Inanna was associated with the planet Venus
Inanna was associated with the planet Venus, which was called for her Roman counterpart Venus. Several hymns honor Inanna for her role as the goddess or embodiment of Venus. According to theology professor Jeffrey Cooley, Inanna's migrations in various stories may match with the movements of the planet Venus in the sky. Unlike any other deity, Inanna is able to descend into the netherworld and return to the heavens in Inanna's Descent to the Underworld. Venus appears to follow a similar pattern, setting in the west and rising in the east. An introductory song recounts Inanna departing the sky and heading for Kur, which could be interpreted as the mountains, thus recreating Inanna's rise and setting to the west.
Because Venus's movements appear to be discontinuous (it disappears for many days at a time due to its proximity to the sun, and then reappears on the opposite horizon), some cultures did not recognize Venus as a single entity; instead, they assumed it to be two separate stars on each horizon: the morning and evening star. Nonetheless, a cylinder seal from the Jemdet Nasr period shows that the ancient Sumerians recognized the morning and evening stars as the same celestial entity. Venus's erratic movements are related to both mythology and Inanna's dual nature.
The myth of Inanna's fall into the underworld is recognized by modern astrologers as a reference to an astronomical occurrence linked with retrograde Venus. Venus departs from the evening sky seven days before its inferior conjunction with the sun. The astronomical phenomena on which the story of descent is based is the seven-day time between this disappearance and the conjunction itself. Seven days pass after the conjunction before Venus shines as the morning star, corresponding to the rising from the underworld.
