Worship of Inanna
Her
temple at Uruk was her central cult center but throughout Mesopotamia her temples and shrines were numerous and sacred prostitutes, of both genders, may have been employed to ensure the fertility of the earth and the continued prosperity of the communities. Her clergy were both male, female, and a third which one would define as "transgender" in the modern-day. Male transgenders, known as
kurgarra, castrated themselves, females who identified as males were known as
galatur; both were thought to have either been transformed by Inanna/Ishtar herself or created by the Father God Enki to rescue Inanna from the underworld. The
Descent of Inanna notes that Enki made them "neither male nor female" and the clergy of Inanna's temple honored this tradition by embodying it.
