Ishtar was the goddess of love and war to the ancient Babylonians. This same goddess was also worshiped throughout the Near East and Mediterranean worlds from the beginning of recorded history until the predominance of Christianity. Her name varied from place to place, but it was the same goddess who was known as Inanna, Innin, Astarte, Ashtar, and Aphrodite among other names. Ishtar first arose among the Sumerians sometime in the third millennium. They created an entire pantheon of gods who were like humans - only better. The gods of Sumer reflected the general pessimism of the Sumerians, but also their belief that the human mind could divine the minds of gods by observing perceived supernatural activity.

The Sumerians' views were a major influence on their contemporaries (especially the early Semites) as well as on their successors, the Babylonians. They also influenced the Hittites, Assyrians, Elamites, and those living in Palestine. Certain Sumerian gods made the leap to Greece and later to Rome, and Ishtar was such a deity. She became Aphrodite to the Greeks. They stripped her of her war-making aspect and focused almost solely on her nature as goddess of love (especially sexual) and beauty. From the Greeks, the Romans adopted this goddess as their own under the name of Venus. All forms of Ishtar under all of their different names were associated with the planet we now know as Venus and which was first known as the morning and evening stars. Thus we are able to see how the worship of this goddess has reached across the void of time and touched us in some small way.

Ishtar was born in Sumer in very ancient times. She did not start out with all of the traits which made her such a great and powerful goddess. In fact, many scholars believe that this goddess began as a simple Neolithic fertility goddess. Ishtar gradually usurped many of the functions of the Mother Goddess, Ninhursag, and even took her place as Anu's spouse. Anu was the king of the Sumerian gods at this time and Ninhursag was his original wife. She continued to absorb what had been functions of preceding goddesses until the name Ishtar came to mean "goddess". She was the supreme female deity in the pantheons of most of the civilizations in the Near East. Ishtar became goddess of love, fertility, passion, and war. She was Lady of Battle and Queen of Heaven.

In fact, Ishtar may have been the most ambitious goddess ever divined by man. Despite already having secured the title "Queen of Heaven" by displacing Ninhursag as wife to Anu, Ishtar decided she wanted to be Queen of the Netherworld as well. This is the subject of a myth which was very popular during Ishtar's reign. Ereshkigal, Ishtar's sister, was Queen of the Netherworld when Ishtar made her grab for the title. Ereshkigal caused Ishtar to be stripped of her seven garments while she went through the gates of Hell and then killed her and put her corpse on a stake. Ishtar was resurrected by the other gods, but had to provide a replacement for herself in the land of the dead. She chose her husband Tammuz.

Ishtar was more successful in attaining her ambition to make her city of Uruk the center of Sumer. She did this by getting the god Enki drunk and wheedling the arts of civilization (called the "me") out of him. She quickly flew them home to Uruk, all the while overcoming the evil monsters Enki sent after her when he regained his senses. Ishtar continued to gain more and more functions as time went on, and this all contributed to her becoming one of the most powerful of goddesses in all of human history

The kings of Mesopotamia often had special "relationships" with Ishtar. They often believed their rise to kingship was possible only with the personal intervention of the goddess. Even the famous Sargon held such a belief. However, in Ishtar's most famous dealings with a king, she was not cast in a helpful light. This king was Gilgamesh, who spurned Ishtar's advances and whose dear friend Enkidu insulted the goddess profoundly. She exacted her revenge by causing Enkidu to die of sickness, which started Gilgamesh's search for immortality.

Ishtar was worshiped through rituals. One such ritual was a fast of lamentation tied to Ishtar's mourning for her husband Tammuz in the Underworld. This fast was focussed on the idea of death and resurrection. Another important ritual in the worship of Ishtar was the New Year Holiday in Spring. It involved several days of ceremonies and culminated in a "sacred marriage" between the king in the role of Tammuz and Ishtar's high priestess in the role of the goddess. The "marriage" took place on New Year's Day. Interestingly, even the supposed time of the goddess's menstruation was subject to ritual. It was believed to take place at the full moon (Ishtar was also the moon goddess), and was observed as a day of mandatory rest for men and women. Things such as eating cooked food or making a journey were forbidden. It was called "Sabattu" and is believed by some researchers to have been the beginning of the Sabbath observances still taken by many in the present day. Rituals celebrating the goddess often involved music. Many of the rituals surrounding the story of Ishtar and Tammuz also involved music. In the royal tombs at Ur, "bull-bodied harps" likely used in such rituals were discovered.

Due to her nature as goddess of love, ritual prostitution was performed in her name. This practice was very widely diffused among members of her cult. In Cyprus where Ishtar was known by the name Aphrodite, it was the custom that unmarried women should prostitute themselves at the goddess' sanctuary and give the profit to the goddess. In Ishtar's temple in Babylon, all women, without regard to their class, acted as a prostitute at least once. Once again, the wages were contributed to Ishtar. Some women had to wait in the sacred precinct for years before they were able to meet this requirement. All of this was done as a sacred duty rather than as a lascivious and lewd act. The rituals practiced in the worship of Ishtar were highly varied but almost always involved fertility in some way.

The decline of the worship of Ishtar must be seen as extremely gradual due to her many-faceted nature and many different names. In fact, under the name of Venus, her worship lasted past the time of the advent of Christianity. The Roman Empire worshiped Venus (Ishtar) until it adopted Christianity as its state religion. The old gods in the Near East and the Mediterranean regions were pushed away as Christianity took root and Ishtar went with them. However, it may be that a form of the veneration of Ishtar is very much with the world to this day. It may be Ishtar with her duality of sexuality and chastity who provided the model for the Christian figure: the Virgin Mary. Whether this is the case or not does not diminish the importance of the goddess Ishtar. Some of humankind's most important history was spent under her powerful influence. This created effects which we cannot possibly fully comprehend, but which have surely changed the course of our species for all times. In this way, it can accurately be said that when we go to the stars, the mother goddess goes with us. She is a part of us now forever.

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