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Updated: June 8, 2025
But the name which finally displaces all others, is Ishtar. Where the name originated has not yet been ascertained, as little as its etymology, but it seems to belong to Northern Babylonia rather than to the south. In time, all the names that we have been considering Innanna, Nanâ, and Anunit became merely so many designations of Ishtar.
In the earliest period which we are now considering, we can still distinguish a number of goddesses who afterwards became merged into this one great goddess. Ninni and Innanna are names that appear to have a common origin. Both embody the notion of 'ladyship. The worship of this goddess centers in the district of Lagash. For Gudea, Ninni is the "mistress of the world."
Hammurabi tells us, in one of his inscriptions, that he has restored the temple in honor of Innanna at Hallabi a town near Sippar. Innanna, or Ninni, signifying merely 'lady, or 'great lady, appears to have become a very general name for a goddess, hence the addition 'of Hallabi, which Hammurabi is careful to make.
We may probably assume that this interpretation is correct, and we may conclude by analogy that "the holy Innanna" in the second half of the Sumerian couplet is there merely employed as a synonym of Nintu.
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