Editing Inanna (section)

==Worship==
{{multiple image|perrow = 4|total_width = 400|caption_align = center
| align     = right
| direction = horizontal
| header    = Inanna's symbol: the reed ring-post
| image1    = Emblem of the Goddess Inanna.jpg
| caption1  = Emblem of goddess Inanna, circa 3000 BCE.<ref>{{cite web |title=Site officiel du musée du Louvre |url=http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=9643 |website=cartelfr.louvre.fr}}</ref>
| image2    = Wall plaque showing libation scene from Ur, Iraq, 2500 BCE. British Museum (libation detail).jpg
| caption2  = Ring posts of Inanna on each side of a temple door, with naked devotee offering libations.<ref name = priestess/>
| image3    = Inanna ring posts on the Warka vase.jpg
| caption3  = On the [[Warka Vase]]
| image4    = Inanna symbol and cuneiform logogram, the reed ring stalk.jpg
| caption4  = [[Cuneiform]] logogram "Inanna"
| footer_align = center
| footer    = Inanna's symbol is a ring post made of reed, an ubiquitous building material in Sumer. It was often beribboned and positioned at the entrance of temples, and marked the limit between the profane and the sacred realms.<ref name = priestess>{{cite book |last1=Meador |first1=Betty De Shong |title=Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart: Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess Enheduanna |date=2000 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-292-75242-9 |pages=14–15 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B45PvLlj3ogC&pg=PA14 |language=en}}</ref> The design of the emblem was simplified between 3000 and 2000 BCE to become the [[cuneiform]] logogram for Inanna: {{cuneiform|4|𒈹}}, generally preceded by the symbol for "deity" {{cuneiform|4|[[𒀭]]}}.{{sfnp|Leick|1998|p=86}}
}}
[[File:Couple de musiciens.jpg|thumb|upright|Ancient Sumerian [[statuette]] of two {{transliteration|sux|[[gala (priests)|gala]]}} priests, dating to {{circa}} 2450 BCE, found in the temple of Inanna at [[Mari, Syria|Mari]]]]
Gwendolyn Leick assumes that during the Pre-Sargonic era, the cult of Inanna was rather limited,{{sfnp|Leick|1998|page=87}} though other experts argue that she was already the most prominent deity in Uruk and a number of other political centers in the [[Uruk period]].{{sfnm|1a1=Asher-Greve|1a2=Westenholz|1y=2013|1p=27|2a1=Kramer|2y=1961|2p=101|3a1=Wolkstein|3a2=Kramer|3y=1983|3pp=xiii–xix|4a1=Nemet-Nejat|4y=1998|4p=182}} She had temples in [[Nippur]], [[Lagash]], [[Shuruppak]], [[Zabalam]], and [[Ur]],{{sfnp|Leick|1998|page=87}} but her main cult center was the [[Eanna]] temple in [[Uruk]],{{sfnp|Leick|1998|page=87}}{{sfnp|Black|Green|1992|pages=108–109}}{{sfnp|Harris|1991|pages=261–278}}{{efn|modern-day Warka, Biblical [[Erech]]}} whose name means "House of Heaven" (Sumerian: {{transliteration|sux|e{{sub|2}}-anna}}; cuneiform: {{cuneiform|4|𒂍𒀭}} E{{sub|2}}.AN).{{efn|{{transliteration|sux|é-an-na}} means 'sanctuary' ('house' + 'Heaven' [{{transliteration|sux|An}}] + genitive){{sfnp|Halloran|2009}}}} Some research assumes that the original patron deity of this fourth-millennium BCE city was [[Anu|An]].{{sfnp|Harris|1991|pages=261–278}}  After its dedication to Inanna, the temple seems to have housed priestesses of the goddess.{{sfnp|Harris|1991|pages=261–278}} Next to Uruk, Zabalam was the most important early site of Inanna worship, as the name of the city was commonly written with the signs MUŠ{{sub|3}} and UNUG, meaning respectively "Inanna" and "sanctuary".{{sfnp|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=42}} It is possible that the city goddess of Zabalam was originally a distinct deity, though one whose cult was absorbed by that of the Urukean goddess very early on.{{sfnp|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=42}} [[Joan Goodnick Westenholz]] proposed that a goddess identified by the name [[Nin-UM]] (reading and meaning uncertain), associated with [[Ishtaran]] in a ''[[Zame (hymns)|zame]]'' hymn, was the original identity of Inanna of Zabalam.{{sfnp|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=50}}

In the Old Akkadian period, Inanna merged with the Akkadian goddess Ishtar, associated with the city of Agade.{{sfnp|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=62}} A hymn from that period addresses the Akkadian Ishtar as "Inanna of the Ulmaš" alongside Inanna of Uruk and of Zabalam.{{sfnp|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=62}} The worship of Ishtar and syncretism between her and Inanna was encouraged by Sargon and his successors,{{sfnp|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=62}} and as a result she quickly became one of the most widely venerated deities in the Mesopotamian pantheon.{{sfnp|Leick|1998|page=87}} In inscriptions of Sargon, [[Naram-Sin of Akkad|Naram-Sin]], and [[Shar-Kali-Sharri]], Ishtar is the most frequently invoked deity.{{sfnp|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=172}}

In the Old Babylonian period, her main cult centers were Uruk, Zabalam, Agade, and Ilip.{{sfnp|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=79}} Her cult was also introduced from Uruk to Kish.{{sfnp|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=21}}

