Translation and retelling of the Inanna stories from the Sumerian. With the publication of this book, we have for the first time in any modern literary form one of the most vital of ancient myths- that of Inanna (known to the Semites as Ishtar), the world's first goddess of recorded history and the beloved deity of the ancient Sumerians. In this groundbreaking work, Samuel Noah Kramer, the preeminent living expert on Sumer, and Diane Wolkstein have retranslated, ordered, and combined the fragmented cuneiform tablets comprising the Cycle of Inanna to created an authentic portrait of the goddess from her adolescence to her completed womanhood and "godship." -- from Back Cover