The cult of the goddess Ishtar originated in ancient Mesopotamia, on the territory of modern Iraq. In Persia she was known as Istar, in Israel as Ashtoret. The Greeks called her Anunite, Nana, Inanna.
Ishtar was the goddess of love, passion, fertility, nature and was often depicted as a beautiful woman, whose body was overgrown with tender, green shoots.
In those distant times in the 7-5th centuries BC, there were several kingdoms in Mesopotamia: Assyrian, Sumerian, Akkadian and Babylonian. The influence of the Ishtar cult quickly spread to all the Middle Eastern lands.
Information about the goddess Ishtar has been preserved in the most ancient literary work: the epic about Gilgamesh, which was written over one and a half thousand years.
Cult of the goddess Ishtar
The name Ishtar translates as "Clear Sky". Blue is the ancient Sumerian sign of the goddess Inanna. The complete sign of Ishtar or Inanna consisted of a round wreath with a ribbon woven into it, which forms two ends and a six-pointed star in the center. Ishtar was also the goddess of the sky.
In Babylon, Ishtar was also considered the patroness of priestesses of love and harlots. There was even temple prostitution.
Every day, several women had to sit in a specially designated place near the sanctuaries of Astarte and give themselves to the passing men for a coin. Only after such a peculiar ritual, women could feel like full-fledged mistresses of the city. The next year the ritual was repeated.
In the 7th century BC, in Babylon, and throughout Asia Minor, the cult of Ishtar was the most important.
Ishtar gate
Babylon was first mentioned in the 3rd millennium BC. during the reign of the Akkadian king Sargon (2369-2314 BC). The descriptions of Babylon were left by Herodotus, Diodorus of Siculus, Strabo. Only Herodotus found Babylon as it was under the emperor Nebuchadnezzar II, who became famous for the fact that he built a lot in Babylon.
It should be noted that for the ancient world Babylon was a fabulously rich kingdom inhabited by a myriad of inhabitants. And this is not surprising. Under the Emperor Nebuchadnezzar II, Babylon was inhabited by about 360 thousand inhabitants. Huge population for the ancient world.
There were eight gates leading to Babylon, and they were all named after various gods. The northwest gate of Ishtar was built in 575 BC. e. by order of the Emperor Nebuchadnezzar II.
It was a grandiose, monumental and very beautiful gate. Unfortunately, now only part of the replica of the gate remains. The gates themselves were removed at the beginning of the 20th century.
The Ishtar Gate is a huge, semicircular arch, bounded at the edges by high walls and overlooking the so-called Processional Road. The ancient inhabitants of Babylon brought statues of the gods through the Ishtar gate and celebrated the Israeli New Year.
By the same gate, the coffin with the body of the Great Alexander the Great, who was also considered a lover of women, was brought into the city.
The gate, dedicated to the goddess Ishtar, was made of bricks covered with bright blue, yellow, white and black glaze. The general background of the gate was blue and blue. The color blue was the symbol of Ishtar.
The walls of the gate and the Processional Road were decorated with bas-reliefs of amazing beauty, strikingly reminiscent of living animals in various poses. The walls of the path were decorated with about 120 bas-reliefs of lions.
The walls of the Ishtar gate were covered with alternating rows of sirrushes and bulls. In total, there are about 575 animal images on the gate dedicated to the goddess Ishtar. The roof and doors of the gate were made of cedar. For a long time, Ishtar was the main goddess of the Babylonian pantheon. She was identified with the planet Venus.
