presides over the temple known as Kidmuru and who for that
reason is generally called 'the queen of Kidmuru.' The seat of the
latter was in Nineveh, as was of course also the seat of Ishtar of
Nineveh. The third Ishtar had her cult at Arbela,[245] a town lying to
the east of Calah about midway between the upper and lower Zab. It is
not easy to determine which of these three Ishtars is the oldest. The
Assyrians themselves seem to have been aware of the Babylonian origin of
Ishtar, for Tiglathpileser I. is at pains to emphasize that the temple
he builds to Ishtar in his capital is dedicated to the 'Assyrian
Ishtar.'[246] This being the oldest mention of Ishtar in Assyrian texts,
we are perhaps warranted in concluding that the cult of the goddess was
transferred with the seat of government to Nineveh. This would not
necessarily make Ishtar of Nineveh the oldest of the three, but accounts
for the higher rank that was accorded to her, as against the other two.
Ishtar of Arbela and the queen of Kidmuru do not make their appearance
so far as the historical texts are concerned till the time of Esarhaddon
(681, B.C.)--a comparatively late date. Tiele[247] suggests that Arbela
became the seat of a school of prophets in the service of Ishtar. The
curious name of the place, the 'four-god' city, certainly speaks in
favor of supposing Arbela to have been a great religious center, but
until excavations shall have been conducted on the modern site of the
town, the problems connected with the worship of Ishtar of Arbela cannot
be solved. It is quite possible, if not probable, that the three Ishtars
are each of independent origin. The 'queen of Kidmuru,' indeed, I
venture to think, is the indigenous Ishtar of Nineveh, who is obliged to
yield her place to the so-called 'Assyrian Ishtar' upon the transfer of
the capitol of Assyria to Nineveh, and henceforth is known by one of her
epithets to distinguish her from her formidable rival. The cult of
Ishtar at Arbela is probably, too, of ancient date; but special
circumstances that escape us appear to have led to a revival of interest
in their cults during the period when Assyria reached the zenith of her
power. The important point for us to bear in mind is that no essential
distinctions between these three Ishtars were made by the Assyrians.
Their traits and epithets are similar, and for all practical purposes we
have only one Ishtar in the northern empire. Next to Ashur, or rather by
the side o