Ishtar Poem by gershon hepner

Going to the underworld stripped nude,
Ishtar is flanked by owls that flourish in the dark,
a harlot, without Dumuzi, her dude,
who in the underworld provides the only spark
of life to those whom she would carry back
to places where they used to live in yesteryears.
Protecting all Judeans from attack,
her queenly namesake did the same in Estheryears.

Inspired by a description of the Burney Relief at the British Museum, portraying a naked winged goddess with bird talons, standing on two lions and flanked by owls, identified as Ishtar by Jacobsen. Her companion owls carry connotations not only of death and darkness but of Ishtar’s prostitute aspect, “the harlot who like the owl comes out at dusk. Caitlín E. Barrett (“Was Dust Their Food and Clay their Bread? Grave Gods, the Mesopotamian Afterlife and Liminal Role of Inana/Ishtar, ” JANER 7 [2007]] 7-65) points out that Ishtar is a liminal figure associated with the transition between life and death, filling the liminal role of going down into the netherworld and coming up again (p.21) . I wonder whether this myth may be related to the stories of Esther in the biblical book as well as the name of the festival of Easter.

3/21/08