Inanna [ a ] is the ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with sensuality, procreation, divine law , and political power. Her primary title is "the Queen of Heaven". She was the patron goddess of the Eanna temple at the city of Uruk , her early main cult center. Her husband is the god Dumuzid later known as Tammuz , and her sukkal attendant is the goddess Ninshubur , later conflated with the male deities Ilabrat and Papsukkal.
Inanna was worshipped in Sumer at least as early as the Uruk period c. During the post-Sargonic era, she became one of the most widely venerated deities in the Sumerian pantheon, [ 7 ] [ 8 ] with temples across Mesopotamia. She was especially beloved by the Assyrians , who elevated her to become the highest deity in their pantheon, ranking above their own national god Ashur.
Her cult continued to flourish until its gradual decline between the first and sixth centuries CE in the wake of Christianity. Inanna appears in more myths than any other Sumerian deity. Many of her myths involve her taking over the domains of other deities. She is believed to have been given the mes , which represent all positive and negative aspects of civilization, by Enki , the god of wisdom. She is also believed to have taken over the Eanna temple from An , the god of the sky.
Alongside her twin brother Utu later known as Shamash , Inanna is the enforcer of divine justice ; she destroyed Mount Ebih for having challenged her authority, unleashed her fury upon the gardener Shukaletuda after he raped her in her sleep, and tracked down the bandit woman Bilulu and killed her in divine retribution for having murdered Dumuzid. In the standard Akkadian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh , Ishtar asks Gilgamesh to become her consort. When he disdainfully refuses, she unleashes the Bull of Heaven , resulting in the death of Enkidu and Gilgamesh's subsequent grapple with his own mortality.
Inanna's most famous myth is the story of her descent into and return from the ancient Mesopotamian underworld , ruled by her older sister Ereshkigal. After she reaches Ereshkigal's throne room, the seven judges of the underworld deem her guilty and strike her dead. Three days later, Ninshubur pleads with all the gods to bring Inanna back.
