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The Role Of Ishtar In Epic Of Gilgamesh

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The Role Of Ishtar In Epic Of Gilgamesh
Ishtar is the Queen of Heaven by the citizens of ancient Mesopotamia. She is often shown winged and bearing arms. In the excerpt, Epic of Gilgamesh, the Assyrian News Agency Version, Ishtar is the goddess of love and fertility, also the goddess of war which no latter day king, no man alive can equal. This expresses a strong feminist standpoint during the ancient Mesopotamia. Ishtar lures her lovers and then executes them hence; Gilgamesh refused her proposal for marriage. Gilgamesh is afraid of the outcomes, if he should engage in sexual activities with Ishtar. According to Z. Bahrani, feminine sexuality and its potential destructive power shows threat of sexuality joined with death. On the contrary, in the Greek Aphrodite, Anchises episode
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