Ishtar is the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility; war; love; and sex. She is the counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate north-west Semitic goddess Astarte.

Ishtar was the god of love and war above all associated with sexuality: her cult involved sacred prostitution; her holy city Uruk was called the 'town of the sacred courtesans'; and she herself was the 'courtesan of the gods'.

Ishtar was the daughter of Sin or Anu. She was particularly worshipped at the Assyrian cities of Nineveh; Ashur and Arbela (Erbil).