Side by side, from the sources
Gilgamesh vs Ishtar
These two are set against one another in the texts, which is itself a claim worth attributing. He refuses her proposal and recites what became of her previous lovers; she answers by demanding the Bull of Heaven from Anu.
Hybrid · Mesopotamian · c. 2100 BCE
Gilgamesh
also called Bilgames, Gilgameš
Two-thirds god and one-third man, king of Uruk in the Sumerian King List and the subject of the longest narrative surviving from the ancient Near East — a story about failing to escape death.
- Alignment
- Disputed
- Rank
- King of Uruk
- First attested
- The Sumerian King List · c. 2000 BCE
- Named there as
- Bilgames
- Texts naming it
- 2
- Powers attributed
- 2
60attestedMesopotamian
Deity · Mesopotamian · c. 2500 BCE
Ishtar
also called Inanna, Irnini, Ištar, Istar
Goddess of love, war and the planet Venus, whose descent into the underworld is among the oldest recorded narratives.
- Alignment
- Disputed
- Rank
- Queen of Heaven
- First attested
- The Epic of Gilgamesh · c. 1200 BCE, from older Sumerian material
- Named there as
- Ishtar
- Texts naming it
- 3
- Powers attributed
- 3
90attestedMesopotamian
Where do they actually overlap?
Texts naming both
Powers credited to both
Common questions
Are Gilgamesh and Ishtar the same figure?
These two are set against one another in the texts, which is itself a claim worth attributing. He refuses her proposal and recites what became of her previous lovers; she answers by demanding the Bull of Heaven from Anu. ColossiansOne records the link rather than asserting the identity: where texts disagree about whether two names denote one figure, the disagreement is what gets shown.
Which is older, Gilgamesh or Ishtar?
Ishtar is the older name: first attested around c. 2500 BCE, against c. 2100 BCE for Gilgamesh. Where the two dates are far apart, that gap is the whole reason the pair is worth comparing.
Do any texts name both Gilgamesh and Ishtar?
Yes — 1 text names both. A single text naming both figures is the strongest evidence available here that its author treated them as distinct, whatever later writers did with the pair.