Inanna,

Lady of Heaven and Earth

History of a Sumerian Goddess
Colophon
ISBN: 978 90 8954 621 0
First printing 2014
© 2014 Henriette Broekema
Original title:
Inanna, heerseres van hemel en aarde. Geschiedenis van een
Sumerische godin, 2013
Edited by Uitgeverij Elikser, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands;
www.elikser.nl
Copyright English translation © 2014 by Henriette Broekema;
www.henriettebroekema.nl
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Copy editor: Selese Roche
Cover design and book layout: Evelien Veenstra
Cover:
Goddess Inanna, provided with weapons and with one foot on the back of
a lion.
Cylinder seal..Provenance unknown. (Courtesy: Oriental Institute
Museum of the University of Chicago)
Cupper head, supposedly of king Sargon or Naram-Sîn, found in the
Ištar-temple of Niniveh, ca. 2400 v.C. (Courtesy: Deutsches
Archäologisches Institut, Orient-Abteilung, Berlin).
Restaurated disc of limestone of the high priestess Enheduanna of the
city of Ur. Diameter: 26 cm. (Courtesy: © Penn Museum, Pennsylvania,
United States)
Terracotta relief from the city of Larsa (Barrelet 1968, fig 527, Louvre AO
16681)
Terracotta relief, provenance unknown, (Barrelet 1968, fig. 744, Louvre
AO 8662
The author has done her best to trace rightful claimants to illustrations in
this book. In case this has met with no or incomplete success, or of an
inaccurate attribution, please contact the publisher.


This book may not be reproduced by print, photoprint, microfilm or any
other means, without written permission from the author and the
publisher.
Inanna, Lady of Heaven and Earth
History of a Sumerian Goddess
Henriette Broekema
My lady, on your acquiring the stature of heaven,
Maiden Inanna on your becoming as magnificent as the earth,
on your coming forth like Utu the king and stretching your arms wide,
on your walking in heaven and wearing fearsome terror,
on your wearing daylight and brilliance on earth,
on your walking in the mountain ranges and bringing forth beaming rays,
on your bathing the girinna plants of the mountains (in light),
on your giving birth to the bright mountain,
the mountain, the holy place,
on your […] on your being strong with the mace like a joyful lord,
like an enthusiastic lord, on your exulting in such battle like a destructive
weapon,
the black headed people ring out in song and all the lands join in with their quiet
ilulama.
(Inanna and the mount Ebih)
Plan of Mesopotamia. (After Sasson 1996, p. 839)
Contents
Chapter 1 The Sumerians
Chapter 2 Goddess Inanna
Chapter 3 Who was Inanna’s lover?
Chapter 4 The Temple
Chapter 5 The Temples of Inanna and Ištar in Mari
Chapter 6 The Secrets of the Royal Graves of Ur (I)
Chapter 7 The secrets of the Royal Graves of Ur (II): a Temple of
Inanna?
Chapter 8 Inanna supports the Kings of Akkad
Chapter 9 Enheduanna’s Hymns to Inanna
Chapter 10 The Appearance of an En priestess
Chapter 11 The En Priestesses of Ur and the Cloister Women of
Sippar
Chapter 12 The Moon-God of Ur
Chapter 13 Inanna as Venusstar
Chapter 14 The Love Lyrics of Inanna and Dumuzi
Chapter 15 The Death of Dumuzi
Chapter 16 Neo-Sumerian Kings make Love to Inanna
Chapter 17 The King on the Throne and the Divine Oracle
Chapter 18 Sacred Marriage
Chapter 19 The Song of Songs: Traces of Inanna in the Old
Testament?
Chapter 20 Tempe Prostitution?
Chapter 21 The Magic of Eroticism
Chapter 22 Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld (I)
Chapter 23 Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld (II): Funeral rites
Chapter 24 Kurgarra, galatura and assinnu
Chapter 25 Who is the Goddess on the Burney Relief?
Chapter 26 The Taming of the Shrew
Bibliography
Further Reading
Preface
Written language was first used five thousand years ago in Mesopotamia
by a people who occupied the territory between the Euphrates and Tigris,
in an area in present day Iraq. In the earliest written records Inanna
enjoys already a prominent position. She was both Morning star Inanna
and Evening star Inanna, names used to indicate the planet Venus which
appears as the morning star in the east and the evening star in the west.
For more than three thousand years Inanna was a top ranking goddess in
the pantheon of the Ancient Near East, and later goddesses such as the
Greek Aphrodite and the Roman Venus are distant heiresses of this
powerful goddess of the Bronze Age.
Inanna played a prominent part in the myths the Sumerians recorded in
writing about their gods during the third millennium BC, moreover she is
one of the very few deities we can recognize with certainty in the pictures
drawn on cylinder seals and reliefs. Inanna represented various
principles in the cosmos and while initially she was a powerful love
goddess, responsible for the fecundity of the cattle and the crops on the
fields, in the third millennium she emerged as a war goddess whose help
was sought by kings on the battlefield.
The time in which Inanna wielded power is called the Bronze Age, a
period that in the Middle East started about 4000 BC when the first large
cities began to develop. About 1200 BC, when the states of the Hittites
and Egypt and the Phoenician city states on the west coast of the
Mediterranean were overrun by hostile peoples, this ancient world was
lost to us forever. We can reconstruct tiny pieces of information thanks to
the written sources that have survived, but they give only a fragmentary
picture, their interpretation a difficult task, fraught with uncertainties and
leaving many issues unresolved.
Scholars usually specialize in a restricted branch of this research, but in
an attempt to make this world better known, I have tried to give an
overview of all those little pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that this world has
brought to light.
The Sumerian city states were theocratic societies, headed by a king who
played a central role in the private lives of the citizens and behaved as if
he was the son of the city god, to whom he dedicated temples in the
hope of ingratiating himself. Traditionally, and from the earliest times,
people in rural areas venerated their own gods, whose dwelling places
they constructed from reeds and foliage and in these modest huts left
their unobtrusive gifts, hoping the gods would not forget them. In contrast
to this, in the huge monumental temples that the kings built, the gods
lived as genuine feudal lords. However, whether in the public sphere of
the temple and the palace or the private sphere of the people, the
goddess Inanna had a specific place and in this book we shall become
acquainted with these two separated worlds.
Relatively speaking, we are in possession of a lot of information about
temple life, temples being the foundation stone of the economy of the city
states. We know for instance the name and work of a high priestess of
the moon god who lived in Ur about 2400 BC. Her name was
Enheduanna and she had a special relationship with the goddess Inanna,
to whom she dedicated three hymns which are an important part of this
story. Two chapters are dedicated to an account of the amazing
discoveries in the cemetery of the Royal Graves in Ur in use from about
2,600 BC, and one chapter is devoted to the so called temple prostitution
in Mesopotamia, currently a controversial topic. A number of hymns
which have survived about the relationship between Inanna and her
loved one, which perhaps bear traces in the Song of Songs of the Old
Testament, while the ritual of the Sacred Marriage, will be paramount in
the discussion. Inanna was also the focus of a widely diffused ritual
called Great Weeping. Her grief for the untimely death of her lover
Dumuzi seems to be reflected in the inconsolable mourning for the Greek
god Adonis and of Mary for her son Jesus. Even the Passion of Jesus
reminds one in certain respects of the way Inanna’s beloved died and
rose again from the dead.
The Mesopotamians carved their written texts with a cane, which was
pressed into a soft clay tablet. The result was a sign that looked like a
wedge, and so archaeologists gave it the name of cuneiform writing. The
first language scholars have been able to decipher is the language of the
Sumerians, who lived in the south of Mesopotamia. In the north of Sumer
lived the Akkadians who spoke a Semitic language, but borrowed the
cuneiform script from the Sumerians. Halfway through the third
millennium the first texts in the Akkadian language appeared and from
2000 B.C. onwards Sumerian became a dead language, living on only in
scribal schools that continued the much esteemed literary tradition, while
Akkadian became predominantly the spoken language.
The major part of the texts in this book and their translations are available
via the website of The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
(ETCSL: http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk), an initiative beyond praise of the
scholars of the university of Oxford.
The time of Inanna lies far behind us and it is difficult to give a global idea
of this ancient world. Our information of the past is very restricted and we
meet all sorts of customs and usages which in our eyes are quite
uncommon. I have tried to follow Inanna from the very first moment in
which we find her name written on the cuneiform tablets until the time she
advances into the full light of history. I have discussed political topics only
in so far as they are relevant to our story and are an aid to our
understanding of Inanna and the world in which she lived. The book
contains 26 chapters that are more or less independent and there is a
lexicon with the most important names and concepts and an index with
dates of the main rulers in Mesopotamia.
For Sumerologists, Inanna is quite a celebrity about whom immense
amounts has been written, but outside this specialised circle people
hardly know who she was. So I hope more people will become
acquainted with this mighty goddess and the story of how she was
worshipped in the antique world. Possibly, with the help of this book, the
reader will look at the sky with new eyes, seeing what our ancestors saw
when Venus appeared on the horizon as Inanna, with the moon and the
sun as her partners.
TIME TABLE
Early Dynastic period (2900-2350 B.C.)
Early Dynastic I (ca. 2900-2700)
Early Dynastic II (ca. 2700-2600)
Early Dynastic III (ca. 2600-2350)
First Dynasty of Lagaš
Ur-Nanše (ca. 2500)
Eannatum (Stele of Vultures ca. 2450)
Urukagina (ca. 2380)
Conquest of Lugalzagezi of Umma (ca. 2360 v.C.)
Akkad Empire (ca. 2350-2193 B.C,)
Sargon (2334-2279)
Rimuš (2278-2270)
Maništušu (2269-2255)
Naram-Sîn (2254-2218)
Šar-kali-šarri (2217-2193)
Invasion of the Gutians
Second Dynasty of Lagaš: New-Sumerian period
Gudea (ca. 2100)
Third Dynasty of Ur (Ur III) (2112-2004 B.C.)
Utu-Hegal (2116-2110)
Ur-Namma (2110-2095)
Šulgi (2095-2047)
Amar-Sîn (2046-2038)
Šu-Sîn (2037-2029)
Ibbi-Sîn (2028-2004)
Invasion of Amorites and (Elamitic) LU2.SU-invasions
Isin (2017-1794 B.C.)
Išbi-Erra (2017-1985)
Šu-ilišu (1984-1975)
Iddin-Dagan (1974-1954)
Išme-Dagan (1953-1935)
Lipit-Ištar (1934-1924)
Ur-Ninurta (1923-1896)
Larsa (2025-1763 v.C.)
Gungunum (1932-1906)
Rim-Sîn (1822-1763): conquers Isin
Old-Babylonian time (1894-1595 B.C.)
Hammurabi (1792-1750): conquers Isin and Larsa in 1763 B.C
Glossary
Gods
An god of heaven
Anuna-gods (also Anunaki): judges of underworld, together with the igigi-goden
Ama-ušumgal-ana ‘The Lord is a dragon of heaven’, surname of Dumuzi
Asarluhhi son of Enki, a magician
BaU2 also Ba-ba, goddess in Lagaš, wife of city god Ningirsu
Dumuzi shepherd, legendary En-ruler of Šuruppak, lover of Inanna, in later
times divinised
Enki god of the sweet water basin below the earth, ‘Abzu’
Enlil in the third millennium the main god of the pantheon; his temple was
in Sippar
Enmerkar legendary ruler of Uruk
Ereškigal goddess of the underworld
Igigi-gods gods of the underworld, together with the Anuna-gods they are
called ‘the Great Gods’, reference to all the gods of heaven or only
the gods around the polar circle, that never set
Inanna/Ištar Venus goddess, city goddess of Uruk and Kiš, goddess of sexual
love and, later, of war
Isimu(d) (Akkadian: Ušmu), messenger god of Enki, has two faces, Janus
figure
Gidim death spirit
Lahmu protective spirit connected with the circle of the god Enki; has six
curls of hair and holds the ringed door post of the shrine of Enki
Lama protective (female) spirit, who has always both her hands lifted up,
with hand palms turned outside in a gesture of protection
Latarak god belonging to the circle of Inanna
Lugalbanda divinised king of Uruk, father of Gilgameš
Marduk major god of the Babylonians
Nanaya goddess who personifies the sexual aspects of Inanna
Nanna moon god, in Akkadian ‘Su-En’, contracted to Sîn, father of Inanna,
his main temple was in Ur
Nanše goddess of Lagaš, associated with fishes and birds and divination
Nin ‘lady’, title of Inanna, the En-priestess and the queen
Ningal the wife of the moon god, and mother of Inanna, literally ‘Great
Lady’
Ningirsu city god of Girsu, main god of the city state Lagaš
Ningišzida ‘lord of the good tree’, underworld god
Ninhursag birth goddess. Literally ‘Lady of the mountains’
Ninšubur messenger goddess (sometimes messenger god) of Inanna
Ninsun mother of Gilgameš, literally ‘Lady wild cow’
Ninurta the original city god of Nippur, later superseded by Enlil and
changed into his son
Neti god who guards the gates of the underworld
Sîn Akkadian name for the moon god, city god of Ur
Šamaš Akkadian name of the sun god, his main temple was in Sippar
Šawuška Hurrian goddess, closely related to Inanna
Tišpak city god of Ešnumma, recognisable by the snakes that circle around
his throne
Utu Sumerian name for the sun god, son of the moon god and so
brother of Inanna
Ziusudra the ‘Sumerian Noach’, Akkadian: Ut-napištim or Atrahasis. He is no
god, but a human being who was granted eternal life by the gods
Sumerian concepts
Abzu sweet water basin below the surface of the earth
arali name for the steppe or underworld
eanna (of E2-ana) temple complex of Inanna in Uruk
Emesal ‘tongue of the women’, the typical ritual language that was used in
hymns and lamentations
ensi En-ruler, name of city ruler of Lagaš, Mari and Ešnunna
eš-dam tavern, name of the temple of Inanna
ešemen ‘skipping rope’ or ‘holy dance of Inanna’, ‘the game of holy Inanna’
is her frenzy as war goddess
bal-bale song that is performed with the bal-bale (a sort of lyre or drum)
garza other word for ME
giguna (Akkadian: gigunum) temple on top of a ziqqurat
gipar name for the residence of the En-priestess in the temple complex
girinna-plants fragrant grass like plants
he2-gal abundance
hi-li sexual allure
ka-luh (Akkadian: mis pî), mouth washing rite, necessary to make a statue
of a god
ME unchangeable eternal laws that govern the cosmos
melamma fear-inspiring radiance that is distinctive of gods
piqitum offer that naditum-women were obliged to bring in the temple of the
sun god Šamaš
parşu = ME, the rite that was strictly to be observed, originally it was an
attribute of the god, the garza, or an oracle staff
kaunakes Greek word for the ritual cloak of gods, king, priests and priestesses
kusarikku bull man, protective god who guards the entrance of the house
against evil intruders
masabbu-basket ritual basket, used by Enheduanna
MUŠ3 ‘scintillating’, ‘sparkling’, ‘divine radiance’, name of the cuneiform
sign of Inanna
nu-gig one of the honorary titles of Inanna, referring to her high heavenly
position; class of priestesses
suh-crown crown of Inanna; it is not known how it looked like, perhaps a veil
šu-luh-rites ‘hand wash rites’ performed in the gipar; these rites were some of
the major tasks of the En-priestess;
umun Emesal for En, ‘lord’
A short elucidation on the notation of the
cuneiform script
The first cuneiform signs represented only single concepts, so there was
a single written sign for ‘mountain’ and for ‘temple’. Inanna’s sign, which
we shall discuss in more detail later on, was also written with one single
ideogram:
= INANNA1
Later, the Sumerian writers began to use the signs alphabetically and
they could be read as syllables such as ba-, wa-, me-, la- … etc. At the
same time they continued to use many old signs that represented entire
words or ideas as well, which made the script very complicated.
Sumerologists change the cuneiform signs in syllables (transcription) to
make reading more comfortable. Take, for example, the name of the high
priestess of the third millennium Enheduanna, which reads:

