Note 1307 — Chapter VI · (continued 2)

For the cuneiform material see Delitzsch, Assyrisches Handwörterbuch, and, for various etymologies proposed for the name, Barton, Semitic Origins, p. 102 ff.; Haupt, in Journal of the American Oriental Society, xxviii, 112 ff.; Barton, ibid., xxxi, 355 ff. The frequent expression ilani u ishtarâti, 'gods and goddesses,' suggests that the original sense of ishtar is simply 'a deity'; it is not probable that a proper name would become a common noun and have a plural; cf. the treatment of the title ilu, 'a god.'