We may reasonably assume that the analogy drawn from the process of reproduction among men and animals led to the conception of a female deity presiding over the life of the universe. The extension of the scope of this goddess to life in general—to the growth of plants and trees from the fructifying seed—was a natural outcome of a fundamental idea; and so, whether we turn to incantations or hymns, in myths and in epics, in votive inscriptions and in historical annals, Ishtar is celebrated and invoked as the great mother, as the mistress of lands, as clothed in splendour and power—one might almost say as the personification of life itself.
But there are two aspects to this goddess of life. She brings forth, she fertilizes the fields, she clothes nature in joy and gladness, but she also withdraws her favours and when she does so the fields wither, and men and animals cease to reproduce. In place of life, barrenness and death ensue. She is thus also a grim goddess, at once cruel and destructive. We can, therefore, understand that she was also invoked as a goddess of war and battles and of the chase; and more particularly among the warlike Assyrians she assumes this aspect. Before the battle she appears to the army, clad in battle array and armed with bow and arrow. In myths symbolizing the change of seasons she is portrayed in this double character, as the life-giving and the life-depriving power. The most noteworthy of these myths describes her as passing through seven gates into the nether world. At each gate some of her clothing and her ornaments are removed until at the last gate she is entirely naked. While she remains in the nether world as a prisoner—whether voluntary or involuntary it is hard to say—all fertility ceases on earth, but the time comes when she again returns to earth, and as she passes each gate the watchman restores to her what she had left there until she is again clad in her full splendour, to the joy of mankind and of all nature. Closely allied with this myth and personifying another view of the change of seasons is the story of Ishtar’s love for Tammuz—symbolizing the spring time—but as midsummer approaches her husband is slain and, according to one version, it is for the purpose of saving Tammuz from the clutches of the goddess of the nether world that she enters upon her journey to that region.
In all the great centres Ishtar had her temples, bearing such names as E-anna, “heavenly house,” in Erech; E-makh, “great house,” in Babylon; E-mash-mash, “house of offerings,” in Nineveh. Of the details of her cult we as yet know little, but there is no evidence that there were obscene rites connected with it, though there may have been certain mysteries introduced at certain centres which might easily impress the uninitiated as having obscene aspects. She was served by priestesses as well as by priests, and it would appear that the votaries of Ishtar were in all cases virgins who, as long as they remained in the service of Ishtar, were not permitted to marry.
In the astral-theological system, Ishtar becomes the planet Venus, and the double aspect of the goddess is made to correspond to the strikingly different phases of Venus in the summer and winter seasons. On monuments and seal-cylinders she appears frequently with bow and arrow, though also simply clad in long robes with a crown on her head and an eight-rayed star as her symbol. Statuettes have been found in large numbers representing her as naked with her arms folded across her breast or holding a child. The art thus reflects the popular conceptions formed of the goddess. Together with Sin, the moon-god, and Shamash, the sun-god, she is the third figure in a triad personifying the three great forces of nature—moon, sun and earth, as the life-force. The doctrine involved illustrates the tendency of the Babylonian priests to centralize the manifestations of divine power in the universe, just as the triad Anu, Bel and Ea (q.v.)—the heavens, the earth and the watery deep—form another illustration of this same tendency.
Naturally, as a member of a triad, Ishtar is dissociated from any local limitations, and similarly as the planet Venus—a conception which is essentially a product of theological speculation—no thought of any particular locality for her cult is present. It is because her cult, like that of Sin (q.v.) and Shamash (q.v.), is spread over all Babylonia and Assyria, that she becomes available for purposes of theological speculation.
Cf. Astarte, Atargatis, Great Mother of the Gods, and specially Babylonian and Assyrian Religion. (M. Ja.)
ISHTIB, or Istib (anc. Astibon, Slav. Shtipliye or Shtip),
a town of Macedonia, European Turkey, in the vilayet of
Kossovo; 45 m. E.S.E. of Uskub. Pop. (1905) about 10,000.