However, some signs in this name can also be read in another way. For
instance, he2 can also be read as gan or kan and du 7 can represent the
sound ul. The reverse is also possible and the sound ‘he’ can be
indicated by the use of various other cuneiform signs. Therefore,
Sumerologists have given each cuneiform sign a number in order to
differentiate between the divergent cuneiform signs. In this way h e 2
indicates the second cuneiform sign that can be pronounced as ‘he’. The
number 7 in sign du7 of ‘Enheduanna’ means that there are at least
seven signs that can be pronounced as ‘du’ and that in the name of
Enheduanna the seventh sign du, i.e. du7, is used.
If we are not sure how to pronounce a cuneiform sign we write its name
in capital letters. Thus we write for instance INANNA if the cuneiform sign
can also represent other goddesses, such as Ištar or Šawuška. Compare
it with our traffic symbols, that can be read in any language. The same
uncertainty is encountered with the Sumerian word EN, so we also write
this word in capital letters, because it can be read in such a variety of
different ways, as En-ruler, as En-priest of Uruk, as En-priestess of Ur or
as ensi2, the governor of Lagaš.
When the cuneiform signs in Sumerian or Akkadian are transcribed, the š
is expressed as ‘sh’ and the ş is pronounced as ‘ts’. The ‘h’ sounds as
the ‘h’ in the word ‘human’ and the ğ sounds like ‘ng’ as in ‘England’.
Enheduanna, the name of the high priestess of the moon god, is
pronounced as ‘Enheeduanna’. In the translation of an original text,
square brackets […] are used to indicate a lacuna, which may be filled in
if the attempted restoration of the missing text can be made plausible.
Normal brackets (…) are used to elaborate on the meaning of a
sentence, or to explain a word.
Sumerian words are written with a short extension and Akkadian words in
italics. Thus enheduanna is a Sumerian name, whereas assinnu (a
follower of Inanna) is an Akkadian word. However, for fear of inhibiting
the legibility of the text I have not applied the rule systematically, so
although gipar, the name of the official residence of the En-priestess, is a
Sumerian word, I write it simply without extension as gipar.
1 The cuneiform signs are copied from the iventory of René
Labat/Malbran-Labat Florence, Manuel d’épigraphie akkadienne:
signes, syllabaire, idéogrammes, 1988 (6th edition).
Chapter 1 The Sumerians
The Sumerians
Once upon a time, the region close to the Persian Gulf and nowadays
known as Iraq, was inhabited by the Sumerian people. The Greeks called
this country ‘Mesopotamia’ which literally means ‘land between the
rivers’, as the Euphrates and the Tigris, both of which rise in the
highlands of Anatolia, traverse the lowland plain of Syria and Iraq until
they finally discharge into the Persian Gulf. To the north lay the land of
‘Simurrum’, reminiscent of the name the Semitic peoples used later on for
the southern region, Šumerûm, from which our word Sumerian is derived.
The Sumerians themselves called their land kien-gi, which could be
translated as ‘land of the lordly En’, after the priest king (‘En’), who was
the head of the Sumerian city-state.
The Sumerians must have moved to this coastal area sometime after
4000 BC but it is not known from where they came. Their language is not
related to any other language spoken in the region and it used to be
thought that they had migrated inland from the coastal area, having
navigated up river from the Persian Gulf. However it now seems more
likely that the Sumerians came from the other direction, from the
northeast of Mesopotamia, and travelled down river to the south. It may
be that the name of the northern region – ‘Simurrum’ – indicates that the
Sumerians once lived here.
When the Sumerians entered the area around the Persian Gulf they
must have encountered other peoples who had already been settled
there for a long time, as traces of an earlier culture can be observed in
the names of a few cities that are not Sumerian, but must have come
from another unknown language such as Uruk, Ešnunna and Šurupak.
By the same token the name of the river Euphrates - Buranuna - makes
no sense in Sumerian while the name of the Tigris, Idigna, could perhaps
be explained in Sumerian as ‘the blue river’: i d2 means ‘rivier’; g i n3 is
‘blue’.
Small settlements of farmers had come into existence along these two
great rivers during the fifth millennium BC and they had diverted the
water of the rivers through a canal system to irrigate agricultural crops.
Everyone living in this place was wholly dependent on floodwater from
the rivers, as there was too little rainfall and the sun burned mercilessly
during the summer months. On the other hand the rivers could be
dangerous, as the land was flat and there was always the threat that the
river would overflow its banks and change its course, inundating whole
new areas, while other regions lost their water supply and farmers lost
their crops.
Swamps had been formed along the Persian coast as the great rivers
deposited the silt they had been carrying on their way through the plain.
Here grew the cane that was used by the inhabitants to build little reed
houses for the gods. This was the domain of Enki, the god of wisdom and
the magic arts. He was said to have brought civilization to the Sumerians
and he lived in a subterranean freshwater residence, the Abzu, situated
below the surface of the earth, but above the salt water expanse of the
ocean. The main temple of Enki was built in Eridu, a settlement then
situated much closer to the coast, where archaeologists have discovered
a prehistoric temple and a large quantity of fish remains, an indication of
the practise of offering fish to the god of this temple.
The Sumerian king list, written down at the beginning of the second
millennium BC noted that Eridu was the oldest city of the inhabited world.
This king list contains a mythical record of the ancestors of the Sumerian
dynasties, followed by historical kings, also verified from other sources.
Kingship was said to have descended from heaven and each town in
Sumer in their turn, exercised kingship for a while. After Eridu, various
places were assigned the kingship successively, such as Sippar and
Šuruppak but then the king list reports that a Flood came over the land
and all came to an end.
This relates also to the story of a flood found in the Old Testament,
Genesis (6:6-8). We learn that God regretted His Creation as people
were behaving badly, so He decided to wipe them out and only Noah, a
man who had lived in a righteous way was spared by God. He gave Noah
precise instructions on how to build a big ship - an ark - from gopher
wood covered with pitch inside and outside. In Sumerian mythology it
was not Yahweh, but the god Enlil who decided to destroy his people and
it was the god Enki who took the initiative to save a righteous man and
life on earth. Enki resolved to warn this man, Ziusudra, the king of the city
of Šuruppak and gave him instructions on how to build a ship to save
himself, his family and all the animals. Six days and seven nights this
vessel was forced to endure the terrific storm. The wind continued, the
deluge and windstorm levelled the land. When the seventh day arrived, the
windstorm and deluge left off their battle, which had struggled, like a woman in
labour. The sea grew calm, the tempest stilled, the deluge ceased.1 After seven
days the boat ran aground on mount Nimuš, and Ziusudra released a
dove but it returned to the boat as it found nowhere to land. After some
time Ziusudra released a swallow but again this bird returned and finally
he brought out a raven and set it free. The raven went off and saw the ebbing
of the waters. It ate, preened, left droppings, did not turn back. The survivors
then knew that the water had subsided enough to uncover land. They left
the ship and thanked their gods for their survival. Because of his great
merits the gods rewarded Ziusudra with eternal life.
After the Flood, according to the kings list, the kingship went to some
twenty other cities, the first being Kiš in the northern region. Then it was
Uruk’s turn to exercise kingship and the king list records the names of the
rulers of Uruk, such as the legendary Gilgameš. Uruk lay close to the
Euphrates, near the Persian Gulf, and in time it would expand into the
first true city of history. By about 3600 BC, Uruk covered an area of 2.5
square kilometres with a population of no less than twenty thousand
people and the city was protected by a huge rampart.
Uruk
Of all city names, the name of Uruk has endured the longest, having
been preserved till the present day in the name of ‘Iraq’. The current
Iraquian name of the former Uruk is Warka, and this name is also related
to the antique name of Uruk.
It is known that by around 3,400 BC, the inhabitants of Uruk had built
a new rampart with a circumference of 9.5 kilometres, the inner wall
being 5 meters thick and the outer wall furnished with pinnacles and
observations posts. Within the city walls were empty spaces, presumably
meant for agriculture and horticulture.
The citizens were proud of this city wall which according to myth, was
built by Gilgameš. The Gilgameš epos opens with a description of these
famous ramparts2:
He built the walls of ramparted Uruk,
The lustrous treasury of hallowed Eanna!
See its upper wall, whose facing gleams like copper,
Gaze at the lower course, which nothing will equal,
Mount the stone stairway, there from days of old,
Approach Eanna, the dwelling of Ištar
Which no future king, no human being will equal.
Go up, pace out the walls of Uruk,
Study the foundation terrace and examine the brickwork.
Is not its masonry of kiln-fired brick?
And did not seven masters lay its foundations?
One square mile of city, one square mile of gardens,
One square mile of clay pits, a half square mile of Ištar’s dwelling.
Three and a half square miles is the measure of Uruk!

