Fellow in Classics at Queen’s Professor Christopher Metcalf joined BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time to explore the fascinating contradictions of Ishtar, the ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, sex, and war. Worshipped for more than 3,500 years, Ishtar was associated with both fertility and destruction, embodying seemingly opposing forces that made her one of the most powerful deities of the ancient world.
In the episode, Professor Metcalf joins presenter Misha Glenny and fellow experts Selena Wisnom (University of Leicester and former Junior Research Fellow at Queen’s), and Martin Worthington (University of Pisa) to explore the myths surrounding Ishtar and what made her such an enduring and influential deity.
The discussion also examines how Ishtar was represented in ancient texts and the connections between her and other ancient goddesses, including the Greek goddess Aphrodite.
