Where did the Goddess Ishtar come from...who is she?

Question

Im wirting an Essay on Ishtar and Im trying to gather information which is causing me some trouble. Can you give me some information??

So far i know that:

Ishtar was the goddess of love and war to the ancient Babylonians. Her name as varied from place to place, but It was the same goddess who was known as Inanna, Annin, Astarte, Ashtar and Aphrodite among other names.

Ishatr is a goddess of fertility, love and war. In Babylonian pantheon, she “was the divine personification of the plant Venus”. In Baylon, her name meant “star”, the light of the world. She was known as Ashtoreth to whom King Solomon returns at the end of his days; she was also named Har, or Hora from which the world’s harlot and w***e sprang.

BUT Where did she come from? was Tammuz her husnband or her son, did she save him form the underworld or was she sent her by her sister?

Great things she did?

Thanks everyone

Answer 1

From what I remember, Ishtar had a human counterpart named Semiramis, and her son was Nimrod.  Tammuz was at once both husband/son, as Semiramis also married her son Nimrod.  For the rest I think it would be good for you to seek the book The Mother Goddess by Robert Graves, he speaks of the universal mother goddess and that is what Ishtar is, always remember there is a spiritual side and a natural side.

Answer 2

She is often sited as the daughter of Anu, god of the air.  My suggestion is to google.  You have a lot of questions that I don't feel like answering at this point, because I don't like doing homework but everything you need is easy to get.  Stop waiting for a classicist to answer this, and just find the answer your self.

Answer 3

There is a Sumerian legend that is similar, in that one her sister ends up going down to spend six months of the year in the underworld so that summer can return for half the year, the parallel to the myth of Persephone of Greece is obvious.

I wouldn't normally recommend Wikipedia as a source, some of their stuff is terrible, but their entry on Ishtar, which I've just checked, isn't bad and might give you some other starting points for research.  

Answer 4

She was a fertility goddess. She likely evolved from the Akadian goddess Ashtoreth (Astarte). She likely evolved into Isis in Egypt, Artemis of Ephesus, and even the keltic fertility goddess Easter.