[1] On Paul's use of the story of Hagar (Gal. iv. 24-26), see _Ency.
Bib._ col. 1934; and H. St J. Thackeray, _Relation of St Paul to
contemporary Jewish Thought_ (London, 1900), pp. 196 sqq.; Hagar
typifies the old Sinaitic covenant, and Sarah represents the new
covenant of freedom from bondage. The treatment of the concubine and
her son in Gen. xvi. compared with ch. xxi. illustrates old Hebrew
customs, on which see further S. A. Cook, _Laws of Moses, &c._
(London, 1903), pp. 116 sqq., 140 sq.
[2] The Ituraean archers were of Jetur, one of the "sons" of Ishmael
(Gen. xxv. 15), and were Roman mercenaries, perhaps even in Great
Britain (_Pal. Expl. Fund, Q.S._, 1909, p. 283).
[3] With Adbeel (Gen. xxv. 13) may be identified Idibi'il (-ba'il) a
tribe employed by Tiglath-Pileser IV. (733 B.C.) to watch the
frontier of Musri (Sinaitic peninsula or N. Arabia?).
[4] This is suggested by the fact that Ashurbanipal (7th century)
mentions as the name of their deity Atar-Samain (i.e. "Ishtar of the
heavens").
ISHPEMING, a city of Marquette county, Michigan, U.S.A., about 15 m. W.
by S. of Marquette, in the N. part of the upper peninsula. Pop. (1890)
11,197; (1900) 13,255, of whom 5970 were foreign-born; (1904) 11,623;
(1910) 12,448. It is served by the Chicago & North Western, the Duluth,
South Shore & Atlantic, and the Lake Superior and Ishpeming railways.
The city is 1400 ft. above sea-level (whence its name, from an Ojibway
Indian word, said to mean "high up"), in the centre of the Marquette
Range iron district, and has seven mines within its limits; the mining
of iron ore is its principal industry. Ishpeming was settled about 1854,
and was incorporated as a city in 1873.
ISHTAR, or ISTAR, the name of the chief goddess of Babylonia and
Assyria, the counterpart of the Phoenician Astarte (q.v.). The meaning
of the name is not known, though it is possible that the underlying stem
is the same as that of Assur (q.v.), which would thus make her the
"leading one" or "chief." At all events it is now generally recognized
that the name is Semitic in its origin. Where the name originated is
likewise uncertain, but the indications point to Erech where we find the
worship of a great mother-goddess independent of any association with a
male counterpart flourishing in the oldest period of Babylonian history.
She appears under various names, among which are Nana, Innanna, Nina and
Anunit. As early as the days of Khammurabi we find these various names
which represented originally different goddesses, though all manifest as
the chief trait the life-giving power united in Ishtar. Even when the
older names are employed it is always the great mother-goddess who is
meant. Ishtar is the one goddess in the pantheon who retains her
independent position despite and throughout all changes that the
Babylonian-Assyrian religion undergoes. In a certain sense she is the
only real goddess in the pantheon, the rest being mere reflections of
the gods with whom they are associated as consorts. Even when Ishtar is
viewed as the consort of some chief--of Marduk occasionally in the
south, of Assur more frequently in the north--the consciousness that she
has a personality of her own apart from this association is never lost
sight of.
We may reasonably assume that the analogy drawn from the process of
reproduction among men and animals led to the conception of a female
deity presiding over the life of the universe. The extension of the
scope of this goddess to life in general--to the growth of plants and
trees from the fructifying seed--was a natural outcome of a fundamental
idea; and so, whether we turn to incantations or hymns, in myths and in
epics, in votive inscriptions and in historical annals, Ishtar is
celebrated and invoked as the great mother, as the mistress of lands, as
clothed in splendour and power--one might almost say as the
personification of life itself.
But there are two aspects to this goddess of life. She brings forth, she
fertilizes the fields, she clothes nature in joy and gladness, but she
also withdraws her favours and when she does so the fields wither, and
men and animals cease to reproduce. In place of life, barrenness and
death ensue. She is thus also a grim goddess, at once cruel and
destructive. We can, therefore, understand that she was also invoked as
a goddess of war and battles and of the chase; and more particularly
among the warlike Assyrians she assumes this aspect. Before the battle
she appears to the army, clad in battle array and armed with bow and
arrow. In myths symbolizing the change of seasons she is portrayed in
this double character, as the life-giving and the life-depriving power.
