Complex ancient origins: Ishtar Astarte
Ishtar was a Babylonian/Akkadian goddess descended from the earlier Sumerian Inanna. She was famed in Assyria and Egypt as a war goddess whose battle steed was a lion. Pardoxically, she is also a fertility figure. The Ishtar Gate at Babylon (in Iraq), an enormous artistic masterpiece built by King Nebuchadnezzar II, was dedicated to the goddess and fellow deities Marduk and Adad.
