Easter (for everyone at Renderosity!) by brewgirlca
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Description
My name is Ishtar! I am the Goddess of both love and war. I am a complete Goddess; I embrace both the dark side and the light side. I do not demand that you worship me and me alone for I know that there are other deities that may appeal to you more. But you should respect me, for I am the start of it all.
Hear me and learn well, for mine is your oldest story. You have known of me for almost 8000 years. My stories form the basis of all the religions of western civilization. Those stories most precious to your modern Christianity, the Resurrection, the Flood, those are MY stories; they were first told some 6000 years before your Christ walked on this earth. You have taken much from me without acknowledgement.
Let us start with my name; you have not been pronouncing it properly since the time of Christ. This annoys me. You call me Ish–Tar. That is not correct - my name is EASTER! This was one of the first thefts of Christianity and it was the most grievous. You took my name and my most sacred ritual that was held each year at the planting of the harvest. This ritual celebrated the resurrection of my lover Tammuz, the trouble I went through to get him out of the Darklands and my devotion to mankind by allowing them an annual harvest of grain. You took this ritual from me while spitting on my name, calling me the Whore of Babylon, and giving it over to a Jewish rabbi who got himself into a bit of a mess with the Romans! You took this ritual celebration of women's power, but one that men celebrated, and gave it to your demanding male God. This ritual has served you well has it not? It gives you hope for a better life in the hereafter, it gives faith to those who believe in rebirth, it gives hope that when your struggles on earth come to an end you will be embraced by "God." It is perhaps my greatest gift to all mankind.
Had you but given me due recognition, that your stories did not come solely from the mouth of "God," but rather have been spoken by many Gods and many diverse peoples for many millennia I would not feel so offended. Had you recognized my rites and not ruthlessly persecuted my followers I would have embraced you, for all peoples and all the beasts and flowers, rocks and rivers, these are all my children! But I love you all regardless of your beliefs.
So I am glad that you are now reading this. It gives me great pleasure that there are many of you from around the world who still enjoy the stories of Ishtar and see that they still speak to the human condition after some 8,000 years of civilization. What is it in my story that might still speak to you?
You still struggle with the balance between compassion and justice as you saw in the conflict between myself and my strictly law abiding sister Ereshkigal.
After all this time you still have the conflict between men and women; this will never go away. Even the Gods have such problems, so why should we spare you mere mortals?
But you also still have people who have the courage to rescue their loved ones. And I am not just speaking of my rescue of Tammuz, or Ninshubar of me, but the devotion of his sister Belili, who sacrificed her freedom so that her brother could have his. Pity that you have all but forgotten her name.
And there are still people who can provide sound council in times of hostility and conflict. Who can keep a level head and not make rash decisions. Think of my beloved cousin Ninshubar. Funny that in western scholarship you call her a man despite her name ending in -ar, which, like mine, is clearly female. Oh well, you have made worse mistakes! She does find it funny though that men find it necessary to steal the name of a wise woman for themselves!
And so I say to you in closing: Do not forget my name, for mine is the beginning of all that you know. You need not worship me, just respect me. But mostly I ask that each of you respect yourselves for who you truly are. For all of your diversity, for all of who you are, each and every one of you….
You are all a reflection of the Goddess!
Blessed be.
Comments (53)
brewgirlca
Plasmic background was painted by me in photoshop using Light and Speed brushes by Rajraja Ishtar is Arinae with faceoffs skin realism kit for V4, both at DAZ Final chapter of Ishtar in the Underworld story is at "Gift of the Goddess" Just to let you know, Ishtar's and Ninshubar's adventures will continue with a trip to visit their Grandfather Enke, seeking special knowledge and to thank him for sending Isimud to rescue Ishtar from Ereshkigal. For those who have requested more of Ereshkigal, her story will be the one after, a delightful and largely forgotten epic of finding love in the darklands. There are so many people that I want to thank, who helped me in my struggles to get this story through to this final stage. I received so many kind words, insightful observations, and pointed questions that it is impossible to acknowledge you all. Several of you really took me under your majestic wings and showed me the path to effective story-telling and image creation. So all that I can really say now is that I want to thank all you wonderful Renderosity people who saw this ancient mythic story through to its conclusion. Blessed Be Roxy
flaviok
Soberba, fantástica história, magnifica obra, aplausos (5)
Faemike55
Absolutely Fantastic render and outstanding story! I'm glad that you've brought in the other side of the story! Blessed be to you and may all the gods and goddesses of all realms look after you!
