Inanna was raped by a gardener while she slept in the poem Inanna and Shukaletuda

Inanna was raped by a gardener while she slept in the poem Inanna and Shukaletuda. The poem Inanna and Shukaletuda opens with a hymn to Inanna, in which she is praised as the planet, Venus. It then introduces Shukaletuda, a gardener who is terrible at his job. Except for one poplar tree, all of his plants die. Shukaletuda seeks guidance from the gods in his task. To his amazement, the goddess Inanna notices his single poplar tree and decides to rest beneath its branches. Shukaletuda undresses Inanna and rapes her while she sleeps.

When the goddess awakens and finds she has been raped, she becomes enraged and vows to bring her assailant to justice. In a flash of wrath, Inanna unleashes horrible plagues upon the Earth, turning water into blood. Shukaletuda, scared for his life, begs his father for help in escaping Inanna's anger. His father advises him to hide in the city, amid the crowds, where he will presumably fit in. Inanna searches the mountains of the East for her assailant but is unsuccessful. She then unleashes a series of storms and barricades all roads to the city, but she still can't find Shukaletuda, so she begs Enki for assistance, threatening to leave her temple in Uruk if he doesn't. Enki agrees, and Inanna soars "across the sky like a rainbow". Inanna eventually finds Shukaletuda, who tries in vain to make justifications for his crime against her. Inanna dismisses his excuses and murders him. The story of Shukaletuda has been identified as a Sumerian astral myth by theology professor Jeffrey Cooley, who claims that the movements of Inanna in the story match with the motions of the planet Venus. He further claims that as Shukaletuda was praying to the goddess, he was maybe looking toward Venus on the horizon.