I know how the Gods begin. We begin as dreams, then we emerge from them to walk the earth. They worship us, they love us, and they empower us. And suddenly one day they no longer worship us and in the end each god and goddess embarks on their journey to return to dreams and what happens next, not even we know.- Ishtar
Ishtar was a Mesopotamian goddess and former lover of Destruction in Brief Lives. She was once known as Belili and Astarte, both of which she was called by Dream when they met before she emphatically insisted on Ishtar.
History[]
Ishtar was once a goddess, chief deity of Tyre and Sidon, based on the mythological figure who was worshiped as both a good and evil goddess by the people of the ancient Near East. They honored her as the protector of marriage and motherhood, of sexual love and fertility, and as a warrior and storm goddess.
She was also once the lover of Destruction, a relationship Dream did not approve of. She referred to Destruction as the one good man she had ever found, but in the end, they split up some 2,000 years ago; "Fights about his family and his job. You know how it goes." But she avowed she had loved him.
Ishtar Dances
In Brief Lives, Ishtar was working as an exotic dancer at Suffragette City, a pale shadow of the "temples of desire" she was once a patron of. Another dancer, Tiffany, asked why she didn't do her best moves, that it was obvious she was only marking time, she explained that in a strip club, that wasn't what the patrons came to see..."and they don't want to see me dancing for real."
After a confrontation with Dream, who was assisting Delirium in her search for Destruction, Ishtar decided to really dance: "You've never really seen me dance...Once in every great year, the sacred king would see me dance. It was the last thing he ever saw...no man would ever desire to see anything more, once he had seen me dance...I'm going to dance now, I'm afraid."
Ishtar goes up on stage completely naked and begins to perform such an incredible dance that it enchants everyone in the club except Tiffany. While she dances, Ishtar begins to release divine energy from her body, which jumps like sparks with each turn and pirouette she does.
Her dance drew all her remaining power, patrons died, and the club collapsed, Ishtar was destroyed, only Tiffany survived.
As stated by Dream after completing his quest with Delirium, Ishtar had returned to the Dreaming in order to make her final journey into oblivion. With him sending a messenger to inform her about Destructution as a final message.
Appearance[]
Ishtar is a woman of extraordinary beauty, with pale skin, golden eyes, and long, straight reddish-brown hair.
Personality[]
Ishtar is a simple woman who yearns for the times when she was venerated. She is kind to her friend Tiffany but can be very sharp with people she resents, like Dream, whom she still held a grudge against for making Destruction break up with her.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Immortality: Ishtar as a Goddess is immortal, having existed since the first human civilizations.
- Amokinesis: As the Goddess of Love, Ishtar has control over love and the emotions linked to it.
- Divine Beauty: As the Goddess of Beauty, Ishtar radiates supernatural beauty, capable of enchanting and awakening the desire of anyone.
- Hypnosis: With her dance, Ishtar was able to hypnotize people, even an Endless like Dream was temporarily enchanted by her dance.
Relationships[]
Destruction[]
She and Destruction were lovers millennia ago but they split up due to his siblings being against their relationship. However she still loved him, according to Desire "even as she went, he was all she was thinking of".
Tiffany[]
Tiffany was a close friend of Ishtar, it is understood that Ishtar always looked after her and worried about her and her well-being, even when she asked her to leave her alone.