Ishtar

Bigger than the mountains am I,
The Empress of the gods am I
The Queen of heaven am I
The earth’s mistress am I

Babylonian/Assyrian Goddess of love, fertility and war.  Personally I think she’s the same as Isis. The theme of Ishtar is common in bellydancing.  Below is a clip.  bellydance comes in different genres.  The first is gothic, The second is “wings of Ishtar”, and the third is traditional.  Do not pass up this clip, these gals are awesome.

BDSuprstars BellyQueen BDGothic IshtarBellyDancers

I’ve been to the mid east and seen these things.  Mostly tawdry affairs, a bunch of hard legs feeling up the dancers.  The dancers were mostly widows, in islam, if a woman is “soiled” or has no man to take care of her, she must go into prostitution, dancing or starve.  But allah loves them.  In Cairo I went to a couple of hotel and saw a higher quality, mostly Italian and East European.   Still not up to what you see in the west.  The best come from Sao Paulo followed closely  by NY