The most noteworthy of these myths describes her as passing through
seven gates into the nether world. At each gate some of her clothing and
her ornaments are removed until at the last gate she is entirely naked.
While she remains in the nether world as a prisoner--whether voluntary
or involuntary it is hard to say--all fertility ceases on earth, but the
time comes when she again returns to earth, and as she passes each gate
the watchman restores to her what she had left there until she is again
clad in her full splendour, to the joy of mankind and of all nature.
Closely allied with this myth and personifying another view of the
change of seasons is the story of Ishtar's love for Tammuz--symbolizing
the spring time--but as midsummer approaches her husband is slain and,
according to one version, it is for the purpose of saving Tammuz from
the clutches of the goddess of the nether world that she enters upon her
journey to that region.
In all the great centres Ishtar had her temples, bearing such names as
E-anna, "heavenly house," in Erech; E-makh, "great house," in Babylon;
E-mash-mash, "house of offerings," in Nineveh. Of the details of her
cult we as yet know little, but there is no evidence that there were
obscene rites connected with it, though there may have been certain
mysteries introduced at certain centres which might easily impress the
uninitiated as having obscene aspects. She was served by priestesses as
well as by priests, and it would appear that the votaries of Ishtar were
in all cases virgins who, as long as they remained in the service of
Ishtar, were not permitted to marry.
In the astral-theological system, Ishtar becomes the planet Venus, and
the double aspect of the goddess is made to correspond to the
strikingly different phases of Venus in the summer and winter seasons.
On monuments and seal-cylinders she appears frequently with bow and
arrow, though also simply clad in long robes with a crown on her head
and an eight-rayed star as her symbol. Statuettes have been found in
large numbers representing her as naked with her arms folded across
her breast or holding a child. The art thus reflects the popular
conceptions formed of the goddess. Together with Sin, the moon-god,
and Shamash, the sun-god, she is the third figure in a triad
personifying the three great forces of nature--moon, sun and earth, as
the life-force. The doctrine involved illustrates the tendency of the
Babylonian priests to centralize the manifestations of divine power in
the universe, just as the triad Anu, Bel and Ea (q.v.)--the heavens,
the earth and the watery deep--form another illustration of this same
tendency.
Naturally, as a member of a triad, Ishtar is dissociated from any
local limitations, and similarly as the planet Venus--a conception
which is essentially a product of theological speculation--no thought
of any particular locality for her cult is present. It is because her
cult, like that of Sin (q.v.) and Shamash (q.v.), is spread over all
Babylonia and Assyria, that she becomes available for purposes of
theological speculation.
Cf. ASTARTE, ATARGATIS, GREAT MOTHER OF THE GODS, and specially
BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN RELIGION. (M. Ja.)
ISHTIB, or Istib (anc. _Astibon_, Slav. _Shtipliye_ or _Shtip_), a town
of Macedonia, European Turkey, in the vilayet of Kossovo; 45 m. E.S.E.
of Uskub. Pop. (1905) about 10,000. Ishtib is built on a hill at the
confluence of the small river Ishtib with the Bregalnitza, a tributary
of the Vardar. It has a thriving agricultural trade, and possesses
several fine mosques, a number of fountains and a large bazaar. A hill
on the north-west is crowned by the ruins of an old castle.
ISIDORE OF ALEXANDRIA,[1] Greek philosopher and one of the last of the
Neoplatonists, lived in Athens and Alexandria towards the end of the 5th
century A.D. He became head of the school in Athens in succession to
Marinus who followed Proclus. His views alienated the chief members of
the school and he was compelled to resign his position to Hegias. He is
known principally as the preceptor of Damascius whose testimony to him
in the _Life of Isidorus_ presents him in a very favourable light as a
man and a thinker. It is generally admitted, however, that he was rather
an enthusiast than a thinker; reasoning with him was subsidiary to
inspiration, and he preferred the theories of Pythagoras and Plato to
the unimaginative logic and the practical ethics of the Stoics and the
Aristotelians. He seems to have given loose rein to a sort of
theosophical speculation and attached great importance to dreams and
waking visions on which he used to expatiate in his public discourses.
Damascius' _Life_ is preserved by Photius in the _Bibliotheca_, and
the fragments are printed in the Didot edition of Diogenes Laertius.
See Agathias, _Hist._ ii. 30; Photius, _Bibliotheca_, 181; and
histories of Neoplatonism.