Figure 1.1. The walls of Uruk. In the middle left the base of one of the
towers of the rampart is still visible. Photo during the German
excavations. (Vanstiphout, 2001, p. 149)
Uruk owed its growth to a trading network which spread far and wide.
The inhabitants played a major role and traces of Uruk culture are to be
found on cylinder seals, measuring jugs and architecture. They travelled
to the north, to the borders of Anatolia (present-day Turkey), to the East –
present day Iran - where they founded the city of Susa and reaching
Egypt to the West, probably via the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.
This ‘Uruk expansion’, as archaeologists named this movement, was
probably made possible because they followed trade routes that had
already been well established and along which donkey caravans passed
packed with commodities, copper, silver and precious stones. The
Urukians took along with them their tools, knowledge of production
processes, architecture, their eating habits as well as their own gods.
Sometimes they settled in places which were unpopulated, in other
regions they formed enclaves in the middle of the autochthonous
peoples. Perhaps the Urukians had come to the North of Mesopotamia to
hook onto the trade in copper and silver, the centre of which lay in
Anatolia with its rich copper and silver mines. In Uruk, archaeologists
found the workshop of a copper smith, as well as ceramics from Northern
Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Transcaucasia.
In Northern Mesopotamia, upstream of the Euphrates, an important
settlement of the Uruk expansion, Habuba Kabira, has been excavated
by Dutch archaeologists. It appears that around 3,200 BC, the Uruk
colonists had built a major settlement with dead straight roads,
surrounded by a solid wall. They had probably chosen this region
because it was advantageous for the farming of sheep and was situated
in an area with rainfall sufficient to support agriculture without irrigation.
There were open fields that could be used as pasture for sheep and
goats and possibly the immigrants grew flax as well. The demand for
wool and fibres was significant in Uruk as the textile industry was a major
source of employment for which the delivery of huge amounts of sheep’s
wool and flax was indispensable.
Did the city of Uruk function as a spider does in its web and was this
the reason why the city spread to such spectacular proportions? The
sources mention food which was to feed the large number of women and
children in workshops, spinning thread and weaving textiles on the loom.
These fabrics were transported by donkey caravans to the markets in the
North, where they were traded for tin and silver.
The Uruk-expansion lasted for about two hundred years but around 3200
BC it suddenly came to an end, the exact reason remaining unknown.
Some places, like Habuba Kabira were abandoned completely while in
other regions the Urukians were absorbed by the native peoples or went
their own way such as in Subartu in Northern Mesopotamia. The contacts
between Mesopotamia and Egypt died out and in the East the Elamites
took over the enclave of Susa.
Perhaps the end of the expansion in Northern Mesopotamia was
caused by the arrival of Semitic nomads, who had penetrated the plain
from the north and driven a wedge between north and south, as a result
of which the trade connection had broken down. Northern Mesopotamia
was cut off from the rest and experienced a divergent development.
The end of the Uruk expansion however, had not resulted in the end of
the city of Uruk, on the contrary, the city thrived as never before. Once
the contacts with the North were broken, Uruk was forced to find new
routes and shifted the trade routes to the Persian Gulf. Via this seaway
the merchants made acquaintance with the civilization that in India had
developed along the Indus River and thus continued to prosper. In the
written sources the name Meluhha pops up which might be the name of
the Indus civilization but it is not certain how relations with this faraway
land came into existence, as the script of the Indus region has still not
been deciphered. In the third millennium there was a little town in
southern Mesopotamia that was given the name of Meluhha so it is
possible that this was a colony of merchants from the Indus culture and
there is also a cylinder seal from Ur which was once owned by an
interpreter of the Meluhha language (see chapter 8, figure 8.3.) On the
cylinder seals from this period we see pictures of typical Indian water
buffalo, the animal having been imported to Mesopotamia one way or the
other from India. During the reign of King Sargon from Akkad (2334-2279
BC), this water buffalo was a favourite picture on cylinder seals (e.g.
figure 8.7), and the king himself boasted that moored on the quays of
Akkad were ships from distant Meluhha.
Temples in Uruk
In the earliest period Uruk consisted of two districts. In the western
district Kullab (or: ‘Kulab’) a sanctuary of An, the god of heaven was
situated. It is thought he must have been an old native god and his
temple lay on top of a terrace some 11 meters high. Archaeologists call it
‘The White Temple’, because the walls on the outer side were coated
with gypsum plaster. The Sumerians wrote his name with the sign of a
star:
= AN, e.g. An god of heaven or general sign for divinity
In the eastern district of Uruk there must have been a temple to Inanna, a
complex of huge free-standing buildings, in the written texts designated
as ‘E-ana’ or ‘Eanna’, literally ‘House of Heaven’, but details are scarce.
By around 3400 BC these buildings had developed huge proportions, the
archaeological records indicated as ‘Temple D,’ measuring no less than
80 by 50 meters. The entrance to this building was via the so called
Mosaic Court or Pillar Temple, though it was probably not a temple but a
monumental entrance to the rest of the sacred precinct featuring a
prestigious inner court with a peristyle. The diggers called this building
‘Mosaic Court’ because the inner court was decorated with baked cones
that had been inserted into the walls, the cones painted in shining black,
white and red and fashioned into geometrical figures. This building too
had enormous dimensions, 50 by 22 meters. In ‘Temple C’ the earliest
cuneiform tablets have been dug up, dating from around 3,400 BC. The
script on the tablets records detail the delivery of certain goods, which
give the impression of intense economic activity.

Figure 1.2. Detail of the Eanna-temple-complex in Uruk. Layer IV B, ca.

3200 B.C. Temple C and D are 1200 m2 en 4500 m2 respectively, that is
80% of the surface of the Notre-Dame in Paris. (Roaf, 1990, p. 63) 3
Figure 1.3. Pillars of the so called ‘Mosaic court’ in Uruk, the pillars are
decorated with mosaic bricks in white, black and red. (Courtesy:
Vorderasiatisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)
The excavators have named the buildings on the Eanna-complex
‘temples’, but some scholars have doubts about this designation.4 They
suggest that these huge buildings were the business houses and
workshops of competing families. The so called ‘altars’ would more likely
have been podia on which the local sheiks received the petitions of their
clientele or on which they presided during meetings with the local élite.
However, this may be too biased a picture when one considers the
realities of that time. As we will learn in chapter 4 secular and religious
activities were completely entangled. Rulers acted under the protection of
the gods and it was almost impossible to have one activity without the
other. They appointed priests who were responsible for the daily affairs of
the temple and they handled their business as if the temples were
palaces with a god as the supreme head.
Inanna was Mistress of the Eanna. According to the myths she lived in
the gipar, the section of the temple complex where the statue of the city
god was located and where the high priest or high priestess and the rest
of the staff of the temple lived. In the gipar there was a kitchen, sleeping
rooms and workshops but we do not know where in Uruk Inanna’s gipar
was located. It is also far from clear in which building she was worshiped.
Perhaps in the Red Temple, because it was here that many pictures of
rosettes have been found, a special mark of association with Inanna.
In the myth Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta the Eanna of Uruk is praised
abundantly. This myth was recorded in writing around 2000 BC, but must
go back to earlier versions that kept alive the memory of the great
Enannacomplex5:
E-ana of Unug Kulab was well founded,
and the holy gipar of Inanna in brick-built Kulab
shone forth like the silver in the lode.
Although Uruk developed strongly in the course of the fourth millennium,
the tools used for administrative purposes appeared to be increasingly
inadequate. Around 3400 BC, two inventions saw the light of day that
solved the problem: the cylinder seal and the development of writing.
There is almost certainly a connection between the two inventions 6 and
they are of the utmost importance in the pursuit of the trail of the goddess
Inanna, and so we shall elaborate on both.
Cylinder seals
The technology of stamping was already well known for thousands of
years. Stamps were used from its inception for decorating textiles, and
later when trade developed and merchants needed bigger vessels to
stock oil or grain supplies, potters started to use stamps to mark the
ownership. They pressed the stamps into the damp clay before baking it
in the oven and the stamp on the vessel proved the ownership of the
commodity.
The cylinder seal subsequently took over the function of the stamp
seal, a roller on which a drawing was engraved, a very small object,
usually not more than 2.5 centimetres in length, with a diameter of 1.5
centimetres. They were made from baked clay, wood or stone and the
king had his seal made out of lapis lazuli with a golden cap on both ends.
The seal cutters pierced the cylinder seals lengthwise and pulled a cord
through the hole, so that it could be worn around the neck or a pin was
inserted so that it could be attached to clothes.

Figure 1.4. Left: golden mount setting, probably dated in the Iron Age,
attached to a Syrian seal from ca. 1800, found in Cartage in a Punic
grave of the seventh/sixth century B.C. In the middle: a woman with a
chain of cylinder seals, which has been attached to her clothes with a pin.
Ivory inlaid piece from Mari. Ca. 2500 B.C. (Collon, 1987, nr. 479, 473)
Right: impression of a cylnder seal. Inscription: Ibni-Amurru, son of Ilima-
ahi, servant of the god Amurru. Hematite, 2,7 by 1,5 cm. (Collon, 1990,
fig. 6; © The Trustees of the British Museum, BM 89002)
If you rolled the cylinder seal over the moist clay the imprint was made
visible over the whole surface, which was repeated in a continuous frieze.
If the clay was dried in the sun or baked in the oven the imprint could no
longer be changed making sealing a trustworthy technique for recording
the origin of commodities. Vessels and chests were covered by a cloth, a
piece of leather or a reed mat and tied with a cord, the sender then stuck
a lump of clay on the cord and rolled his seal over it. The receiver had
first to break the seal in order to open the vessel then store them in an
archive as a record. Doors of storehouses were also sealed in this
manner.

Figure 1.5. Use of cylinder seals to seal commodities. (Stein, 1997, fig.
108, 109, 110, 111)
Stamp seals and cylinder seals have proved to be an invaluable source
of information for scientists. On the earliest seals we only see some
abstract figures, but later, at the end of the fourth millennium, human
figures are depicted working or performing religious activities.

