Ishtar

Etymology

Ishtar (Akkadian Ištar; Assyrian Issar) is the Semitic name of the goddess whom the Sumerians called Inanna. The root 'ṯtr is common to several Semitic languages and also gives rise to the Canaanite name Astarte, the pre-Islamic Arab deity Athtar (a god, masculine) and the Ethiopic Astar. It is one of the most widespread divine names in the ancient Near East.

Continuity and Rupture with Inanna

When the Semitic Akkadians, under Sargon (~2334 BC), conquered Sumer, they adopted Inanna as Ishtar. The continuity is massive — the same myths (descent to the underworld, Tammuz/Dumuzi, the Bull of Heaven, etc.) reappear translated into Akkadian. But there are emphases that shift:

• War more prominent. Inanna was love + war in paradoxical balance. Ishtar is love + war with the scales tilting toward war, especially in the Assyrian tradition. Assyrian kings attribute their victories to Ishtar (Ishtar of Nineveh, Ishtar of Arbela).
• Goddess of the State. Ishtar is more “imperial” than Inanna. Where Inanna was lady of a city (Uruk), Ishtar is lady of the empire.
• Astronomically codified. The equation Ishtar = planet Venus is made explicit and ritualized in the Babylonian calendar.

Ishtar’s Own Myths

Ishtar has her own texts, and the best-known is the Akkadian version of the Descent to the Underworld, shorter and drier than the Sumerian. She appears prominently in the Epic of Gilgameš (Tablet VI), where it is Ishtar (not Inanna) who proposes to Gilgameš and is refused — and releases the Bull of Heaven in revenge.

The Hymn to Ishtar, attributed to Ammi-ditana (17th century BC), is an important text: it praises Ishtar as simultaneously “the most loving of goddesses” and “the most terrible of goddesses”.

The Ishtar Gate

The most famous monument linked to her cult is the Ishtar Gate, built by Nebuchadnezzar II (~575 BC) in Babylon, covered in blue tiles with lions, bulls, and dragons in relief. Today, the reconstructed portion in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin is one of the central pieces of Mesopotamian archaeology.

Syncretisms

The chain continues:

• Inanna ← Sumerian origin
• Ishtar ← Akkadian/Babylonian version (this article)
• Astarte → Canaanite/Phoenician version
• Aphrodite → Greek version
• Venus → Roman version

The identification Ishtar = Astarte is direct etymologically. The transition Ishtar/Astarte → Aphrodite is archaeologically proven by the cult at Paphos, Cyprus — a Phoenician colony where Astarte was worshipped, and where the Greeks later built one of the largest temples of Aphrodite in the Hellenic world.

Game Perspective

In Mensageiros do Vento, Ishtar is treated as the Akkadian/Babylonian layer of the same spiritual reality as Inanna — through the Theosophical lens, a hypostasis; through the historical lens, a cultural evolution. The Wiki marks both framings.

In-game characters from the Babylonian/Assyrian tradition (Nineveh, Babylon, Mari) invoke Ishtar; characters from the Sumerian tradition (Ur, Uruk, Eridu) invoke Inanna; some recognize the underlying unity, others do not.

See Also

• Inanna
• Astarte
• Aphrodite
• Venus
• Syncretism