Louvre Museum, Paris. 2000 B.C.

So common in the Mesopotamian area were the clay figurines of
Ishtar/Inanna/Ashtart in her characteristic breast-offering pose,
that this has come to be known among archaeologists as "The Ishtar
Pose". She was addressed as"Mother of the Fruitful Breast", Queen of
Heaven, Light of the World, Creator of People, Mother of Deities,
River of Life, Etc. The breast-offering pose suggested her function
as the Goddess of all nourishment and fertility. Ishtar, also known
as Innana in Sumeria is, above all, a lunar Goddess who gives life
as the waxing moon and then withdraws it as the waning moon. The
light and dark dimensions to her power, her dying and resurrected
son-lover Tammuz, who annually descends to the underworld and rises
again from it-all suggest a lunar mythology which revolves around
the connection made between the light and dark lunar phases and
rhythmic alteration of the Earth's fertility.

Product SKU: D-086SM