Ishtar and Ereshkigal are the daughters of the Moon God Sin and sisters of the Sun God Shamash, and members of a family of deities called the Anunnaki, who arrived from the heavens to the earth many thousands of years ago. Ishtar, as Inanna, was the original goddess of love and the forerunner to all of the fertility goddesses that followed. Ereshkigal was the original ruler of the underworld and the goddess of death. As the queens of heaven and the underworld, Ishtar and Ereshkigal represent the opposing forces that allow life, death and rebirth to occur in the world. **