It is quite possible, therefore, that the two aspects of Venus, as evening and morning stars, corresponding, as they do, to the summer and winter seasons, are reflected in this double character of the goddess.

We are not justified, however, in going further and assuming that her double role as daughter of Sin and daughter of Anu is to be accounted for in the same manner.

In the Gilgamesh epic, she is found in association with Anu, and to the latter she appeals for protection as her father, and yet it is as the daughter of Sin that she enters the world of the dead to seek for the waters that may heal her bridegroom, Tammuz.[70] Evidently, the distinction between Ishtar as the daughter of Anu and as the daughter of Sin is not an important one, the term daughter in both cases being a metaphor to express a relationship both of physical nature and of a political character.

Of the various forms under which the goddess appears, that of Anunit--a feminine form indicating descent from and appertaining to Anu--attaches itself most clearly to the god of heaven, and it may be that it was not until the assimilation of Anunit and Nana with Ishtar that the goddess is viewed as at once the daughter of Anu and of Sin.

If this be so, there is surely nothing strange in the fact that a planet like Venus should be regarded in one place as the daughter of heaven and in another brought into relationship with the moon.