ISHTAR. 159 
Chald.,” p. 119). Here we see a seated goddess, with face in front view, before 
whom a nude worshiper offers a libation from a vase with a nose or spout. Between 
the goddess and the worshiper is a stand with a curious plant, apparently, spring- 
ing from it, and on each side is a pendulous object which looks like a bunch of dates, 
but the plant is evidently not a palm-tree. ‘The vase might represent vegetable 
offerings of various kinds, while the worshiper offers a vase of wine or oil. This 
is to be compared with other representations where the appearance is rather of a 
flame from the altar following a libation of oil, as in fig. 399. Heuzey sees in this 

418 4180 
seated goddess Aa or Malkatu, consort of Shamash, but she appears to be differ- 
ently represented, as will be seen later, and the appearance of the face in front 
view and the rays connect her with Ishtar. The worn condition of the bas-relief 
and perhaps the restricted space do not allow us to see the ends of the rays, which 
appear as the clubs and serpent-scimitars in the art of this period as shown by the 
cylinders. Attention should also be called to a bronze statuette (fig. 420) which 
gives us the lower part of the body of a draped figure standing on a lion lying with 
his feet bent under him. This probably represents Ishtar, but it is valuable for little 
else than an indication of the care put on the elaborate ornamentation. 





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le 
ye 












Ni at 
Ai eet, Ui si nine 
¢ ee: i 



ne ay \ 
erat 
na St mew 
The various er forms or names of Ishtar were not differentiated in the 
Babylonian art. We have no separate representations that we can distinguish of 
Ninni, Nana, or Anunit, under whatever designation the evening and morning stars 
were worshiped. They were all the same planet, Venus, daughter indiscriminately 
of Anu, god of Heaven, where she shone, or of the Moon-god who ruled her sky. 
She was goddess of war as well as of love from the earliest times, and was so repre- 
sented with weapons of war. The story of her descent into Hades in search of the 
consort of her youth, Tammuz, tells us how richly she was dight, and how her gar- 
ments and her ornaments were successively stripped from her as she entered the 
