Day Six: Inanna-Ishtar

First off, as promised, a bit of goddess background:

The Gaia Hypothesis: the earth is a live system (Mother Earth) constantly working to bring things to order, like Fern Gully

Great Goddess Hypothesis: just like it sounds, goddess > god, woman > man

Societies that have a supreme goddess instead of a supreme god tend to be more woman-focused. These societies are called matrifocal. If the woman is also the head of the family, the husband will take on her name when they get married, which is called matriarchal society. Not many of those left today. As far as I know, the only major religion today that has a supreme goddess is Wicca. Fun fact: matriarchal societies tend to have less violence and more gender equality than patriarchal (male-focused) societies.

There's a Queen of Heaven (aka supreme goddess) who was known in Samaria as Inanna and in Akkadia as Ishtar. It's also possible that she's the goddess Tiamat from Babylonian stories, as well as Isis in Egypt. My first thoughts were that I read a manga once about a princess named Ishtar. I'm pretty sure there's no relation though.

<-- Ishtar from Vampire Game. Yeah, I know, it has "vampire" in the title, but it's actually well-written and has development, as well as legitimate vampires, not sparkly effeminate century-old-teenagers who creep on little girls as they sleep.

Inanna-Ishtar was apparently just chilling out ruling everything one day when her brother came over and said she needed new sheets on her bed. She disagreed, but he insisted, and finally he admitted that what he really meant was that she should get married. (I don't get that analogy either.) He introduces her to this shepherd and they get married and live happily ever after, until one day she has to go to the underworld. Possible reasons include a funeral, visiting her sister who is goddess of the underworld, or maybe she was just bored and wanted a change of scene.

Going off on a tangent here--underworld. Happens in a lot of myths, right? Heracles, for one, and I'm sure I'll think of more after a mug of coffee. But why? What does it really mean or matter if they go down with the dead people for a stroll?
Well, according to psychiatrists like Freud, it symbolizes going into your own unconscious and facing your "demons"--guilt, nasty memories, bad habits, that sort of thing. (Since Freud supported the theory, it probably also has something to do with your mother.) And apparently, in order to mature, we have to face our own demons.

Scary thought, huh?