Figure 1.6 and 1.7. Figures with pig tails with milk churns, spindle, loom,
and bags of wool, supervised by a standing woman with a pigtail. (Asher-
Greve, 1985, fig. 280, 282)
One seal depicts a person with a pigtail (figure 1.6.) probably a woman,
sitting on a reed mat on the ground with two milk churns in front of her
while to her left stands a large storage vessel with two big handles. To
the right a woman is sitting on a low bench working a spindle and
between them are depicted a dog and a scorpion, possibly symbols of
domestic peace (dog) and fecundity (scorpion).7
On another seal (figure 1.7) two figures with pigtails are sitting in front
of a loom while behind them a standing figure is depicted, probably the
supervisor. Behind this person is a woman sitting on a bench, packing
the spun woollen threads in bags. The figures on the seals are obviously
in workshops, processing large quantities of goods destined for the
market. The images on these and many others seals show us to what
extent economic activity has already been developed.
Agriculture was a major aspect of economic life and this information
can be gathered from seals depicting cattle sheep and cows in a meadow
behind fences and a male or female farmer milking cows. On one of
these seals somebody is sitting behind a reclining cow. In the foreground
can be observed objects which maybe a number of haystacks (figure
1.8). On an incrusted frieze (figure 1.9) two farmers are churning milk.

Figure 1.8. Figures with pig tails and reclining cow. Ca. 3200 B.C.
(Porada, 1948, fig. 4, p. 19; © Morgan Library Collection)

Figure 1.9. Farmer’s life, inlaid frieze. Tell Ubaid. (Moortgat, 1949, tafel
22; National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad, IM 513; courtesy: © Hirmer
Verlag)
The images suggest that women were very much involved in the
production process and we can gather from the information on the seals
that women also participated in many religious functions, walking with a
standard to a shrine or sitting on the ground clapping hands.

Figure 1.10. A procession of figures with a pig tail and standard. (Asher-
Greve, 1985, fig. 35)

Figure 1.11. squatting figures with pig tail and vessels and ears of corn
(standards?). Jemdet Nasr-style. 3200-3000 B.C. Height: 19,5 cm.
(Porada, 1980 (b), fig. 1, 2; © Pierpont Morgan Library, New York,
Corpus 1, nr. 16)
In the course of time the seals achieved a more personal character, when
the owner used them to sign contracts and letters. They always carried
their seals with them and attached great importance to them. They
valued those seals made of precious stones and sometimes they were
buried with them. These precious seals were also inherited and the new
owner sometimes erased the original inscription and replaced it with his
own or ordered the seal cutter to add new images.
The invention of the script
Human kind always has felt the urge to leave its mark and make
drawings on rocks, trees or other materials, but as a means of expression
this activity is rather limiting. Pictures on rocks or stamp seals can
express particular ideas, but without words we have no way to explain
them. The invention of writing changed all this in a radical way. In Uruk
people started to use for the very first time in history, signs that no longer
referred to concrete objects in reality, but that represented words of a
spoken language. This was a revolutionary transformation and the new
opportunities that the invention of the script made possible were far
reaching.
It is usually assumed that the script has been developed from the
counting system, although both methods are completely different. In
ancient times people counted not with abstract numbers, but with the aid
of tokens that represented each object or animal they wanted to count.
For each sheep in the flock the shepherd set a pebble apart. In the
evening, when he was herding the sheep to the fold he threw a pebble on
a heap for each sheep that had entered the sheep-pen. If he was left with
pebbles after all the sheep had entered the pen, he knew he had lost
some sheep. Archaeologists have found these tokens on many sites and
they were in use for more than eight thousand years.8
 In Mesopotamia this system was further developed. A shepherd who
was leaving with his flock received from the owner of the sheep a bulla, in
which tokens were locked that represented the number of sheep the
shepherd was supposed to bring back. To be sure that the shepherd
should not open the bulla in order to take away some tokens, the bulla
was sealed by a cylinder seal. On his return the bulla was broken and the
number of sheep counted with the help of the pebbles.

Figure 1.12. Clay ball with six tokens that represent oil vessels.
(Courtesy: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, section Bagdad)
There was no particular token for abstract numbers, but each commodity
had its own special token. Sheep for instance were counted with discs in
which a cross was engraved, jars of oil were counted with egg-shaped
pebbles and cones represented jars of grain, so seven notched pebbles
represented seven bottles of olive oil. However, once the tokens had
been enclosed in the bulla there was the danger of forgetting how many
had been locked inside so the tokens were pressed on the surface of the
clay ball before they were locked up and the number of tokens could be
seen at a glance from the outside of the bulla. At some point, a more
effective way to operate was discovered when it was realized that in fact
they did not need these bullae at all. If you pressed imprints on a flat clay
tablet you could immediately observe the number of objects. Wrapping
them up in a clay ball was in fact completely needless.
As Uruk further developed its economy, people felt the need of a system
that could register more complex transactions. With tokens it was
possible to record how many sheep, goats or jars of oil were stored, but
not whose property they were or who had received them. In order to
establish that the commodities were the property of the temple, the
temple officer marked behind the numbers a little icon that represented
the name of the temple, so he could make clear that the jars belonged to
that temple. But how could he register that he had not received the
goods, but dispatched them? Little by little the administrators employed
written signs for these transactions. These signs did not refer any more to
the concrete objects, but to the spoken language. This invention, though
developed through piecemeal initiatives, turned out to be one of the most
important events in the history of human civilization. For the very first
time, scholars could read a language and gradually, as the writing system
becomes more refined, they could understand a great deal more of what
ancient writers had intended. The oldest language scholars have been
able to decipher appeared to be Sumerian.
An example of this script is a tablet on which is registered a list of
various commodities (figure 1.13).9 On the reverse side the sum total is
written down, 29 followed by the sign . In later texts this sign was used
for the Sumerian word BA. This was originally a very concrete object
indeed, a sea snail that peeps out of its shell and called ‘BA’ in Sumerian.
But ‘BA’ also meant ‘to pay’, so the sign not only refers to an object of the
concrete world, but also to an abstract Sumerian word. The tablet writers
thus used the sign for the snail to refer to something they were not able
to draw. In the same way they drew for example the sign GI that depicts
a reed tuft, but which was used in the earliest tablets to convey the word
‘income’ as well, in the Sumerian language pronounced ‘gi’. The script
functioned in this way as a sort of rebus and this was possible only
because some words had two or more different meanings. Just as we
could draw a date, a concrete picture of this juicy fruit to convey the
abstract verb ‘to date’ or draw a leaf from a tree, when we intend to write
‘to leave’.

Figure 1.13. Administrative tablet on which the Sumerian word BA, ‘to
pay’,is written. Ca. 3200 B.C. (Glassner, 2000, p. 127, fig. 10)
In addition to the signs of the spoken language, the tablet writers
continued for centuries to make use of the old drawings that referred to
concrete objects or concepts. So they never wrote in full syllables the
word ‘dingír’ (god), but almost every time they used the sign of the god
An, as we have already seen above:

The tablet writer, the dub-sar, engraved the signs in the soft clay of the
tablet. He took a lump of clay in one hand and with a reed stylus in his
other hand, engraved the signs in the wet substance. In the course of
time tablet writers resorted to simpler signs with their reed stylus and as it
is inconvenient to draw complicated curving lines in clay with a stylus, the
signs gradually acquired angular forms and in the long term looked less
and less like the original images. In the end the tablet writer no longer
was actually drawing but pressing the end of his reed stylus into the clay,
making the image more and more abstract and ultimately
unrecognizable. These imprints give the impression of a small wedge,
and hence we call it cuneiform script. At first the script was written from
top to bottom, but later, in the third millennium the direction changed from
left to right, and the single cuneiform signs tilted with a quarter turn to the
left.

Figure 1.14. Example of the development of the cuneiform script.

(Postgate, 1992, p. 63; After: Damerow et al., 1988, p. 84)
Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta and the invention of the script
The Sumerians named the single signs of their script, ‘nails’, because it
reminded them of the nails the ruler hammered into the ground to mark
boundaries. The myth which provides us with an explanation for the
invention of the script involves an encounter between the legendary ruler
Enmerkar of Uruk and the ruler of the neighbouring and equally
legendary city of Aratta, that we have encountered before (p. 25). They
were boasting about the favours the goddess Inanna was granting them
and they communicated with each other by means of a messenger, who
constantly travelled to and fro10:
The messenger, whose journeying to Aratta was like a pelican over the hills, like
a fly over the ground, who darted through the mountains as swiftly as carps
swim, reached Aratta ….
In the end Enmerkar gave the messenger an instruction to pass on to the
lord of Aratta which was obviously too complicated for him to learn by
heart11:
His speech was substantial, and its contents extensive.
The messenger, whose mouth was heavy, was not able to repeat it. Because the
messenger, whose mouth was tired, was not able to repeat it,
the lord of Kulaba patted some clay and wrote the message as if on a tablet.
Formerly, the writing of messages on clay was not established. Now, under that
sun and on that day, it was indeed so.
The lord of Kulaba inscribed the message like a tablet. It was just like that.
Thus it happened. The servant delivered the tablet to the lord of Aratta.
But the lord of Aratta was struck dumb and only stared at the clay tablet
covered with strange signs. This he had never seen before. He asked for
a lamp to shine some light on the tablet but stare at the tablet as he
would, he could not manage to decipher the message that Enmerkar had
send to him12:
After he had spoken thus to him,
the lord of Aratta received his kiln-fired tablet from the messenger. The lord of
Aratta looked at the tablet.
The transmitted message was just nails, and his brow expressed anger.
The lord of Aratta looked at his kiln-fired tablet.
Because the lord of Aratta could not read and saw only some strange
nails, he was incapable of understanding the message of Enmerkar and
so could not reply.13 Thus by inventing the cuneiform script, Enmerkar
had defeated the lord of Aratta.
In English the script of the Sumerians is called ‘cuneiform’, because the
signs are shaped like small wedges. In Sumerian, the name of these
signs was ‘nails’, KAK.KAK. The Sumerian word KAK is a picket that the
city ruler hammered into the earth on the occasion of the foundation of a
city or the building of a new temple (see figure 1.15 and 1.16). These
pickets were also nailed into the walls as a confirmation of an agreement.
The little signs of the cuneiform script reminded the Sumerians of these
pickets.14

Figure 1.15. Foundation-nail of clay of Gudea, king of Lagaš. 2200 B.C..

(NINO-library; photo: courtesy Kozad Ahmed)

Figure 1.16. Foundation-nail of the temple of Inanna in Mari: a nail is

driven in a foundation key. (Parrot, 1956, p. 16, fig. 10)
The deciphering of the Sumerian script
It took a long time before the cuneiform script was deciphered as
scholars did not have a key that enabled them to read the strange signs.
Egyptologists had more luck in that they had access to the famous ‘stone
of Rosetta’, discovered by French soldiers in 1799 in the Egyptian town
of Rosetta. On this stone a text was carved not only in old Egyptian, but
in Greek as well and proved invaluable in enabling linguists to decipher
the Egyptian hieroglyphs in 1822.
At that time however, no progress had yet been made at deciphering
the cuneiform script.15 The mysterious texts had attracted the attention of
explorers who wandered about the Middle East in the 18th and 19th
centuries and they made copies of the strange signs they had seen on
steles, which they brought back to Europe. It was thanks to these copies
that the old-Persian language was finally deciphered in 1846. This
language was the least difficult to study, because it was very similar to
living Persian languages and dialects. The cuneiform script was also
relatively easy, because it consisted of no more than 38 signs.

