The gate of the year

Group of female divinities from the ancient Near East. During the Sumerian period the main female goddess was Inanna, who in Akkadian and Babylonian had the name Ishtar, anciently described as “Mistress of the Date Clusters” and ichonographically represented with a cluster of dates in her hand. The center of her cult was in the great temple of Uruk. Her lover or husband was the shepherd god Dumuzi, patron of the flocks and of the fertility of the animals. Furthermore, Inanna was the power of the thundershowers of spring, from which the shepherds depended for the growth of the pastures for their animals (Jacobsen 2005). Closely related to her aspect as goddess of thunderstorms was her other representation as goddess of war (an aspect which can be found in many other goddesses of later periods, like the Greek Athena or the Latin Minerva).

[Image: http://www.thefifthsacredthing.com/2011/07/26/who-is-the-goddess-in-the-fifth-sacred-thing/]




Female Symbols

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Group of female divinities from the ancient Near East. During the Sumerian period the main female goddess was Inanna, who in Akkadian and Babylonian had the name Ishtar, anciently described as “Mistress of the Date Clusters” and ichonographically represented with a cluster of dates in her hand. The center of her cult was in the great temple of Uruk. Her lover or husband was the shepherd god Dumuzi, patron of the flocks and of the fertility of the animals. Furthermore, Inanna was the power of the thundershowers of spring, from which the shepherds depended for the growth of the pastures for their animals (Jacobsen 2005). Closely related to her aspect as goddess of thunderstorms was her other representation as goddess of war (an aspect which can be found in many other goddesses of later periods, like the Greek Athena or the Latin Minerva). [Image: http://www.thefifthsacredthing.com/2011/07/26/who-is-the-goddess-in-the-fifth-sacred-thing/]