The history of Ishtar, champion of women's rights in Mesopotamia. Author's aside #1: The men in this story are quite the bunch: jealous husbands, devoted dogs, gay men, chauvinist pigs...
Author's aside #2: History isn't a doll you can dress up however you like. Mythology is.
A more serious blurb: Artemis, Aphrodite, or Athena? In the oldest myths, at the dawn of civilization and the source of legend, Ishtar was an independent woman. Unlike Isis, whose image was that of a wife and mother, she continued to shine as the radiant Evening Star in an age when humanity began to conquer nature and patriarchy rose, illuminating the lands between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers...
References: The Seeds of Eve: A History of the Battle of the Sexes; Ancient Babylonian Myths; History of Daily Life in the Early Ancient World