Figure 1.17. Rock of Bisotun, 70 m above ground. (Photo: Wikimedia)

However there existed yet more texts in cuneiform script that scholars
could not read, as they needed a bilingual text, similar to the one written
on the Rosetta stone. The great breakthrough occurred with the
discovery of the text on the cliff of Bisotun, in the south west of Iran. This
text was situated 70 meters above ground level along a small ridge (see
figure 1.17). During the 19th century, the British army officer and
globetrotter, Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson (1810-1895), had hoisted
himself up high along the cliff to copy the signs. He used ladders in order
to reach the highest point of the inscription ‘with no other support than
steadying his body against the rock with the left arm, while the left hand
holds the notebook and the right hand is employed with the pencil’.16
Afterwards linguists discovered that the text was written in three different
languages, one being the Old-Persian language that had been
deciphered recently. This provided them at last with the indispensable
key with which they were able to decipher the other two cuneiform texts
on this cliff.
The text turned out to be a proclamation that the Persian king Darius
(550-486 BC) had ordered to be chiselled into the rock after his
coronation in 522 BC. In this text Darius renders an account of the
circumstances of his accession to the throne, after he had defeated the
usurper Gaumata-Bardiya. According to Darius, this person had passed
himself off as the legal son of the preceding king Cyrus and he regarded
these events as being of such importance, that he had them chiselled
into the cliff in the three different languages then in use in Persia at that
time, Old Persian, Elamite and Akkadian. All his people were now
informed of the facts although whether everybody could indeed read
these accounts is of course questionable. In fact, almost nobody could
read and write, and the cliff was almost inaccessible. But in ancient
times, to establish something in writing was by itself enough to establish
an almost mystical importance, conferring a specific power to the words.
Because linguists were able to read old-Persian they managed to
interpret the Elamite version of the inscription of Darius as well. The
Akkadian cuneiform however, still provided difficulties, being much older
than the other two, and deriving from the Sumerian script. The official
deciphering of the Akkadian dates back to 1857, when the Royal Asiatic
Society in London organised a translator’s competition. Four outstanding
scholars in the Semitic languages each delivered, in a closed envelope, a
translation of the very same inscription of an Assyrian king. An impartial
committee compared the autonomous translations and had to conclude
that the four translations were substantially identical, so they solemnly
declared that the deciphering of the Akkadian had been accomplished.
But this achievement had not revealed all the languages that once had
been written in cuneiform script. In the Akkadian texts scholars had
encountered many words that must have come from a completely
different language, later discovered to be Sumerian and not cryptography
of the priests, as some still believed.
In the third millennium BC both Sumerians and Akkadians lived in
Mesopotamia. Semitic nomads had penetrated the plain from the north
and they spoke an Eastern-Semitic language that scholars have called
‘Akkadian’, after the dynasty of Sargon of Akkad (2350-2193 BC). By the
middle of the third millennium, Sargon of Akkad had conquered the whole
Sumerian country and in the process adopted many of the superior
practises of Sumerian culture. They used the Sumerian cuneiform script
and wrote in the Sumerian language, just as monks in Europe continued
to use Latin until comparatively recently. Thus it was only in the course of
the second millennium that Sumerian gradually disappeared, by then a
dead language nobody used in their daily lives. From now on the tablet
writers only used Akkadian, a language that was to have a great future.
For more than two thousand years in the whole Ancient Middle East,
Akkadian became the lingua franca in which kings corresponded.
The pantheon
What is it possible to deduct about the pantheon, from sources which
research has made available? Before the invention of writing we have
only pictures and we can but surmise that they might have had a religious
meaning. But when reading the first cuneiform tablets we encounter a
world in which religious thought penetrates every aspect of daily life.
People felt surrounded by numerous gods and demons and they believed
that invisible beings had put into operation the whole cosmos and kept it
going. For every aspect in the cosmos another demon, god or goddess
was in charge and new demons and gods continued to make their
appearance. Research to date has provided the names of almost three
thousand Sumerian gods, which in prehistoric times were nature gods
without a definite human form. It was only in the course of the third
millennium that images appeared of figures we could label as
anthropomorphic gods because they wore a divine crown consisting of a
pair of bull horns, to be worn only by the gods. The higher the god was
held in esteem, the more horns he had incorporated in his crown and
these gods look entirely different from the demons and other singular
looking creatures from much older times. While on the seals, demons are
depicted as having a strange, unreal appearance, gods from later times
are modelled after the king and his court, as was known in the third
millennium. The king himself claimed exclusive rights to communicate
directly with the gods, built temples and appointed priests who were
entrusted with the daily care of the gods.
Inanna was the goddess the planet Venus. She was also city goddess of
Uruk, where also resided another god, An, the god of the dome of
heaven. He was the main god of the pantheon, but in mythology he plays
a vague and colourless role and originally he might not have been a
Sumerian god at all. The city of Eridu was the seat of another god,
named Enki, literally ‘Lord of earth’, god of wisdom and magic. In myths
we are told how Inanna tries to steal Enki’s power and bring it to Uruk by
boat. This myth is probably the result of a power struggle between Eridu
and Uruk. In the course of the third millennium the god Enlil, literally ‘Lord
Air’, became increasingly important. He was the god of the space
between heaven and earth and his temple was situated in Nippur, where
was to be found the world axis and the cosmic pillar that carried the
dome of heaven. This triad – An, Enlil en Enki – had divided the whole
range of power in the world among themselves. In heaven they
possessed each their own course over the dome, along which the sun,
the planets, the moon and Venus continue their path.
Initially, the gods were genderless, because the Sumerian language
makes no distinction between male and female words. Hence, ‘dumu’
can mean both ‘son’ and ‘daughter’ and ‘dam’ can be translated both as
‘husband’ and ‘wife’. However gods started to behave more and more like
real human beings, and in the third millennium they were pictured as
normal people with certain divine attributes. Only the sun god Utu and the
god of heaven An kept their own names, but all the other gods were
addressed henceforth with ‘lord’ (En) or ‘lady’ (Nin). Inanna was ‘Lady of
Heaven’ (Nin-an-na-ak) and the moon god Nanna, the father of Inanna,
was ‘Lord Heaven’ (En-an-na-ak). The gods were given a wife and were
gathered into one big family, the husbands and wives being secondary
figures who mostly led a vague existence. Ningal – literarily ‘Great Lady’
– was the wife of the moon god Nanna, and because the moon god was
the father of Inanna, Ningal became her mother. The sun god Utu was a
child of the moon god as well and so he became Inanna’s brother. The
wife of god Enlil was Ninlil, ‘Lady Lil’. Enlil was to become the prime god
in the pantheon in the third millennium and the priests and tablet writers
made him the father of all the other gods.
An: Dome of Heaven Moon (Nanna)
Venus (Inanna); Son (Utu) (children of the moon)
Enlil: Air

Enki: Abzu, subterranean sweet water source

Sumerian and Akkadian people saw the world as a flat disc that tossed
on the sweet water ocean, while below was the great ocean with salt
water and above extended the dome of heaven. The stars and planets
were believed to be the sheep and cows of the moon god, and on the
edges of the world, far away from the inhabited world, were the highlands
of the Kur, realm of the dead. In later times the netherworld was situated
below the surface of the earth, entered via a gate in the west where the
sun descended each night. Unlike the gods humans could reach the ‘land
of no return’ only when they died.17 The sun travelled through the land of
death moving underground to the east, from where he appeared in the
morning above the mountains. On cylinder seals we see the sun god in
the early morning ascending from the netherworld. (see figure 1.18 and
1.19.). From both his shoulders sunbeams are flickering and he is
wielding a saw (šaššaru) about which we will tell more in chapter 17.

Figure 1.18. Images of the sun god who rises in the morning from the
netherworld between two door leafs. The gates of Heaven are
surmounted by a reclining lion, for the opening of the door leafs was
supposed to have the sound of the roaring of lions (Boehmer, 1965, fig.
399, 400)
Figure 1.19 Modern impression of a cylinder seal. Seal of black
serpentine, provenence unknown, height 3,8 cm, diameter 2,45 cm,. (©
The Trustees of the British Museum, BM 89110)
The cosmos and the lives of human beings were constantly threatened
by dangerous creatures that sprang from prehistoric times and if people
became ill they thought that a demon had brought this about. Human
beings and these invisible creatures were both part of the same cosmic
world, there was no impenetrable screen between them, and they both
shared in the same timeless and changeless space. These cosmic
beings existed long before the gods and they joined battle against all
sorts of demonic shrimps that threatened the balance of the universe. We
see them on cylinder seals struggling with each other and possibly these
monsters were also responsible for the succession of the constellations
that took turns in the sky in the course of the year. The monsters on the
cylinder seals fight with the bull of heaven or the heavenly lion that might
be the zodiac sign of Taurus and Leo. When the sun rose in the
constellation of Taurus this was the beginning of spring; in the middle of
the summer the sun rises in the constellation of Leo. Both constellations
seem to fight with each other for the highest position in the sky.

Figure 1.20. A hero with six locks and a horned creature are fighting with
a bull and a lion (Boehmer, 1965, afb. 230; BM 89689)
When the Akkadians had penetrated the plain of Mesopotamia they not
only took over the Sumerian script, but welcomed the Sumerian gods into
their own pantheon, which counted far fewer divinities. The Sumerian
gods now received Semitic names: the moon god Nanna was called Sîn
in the Akkadian language, the sun god Utu was Šamaš and Inanna, the
goddess of Venus, was identified with the Akkadian goddess of Venus
Ištar.

Figure 1.21. Reconstruction of the old Mesopotamian world view

(Krispijn, 2004, p. 61)
Endnotes Chapter 1
1 Foster, 2001, Gilgameš-epos, tablet XI, line 131-135 p. 88; line 156-
158, p. 89
2 Foster, 2001, Gilgameš-epos, tablet I, line 11-24, p. 3
3 Postgate 1992, p. 113 fig 6:4
4 Forest, 1983
5 Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, ETCSL 1.8.2.3, line 13-15
6 Schmandt-Besserat, 2005
7 Asher-Greve, 1985
8 Schmandt-Besserat, 1996
9 Glassner, 2000, p. 127 e.v.
10 ETCSL 1.8.2.3., line 435-437
11 ETCSL 1.8.2.3., line 500-514
12 ETCSL, 1.8.2.3. line 536-556
13 Vanstiphout, 1989
14 Vanstiphout, 1989, p. 519
15 See: Lion and Michel, 2007
16 Cited by: Robinson, 2007, p. 76
Chapter 2 Goddess Inanna
The cuneiform sign of Inanna
By the end of the fourth millennium Uruk had grown into the largest town
in the ancient world. This must have been a long slow process of
development of which nothing is mentioned in the tablets found in the
city, while material sources about Inanna are confined to the extremely
concise pieces of information found on the cuneiform tablets. The earliest
tablets were discovered in the temple complex of the Eanna in Uruk.
These must have been written by the temple scribes and commissioned
by the priests, who were daily preoccupied with keeping the temple
economy going. If we are to judge by the information provided by the
tablets, the temples were a hive of industrial activity. Short notes were
made of all the commodities received by the temple personnel and
clearly recognisable are grain, oil, beer and their respective quantities,
with the names of the priests written on the reverse side. However we do
not know the origin of the goods as their provenance is not registered.
Perhaps it was the registration of the yield of the temple fields; perhaps
they kept track of the products the local people were obliged to pay to the
temple authorities as a rent for exploiting the temple property; perhaps it
monitored the payments the surrounding cities had to contribute as
taxation to the temple in Uruk.
The tablets also provide our first acquaintance with the goddess Inanna.
We still know very little about her but her written sign is very recognizable
on the tablets. Her symbol is a high standard, ending in a curl, with an
oblong piece fastened to the back. Sometimes it is preceded by another
sign, that in later written texts can be read as nun, ‘exalted’, ‘eminent’ or
‘princely’. The word group thus can be read as ‘exalted Inanna’ or
‘majesty Inanna’.1
Figure 2.1. Offerings to Inanna Nun. Obverse and reverse side of a tablet
with registration of the offerings. Ca. 3400 B.C. (Szarzynska, 1987/88,
Tafel 5, p. 139)
The earliest visual representation of Inanna appears not as an image of
an anthropological goddess, but as a drawing of an object that obviously
has something to do with her.
It is still not at all clear what the written sign of Inanna is supposed to
represent. On cylinder seals and reliefs we can sometimes see the sign
perched on top of cattle pens with new born animals peeping out, or
surrounded by huge vessels. At times they are set up in pairs in a field in
front of a temple facade. It is clear that the standard is just as high as a
human being, as we can see on cylinder seals from Uruk (see figure 2.2).
Two persons are standing besides two immense storage jars that are as
tall as they are themselves. The left person holds a kind of sceptre or ear
of corn, or possibly a date pollinator. The right person has got the symbol
of Inanna in her hands. She has a pig tail and is therefore probably a
woman. On a big feeding trough of gypsum (figure 2.3) a relief is carved
depicting a reed sheepfold with the standards of Inanna rising from the
top, with a number of rams and ewes and two new born lambs creep
outside. In the field we see again the symbol of Inanna.

