two genderless beings equipped with water and weed of the living, that could go to the underworld and bargain with Ereshkigal for the release of Inanna. These two managed to do the said thing, but they Ereshkigal and the judges of the underworld demanded a substitute for Inanna's place in the netherworld.

Inanna returned to world of the living, but didn't want to sacrifice anyone to take her place in the underworld, until she returned to the city Uruk, where she saw her consort Dumuzid was living well of in her domain (and possibly had affairs with her handmaidens), without mourning her lost. Inanna chose him as her substitute, and Dumuzid was condemned to the underworld. In some versions of the myth Dumuzid would only half of the the year in the underworld, when Geshtinanna begged to show mercy for her brother, and agreed to spend the other half of the year.

## Pop Culture

* Inanna appears as a major figure in the *Chronicles of the Nephlim*-book series by author Brian Godawa, where she, alongside other pagan gods such as Baal, Asherah, Molech, Chemosh, Dagon and Horus, is identified with fallen angels. Inanna is notably associated with the fallen angel Azazel, who later becomes the Canaanite goddess Ashtart.

## References

1. ↑ Black, Jeremy A. & Green, Anthony. *Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary*
2. ↑ Ossendrijver, Mathieu. *The Moon and Planets in Ancient Mesopotamia*
3. ↑ Stuckey, Johanna H. *"Inanna and the Huluppu Tree": One Way of Demoting*

a Great Goddess
4. ↑ Cotterell, Arthur. *The Macmillan Illustrated Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends*
5. ↑ Inana and Ebih. *The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature*
6. ↑ Cotterell, Arthur. *The Macmillan Illustrated Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends*
7. ↑ Cotterell, Arthur. *The Macmillan Illustrated Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends*
8. ↑ Cotterell, Arthur. *The Macmillan Illustrated Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends*
9. ↑ Cotterell, Arthur. *The Macmillan Illustrated Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends*