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| Background | |||||
| The Sumerian goddess of sexual love, fertility, and warfare. The etymology of her name froms from the Sumerian NIN "Lady" and AN "sky" hence NIN-ANNA meaning "Queen of Heaven." She is sometimes confused with Nanna, an early name for the Sumerian moon god. The Akkadians called her Ishtar. | |||||
| Along the Tigris and Euphretes rivers, there were many shrines and temples dedicated to Inanna. However the Temple of Eanna which means "house of heaven" in Uruk was considered her primary temple. | |||||
| The goddess of love and war, who was seen swaggering around the streets of her home town, dragging young men out of the taverns to have sex with her. Despite her association with mating and fertility of humans and animals, Inanna was not associated with childbirth. Inanna was also associated with rain and storms and with the planet Venus. | |||||
As early as the Uruk period (ca. 4000 to 3100 BC) it would appear Inanna was associated with the city of Uruk. The famous Uruk vase, found in a deposit of cult objects of the Uruk III period, depicts a row of naked men carrying various objects, bowls, vessels and baskets of farm produce, and bringing sheep and goats, to a female figure facing the ruler, ornately dressed for a divine marriage, and attended by a servant. The female figure holds the symbol of the two twisted reeds of the doorpost signifying Inanna behind her, whilst the male figure holds a box and stack of bowls, the later cuneiform sign signifying En, or high priest of the temple. |
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She figures prominently in one of the earliest legends, Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, in something like a kingmaker role, transferring her personal abode and favour, and thus hegemony, from the court of Aratta's king to that of Uruk. |
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| The etymology of Inanna's name is unclear. Some have suggested that it may originally have been Nin-anna "Queen of Heaven" (from Sumerian NIN "lady", AN "sky"), although the cuneiform sign for her name is not historically a ligature of the two. The name also sounds very close to "Nanna", the name of the Sumerian moon god, which may indicate that the two deities at one time were one, or they may have a common origin, although once again the cuneiform signatures are very different. | |||||
| After its dedication to Inanna the temple seems to have housed priestesses of the goddess. The high priestess would choose for her bed a young man who represented the shepherd Dumuzid, consort of Inanna, in a hieros gamos or sacred marriage, celebrated during the annual Akitu (New Year) ceremony, at the spring Equinox. In late Sumerian history (end of the third millennium) kings established their legitimacy by taking the place of Dumuzi in the temple for one night on the occasion of the New Year festival. | |||||
| Inanna's symbol is an eight-pointed star or rosette. She was associated with lions — even then a symbol of power — and was frequently depicted standing on the backs of two lionesses. | |||||
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