Inanna the Sumerian Goddess

The Sumerian goddess Inanna dressed in her finest clothing. She wears a pala dress, a lapis lazuli necklace, and a head turban. She subdues a lion with her foot and holds a lapis measuring rod in one hand. Photo licensed by the United States public domain.   Inanna belongs to the Sumerian pantheon of gods and goddesses. One of the oldest known human civilizations, Sumer was located in the southern region of Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq and Kuwait). Their pantheistic beliefs encompassed a variety of gods and goddesses, one for nearly every aspect of human life.  

The Complexity of Inanna

Inanna, however, remains one of the most complex of the Sumerian deities. They worshiped her as the goddess of warfare. They also revered her as the goddess of beauty, love, fertility, desire, and sex. Furthermore, the myths surrounding her life show a definite character arc. Indeed, she started out as a fairly naive young maiden. Once she married, and as she matured, she adopted a crafty approach to achieving her aims. Finally, in the fullness of her maturity, her ambition and ruthless attempt to command more and more territory earned her the title of goddess of warfare.  

Goddess of Love & Beauty

In her youth, Inanna exemplified love and beauty. Associated closely with the moon and the planet Venus, she exuded sensual femininity. The Sumerians looked to her for favor in fertility, as well as abundance in their harvest. As such, they often depicted her with the lunar crescent horns, representing her association with the feminine moon body. The rosette often pictured on her person symbolizes the planet Venus. They also portrayed her with wings and a snake coiled around her measuring rod. In this way, they remembered her origins as an ancient bird and snake goddess. She alone created the Upper and Lower Waters, the sea and sky. (source) Upon marrying her consort Dumuzid, Inanna's sensuality and sexuality bloomed, and with it her innocent maidenhood appears usurped by her crafty ambition. Thus, we see her more clearly in her role as the goddess of sensuality and sex.  

Goddess of Sensuality & Sex

Inanna's sensuality is charged with raw ambition and cunning strategy. With her powerful sexual energy, she embodies the creative power of the universe. Thus, she inspires sexuality, procreation. Manifesting as the goddess of sensuality, Inanna wore a pala dress in a royal shade of blue. Her complementary lapis lazuli necklace and lapis measuring rod called to mind the blue waters of the deep. These gemstone symbols represent her role in creating the oceans and skies. As Queen of Heaven, Inanna acts as she pleases, sometimes employing seduction and manipulation to achieve her aims. Her primary objective - to attain greater measures of power. Not only in relationships, but also in territory and spheres of influence. With her beauty, her intellect, and her raw sexual power, she achieves one conquest after another. Though she approaches her fellow gods and goddesses with ruthless ambition, her efforts shower mankind with great favor and justice.  

Goddess of Warfare

As their goddess of warfare, Inanna embodied justice and political power. When fulfilling this role, she wore full battle armor. Often, the Sumerians depicted her in the company of a lion, even sometimes riding the King of the Beasts. Her clear dominion over such a powerful creature demonstrated her supreme power in heaven and on earth. Within her role as goddess of warfare, she also assumed the role of goddess of death and destruction. Some of her stories describe her as one who confronts opposition by stirring up confusion and chaos. When stirred up for a fight, she brings swift judgment with untiring battle. (source) She also draws upon the forces of nature to aid her. As goddess of the storm, she calls upon the waters to fall upon her foes, washing them away in torrential floods. Terrifying in her radiance, she dominates her enemies. Often, she acts in this way on behalf of mankind, so that the Sumerians describe her as the bringer of law, the goddess of justice. She alone imparts to humanity the gifts of prophecy, wisdom, and civilization. (source) Truly, Inanna's influence upon human civilization remains vast. Her conquests did not end with the fall of Sumeria. Indeed, she carried on, bringing civilization to the Akkadians and Phoenecians after them. Then, the Babylonians, Assyrians, Romans, and even the Greeks adopted her as their own. Indeed, Inanna echoes forth in the goddesses Ishtar, Astoreth, Aphrodite, and the Roman goddess Venus. However, her Sumerian splendor, clothed in blue, wearing a lapis lazuli necklace around her neck, and yielding a lapis rod, remains perhaps the most powerful incarnation of this exceptional deity. ~Angela Magnotti Andrews