Inana / Ištar, Goddess of Love & War

Inana, called Ishtar in Akkadian, is the most vivid figure of the pantheon: goddess at once of erotic love and of battle, of the morning and evening star (Venus), and of a restless ambition that drives many of the great myths. She courts and destroys, ascends and descends, gathers the divine offices (the me) to herself, and crosses every boundary — between man and woman, life and death, order and chaos. Hymns praise her as the most powerful of deities; her cult was among the most widespread and enduring in the ancient Near East.