The mystery of Ishtar is not limited to the multiplicity of names and the diversity of manifestations, but extends to everything related to her, from characteristics, functions, rituals, myths, and hymns. Perhaps the Babylonian mystery of Ishtar is a model for similar riddles among the Ishtars of other cultures. Each of her secrets leads to another, and we can hardly grasp her in one form before it dissolves into another, or grasp her in one form before it turns into its opposite. She is the goddess of life and the fertility of nature, she is destruction and devastation, the nurturer of war, a lover at night and a fighter during the day, tending battlefields and raiding altars. She is the compassionate mother, the patroness of pregnant and nursing mothers, ever present near the birth crib. She is the dark, gaping gate devouring the corpses of humans. She is the goddess of sexual pleasure. She is the one who strips men of their masculinity and castrates them at her feet, the bed of heroes. She is the shining moon and the planet Venus. She is the light and its symbol is the eternal flame. She is darkness and gloom and what is hidden. She is the killer, she is the healer, she is the eternal virgin, she is the saving mother. She is the virgin, she is the holy prostitute. She is the goddess of wisdom, she is the mistress of madness. She is the illumination of knowledge, she is the unconsciousness and slumber of the senses. In her, contradictions trust and discordant things are reconciled.