Iraq: The goddess Ishtar holding a weapon. Terracotta relief, Eshunna, early 2nd millennium BCE (Marie-Lan Nguyen)

Ishtar is the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility, war, love, and sex. She is the counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate north-west Semitic goddess Astarte.

Ishtar was the god of love and war above all associated with sexuality: her cult involved sacred prostitution; her holy city Uruk was called the 'town of the sacred courtesans', and she herself was the 'courtesan of the gods'.

Ishtar was the daughter of Sin or Anu. She was particularly worshipped at the Assyrian cities of Nineveh, Ashur and Arbela (Erbil).

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Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

Photographer:

Marie-Lan Nguyen

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Pictures From History