Figure 2.2. A cylinder seal with two figures on both sides of life-sized jars.
The figure to the right is keeping the standard of Inanna. Ca. 3000 B.C.
(Courtesy: Vorderasiatisches Museum, Staatliche Museen Berlin © bpk -
Bildagentur für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte)

Figure 2.3. A relief of a trough around a reed sheep’s pen, Inanna’s

symbols are rising from the roof. Ca. 3000 B.C. (Courtesy:
Vorderasiatisches Museum, Staatliche Museen Berlin)
One of the first to suggest an interpretation of the symbol of Inanna was
the German archaeologist Walter Andrae, in his book about the
construction of the earliest temples of Mesopotamia, written about 1930.2
He notes that in Mesopotamia – just as in Egypt – standards of reed were
made by taking a bundle of reeds and papyrus growing in the water and
binding them into a reed pillar. This was done as soon as the water had
withdrawn and people could set foot on the fertile soil of the river bed.
Archaeologists have discovered traces of such twined constructions that
were probably erected on sacred places with a specific geographical
characteristic, such as an important route intersection.

Figure 2.4. Papyrus- and reed bundles, a en c are taken root in the soil.
(Andrae, 1930, p. 48)
In later times, when people built real dwellings for the gods, they erected
the standard of a god or goddess on both sides of entrance of the
building. All gods had probably their own specific standard that was
placed near their temple and on cylinder seals this is easily observable.
The standard of Inanna was bent on the top and had a loose plume that
fanned downwards. The moon god Nanna had a standard with a triangle
on the top. The standard of the god of heaven, An, presumably had a ring
or circle on both sides of a shaft. A pole with two pairs of rings on the
upper side was possibly the symbol of the god Enki. These symbols were
not only depicted on cylinder seals, but were also used later on as writing
signs to convey the names of these gods.
After the Uruk period these symbols lost their specific meaning, as for
example the standard with only one ring, which acquired the general
meaning, ‘sacred space’. This standard could also be erected near other
temples, such as the temple of Enki, the god of the sweet waters or the
sun god Utu (figure 2.5. and 2.6.)

Figure 2.5. Modern impression of a cylinder seal of unknown provenance.

The god Enki in his subterranean residence. Two lahmu-figures with six
curls hold a ringed standard in their hands. Height: 3 cm, diameter: 1,9
cm. Inscription: God En-ki. (Boehmer, 1965, fig. 513; © Pierpont Morgan
Library, New York, 202)

Figure 2.6. The sun god on an Akkadian seal. Two bull men are holding
the ringed standard. Ca. 2250 B.C. excavated in Nippur. (Collon, 1987,
fig. 765, National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad)
The writing symbol of Inanna could in this way be interpreted as a picture
of the standard the Sumerians had erected for their goddess near her
holy shrine. Inanna’s sign had a special name in the writing system and
was read as MUŠ3, which in the Sumerian texts means ‘scintillate’,
‘sparkle’, ‘radiating stars’. MUŠ3 is the divine radiation and other gods
were said to have this quality as well, but the MUŠ3 sign is especially
connected with Inanna. The MUŠ3 could be the shining appearance of
the planet Venus that, after the sun and the moon, radiates the brightest
light in the sky. The MUŠ3 of Inanna glittered as a diadem on her head
and a temple hymn about the Eanna declares that Inanna wears the
MUŠ3-crown3:
Your queen is Inanna, who adorns the woman, who adorns (the head) of the man
with a helmet. (She wears) the MUŠ3-crown (scintillating) as lapis lazuli.
What exactly the MUŠ3-crown looked like is not specified. The name of
this crown is the same as that given to the headgear of the king and the
high priestess, an adornment that was wrapped like a veil around the
head.4 Inanna’s MUŠ3-crown could have looked like that, but it is more
likely that the MUŠ3 was a general term for every crown that glittered.5
The agûcrown on your head is like the stars6, is written in an Akkadian hymn
(agû-crown is the Akkadian name for this head-covering). In astrological
texts from the second millennium all sorts of predictions were made when
Venus was seen to have a ‘crown with a rainbow’.7

Figure 2.7. Inlaid work of terracotta from Uruk in the shape of the symbol
of Inanna. (Andrae, 1930, Tafel II d, p. 56)
The name of Inanna
Our information about Inanna is scarce and we have to make do with the
few scattered clues that have been preserved, however with the aid of
these scraps of information it is possible to gradually form an idea of this
goddess. The meaning of Inanna’s symbol remains a mystery, but it is
striking that it is invariably depicted in the vicinity of the abundant crops
and animals. The goddess obviously has something to do with the fertility
of the land and cattle-breeding. Another indication of the significance of
the goddess can be inferred from the name of Inanna, as encountered in
the written texts. Inanna’s name can be analysed in Sumerian as nin-an-
na(ak), which means ‘Lady (of) heaven’, so her domain turns out to be
the sky, the place where the planet Venus circles. Because in Sumerian
the word ‘nin’ could originally also mean ‘Lord’, the sex of Inanna in early
times was indefinite and it was only in the third millennium that Inanna
acquired personal traits, and from then on she was a real Lady. However
in Mari in the third millennium, there still was a temple dedicated to
Inanna-Man, as we will see in chapter 5.
Inanna’s name was seldom written in full, almost always the scribes used
her symbol– the ring standard – that was rendered with the MUŠ3-sign.
Even much later – after 3000 BC – when the tablet writers no longer
wrote wavy lines with their reed stylus but made their cuneiform signs by
pressing the stylus in the soft clay, they still did not write Inanna’s name
in full, but with one sign only. This sign was evolved from the image of
her reed standard, but had become more abstract, which made the
original picture of the standard unrecognizable. From the moment the
script was written from left to right instead of from top to bottom, Inanna’s
sign made a quarter turn to the left as well.

Figure 2.8. Development of the written sign of Inanna: at first a picture,

later written with cuneiform signs
That the MUŠ3-sign was goddess Inanna’s symbol we only have been
able to deduce from texts dating from much later, in the second
millennium. In word lists and school texts of that time the MUŠ3 sign was
translated in Akkadian by i-na-an-na.8
A name had a special meaning for people in ancient times and they were
prudent in the use of their names because another person with bad
intentions could misuse it. They dreaded to pronounce aloud the name of
a divinity, and preferred to use a circumscription that seemed safer. Thus
they talked about the ‘goddess of the palace’ or ‘the goddess of the land’
or ‘the goddess of Nineveh’ to refer to Inanna or one of the many related
goddesses from the surrounding cultures. Perhaps Inanna’s own name –
Lady Heaven – was originally a circumscription and was perhaps the
reason why tablet writers also continued to use the MUŠ-symbol of
Inanna, in order to avoid mentioning her real name. In later times also
they always referred to the goddess with caution and gave her various
periphrases.
Majesty Inanna
Inanna was often referred to as ‘exalted’ or ‘majesty’ (nun), as on the
tablets that registered the offerings to ‘majesty Inanna’ (nun MUŠ), found
in Uruk in the ‘Red Temple’, the oldest part of the Eanna-complex.
Possibly people gave Inanna her name of ‘majesty’ because of her
elevated and supreme position in the pantheon but it could also be a
much older epithet for Inanna. In the time when there were no
anthropomorphic gods the Sumerians perhaps called Inanna ‘exalted’ on
account of the flickering glow of the Venus planet in the evening sky. We
can still admire it on cloudless evenings, when Venus as ‘evening star’
appears right after the setting sun. Majesty Inanna disappears from the
later sources, perhaps because she was partly substituted by Evening-
Inanna.9
Morning-Inanna and Evening-Inanna
Around 3000 BC two new names appear for Inanna on the tablets that
seem to circumscribe her qualities as morning planet and evening planet:
d Inanna-hud , ‘Morning-Inanna’, and d Inanna-sig, ‘Evening-Inanna’.
2
The planet Venus is a so called an inner planet, because it moves in a
smaller circle around the sun than does the earth. Therefore when we
observe Venus from the earth, it appears at one time of the year in the
western evening sky, at another time in the eastern sky, just before the
sun rises. Both manifestations of Venus were ascribed by the Sumerians
to different gods, who nevertheless, were closely allied. Maybe Morning-
Inanna was a male god, and Evening-Inanna a female goddess,
whatever the case, from the texts we learn that Morning- and Evening-
Inanna had separate feasts.10
Inanna-KUR
In the texts still another Inanna-figure makes her appearance, with the
addition kur, ‘(from the) mountain’ and the name ‘Inanna-from-the-
mountain’ is probably a name for the mythological KUR, the mountain
were she was said to have been born. The inhabitants of Sumer saw the
morning star in the east quickly skim past the Zagros-mountains and turn
slowly invisible under the light of the rising sun. The hymn Inanna and
Ebih – ca. 2200 BC – describes just how Inanna appears as the morning
star above the mountain tops11:
My lady, on your acquiring the stature of heaven,
Maiden Inanna on your becoming as magnificent as the earth, on your coming
forth like Utu the king and stretching your arms wide,
on your walking in heaven and wearing fearsome terror,
on your wearing daylight and brilliance on earth,
on your walking in the mountain ranges and bringing forth beaming rays,
on your bathing the girina plants of the mountains (in light),
on your giving birth to the bright mountain
(…)
Inanna nu-gig
Another title used to address Inanna was nu-gig. She was called for
instance nu-gig-an-na, ‘nu-gig of heaven’ or ‘nu-gig of the god An’. Until
recently Assyrian scholars always translated nu-gig with ‘hierodule’, but
this is no longer accepted. It is unlikely that the goddess Inanna would be
referred to as a temple slave, hiera (Greek: holy), and doulè (Greek:
slave), or even a prostitute of the god An, and quite contrary to the
elevated status of this title, which was used especially to praise the
strong power and sovereignty of Inanna in heaven and earth.12 In chapter
20 (deals with temple prostitution) we will come back to this issue.
The exact meaning of the word nu-gig is still far from clear, however.
The word ‘nu’ in the composition nu-gig is the same as the word lu2,
which means ‘man’ or ‘human’ and the word ‘gig’ means ‘taboo, apart,
holy’ so nu-gig should then be an ‘isolated human’, ‘taboo-man/woman’
or a ‘sanctified person’. A holy person was separated from the
community, but an impure or ill woman too was obliged to seclude herself
from the community and not allowed to participate in the cult, including
for instance women in childbirth, menstruating women and sufferers from
certain diseases.13 A midwife was also called a nu-gig (Akkadian:
qadištu), and thus a ‘taboo-woman’, because of her contact with mothers
of newborn children.
We can be certain that Inanna was a powerful goddess and this is clear
from the deferential names the Sumerians had given her, ‘Lady Heaven’,
‘Exalted Inanna’ and ‘Morning and Evening Inanna’, scrutinizing
punctually the movements of Venus in the sky, sometimes appearing in
the west, and at other times in the east above the Zagros mountain
range. Also, as we can read from the myths recorded on cuneiform
tablets of later times, Inanna always plays a self-willed and idiosyncratic
role in the pantheon.
Date palm
More than half a century ago the Danish-American sumerologist Thorkild
Jacobsen suggested that Inanna’s name did not mean ‘Lady Heaven’,
but nin-an-na-ak: ‘Lady of the date clusters’.14 The word ‘an’ in Sumerian
means not only ‘heaven’ but ‘date’ also. According to Jacobsen it was
only at a later period that this word was understood to mean ‘heaven’. In
his opinion the Sumerians saw Inanna as the numen in the date
storehouse. In the hymns which feature Inanna, she compares the hair
tuft of her lover with a date palm and she attributes to a beloved king the
properties of date syrup (see chapter 14).
But Jacobsens interpretation is not accepted by everyone.15 The
cuneiform sign of AN (a star) is normally used to convey Heaven or the
god of Heaven An and the common word for date in Sumerian is not ‘an’,
but ‘zulum’. Nevertheless, date palms for the Sumerian community have
been of the utmost importance and it is clear that the goddess Inanna
was considered to have an important connection with this crop.
Moreover, her sign could be a rendering of the date clusters, which hang
below the branches of the date palm. A date palm had obviously a
religious meaning in Sumerian communities, as we can see in the earliest
pictures gods and priestesses holding a date palm in their hands.
Date palms were perfectly adapted to flourish in the harsh climate of
southern Mesopotamia.16 According to an Arabic proverb a date palm
must stand with its feet in the water and its head in the fire of heaven and
this climate especially prevails in southern Mesopotamia, where summer
temperatures rise to 45 degrees. But the tree has accommodated itself to
these boiling temperatures and tolerates the salty soil of the south
exceedingly well.
The date had an important place in Sumerian economy. The
Sumerians ate dates fresh or dried or they used the fruits in their cooking
and baking. Dates were processed to make flour that can be preserved
for a long time and they can be candied or used as an ingredient in
syrup. The core of the date cluster is a vegetable which tastes of
artichoke, an alcoholic drink can be made from dates and when soaked
the pits provide fodder for cattle. Dates were an important ingredient in all
sorts of medical potions against complaints of the stomach, liver and
intestines. It was possible even to make shoes from the bark.17

