There are clear, historically attested links between the goddesses Inanna (of Sumer), Ishtar (of Akkad), Astarte (of Phoenicia and Canaan), Atargatis/Derceto/Dea Syria (of Hierapolis in Syria), Anahita (of Persia), Anahit/Anaitis (of Armenia), and Aphrodite (of Greece, esp. Cyprus).
There are weaker connections between this Mediterranean/Near Eastern goddess and Al-Lat (of Palmyra in Syria), Argimpasa (of Scythia), Cybele (of Phrygia), the Minoan dove-goddess (of Crete), Hathor and Isis (of Egypt) and perhaps even Saraswati in India.
What do we know about this goddess? What do her different forms have in common?
She is reliably identified with the planet Venus and the morning star.
She is frequently called the “queen of heaven” or “heavenly”.
She is a goddess of love, beauty, and sexuality.
This includes not only heterosexual love but lesbianism (Aphrodite was Sappho’s patron), gay sexuality (see the references to ”Aphrodite Ourania” in the Symposium), and transgender sexual identity (see the trans priestesses of Ishtar, Atargatis, Cybele, and Argimpasa).
It also includes sex workers – both ritual prostitutes and ordinary/secular courtesans.
She is a patron of art, song, poetry, dance, and divination. She provides divine inspiration and altered states of madness, frenzy, or prophecy. She liberates slaves.
There are many myths in which she takes a mortal lover, who dies (sometimes at her hand), and she mourns for him; sometimes he is raised from the dead.
She is a universal goddess of nature and life, deemed responsible for heaven and earth and sea, presiding over the entire natural order.
she is often associated with the sea (Atargatis, Aphrodite) or with rivers (Anahita) – water being the source of life and birth.
she is eternal, primordial, timeless; she renews her virginity despite giving birth.
she is a lawgiver, judge, and patron of oaths
she is both a goddess of peace and of war
Her most frequent symbols:
sea creatures (seashells, fish) and seaside plants (palm trees, myrtle)
