The Harlot Goddess
Ishtar was not only the great benefactor of prostitutes but their role model. Her obsession with sexuality, her promiscuity, her countless relationships and lovers—all of these served as examples for the ancient Middle Eastern prostitute.
In the tablets of Sumer, Ishtar, or her earlier incarnation as Inanna, is described as a “harimtu” or “karkid.”1 The words are commonly translated as “prostitute.” Some argue that the words can mean prostitute but not necessarily in every context. But the words appear in descriptions of Ishtar where the context clearly refers to prostitution—specifically when it cites the tavern, the place where prostitutes gathered and worked. One ancient hymn says this:
They cannot compete with you, Inanna [Ishtar]. As a prostitute you go down to the tavern and, like a ghost who slips in through the window, you enter there.2
And from another:
You, my lady, dress like one of no repute in a single garment.3
As the ancient Mesopotamian prostitute could be identified by her jewelry, so too Ishtar:
The pearls of a prostitute are placed around your neck.4
Another ancient tribute to the goddess is even more detailed, as it deals with the pricing of her trade:
When I stand against the wall, it is one shekel.5
Another ancient inscription has the goddess saying outright:
I am a prostitute.6
The Sexualization of American Culture
The return of Ishtar was the return of the prostitute goddess. It would set in motion a transformation based on the dynamics of her trade as well as her cult of worship.
Prostitution takes sexual relations out of the exclusive context of husband and wife and brings them into the larger culture, into the marketplace, the realm of trade and commerce. Likewise, Ishtar’s cult of worship took sexuality out of the private realm of the marriage covenant and into the public realm of festivals, rituals, and temple worship.
So when the spirit of Ishtar returned to Western civilization, it worked toward removing sexuality from the bounds of marriage. Sexuality now moved out of the private realm and into the public realm. What had once been the exclusive possession of husband and wife within the covenant of marriage now became the possession of the larger culture, popular culture, and public life. So American and Western culture became sexualized. Its sexuality had been stolen from the marriage bed. Sexuality was now everywhere and unbridled by the covenant of marriage.
