“Lady of battle, his beloved spouse”: The relationship between the body of Inana/Ištar and her spheres of war and love from the Jemdet Nasr to the old Babylonian period

Abstract

Inana/Ištar is the Mesopotamian goddess of war and sexual love . These spheres are both fundamentally physical and corporeal, with the body playing an intrinsic role in both . This paper looks at how the body of Inana/Ištar manifests and is manifested by her two main spheres of influence from the Jemdet Nasr until the Old Babylonian Period . This is done by examining textual evidence, specifically royal inscriptions and mythological and religious compositions, and the visual repertoire . Similarities and differences in how these two types of sources expressed the role of the goddess’s body in relation to both spheres will be identified and analysed .