Figure 2.9. Branches of date palms: left male, right a fertilized female
date cluster (Photo’s: Miller, 2000, fig. 4 en 6, p. 152-153)
Inanna’s involvement with the date palm may have to do with her role as
fertility goddess. There are male and female date palms (figure 2.9.), and
the pollen of the male trees has to fertilize the female trees, the pollen
normally carried by the wind or insects, from tree to tree. At some point it
was discovered that this process could be given a helping hand, so
before the pollen could escape farmers took a branch of the male tree
and tied it up in a palm leave, thus with the pollen enclosed in a small
pouch, they were able to shake it out above a female palm tree. This
intervention made it possible to grow much larger fruit, found hanging in
big clusters below the palm leaves.
Figure 2.9. Date palms (photo’s: Wikimedia)
The Mesopotamian peoples considered this fertility process – quite
correctly – a sexual process. The Akkadian word for ‘to fecundate’ is
tarkibtu, from the verb rukkubu. The root rakabu means ‘to ride’, as when
the male animal mounts the female to impregnate her, the same words
being used to describe the fertilisation of plants.18 This whole fertilisation
process was pre-eminently the domain of Inanna, the goddess of sexual
love, so it’s possible that Walter Andrae’s assumption was correct and
Inanna’s standard with spiral and tuft was in fact a stylised rendering of a
date palm.
On cylinder seals date palms are a common motif and it is noticeable
that the artificial pollination of the trees is carried out mainly by
women. In the third millennium these images are rather realistic, but
through the course of the second millennium the lines of the date palm
become more and more stylized.

Figure 2.10. Impression of a cylinder seal with a picture of probably

women who are pollinating with a pail. (Asher-Greve, 1985, fig. 288,
289)
 Figure 2.11. Old-Babylonian cylinder seal, first half second millennium.
The date clusters are hanging downwards on both sides of the tree;
the tree has seven branches. A god is sitting face to face with a
woman. Behind the woman a snake is crawling upwards. (@ British
Museum, BM 89326)

Figure 2.12. Stone relief of a stylized date palm. Tell Halaf, end
second millennium. The spiral form of the symbol of Inanna seems to
have been assimilated. (Danthine, 1937, fig. 1127)
Fecundity of the fields and livestock
Inanna was the most important goddess of fertility and it was of the
utmost importance to have her on one’s side. We can see on images that
Inanna’s standard is always in the vicinity of the agricultural scene and
the farmer felt obliged to her for the fertility of his fields and livestock. The
life of the peasant was harsh, very uncertain and the yields of the crops
largely dependent on influences beyond their control. They could not but
assume that these mechanisms were the work of mystic personal forces
who were stirring things up behind the scenes and they tried to propitiate
these powers with flattering prayers and generous gifts, assuming these
mighty powers behaved just as humans do in their daily lives. The moon
was seen as a big bull, the stars were his herd, Inanna was referred to as
a cow, just like other goddesses and at a later date the gods were given
a bull’s horn, to show their divine nature. The divine names in the
cuneiform texts however were preceded by another sign, viz a star
represented by a rosette, most probably because the stars in the sky also
reminded the people of a meadow full of flowers.19 The symbol of the
rosette turned into the dingir-sign – the written sign of a god – in the
cuneiform texts and was used as a determinative sign for ‘god’ or
‘goddess’. But the rosette was always considered the special mark of
Inanna and it represented more especially her heavenly character, her
‘star’, the Venus planet, a rosette with six or eight petals. We can
recognize this symbol on the side of a feeding trough (figure 2.13)
depicting two standards of Inanna erected behind two sheep, while below
the heads of the animals a rosette is depicted. We can read the scene as
‘animals of the goddess Inanna’.20

Figure 2.13. Side view of a feeding trough in Uruk (see also fig. 2.3.). In
the field the symbols of Inanna are behind two sheep with a rosette.
(Courtesy: Vorderasiatisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)

Figure 2.14. Rosette from the Sammelfund in Uruk of shell, quartz and
bitumen. W 14806. Middle line of the flower: 13 cm. (Heinrich, 1936, p.
44)
In Uruk various rosettes have been found in the same district as tablets
have been found depicting offerings to ‘Majesty Inanna’ (Inanna-nun)
(figure 2.14), which is why archaeologists see the ‘Red Temple’ as a
sanctuary of Inanna. The rosettes must have decorated the temple and
symbolized the goddess who was worshipped there.21
The lion was an animal that also belonged to Inanna and was probably a
symbol of the mighty power of the goddess. Depicted on a spouted
pitcher from Uruk – circa 3000 BC – are the standards of Inanna placed
between lions (figure 2.15) and on cylinder seals the goddess poses with
her foot elegantly resting on a lion. In chapter 25 we shall elaborate more
on both symbols – rosette and lion.

Figure 2.15. Cultic spouted pitcher from Uruk, ca. 3000 BC. (Heinrich,
1936, Tafel 22, W 14806g3)
Pictures of Inanna
The symbols of Inanna tell us something more about the way the
Sumerians imagined their goddess when they addressed their prayers to
her. The plumed reed standard of Inanna was never used outside Uruk
and was later only in use as the cuneiform sign for Inanna. But in the
course of the third millennium Inanna appears on stone reliefs and
cylinder seals as a woman with a divine crown on her head and with
cosmic attributes, such as wings. In the earliest depictions it is almost
impossible to decide whether an image represents a god or a human
being, because gods wore exactly the same clothes as people and in
Sumer no differentiation was made between men and women’ clothes
either. It was only around 2300 BC that we can perceive gods and
goddesses more clearly because from then on they wear a horn crown, a
round diadem on which bull horns were fastened.
In the beginning all goddesses looked alike. On a relief from around
2400 BC a goddess is carved with a big crown on her head (figure 2.16),
possibly made of two bull horns, however this goddess is perhaps not
Inanna, but Ninhursag, the birth goddess. This we may infer from the fact
that the relief is carved on a shred of a basalt bowl which king Enmetena
of Lagaš – circa 2400 BC – had dedicated to goddess Ninhursag. Three
stalks are growing from her shoulders, also characteristic of depictions of
Inanna, a feature that will subsequently change into the weapons of
Inanna (to be referred to again). From the crown of the goddess two
plants are growing that look like ears of corn and in a way are like the
Sumerian cuneiform sign ŠE, meaning ‘barley’. All crowns with this ŠE-
element have a trapezoid middle piece. The depiction of ears of corn
here probably symbolises ‘abundance’, which in Sumerian is rendered as
he2-gal2, ‘grain’, a metaphor for abundance.22 Also the date cluster the
goddess is holding in her hand might be interpreted as a sign of fertility,
as the special power of the gods to create abundance was very much
associated with Inanna.

Figure 2.16. Relief, Early dynastic period, ca. 2400B.C. Basalt. H: 25 cm.
(Courtesy: Vorderasiatisches Museum, Staatliche Museen Berlin, VA
3164)

Figure 2.17. Terracotta-relief, a priest is pouring a libation for the

goddess. Third millennium. (Frankfort, 1954, fig. 14 B)
On another relief (figure 2.17) we see the same goddess, with the same
crown and the same branches growing from her shoulders, while in front
of her a naked priest is pouring a libation over a stylized date palm jar.
The date palm branch that the goddess is holding in her hand may refer
to Inanna, but it could just as easily be a general symbol of fertility. This
goddess could be Ninhursag again, because she is sitting on top of a
mountain range, the name of Ninhursag in Sumerian meaning literally
‘Lady of the mountain range’. However we cannot be sure of this, as
according to myth Inanna also was born in the mountains (kur).
From the perspective of our time it is usual to try to recognize each
god as they are depicted in the images from this period, but for the
Sumerians an image never was meant to be a resemblance since they
did not know what a god looked llike and this explains why all gods are
depicted the same way. We can see exactly the same female figure
sitting on a throne on a stele from the time of king Ur-Nanše of Lagaš
(circa 2500 BC) but according to the inscription this time, it is very
possible that the goddess on the relief is indeed Inanna (figure 2.18).

