The Babylonian fertility goddess, Ishtar, is the same kind of goddess. She was a very famous goddess in Paul's day, among a myriad of other gods and goddesses spoken about in the book of Acts.
Some of those remnants remain with us today as they've been assimilated in to the culture, probably unbeknownst to you. The name "Easter" derives from the original word, Ishtar. Have you ever wondered what in the world do Easter eggs have to do with Jesus Christ? Easter eggs, or, Ishtar eggs, are representative of great fertility.
Actually, the word
Easter in English derives from an Anglo-Saxon root, varyingly
Easter, Eastre and Eostre in Old English and the Germanic Ostern which generaly translate to "east" or "dawn" and an early Christian cleric suggested that a goddess of similar name was worshipped in pagan Britain during the month of April(ish).
Outside of countries where Anglo-Saxon/Germanic languages are spoken the word for Easter usually derives from the Hebrew
Pesach or has another culturally peculiar derivation (specifically the Eastern European countries). The areas where Ishtar (or even Astarte or Asherah) was worshipped do not have a word for Easter that is anything similar to the English (or to Ishtar).
Now, whether or not
Ishtar and Easter/Eastre/Eoster/Ostern have an earlier Indo-European connection is up for discussion (I think there may be, but I don't think it matters much in this discussion), but there is no evidence that worship of Ishtar (in her Assyrian/Babylonian form) had anything to do with Easter as celebrated in Christian cultures anywhere in the world.
There is also no evidence to suggest that there was ever such a thing as "Ishtar eggs."
During the fledgling Christian years in Rome, the worship of the pagan goddess was fairly common. Pretty soon the two religions were vying for the hearts and minds of the people. The two beliefs became consolidated in the process. What we have today is a conflation between a pagan holiday and a Christian one.
I've no doubt that most major Christian holidays/mythologies absorbed local "pagan" traditions. Of course, they didn't have any traditions of ther own, being a new religion and all, so they had to incorporate local flavor (and I mean, really, how many converts will you get if you just read the many variations of the resurrection and everyone yells out "He resurrected! Yay for Jesus!" ) into their own festivities and this is shown in nearly every Christian nation (as most countries/cultures have their own peculiar Easter/Christmas traditions).
What I find more interesting is the ease in which the early Christian church was able to do this since myths regarding divine/virgin birth, birth/death/resurrection (and the particular seasons that they were represented by) and miracles seem to have been fairly prevalent in many pre-Christian cultures. If I were you, I'd be more worried about pagan influences on the scriptures, since the people who wrote them were of their time and had many influences upon them. How can you be sure that they didn't adopt some of the more popular myths and stories circulating in order to capture the hearts and minds of the people?
Edited by Jaderis, : No reason given.
"You are metaphysicians. You can prove anything by metaphysics; and having done so, every metaphysician can prove every other metaphysician wrong--to his own satisfaction. You are anarchists in the realm of thought. And you are mad cosmos-makers. Each of you dwells in a cosmos of his own making, created out of his own fancies and desires. You do not know the real world in which you live, and your thinking has no place in the real world except in so far as it is phenomena of mental aberration." -
The Iron Heel by Jack London
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