シュメール人は、イナンナを戦いと愛の女神として崇拝していた<ref>Black, Green, 1992, page108</ref>。イナンナの物語は、他の神々が固定的な役割と限られた領域を持つのとは異なり、征服から征服へと移り変わっていく姿を描いている<ref>Vanstiphout, 1984, pages225–228</ref><ref>Penglase, 1994, pages15–17</ref>。彼女は若く、気性が荒く、自分に与えられた以上の権力を常に求めているように描かれていた<ref>Vanstiphout, 1984, pages225–228</ref><ref>Penglase, 1994, pages15–17</ref>。
イナンナは愛の女神として崇拝されていたが、結婚の女神でもなければ、母なる女神とみなされることもなかった<ref>Black, Green, 1992, pp108–9</ref><ref>Leick, 2013, pages65–66</ref>。 アンドリュー・R・ジョージは、「あらゆる神話によれば、イシュタルは(中略)気質的にそのような職務には向いていなかった」とまで言っている<ref>George, 2015, p8</ref>。ジュリア・M・アッシャー・グレイヴは、イナンナが母神でないために特に重要であったとさえ(Asher-Greveが)提唱している<ref>Asher-Greve, Westenholz, 2013, p140, " Asher-Greve 2003; cf. Groneberg (1986a: 45) argues that Inana is significant because she is ''not'' a mother goddess [...]"</ref>。イナンナは愛の女神として、メソポタミア人が呪文を唱える際によく定量的<sup>''(要出典、August 2022)''</sup>に呼び出された<ref>Asher-Greve Julia M., Joan Goodnick Westenholz, Images, Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis: 259, Goddesses in Context: On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Gender in Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources, 2013, https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/135436/1/Asher-Greve_Westenholz_2013_Goddesses_in_Context.pdf, Fribourg, Academic Press, 2013, page242, isbn:9783525543825, 26 August 2022<br />『グラハム・カニンガム (1997: 171)によれば、呪文は「象徴的同一性の形式」と関係があり、いくつかの女神との象徴的同一性は、例えば[...]イナナとナナヤとのセックスと愛に関する事項[...]など、その神の機能または領域に関係していることは明らかであるように思われる。』 </ref>。
Although she was worshipped as the goddess of love, Inanna was not the goddess of marriage, nor was she ever viewed as a mother goddess. [[Andrew R. George]] goes as far as stating that "According to all mythology,
Ištar was not(...) temperamentally disposed" towards such functions. Julia M. Asher-Greve has even proposed (by Asher-Greve) that Inanna was significant specifically because she was not a mother goddess. As a love goddess, she was commonly{{quantify|date=August 2022}} invoked by Mesopotamians in incantations.<ref>{{cite book |last1 = Asher-Greve |first1 = Julia M. |editor-last1 = Asher-Greve |editor-first1 = Julia M. |editor-last2 = Westenholz |editor-first2 = Joan Goodnick |editor-link2 = Joan Goodnick Westenholz |chapter = Images |series = Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis: 259 |title = Goddesses in Context: On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Gender in Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources |year = 2013 |url = https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/135436/1/Asher-Greve_Westenholz_2013_Goddesses_in_Context.pdf |location = Fribourg |publisher = Academic Press |publication-date = 2013 |page = 242 |isbn = 9783525543825 |access-date = 26 August 2022 |quote = According to Graham Cunningham (1997: 171) incantations are connected with 'forms of symbolic identification', and it seems obvious that symbolic identitification with some goddesses relates to their divine function or domain, e.g. [...] sex and love related matters with Inana and Nanaya [...].}} </ref>
In ''Inanna's Descent to the Underworld'', Inanna treats her lover Dumuzid in a very capricious manner.{{sfn|Black|Green|1992|pp=108–9}} This aspect of Inanna's personality is emphasized in the later standard Akkadian version of the ''[[Epic of Gilgamesh]]'' in which [[Gilgamesh]] points out Ishtar's infamous ill-treatment of her lovers.<ref name="Gilgamesh' p. 86">[[#Reference-Gilgamesh|''Gilgamesh'']], p. 86</ref>{{sfn|Pryke|2017|page=146}} However, according to assyriologist Dina Katz, the portrayal of Inanna's relationship with Dumuzi in the Descent myth is unusual.{{sfn|Katz|1996|p=93-103}}{{sfn|Katz|2015|p=67-68}}