Ishtib is built on a hill at the confluence of the small river
Ishtib with the Bregalnitza, a tributary of the Vardar. It has
a thriving agricultural trade, and possesses several fine mosques,
a number of fountains and a large bazaar. A hill on the north-west
is crowned by the ruins of an old castle.
ISIDORE OF ALEXANDRIA,[1] Greek philosopher and one
of the last of the Neoplatonists, lived in Athens and Alexandria
towards the end of the 5th century A.D. He became head of the
school in Athens in succession to Marinus who followed Proclus.
His views alienated the chief members of the school and he was
compelled to resign his position to Hegias. He is known principally
as the preceptor of Damascius whose testimony to him
in the Life of Isidorus presents him in a very favourable light
as a man and a thinker. It is generally admitted, however, that
he was rather an enthusiast than a thinker; reasoning with him
was subsidiary to inspiration, and he preferred the theories of
Pythagoras and Plato to the unimaginative logic and the practical
ethics of the Stoics and the Aristotelians. He seems to have
given loose rein to a sort of theosophical speculation and attached
great importance to dreams and waking visions on which he used
to expatiate in his public discourses.
Damascius’ Life is preserved by Photius in the Bibliotheca, and the fragments are printed in the Didot edition of Diogenes Laërtius. See Agathias, Hist. ii. 30; Photius, Bibliotheca, 181; and histories of Neoplatonism.
ISIDORE OF SEVILLE, or Isidorus Hispalensis (c. 560–636),
Spanish encyclopaedist and historian, was the son of Severianus,
a distinguished native of Cartagena, who came to Seville about
the time of the birth of Isidore. Leander, bishop of Seville, was
his elder brother. Left an orphan while still young, Isidore was
educated in a monastery, and soon distinguished himself in controversies
with the Arians. In 599, on the death of his brother,
he was chosen archbishop of Seville, and acquired high renown
by his successful administration of the episcopal office, as well
as by his numerous theological, historical and scientific works.
He founded a school at Seville, and taught in it himself. In the
provincial and national councils he played an important part,
notably at Toledo in 610, at Seville in 619 and in 633 at Toledo,
which profoundly modified the organization of the church in
Spain. His great work, however, was in another line. Profoundly
versed in the Latin as well as in the Christian literature,
his indefatigable intellectual curiosity led him to condense and
reproduce in encyclopaedic form the fruit of his wide reading.
His works, which include all topics—science, canon law, history
or theology—are unsystematic and largely uncritical, merely
reproducing at second hand the substance of such sources as
were available. Yet in their inadequate way they served to
keep alive throughout the dark ages some little knowledge
of the antique culture and learning. The most elaborate of his
writings is the Originum sive etymologiarum libri XX. It was
the last of his works, written between 622 and 633, and was
corrected by his friend and disciple Braulion. It is an encyclopaedia
of all the sciences, under the form of an explanation of
the terms proper to each of them. It was one of the capital
books of the middle ages.
On the Libri differentiarum sive de proprietate sermonum—of which the first book is a collection of synonyms, and the second of explanations of metaphysical and religious ideas—see A. Macé’s doctoral dissertation, Rennes, 1900. Mommsen has edited the Chronica majora or Chronicon de sex aetatibus (from the creation to A.D. 615) and the “Historia Gothorum, Wandalorum, Sueborum,” in the Monumenta Germaniae historica, auctores antiqitissimi: Chronica minora II. The history of the Goths is a historical source of the first order. The De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis or better De viris illustribus, was a continuation of the work of St Jerome and of Gennadius (cf. G. von Dzialowski in Kirchengeschichtliche Studien, iv. (1899). Especially interesting is the De natura rerum ad Sisebutum
- ↑ With Isidore of Alexandria has been confused an Isidore of Gaza, mentioned by Photius. Little is known of him except that he was one of those who accompanied Damascius to the Persian court when Justinian closed the schools in Athens in 529. Suidas, in speaking of Isidore of Alexandria, says that Hypatia was his wife, but there is no means of approximating the dates (see Hypatia). Suetonius, in his Life of Nero, refers to a Cynic philosopher named Isidore, who is said to have jested publicly at the expense of Nero.
