Johanna H Stuckey’s scientific contributions

Alluring and assertive, Inanna was one of the “great gods” of the male-dominated Sumerian pantheon and the most prominent of all the goddesses (Kramer 1967:153). Her symbols occur on some of the earliest Mesopotamian seals (Adams 1966:12), and she is among the first female deities about whom written material is extant (Hallo & Van Dijk 1968).1 In the second half of the fourth millennium B.C.E., most Sumerian cities had deities, usually goddesses, as “their titulary divine owners,” Inanna being originally the deity who “owned” the developing city—state of Uruk. As such, her primary realm was earthly fecundity, especially that of human beings and other animals (Steinkeller 1999: n3 forthcoming). Because of her power over fertility and her central role in the fertility ritual known as the “sacred—marriage” rite, Inanna retained her importance in the pantheon even as Sumerian culture became increasingly male-dominated (Wakeman 1985:8). However, some of the poems about Inanna suggest that she once ruled over not only the earth’s fertility but also the heavens and the underworld.