In Sumerian mythology, Inanna is the goddess associated with love, fertility, and war.
Inanna was one of the most important deities in the Sumerian religious world. Her sphere combined qualities that modern readers may expect to be separate: sexual love, fertility, political power, warfare, and the planet Venus. Her worship was especially prominent in the city of Uruk, where she had a major temple complex.
Inanna’s myths include her descent to the underworld, her rivalry and relationship with other deities, and her acquisition of the me, the powers or institutions of civilization. In later Akkadian tradition, she was widely identified with Ishtar.
Inanna is sometimes reduced to a simple fertility goddess, but that description is incomplete. Her myths repeatedly present her as ambitious, politically powerful, and capable of both creation and destruction. Her broad role makes her one of the central figures in Sumerian mythology.