Iceshark39
Absolutely fantastic image and a beautiful background! Wonderful story too! Nice to know the roots of legends. Particularly one so dear to your heart! Beautifully done!
julesart
Wonderful image. Her face is full of delight and happiness. Your stories are well told and captivate the imagination. Thank you for sharing that part of you as the story teller. Nice work!
zil2008
WOW, roxy. You did an absolutely fantastic job on her. Full view is just out of this world. It is almost like she can reach out and touch someone. Your story is fantastic and well written also. Blessed be to you girl. Job very well done.
Tracesl
excellent story and character
shotgung0d
Good to hear that we'll be seeing further exploits! The time and effort you've put into these stories and images is obvious.
magnus073
Roxy you did simply brilliant work all around in this epic dedi to everyone here.
dianas..creations
This was absolutely wonderful! Fantastic story and dedication and a beautiful image to go with it all!! Excellent work Roxy....really amazing!!
brycek
Beautiful artwork!!
shadowhawk2zero
Roxy, As always it was a pleasure to see your ebot this morning. Then to my surprise after reading the title and then opening it knocked me back in my chair! This work is beautiful!! I love the composition of of this piece, the full pose and and portrait views of Ishtar are brilliantly done! I love the lighting, you gave her a really regal and loving feel to her. I am sure that she is proud to have you as her spokeswoman! I have to say that this is your best to date, try as I might I cannot find anything that I would change myself on this. I am still taken by her full pose, you have given her a pose that is elligant, but at the same time could change to a self defense or combat pose in a heartbeat. I bow tou your skill on this render, it is one of the best I have seen here at Renderosity!!!!
3x3
awesome render and atmosphere! fav*
pops
Fantastic work
Darkwish
You did very nice pic! Great!
renecyberdoc
i would worship her even without beeing a godess-lol,naughty boy rene, serious now. The story is really "Feet"-fat as we say over here,and the message within is really strong. we (the humans" always arranged of twisting things they we want to see and have them and more important the way we force others to see what we see. and when someone is not fitting the right cateagory well, we get rid of 'em,immigrants first, a pogrom here a pogrom there,-(although we call it different today -ethnic clean-up or crap like this. then whoever is of other color,other beliefs,and the whole f--lot. thats the highest spirit on earth the human beeing -my ass. outstanding creation and i apologise for the little rough approach (with my words-, but i always call a spade a spade and not chicky - micky) brilliant work in every aspect. a fav and a5+++++++
lorddarkwolf
extremely well done
cjoe
I really like the Ishitar look very retro but current as well!
schonee
Super Hun I love the story and the render is Awesome!
capelito
Wonderful story and beautiful character. Excellent work.
ragouc
Cool character.
svendsen
Beautiful character and pose... :o) Love her expression and the back. Great job... Carsten
adrie
Outstanding artwork Roxy, love your goddess and your story.....superbly done my dear friend.....a instant fav for me.
3dpoetry
Awesome work. LOVE the background. Wicked.
barryjeffer
An excellent way to "wrap up" such a wonderful tale of truth and power. Thanks for taking the time to build up to this ending of the actual story of Ishtar. I've enjoye each new post and this one, by far, was the most insightful and dynamic. Wonderful image to go with the history (her-story) Beautiful. smiling here, Seth
LMDesign
Magical background and a gorgeous goddess depicting your wonderful story :)
moonbunnie
I like the posing and expressions :) love her story as well :P
1010
She has such a beautiful face, a fitting title for such a beauty! hugsssss
lyron
Excellent portrait and story!!!!
sylki
Superb image! A wonderful no-holds barred narration! Blessed Be!!