Here Ninishkun acts as an intermediary, presenting requests to Ishtar on behalf of the seal cutter. This was a form of supplication in ancient Western Asia. Ishtar, the goddess of sexual love and war, ...
Ashurbanipal goes to her temple, bows before her, and weeps as he invokes the goddess: Ishtar of Arbela wielding a bow and standing on a lion on a Neo-Assyrian cylinder seal from the late 8th century ...