Reference no: EM132368450

I was surprised to read there were women gods. Such as Ishtar, the goddess of love, fertility, war and of Heaven. Aruru, the earth goddess, the Great Mother and Creator of Enkidu. Then, there is Ninsun, the moon goddess and the Mother of Gilgamesh. All of the women show strength as they are looked upon for advise and not just men. However, as great as it was to read about these women, I realized men felt there was still a negative side to their powers. We would soon discover that women were used as pawns of lust and seduction.

Women such as Shamhat, being labeled as a prostitute. She was being instructed to use her body as a tool for seducing men in order to get them to do as she wished and to "weaken" them. As she did when encountering Enkidu. Ishtar, the goddess of love, treating men bad who loved her. When Ishullanu wanted to stay with her, she only wanted to enjoy his manhood. Ninsun, was the Mother of Gilgamesh and she also used her body to entice men. When she dressed and went to pray to Shamash, she put on her most attractive clothes and jewels laid on her breasts. In order to be viewed as desirable, all of these women had power and used them by force or own their own admission in sexual manners. It appears the more men used women, the more the women could not or didn't think it could come to an end. Immortal and mortal women were used as sexual pawns in every day life. My opinion is everyone believed a woman's power was a strong as her effect of seduction. What this tells me, is that men had the power all along.