During later times, while her cult in Uruk continued to flourish,{{sfnp|Black|Green|1992|page=99}} Ishtar also became particularly worshipped in the [[Upper Mesopotamia]]n kingdom of [[Assyria]] (modern northern [[Iraq]], northeast [[Syria]], and southeast [[Turkey]]), especially in the cities of [[Nineveh]], [[Assur|Aššur]], and [[Erbil|Arbela]] (modern Erbil).{{sfnp|Guirand|1968|page=58}} During the reign of the Assyrian king [[Assurbanipal]], Ishtar rose to become the most important and widely venerated deity in the Assyrian pantheon, surpassing even the Assyrian national god [[Ashur (god)|Ashur]].{{sfnp|Black|Green|1992|page=99}} Votive objects found in her primary Assyrian temple indicate that she was a popular deity among women.{{sfnp|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=20}}

Individuals who went against the [[gender binary]] were heavily involved in the cult of Inanna.{{sfnp|Leick|2013|pages=157–158}} During Sumerian times, a set of priests known as {{transliteration|sux|[[gala (priests)|gala]]}} worked in Inanna's temples, where they performed elegies and lamentations.{{sfnp|Leick|2013|page=285}} Men who became {{transliteration|sux|gala}} sometimes adopted female names, and their songs were composed in the Sumerian {{transliteration|sux|[[Sumerian language#Dialects|eme-sal]]}} dialect, which, in literary texts, is normally reserved for the speech of female characters. Some Sumerian proverbs seem to suggest that {{transliteration|sux|gala}} had a reputation for engaging in [[anal sex]] with men.{{sfnp|Roscoe|Murray|1997|page=65}} During the Akkadian Period, {{transliteration|sux|kurgarrū}} and {{transliteration|sux|assinnu}} were servants of Ishtar who [[cross-dressing|dressed in female clothing]] and performed war dances in Ishtar's temples.{{sfnp|Roscoe|Murray|1997|pages=65–66}} Several Akkadian [[proverb]]s seem to suggest that they may have also had homosexual proclivities.{{sfnp|Roscoe|Murray|1997|pages=65–66}} Gwendolyn Leick, an anthropologist known for her writings on Mesopotamia, has compared these individuals to the contemporary Indian ''[[Hijra (South Asia)|hijra]]''.{{sfnp|Leick|2013|pages=158–163}} In one Akkadian hymn, Ishtar is described as transforming men into women.{{sfnp|Roscoe|Murray|1997|page=66}}{{sfnp|Brandão|2019|p=63}}

Throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, it was widely believed that the cult of Inanna involved a "[[hieros gamos|sacred marriage]]" ritual, in which a king would establish his legitimacy by taking on the role of Dumuzid and engaging in ritual sexual intercourse with the high priestess of Inanna, who took on the role of the goddess.{{sfnp|Kramer|1970}}{{sfnp|Nemet-Nejat|1998|page=196}}{{sfnp|Brandão|2019|p=56}}{{sfnp|Pryke|2017|pages=128–129}} This view has been challenged, however, and scholars continue to debate whether the sacred marriage described in literary texts involved any kind of physical ritual enactment at all and, if so, whether this ritual enactment involved actual intercourse or merely the symbolic representation of intercourse.{{sfnp|George|2006|page=6}}{{sfnp|Pryke|2017|pages=128–129}} The scholar of the ancient Near East Louise M. Pryke states that most scholars now maintain, if the sacred marriage was a ritual that was actually acted out, then it involved only symbolic intercourse.{{sfnp|Pryke|2017|page=129}}

The cult of Ishtar was long thought to have involved [[sacred prostitution]],{{sfnm|1a1=Day|1y=2004|1pp=15–17|2a1=Marcovich|2y=1996|2p=49|3a1=Guirand|3y=1968|3p=58|4a1=Nemet-Nejat|4y=1998|4p=193}} but this is now rejected among many scholars.{{sfnm|1a1=Assante|1y=2003|1pp=14–47|2a1=Day|2y=2004|2pp=2–21|3a1=Sweet|3y=1994|3pp=85–104|4a1=Pryke|4y=2017|4p=61}} [[Hierodules]] known as {{transliteration|sux|ishtaritum}} are reported to have worked in Ishtar's temples,{{sfnp|Marcovich|1996|page=49}} but it is unclear if such priestesses actually performed any [[sex act]]s,{{sfnp|Day|2004|pages=2–21}} and several modern scholars have argued that they did not.{{sfnp|Sweet|1994|pages=85–104}}{{sfnp|Assante|2003|pages=14–47}} Women across the ancient Near East worshipped Ishtar by dedicating to her cakes baked in ashes (known as {{transliteration|sux|kamān tumri}}).{{sfnp|Ackerman|2006|pages=116–117}} A dedication of this type is described in an Akkadian hymn.{{sfnp|Ackerman|2006|page=115}} Several clay cake molds discovered at Mari are shaped like naked women with large hips who are clutching their breasts.{{sfnp|Ackerman|2006|page=115}} Some scholars have suggested that the cakes made from these molds were intended as representations of Ishtar herself.{{sfnp|Ackerman|2006|pages=115–116}} In the Biblical book of [[Jeremiah]], the prophet condemns Judean female refugees for worshipping the Queen of Heaven (a syncretism of Ishtar and Asherah) by baking cakes with the goddess's image upon them and pouring libations to her (Jer. Ch. 7 and 44). The women and their husbands defy him, and state that they will follow the practices of their ancestors, who performed these acts "in the towns of Judea and the streets of Jerusalem" (Jer. 44:15–19). In [[Ezekiel]] 8:14, the prophet has a vision of the women of Jerusalem weeping for Tammuz.