In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh rejects the goddess Ishtar’s proposal of marriage.
Ishtar invites Gilgamesh to become her lover and offers him splendid gifts, status, and power. Gilgamesh refuses, listing the unhappy fates of several former lovers. His speech presents the goddess as dangerous and unpredictable rather than as a conventional romantic figure.
Enraged by the refusal, Ishtar asks her father Anu to release the Bull of Heaven against Uruk. Gilgamesh and Enkidu fight the supernatural bull and kill it, deepening the gods’ anger toward the heroes. Enkidu’s subsequent death follows this chain of events in the epic’s narrative.
The episode draws on wider Mesopotamian traditions about Inanna-Ishtar, a goddess associated with sexuality, warfare, kingship, and political power. Ishtar’s role in the epic is therefore both divine and threatening.