Inanna: Sumerian Goddess of Love, War, and Betrayal

Introduction to Inanna

On moonlit nights over the ancient city of Uruk, the people told stories of a goddess who was both dazzling and dangerous. She could bless the fields with love and fertility yet bring kingdoms to their knees with betrayal and war.

This was Inanna — radiant as the morning star, yet unpredictable as the storm. To her worshippers she was the heart of beauty and desire, but also the mystery of power itself, a goddess who embodied both passion and peril in equal measure.

Inanna’s Dual Nature: Goddess of Love, Betrayal, and Power

She is not always constant in these relationships because she has two faces: one of a lover and one of a betrayer.

Misconceptions About Inanna and Her Identity in Sumerian Mythology

We must be cautious not to confuse Inanna being a popular goddess of love, beauty, and Betrayal with some describing her as a Sumerian goddess.
This can lead to many intellectual and mythological errors and problems.

From Inanna to Ishtar: Origins, Names, and Evolving Identity

Her ancient name was ‘Inin’ or ‘Inonit,’ then it began to be written differently as In-an-na, which phonetically merges to become Inanna, meaning ‘Queen of the Sky.’

goddess Inanna-Leo the lion symbol

As for the name Ishtar, it is also of Sumerian origin, mentioned in astronomical sources as (GESH-DAR), where ‘Gesh’ means the male organ and ‘Dar’ means split or cut, possibly indicating the female organ.

Thus, the name Geshdar signifies both the male and female organs. The name Ishtar carries a deeper meaning; it may signify the dual male-female nature of the goddess who was always a goddess of love and war, invoking contradictions.

The secret symbol of the goddess Inanna is (15), which is half the secret number of her father, the god Nanna.

Inanna-Dumuzi

Theme	Key Points	Symbols / Planet	Cult Centers / Relations
Names & Identity	Inanna (Sumerian) → Ishtar (Akkadian/Babylonian/Assyrian); “Queen of Heaven”; linked to love, war, and sovereignty.	Eight-pointed star	Uruk (Eanna) as primary center; spread across Mesopotamia.
Divine Roles	Love, sexuality, fertility; war and victory; bestowal of kingship and “divine law”.	Lion, weapons-on-back motif	Patroness of rulers and city-states; political power and legitimation.
Planetary Link	Identified with Venus (morning/evening star); dual appearance mirrors dual nature.	Venus (♀)	Ritual calendars tied to Venus cycles in later periods.
Key Myths	Descent to the Underworld; union & laments with Dumuzi (Tammuz); hymns exalting her grant of kingship and battle-luck.	Reed bundle / knot; rosette	Texts in ETCSL (Inana A–F); temple liturgies at Eanna.
Family & Associates	Parents often Nanna & Ningal (variants: An/Enlil); consort Dumuzi; aide Ninshubur; sister Ereshkigal.	Morning/evening star markers	Myths connect her to fate of Dumuzi and rulership of cities.
Iconography	Eight-pointed star; armed goddess on lion; horned crown in later glyptics.	Eight-pointed star; lion	Widespread on Akkadian cylinder seals and reliefs.

Symbols of Inanna and Ishtar: From Reed Bundle to Star of Venus

Inanna’s symbols are diverse in the Sumerian era. In the Uruk period, around the fourth millennium B.C., her symbol was a city reed marked with three notches, with three rings on each side.

In the same era, her famous symbol was two curved reeds, each with six notches and two silk tails at their heads. This symbol was derived from the shepherd’s reed, which was associated with the goddess Inanna.

Inanna’s symbols

In later Sumerian times, it took the form of an eight-petaled daisy, representing the tree of life, a geometric shape that may have evolved in the Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian periods into an eight-pointed or sixteen-sided star within a circle, indicating Ishtar, not the Sumerian Inanna.

The symbol of the winged sun or the winged cross appeared early in Sumerian artifacts to denote Inanna and divinity in general, a symbol that later came to represent the god Assur.

winged sun

Inanna’s Roles in Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian Mythology

It seems that her warlike aspect was not clearly emphasized during the Sumerian era; instead, the emotional aspect was fundamental.

She was the goddess of love and pure pleasure, and her sister Ereshkigal represented her dark, warlike underside.

inanna goddess of love

Despite her marriages and relationships, she was described as a virgin, yet at the same time, she played the role of mother, sister, and wife.

Uruk is considered the city of the goddess Inanna, where her temple, known as Eanna, existed around the fourth millennium B.C. It is likely that there were other layers in Uruk with dual temples for her and her husband Dumuzi.

We see that Inanna is one of the deities around whom myths revolved, whether in Sumer, Babylon, or other ancient world myths. Her character merged with the mother goddess and became a symbol of feminine divinity. Her warlike or evil traits were not clear in the Sumerian ages, where her sister Ereshkigal took on this role.

