这个故事最早的版本是苏美尔语的《伊南娜下冥界》，伊南娜是苏美尔人的爱与丰饶女神；后来的阿卡德人称她为伊什塔尔，并留下了阿卡德语的版本。这些泥板大多出土于今天的伊拉克，其中阿卡德语版本的重要抄本，就来自尼尼微的亚述巴尼拔图书馆。

The oldest version of this story is the Sumerian poem The Descent of Inanna. Inanna was the Sumerian goddess of love and fertility; the later Akkadians called her Ishtar and left their own version in the Akkadian language. Most of these clay tablets were found in present-day Iraq, and important copies of the Akkadian version come from the library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh.

伊什塔尔在天上也有自己的星星，就是金星，人们常称它为启明星或长庚星。有学者认为，女神下到冥界的故事，可能和古人观察到金星会在夜空中消失一段时间有关。故事里一共七道大门，也让它成为世界上最古老的「闯关」故事之一。

Ishtar also had her own star in the sky: the planet Venus, often called the morning star or the evening star. Some scholars believe the story of the goddess going down to the underworld may be linked to how ancient people saw Venus disappear from the night sky for a period of time. With its seven gates, it is also one of the oldest pass through the gates stories in the world.

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