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Ishtar Gate and Ishtar Lover by Iraqi artist Paul Batou

~Hasmonean

#art #paul batou #iraq #iraqi #iraqi artists #middle east #middle eastern art #ishtar #inanna #goddess #goddesses #ishtar gates #flowers #ane #ane studies #ancient near east #mesopotamia #mesopotamian #assyrian

The ACSSU and Bet Nahrain Interns have been hard at work painting the Gates of Ishtar for the Assyrian Festival of Nusardil in Hamilton! More pics to come over the next week.

#Assyrian #Chaldean #Syriac #Bet Nahrain #Gates of Ishtar #Ishtar Gates #Mesopotamia #painting #Nusardil

Hey, I love your blog! I'm just rereading Gore Vidal's novel Creation, set in the 5th century BCE, basically a romp through all the major civilisations of that era, through the eyes of a fictional Persian nobleman. I mention it because throughout the novel there are mentions of the goddess Anahita, who seems to be some kind of Persian version of Ishtar/Inanna/Astarte, but I've never heard of her outside of this novel. Do you know anything about her, and what her relation to Ishtar is?

Anahita was an important goddess from pre-Zoroastrian times and her full name (which may have some Sanskrit origins) is typical Aredvi Sura Anahita; you will sometimes see her in Greek and Roman texts as Anaitis. Through a language error Herodotus refers to her as Mitra in his Histories.

She is considered to be a goddess of healing, fertility, and wisdom due to her connection with the Aban/Apas or the primordial waters. She survived into the Zoroastrian religion as a yazata, a type of divine concept or being worthy of veneration (Zoroastrian religious concepts aren’t easy to put into English words).

As to her connection with Ishtar, it’s not as clear. Before the emergence of Zoroastrianism Anahita has gained a war-like aspect that was probably due to her similarity with Ishtar, both were fertility goddesses so they were probably considered similar. It is possible that Anahita and Ishtar were originally separate goddesses but through a diffusion of Ishtar the two became related. Unless someone is knowledgeable about Zoroastrianism and pre-Zoroastrian Persian religions (a field not with much expansive study as of yet), Anahita is not that well known.

For a bit more help here’s a link to Mary Boyce’s A History of Zoroastrianism Vol.2 which explains her connection to Ishtar a bit more.

~Hasmonean

#ask #poorpoorpitifulme #ishtar gates #zoroastrianism #anahita #ishtar #goddess #goddesses

Is your header one of the lions at the oriental institute? Or just something similar?

It’s a lion from a reconstructed version of the Ishtar Gates. I believe it is from the one at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum.

~Hasmonean

#ask #mentallybrokengay #ishtar gates