Ishtar - Smite

Ishtar is one of the playable Gods in SMITE.

Ishtar, Queen of Heaven and mistress of love and war, is a goddess of many and diverse facets. A dispenser of divine justice, she strikes down all those who would dare defy the gods, even as she zealously protects those who worship her. Brave and cunning; caring and spiteful; Ishtar is all these things and more.

Ishtar was primarily the goddess of war and love (or more precisely, fertility). Yet her role was complex and evolved over time.

In the earliest times, she was the goddess of grain, dates, meat, and wool. Later roles show her as the goddess of rain and storms. In this role, she is often shown with a roaring lion. Then Ishtar evolved into a third role, that of goddess of war, which some scholars believe was the result of her role as goddess of storms, because they were related to or associated with war. In Sumer, Innana (often identified with Ishtar) was personified as a fertility goddess. By some accounts, Ishtar’s role as goddess of fertility also evolved into that of a range of contradictions within, including death, war, fire, violence, and disaster, yet also joyfulness, life (fertility), and femininity.