Sex, Drugs and World-Threatening Destruction

Question: How much of a walking disaster is Ishtar really? Everyone loves her, but most of her stories are about her screwing people over for her own selfish reasons. Don't tell me her epic social attributes allow her to be that much of a you-know and get away with it.

Oh, but they do. That's exactly what Epic social attributes do, in fact. Ishtar is so mind-meltingly beautiful, effortlessly charming and unnoticeably convincing that it's nearly impossible to do anything but love her, no matter what she does, which is unfortunate because she is very prone to massive tantrums and destructively petulant behavior. Having the Ultimate in all three of those attributes means that Ishtar isn't just the most wonderful-seeming person you can conceive of; it means that she's literally so awesome you can't conceive of her. Her awesomeness is off the charts. It is indescribable. It goes to eleven (or twelve). Mortals just stare, drool, or fall at her feet. Scions don't do much better. Gods can deal with her, but only if they're prepared with hefty resistances of their own (and if not, they end up like hapless Enki, drunk on the floor wondering where their pants and powers went), and even the most spiritually stalwart will still want to hang out with and like her. That's what Epic socials do; they are all about getting others to want to do what you want, to love you no matter what you do and to be so distracted by your presence that they probably won't be able to remember what else was going on in the scene around them.

Gods with Ultimate socials are always out there making people do things that are against their better judgment, or using them to just roll over the competition socially when there's nothing they can do about it. Ishtar is no different, and in fact she's probably one of the pioneers of the art; whether it's stealing others' powers, attempting to kill people who have pissed her off, condemning her husband to the Underworld or throwing tantrums that terrify even Anu, she's a time bomb with a pretty face who is almost impossible to try to punish or argue with. When Ishtar's upset, everybody's upset. When Ishtar wants something, everybody falls over themselves to give it to her (unless they put up the utmost resistance, but even then they usually lose). When Ishtar decides something is going to happen, it's just easier to let her have it than to try to deal with that much Epic Charisma and Appearance being upset right in your face (not to mention the fact that she can and will break things until someone does what she wants). The only person who has ever managed to punish Ishtar is her sister Ereshkigal, an equally beautiful and terrible figure; the only person who has ever told her no is Gilgamesh, who pointed out that he didn't want to end up dead and doomed like everybody else she sleeps with.

(Interestingly, some scholars believe that Gilgamesh was homosexual and romantically attached to Enkidu as well as being his best friend - in particular, Enkidu's presence stopping Gilgamesh from exercising his right to sleep with all the ladies in the kingdom anymore and Gilgamesh's apparent lack of interest in wildly hot Ishtar are the major points of proof for this theory, though of course it's just a scholarly theory so it entirely depends on your preference for the story.)

Ishtar is actually very carefully set up as a chaotic mess in her mythology; unlike all other love goddesses, she never has any children, nor even surrogate children or beloved pets. She is specifically never allowed to fill the role of mother, because she is a cosmic figure of irresponsibility; she can be daughter, lover and even wife, but she can't take on a nurturing role because she's sort of the antithesis of nurture. Researchers have written entire dissertations on Ishtar and how she is at once the archetypal love goddess whose mold all others follow, and uniquely herself, somehow managing to have none of the fertility connotations that a sex goddess normally embodies.

So, yeah. Unfortunately for the Anunna, Ishtar is that much of a disaster and a force for chaos among them. But they love her, and they're pretty much always going to love her, so they deal with it - just like the Dodekatheon deal with Apollo's occasional rampages or the Aztlanti sigh and shake their heads over Xochiquetzal.