Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth. Goddess of
love. Morning and evening
star. the daughter of the God Nanna, the
moon god and The Moon Goddess, Ningal.
Inanna, the original goddess. Inanna comes from Sumerian myth.
The most current and, IMHO the better of most translations is by Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer. titled: Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth, Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer. ($14.00 cover price, avail from amazon.com or any other bookstore, ISBN:0-06-090854-8)
Inanna reappears throughout history as Aphrodite, Venus, Mary, Cleopatra, Juanita, and Bill Gates (ok, not really bill gates...)
Among many others. Infact there can be drawn a link between Inanna and almost every Goddess in any sumerian influenced culture.
This book is about birth, wisdom, death, and rebirth. When compared to traditional western christian ideology Inanna encompasses a very erotic and passionate myth. The hymns of Inanna range from sex to death to stealing knowledge from the gods. Inanna is claimed to be responsible for the seasons, the rise and set of the sun, and almost every other natural event that takes place on earth. Indeed it can be said, Inanna is Mother Earth.
Definitely worth a read. I recently started to read it again after finding a considerable amount of refrences to Inanna in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, hence the Juanita thing. (ok, the raft is the underworld, hiro is dimuzi, rife is bill gates. That leaves Y.T. or Juanita to be Inanna... you decide)
-doug