The Sleep of Ishtar

The Sleep of Ishtar: "Ishtar from whom we derive Easter went through the seven gates of hell to find Tammuz so that he could play the magical flute and smell the incense. The fertility goddess caused all natural processes to fail until she was rescued. The women in Ezekiel 8 lamented for Tammuz while the men held an early Sun Rise Service right there at the Temple in Jerusalem. Ishtar is worshiped in musical praise each year in thousands of churches.


Garnet cylinder seal showing Ishtar Neo-Assyrian, 720-700 BC From Mesopotamia

The supreme Mesopotamian goddess This very finely cut seal depicts Ishtar, Mesopotamian goddess of sexuality and warfare. She appears frequently on seals, relief carving, and in descriptions as a mighty warrior who protects the king by defeating his enemies. One Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal (reigned 669-631 BC), was even described as crying before the goddess like a child asking his mother for help. Her strength as a warrior is stressed here, as she is shown with weapons rising from her shoulders. Ishtar appears to have been associated at an early period with the Sumerian goddess Inanna and both deities are depicted with symbols of fertility, such as the date palm, and of aggression, such as the lion. The iconography survived relatively unchanged for over a thousand years. Here, Ishtar's astral quality is also emphasized: above"