Inanna/Ishtar: The Goddess of Love & War (Mesopotamian Mythology Explained)

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#Inanna​​ #Ishtar​​ #MesopotamianMyth​

[AlexanderJWF]

If you need help understanding how a goddess can reside over the domain of love and war - realize that Ishtar was basically the personification of Life, overall. While her sister resided over the kingdom of the dead, she did so over all that lived and breathed. She wasn't the ruler (necessarily) but the catalyst for functionality and evolution of the everyday. So, everything regarding life - including sex, beauty, art, luck, platonic and familial love, and war - fell under her profile. War was seen as much of a lifestyle, the expected one for most men, as motherhood and sexwork was for women.
Also, the reasoning for her less than level-headed-ness and extreme reactions can be summed up in three words that have echoed the halls and caverns of history immemorial, 'Life's a bitch.'

[_wxz]

The history of my country is great. Long live Iraq
Im from Mesopotamia 🇮🇶♥️

[jasonsantos]

She's the most interesting goddess in mesopotamian mythology

[freyaheathcote]

Love and war don’t seem like opposites at all, considering the emotional range they fall in. I would even say they quite similar if you consider their histories 😅

[rebeccatighe]

As the Queen of Heaven, the celestial body, we call Venus, owns two aspects; one as the Morning Star and one as the Evening Star. The Morning Star appears to move more quickly and is associated with firey fierce qualities. She, therefore, has the domain of the Arts of War and the defense of Justice, and the Evening Star which appears to move slowly is regarded as the gentler who rules the domain of the Arts of Love. The story of Inanna and her descent into the Underworld is most likely related to the movements of Venus as she disappears and is reborn behind the Sun to reappear as the Evening Star. She then disappears again when she passes between the Earth and the Sun to become the Morning Star. Her movements through the Heavens reveal the patterns of Sacred Geometry displaying love, harmony, and beauty. There is so much more to learn!

[jessosiyoway]

I love these videos, but I must say, the non-linear timeline and missing elements of a story leaves this representation rather jumbled. For instance, the story of Inanna and the Huluppu Tree is her earliest story; that of a young girl first determined to rise to power. This was before she got in a drinking game with Enki, and before her descent into the underworld and found out her wily husband tried to crown himself King of all her domain in her three day absence, for which she took vengeance by choosing him as replacement.

And all of that was yet before fighting mountains, becoming a powerful deity, and the queen of Heaven as she grew older and wiser.

Do absolutely agree, though, some of these texts were written by rival priests and temples to decelerate her popularity! Mostly, because we have outright records of such, haha.

Still, great job, and thank you for covering this topic!

[afterStrm]

"All is fair in love and war"

[gaventer]

Inanna/Ishtar is alluded to in the Hebrew Bible and she greatly influenced the Ugaritic Ashtart and later Phoenician Astarte, who in turn possibly influenced the development of the Greek goddess Aphrodite

[amberswafford]

Love & war aren’t contradictory. Going to war to fight for what you love is the most noble cause one can have for fighting imo.

[calmingnight]

Idk much about Inanna personally as a pagan, i don't worship her. But will stand up for her. As part of the dumuzid was kinda a asshole to her because he wouldn't cry for her and rescue from the underworld as he promised. If you broke a promise in the old days, it was probably one of the most vile things ever.

The part of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh insults her for having lovers while being unmarried. And just having a few lovers in general. This can be seen as patriarchy at it's finest because back then, it was basically a law for women to marry a man and essentially become their property. And Gilgamesh hated Inanna for being the unmarried woman that had lots of lovers.

Basically everything horrible painted over her was painted by the lenses of patriarchal society. Not saying she's all sunshine and rainbows, because she's not, because she's a full blown war goddess as well as a death goddess because war always ends in death. But basically saying we're looking at her from a biased sense. And in a way, she's acting reasonably because we ourselves would be angry too if a person broke their promise and insulted you for no reason at all

[jamesx]

This couldn't come at a better time, I just finished the Epic of Gilgamesh. Now let's get started!!!

[SamuelGalvan_]

Persephone and Dumuzid would be great friends.

[McGizzygirl]

Inanna is a dynamic and layered goddess who is not perfect but in her imperfections she shows growth. She is a female deity who grows into her own power in a cosmos dominated by male power. She comes into her power fully after having been stripped down to everything but her essential self. That’s a powerful story for women and girls that deserves more study and attention today.

[CuteDwarf]

She definitely does things her own way, and goes by her own rules!

[magykjames]

Her symbol is the same 8-pointed star as Captain Marvel, sheesh! She's obviously very active still to this day.

[Saffron-sugar]

Folks kept messing with Inanna, nobody backed her up and she was berated for defending herself !
She didn't "fly off the handle" at all ! People who harmed her regretted it.
How would you feel if you escaped kidnapping and your spouse didn't care and was having an orgy?! OK?

[leapeace]

I love it so much that you are retelling her story. Most of it agrees with my research.

Samuel Noah Kramer worked for a large part of his life, with a global team of translators of the clay tablets depicting her life. When he completed it, he worked closely with a folk-lorist to tell her stories in "Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth: her stories and hymns from Sumer". In this interpretation of the direct translations, Inanna definitely had sons, who she visited when she ascended from hell, before she came across her husband.

That he was completely indifferent to her death, and did not even grieve, could be interpreted by any man with good sense, as just cause for her anger. Men ignore this fact, and call her capricious at the detriment their own romantic relationships.

With the young women and girls leading the way out of religious oppression in Iran, this is a wonderful time to pay homage to Inanna with bright attention.

[alonzoson]

I love when you do myths that aren't Abrahamic

[heliosapollyon]

Truthfully Ishtar was Anu's prized pupil and said to her about taking his temple "fortune favors the bold and so do I"

[luckysunshinesmith]

Those lions round that chair kinda look like werewolves