ABSTRACT
Inanna and Ishtar are the Sumerian and Akkadian faces of a primary Mesopotamian deity, known for having strong associations with sexuality, love and beauty. The goddess' association with love and happiness is frequently expressed in textual evidence using imagery of agricultural abundance, wealth and the provision of gifts. This chapter explores the emotional intimacy of the goddess' love, along with its physical side. The authorship of love poetry, like cuneiform literary works more generally, is an area where modern understanding is very limited. Cuneiform texts that have survived to the modern day are frequently later copies, and matters such as the potential time of composition, author and audience are, to say the least, extremely difficult to ascertain. The chapter focuses on analysing the literary theme of love and courtship involving the Mesopotamian goddess of love, in awareness of the restrictions placed on any conclusions drawn by the multitude of currently unresolved questions of authorship, audience and context.
