1. Sumerian goddess Inanna
2. Akkadian/Assyrian goddess Istar, Ishtar, Astarte
3. Greek goddess Aphrodites
4. Roman goddess Venus

It is easy to combine 2 and 3 because the th>s and th>f occurs
in other words, thus obtaining A/Ithar-.  The metathesis occurs in
Greek in other contexts e.g. Athur > Atro (atropatis),
*kilkul (Witzel gives this as *gil gul) > *kulkulos > *kukulos > kuklos, etc.

It is not difficult to insert an n, and assume -nth- instead of just plain th so
A/Inthar-. According to Diakanoff  the i/u are allophones of /a/ in
Semitic. Thus, we have *anthar-. What could it mean?

Could have something to do with "heat" (passion?) ?

PS. Karachay-Balkar goddess of the home is Inay.

-- 
Mark Hubey
hubeyh@...
http://www.csam.montclair.edu/~hubey