However, these traits became apparent with the emergence of Akkadian and then Babylonian myths and took their full warlike form with Assyrian myths. The symbol of the god Assur, used since the Sumerian days (as seen in the Victory Stele of Naram-Sin), referred to the deities in general and matched the symbol of the goddess Inanna.

Infographic: Inanna — Goddess of Love, War, and Power

Domains: Love, beauty, fertility, war, and sovereignty.
Names: Inanna (Sumerian), Ishtar (Akkadian/Babylonian/Assyrian).
Symbols: Eight-pointed star, lion, rosette, reed bundle, planet Venus.
Main Consort: Dumuzi (Tammuz), symbol of fertility and seasonal cycles.
Key Myths: Descent to the Underworld, Sacred Marriage, love and betrayal of Dumuzi.
Temples: Eanna at Uruk was her main cult center.
Legacy: Embodiment of feminine power, duality of passion and destruction.

Inanna Goddess of War

Children of Inanna: Divine Offspring and Their Mythological Roles

Despite Inanna’s fickle emotions and her connections with many deities, she is commonly associated with the god Dumuzi. There are four children of Inanna, most of whom are thought to be from Dumuzi:

Ishara: The goddess of marriage, symbolized by the scorpion, seems to revive the symbol of the mother goddess from the Neolithic era in the Samarra culture. The scorpion signifies fertility and motherhood because when it gives birth to its offspring from its eggs inside its body, they emerge by tearing through her back, after which the mother scorpion dies for her young to live. This was seen by the Neolithic people as the ultimate expression of fertility and motherhood. Ishara is specialized in executing oaths taken before the gods and is called the mistress of judgment and sacrifices. She shares some of the warlike traits of Ishtar, which aligns with the god Shar, and Ishara’s symbol was the scorpion. She is also described as the mother of seven sons (the scorpion’s children), believed to be the seven evil spirits or the spirits of Septu.
Shara: The god of the heavenly springs, i.e., the god of rain.

Lulal: also called Latrak.

Ishkar, the Sumerian origin of the Semitic god Adad, who took an important place in the Akkadian and then Babylonian pantheon, is the god of rain, storms, and winds.

Key Takeaways

Inanna, known later as Ishtar, was one of the most prominent goddesses of Mesopotamia.
She embodied dual roles: goddess of love and fertility, yet also of war and destruction.
Her main symbols include the eight-pointed star, the lion, the rosette, and the planet Venus.
Inanna’s myths — such as her descent to the Underworld and her union with Dumuzi — highlight themes of power, mortality, and renewal.
The Eanna temple in Uruk was her chief cult center, influencing rituals and kingship ceremonies.
Her legacy shaped later depictions of powerful female deities across the ancient Near East.

Frequently Asked Questions about Inanna

1) Who is Inanna in Sumerian mythology?

Inanna is the Sumerian goddess of love, beauty, and fertility, later known as Ishtar in Akkadian and Babylonian traditions.

2) What are the main symbols of Inanna?

Her key symbols include the eight-pointed star, the lion, the rosette, the reed bundle, and the planet Venus.

3) What is Inanna’s relationship with Dumuzi?

Inanna was closely tied to Dumuzi (Tammuz), her consort. Their love story and his descent to the underworld symbolize fertility cycles and seasonal renewal.

4) What is the myth of Inanna’s descent to the underworld?

In this myth, Inanna ventures into the realm of her sister Ereshkigal, passing through seven gates and being stripped of her powers, symbolizing death, rebirth, and transformation.

5) Where was Inanna primarily worshipped?

Her main cult center was the Eanna temple complex in Uruk, a major site of worship and political power in Mesopotamia.

6) How did Inanna’s role change in Babylonian and Assyrian mythology?

While Inanna was primarily a goddess of love and fertility in Sumer, in Babylonian and Assyrian myths she took on more warlike traits as Ishtar, embodying battle and conquest.

Sources

Wolkstein, Diane, and Samuel Noah Kramer. Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer. New York: Harper & Row, 1983.
Kramer, Samuel Noah. Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C. Revised ed. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1961.
Jacobsen, Thorkild. The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976.
Black, Jeremy, and Anthony Green. Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary. London: British Museum Press, 1992.
Dalley, Stephanie. Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Leick, Gwendolyn. A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology. London: Routledge, 1991.
Hallo, William W., and J. J. A. van Dijk. The Exaltation of Inanna. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968.
Westenholz, Joan Goodnick. Legends of Tammuz and Ishtar. Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 1997.
Meador, Betty De Shong. Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart: Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess Enheduanna. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001.
Black, Jeremy, Graham Cunningham, Eleanor Robson, and Gábor Zólyomi (eds.). The Literature of Ancient Sumer. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

mesopotamian-gods

H. Moses

I’m an independent academic scholar with a focus on Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. I create well-researched, engaging content that explores the myths, gods, and forgotten stories of ancient civilizations — from Egypt and Mesopotamia to the world of Greek mythology. My mission is to make ancient history fascinating, meaningful, and accessible to all. Mythology and History