was the goddess of war, the “Lady of Battles.” She was the daughter of Anū, whose messengers were the seven evil spirits, and the favorite goddess of King Assur-bani-pal, who claims that he received his bow from her, though he declares in his inscriptions that he worshipped also Bel or Baal, and Nebo; he frequently implores the protection of Ishtar.

“Oh, thou, goddess of goddesses, terrible in battle, goddess in war, queen of the gods! Teūman, king of Elam, he gathered his army and prepared for war; he urges his fighting men to go to Assyria. Oh, thou, archer of the gods, like a weight, in the midst of the battle, throw him down and crush him.”[[97]] Ishtar of Arbela afterward became the Bellona of the Latins, and the Enyo of the Greeks. Under the name of Anatis, or Anāhid, she was worshipped in Armenia, and also in Cappadocia, where she had a splendid temple, served by a college of priests, and more than six thousand temple servants. Her image, according to Pliny,[[98]] was of solid gold, and her high priest was second only to the king himself. Strabo calls this goddess Enyo, and Berosus considers that she is identical with Venus. The inscriptions of Artaxerxes, discovered at Susa, call her Anāhid, which was the Persian name of the planet Venus. The characteristics of Venus, the queen of beauty, may seem somewhat at variance with Ishtar of Arbela, the goddess of war, but it will be remembered that the Greeks of Cythera, one of the Ionian islands, worshipped an armed Venus, and from this island she took the name of Cythera; the fable that she rose from the sea probably means that her worship was introduced into the island by a maritime people, doubtless the Phœnicians.

ISHTAR OF ERECH,

the daughter of Anū and Annatu, is another form of this popular goddess, and one of the Assyrian tablets refers to the dedication of horses at the temple of Bit-ili at Erech, where the king of Elam dedicated white horses with silver saddles to Ishtar, the tutelar divinity of Erech.

In the sixth tablet of the Izdūbar series, we find an Ishtar whose characteristics are so different from either the goddess of love or the goddess of war, that we are constrained to believe that it must refer to Ishtar of Erech. She here appears as the queen of witchcraft, resembling the Hecate of the Greeks in her funereal abode. Indeed, Hecate was fabled to be the daughter of Asteria, which is merely the Greek form of the name Ishtar, and Pausanius[[99]] mentions an Astrateia whose worship was brought to Greece from the East.

LEGEND OF ISHTAR AND IZDŪBAR.

COLUMN I.
“1.He had thrown off his tattered garments,
2.his pack of goods he had lain down from his back.
3.(he had flung off) his rags of poverty and clothed himself in dress of honor.
4.(With a royal robe) he covered himself,
5.and he bound a diadem on his brow.
6.Then Ishtar the queen lifted up her eyes to the throne of Izdūbar—
7.Kiss me, Izdūbar! she said, for I will marry thee!
8.Let us live together, I and thou, in one place;
9.thou shalt be my husband, and I will be thy wife.
10.Thou shalt ride in a chariot of lapis-lazuli,[[100]]
11.whose wheels are golden and its pole resplendent.
12.Shining bracelets shalt thou wear every day.
13.By our house the cedar trees in green vigor shall grow,
14.and when thou shall enter it
15.(suppliant) crowds shall kiss thy feet!
16.Kings, Lords, and Princes shall bow down before thee!
17.The tribute of hills and plains they shall bring to thee as offerings,
18.thy flocks and thy herds shall all bear twins,
19.thy race of mules shall be magnificent,
20.thy triumphs in the chariot race shall be proclaimed without ceasing,
21.and among the chiefs thou shalt never have an equal.
22.(Then Izdūbar) opened his mouth and spake,
23.(and said) to Ishtar the queen:
24.(Lady! full well) I know thee by experience.
25.Sad and funereal (is thy dwelling place),
26.sickness and famine surround thy path,
27.(false and) treacherous is thy crown of divinity.
28.Poor and worthless is thy crown of royalty
29.(Yes! I have said it) I know thee by experience.
COLUMN II.
1.Wailings thou didst make
2.for Tarzi thy husband,
3.(and yet) year after year with thy cups thou didst poison him.
4.Thou hadst a favorite and beautiful eagle,
5.thou didst strike him (with thy wand) and didst break his wings;
6.then he stood fast in the forest (only) fluttering his wings.
7.Thou hadst a favorite lion full of vigor,
8.thou didst pull out his teeth, seven at a time.
9.Thou hadst a favorite horse, renowned in war,
10.he drank a draught and with fever thou didst poison him!
11.Twice seven hours without ceasing
12.with burning fever and thirst thou didst poison him.
13.His mother, the goddess Silili, with thy cups thou didst poison.
14.Thou didst love the king of the land
15.whom continually thou didst render ill with thy drugs,
16.though every day he offered libations and sacrifices.
17.Thou didst strike him (with thy wand) and didst change him into a leopard.
18.The people of his own city drove him from it,
19.and his own dogs bit him to pieces!
20.Thou didst love a workman,[[101]] a rude man of no instruction,
21.who constantly received his daily wages from thee,
22.and every day made bright thy vessels.
23.In thy pot a savory mess thou didst boil for him,
24.saying, Come, my servant and eat with us on the feast day
25.and give thy judgment on the goodness of our pot-herbs.
26.The workman replied to thee,
27.Why dost thou desire to destroy me?
28.Thou art not cooking! I will not eat!
29.For I should eat food bad and accursed,
30.and the thousand unclean things thou hast poisoned it with.
31.Thou didst hear that answer (and wert enraged),
32.Thou didst strike him (with thy wand) and didst change him into a pillar,
33.and didst place him in the midst of the desert!
34.I have not yet said a crowd of things! many more I have not added.
35.Lady! thou wouldst love me as thou hast done the others.
36.Ishtar this speech listened to,
37.and Ishtar was enraged and flew up to heaven.
38.Ishtar came into the presence of Anū her father,
39.and into the presence of Annatu, her mother, she came.
40.Oh, my father, Izdūbar has cast insults upon me.”[[102]]

The student of comparative mythology will recognize in the above legend the original idea of much of the classic lore of Greece. Izdūbar’s return, and the throwing off of his disguise, suggest the adventures of Ulysses as related by Homer, and his return to Ithaca as a beggar.

“Next came Ulysses lowly at the door,