ISHTAR. Las, 
her shoulders are no longer differentiated as scimitars and clubs, but are, rather, 
like sheafs of arrows rising from quivers. As she, however, never carries a bow, 
on Babylonian seals, as she does in Assyrian (Chapter xt), they can hardly be meant 
for arrows, but as conventional reminiscences of the weapons of the earlier seated 
Ishtar. 
Fig. 135 represents the period of transition to the conventional types of the 
Middle Empire. Here the goddess stands on two dragons, not of full size, as in 
figs. 127-133, but reduced. She is represented with the face in front view, with a 
long lock of hair falling on her shoulder, wearing a high headdress and a flounced 
garment, and holding in her hand the Babylonian caduceus. ‘There are no weapons 
from her shoulders ; they are replaced by the caduceus, which is itself a fearful 
serpent-weapon. She is thus represented as a god of conquest, of war. This 
practically requires us to identify her with Ishtar, under some one of her names, 
whether the more usual and strenuous Ishtar, or Ninni or Nana or Anunit. She 
is not to be identified with Bau or Gula, who is not a particularly warlike deity; 

nor can she be any one of the paler feminine reflections of the gods, like Belit or 
Aa or Shala. It can then only be Ishtar. This attribution is made certain by a 
bas-relief found by de Morgan in Persia (fig. 413). It is a monument of a king of 
Lulubi, an Elamite tribe. The flounced goddess is represented with clubs from 
her shoulders and presenting to the king two prisoners, one of whom is held by a 
ring through his lip. This can be nothing but the warlike Ishtar, the later goddess 
of Arbela. The accompanying archaic inscription reads: “Anubanini, mighty 
king, king of Lulubi, has placed his image, and the image of the goddess Ishtar on 
Mount Batir.”’ This may well belong to a period not much later than Gudea or 
Hammurabi, although the inscription looks earlier than either. Notice the turban 
of the king. 
We see the same goddess in fig. 415, although the upper part of the body is 
lost in the fracture, but the two lions are preserved. Other figures are a worshiper 
offering a goat before her, and behind her, under a cow suckling a calf, a servant 
carrying a pail with distinct legs, also the Babylonian Ramman-Martu, and Shala, 
and an inscription. For another admirable example of the goddess on two Howe 
see fig. 442, where also are Shamash, Aa, and two worshipers, one with each of the 
principal deities. 