Figure 2.18. Stèle of Urnanše Enthroned goddess en face. Inscription

engraved on the figure of Ur-Nanše. Inscription : ‘Urnanše, son of PN,
ensi of Lagaš, has built the Ibgal.’ ur-dnanse /dumu/gu-NI.DU/ensi2/ib-
gal-du3. Limestone. Heigth: 91 cm. (Braun-Holzinger, 2007, tafel 18, FD
5; p. 72 al Hiba; Bagdad, IM 61404)
The figure of the woman on the throne is given more prominence than
the figures of the king and his family, occupying the whole side of the
stele, an indication of her elevated rank. In her left hand she is holding a
date cluster just as in the depictions of Inanna on other reliefs and the
other figures on the stele are depicted walking towards her, making her
the central figure of the scene. King Ur-Nanše is standing in front of her,
his demeanour pious, hands clasped, head bald and wearing a skirt
around his hips on which is written that he had built the Ibgal.23 The Ibgal
(literally: ‘temple-oval’) is the name of the temple of Inanna in Lagaš, so
we may not be mistaken when we presume that the goddess on the
throne is indeed Inanna. On the reverse side of the stele Ur-Nanše’s
family is depicted and in the bottom register a women and her daughter
sit face to face and drinking from a bowl. In this early image of Inanna it is
already clear that she has close contacts with the ruling dynasty, a fact
which will remain a constant in the future.
In the course of the third millennium the attributes of Inanna’s depiction,
such as wings and stalks protruding from her shoulders, become fixed.
On a cylinder seal with the inscription Adda, tablet writer we see Inanna
on top of a mountain range (figure 2.19) holding a date cluster in her left
hand and next to her the sun god Utu, ascending from the mountains with
his saw in his hands. Standing next to Utu, is Enki the god of the sweet
waters, whom we recognize from the streams of water from his shoulders
in which little fishes are swimming and behind him stands his faithful
servant, Isimud, who is a Janus figure with two faces, each looking in a
different direction. What we know about the significance of this double
face of the messenger of Enki, is uncertain. Perhaps it expresses his role
as a courier of the gods, constantly conveying messages to and fro
between the gods and the people.24
The wings of Inanna are an indication of her heavenly attributes as
the goddess of Venus, who appears in the morning earlier than the sun
above the mountain range and seems to announce the advent of the
sun.25

Figure 2.19. Modern impression of a cylinder seal with Inanna, Utu, Enki
and Isimud. Inscription: ‘Adda, tablet writer’ (Ad-da, dub-šar). Provinence
unknown. Height 3,9 cm, diameter 2,55 cm. (© The Trustees of the
British Museum. BM 89115)
That Inanna is expected to provide for the fertility of the fields we can
deduct from an image on a cylinder seal in which she holds a lion on lead
strings, while with the other hand she is manipulating the seed funnel to
fructify the soil (figure 2.20).

Figure 2.20. Cylinder seal from the Akkadian period (?). Ištar drives with
a stick a lion. Her other hand is lying on the seed funnel of the plough.
Serpentine, height 3,69 cm, diameter 2,5 cm. Provenance unknown (art
market). (Collon, 1987, fig. 617, Erlenmeyer Coll. 599)
Inanna, city goddess of Uruk
We have tried to construct an image of Inanna by piecing together the
small scratches of information that have survived since that great
distance in time, how she gradually took on a human shape, her standard
falling into disuse but her remaining symbols, star and lion, always
staying with her. Our first acquaintance with the goddess was via images,
and it would be a long time before tablet writers recorded the hymns in
which the Sumerians honoured her, or the myths recounted about this
important goddess. Because Uruk became such an important economic
power, their city goddess participated in the success, even though Inanna
had perhaps not always been a city goddess of Uruk. In the myth of
Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta we learn that the legendary city of Aratta,
which city probably lay to north east of Mesopotamia, past Elam, behind
seven mountain ranges, also worshipped Inanna and perhaps the contest
between these two rulers is a clue to the past of the Sumerians. Had they
come from the east and entered the plain of the Euphrates and the Tigris
and had they brought their main goddess Inanna with them? Had they
settled her in a temple complex that was already inhabited by another
god, viz An, the god of heaven? The role An played in mythology has
always been very vague, he might have been a god at rest, a deus
otiosus, who had known better times. Maybe he was not a Sumerian god
but a native god who was still of too much of importance to be simply set
aside. Alas, these are all speculations about a time when the script had
not yet been invented and we have at our disposal no sources with
details sufficient to satisfy our curiosity.
Endnotes Chapter 2
1 Szarzynska, 1987/88
2 Andrae, 1930
3 Sjöberg, 1969, Temple Hymns, nr. 16
4 Steinkeller, 1998
5 CAD agû, A 1, 157
6 Frank, 1906, 18: agû ina qaqqadiša aki kakkabi; CAD agû, A 1, 155
7 CAD agû, A 1, 157
8 Groneberg, 1997
9 Sarzynska, 1997
10 Sarzynska, 1997
11 ETCSL 1.3.2., line 10-22
12 Zgoll, 1987
13 Krispijn, 2004, p. 2
14 Jacobsen, 1976, p. 36 e.v.
15 Selz, 2000, p. 30
16 Danthine, 1937, p. 9 ff.
17 Danthine, 1937, p. 21/22
18 Lambert, 2002, p. 321
19 Moortgat-Correns, 1994; Steinkeller 2002, p. 353, suggests to
interpret the star of the dingir-sign as ‘star-flower’
20 Moortgat-Correns, 1994
21 Cohen, 2005, p. 147
22 Asher-Greve, 1995
23 Braun-Holzinger, 2007
24 Kristensen,1976, Het altaar, p. 138. The god Janus could be a
remnant of a very old deity as he is known in many other cultures,
not only as the famous Janus of the Roman age.
25 Amiet, 1954
Chapter 3 Who was Inanna’s lover?
It is not easy to imagine the lives of people who lived in Sumer five
thousand years ago. We have to make do with pictures which have no
written explanations attached or with administrative texts that were never
intended to aid us in our attempt at understanding how these ancient
people viewed their world. It was only after the invention of the script that,
for the very first time in human history, it was possible for a culture to
keep a record of their myths and hymns, leaving some clues as to what
might have been their pre-occupations. For the earliest periods we have
only rather enigmatic pictures at our disposal, however around 3000 BC,
pictures on cylinder seals and reliefs begin to convey a clearer structure
and storyline. They appear to depict an action of some kind, perhaps a
ritual such as has been found on a large vase that was buried deep in the
earliest layers of the Eanna-complex in Uruk. The vase must have been
connected with the temple of Inanna as we can deduce from the
presence of the standards of the goddess seen in the upper segment.
The vase is made of alabaster and was a very precious object in itself,
apart from the fact that it gives us a glimpse of the importance of the
goddess Inanna in ancient Sumer.
The vase was found in a repository in the vicinity of ‘Temple M’,
where archaeologists excavated a treasure hoard that had been carefully
stowed away.1 The storeroom could have been a temple hoard for
sacred utensils that were no longer in use and therefore buried when a
new temple was built. But it is also possible that the priests had hidden
the temple treasures to protect them against theft or plunder by a hostile
army. The objects of this hoard – the German archaeologists have called
it ‘Sammelfund’ – probably belonged to the ‘Red Temple’ (see the map of
the Eanna-complex, chapter 1, figure 1.2). Among the temple treasures
was the famous Uruk-vase, one of the most important showpieces of the
National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. The vase was stolen in 2003 during
the American invasion and returned after a couple of months – heavily
damaged.
The vase was found in part of a layer that was dated by
archaeologists to around 3000 BC, but the vase itself could have been
much older. It shows traces of repair carried out when this object was still
in use and while it must have had a specific meaning for the Sumerians,
what that was is not known to us.
The vase is more than a metre high and on the outside is depicted a
scene in which the goddess Inanna is represented with offerings. Reed
standards are visible in the upper segment, behind a lady who is
welcoming the procession.

Figure 3.1. Uruk-vase. Ca. 3000 BC. (Heinrich, 1936, Tafel 3, W 14873,
National Museum of Irak, Bagdad, IM 190606)
Figure 3.2. A drawing of the Uruk-vase (W 14873). (Schmandt-Besserat,
2000, p. 43)
The relief on the vase is divided into five registers, separated by flat
bands (figure 3.1 and 3.2). In the bottom register we see the flowing lines
of the streaming water of the Euphrates with stalks of grain and date
branches waving above the water level. In the middle register sheep and
rams turn alternately to the right, the procession continuing in the next
register with nude males walking to the left. They carry dishes copiously
filled with the fruits of the field, while one of them is carrying a ritual
spouted jar. The males are nude, as was required of priests in ancient
Sumer when they approached the gods. They purified themselves and
did not wear profane clothes, nor were they permitted to have any scars
or other physical defects on their bodies, as they could not run the risk of
defiling the sacred space. In the Old Testament (Leviticus 21) these
severe instructions were still being laid down for everyone who wanted to
enter the holy space.
The upper segment unfortunately is damaged badly. The central
figure at the head of the procession is missing. Only a small piece of his
foot and clothing is still visible and a long waistband that a little follower is
dutifully holding up. It is reported that the vase was still intact when it was
excavated in 1936.2 During transportation a fragment crumbled off and
afterwards none of the archaeologists could recall exactly how the upper
part of the relief had looked.
Fortunately a small piece of his skirt is still visible and the chequered
design has proved invaluable in helping to identify this person. In the
Sammelfund of Uruk – the place where the Uruk-vase was excavated –
various cylinders seals were also found on which a man is depicted
wearing exactly the same sort of skirt. We are thus not far from the mark
if we conclude that the same person was also pictured on the Uruk-vase.
This same man in a net skirt is depicted on a cylinder seal feeding sheep
and rams with two branches and with rosettes (figures 3.3 to 3.6) and
behind the animals rise up the standards of Inanna. Sometimes this
person is depicted holding an ear of corn for the cattle that stand in the
vicinity of Inanna’s standards, his small disciple again walking close
behind him, also wearing a net skirt, but his is a little shorter. On two
seals from the art market (figures 3.3 en 3.4) the same persons are
shown with food offerings in the granary of Inanna. The big man in a net
skirt has his hair bound up in a chignon and on his head he wears a
diadem, while his little disciple again tags along after him. Shortly we will
try to identify this man-in-net skirt and his votary, but first we shall occupy
ourselves with the woman that is standing in front of Inanna’s temple.

Figure 3.3. Man in ‘net skirt’ and turban with chignon, followed by a
votary in net skirt who holds a flourishing branch. Cylinder seals, ca.
3000 BC. Provenance unknown (art market). (Douglas van Buren, 1935,
fig. 3; Louvre, AO 6620)

Figure 3.4. Man in ‘net skirt’ brings together with his votary offerings for
the granary, where the standards of Inanna are erected. Provenance
unknown (art market). (Orthmann, 1975, fig. 126 c)

Figure 3.5. Man in ‘net skirt’ and his votary are bringing ears of corn to
the sacred cattle of Inanna. Sammelfund of Uruk. Ca. 3000 BC.
(Heinrich, 1936, Tafel 17, W 14766 f)
Figure 3.6. Reconstructed image of the Uruk vase. (Drawing:
Wiggermann, 1995, p. 1868)
Goddess Inanna or a priestess?
The man in net skirt is watching how an offering carrier is presenting a
copiously filled dish to a woman dressed in a long garment. The woman
wears a headdress that unfortunately has partly disappeared because of
the damage to the vase but we still can see a protuberance, which
perhaps indicates a crown or a tall hat. She is standing in front of a
granary that has been packed up to the very roof with the abundant
yields of agriculture and cattle breeding. She touches her nose with her
hand to salute the man at the head of the procession, a gesture known in
Sumerian as kiri-šu-tag and means literally ‘to bring the hand to the nose’
(figure 3.7). Behind her are two MUŠ3-standards of the goddess Inanna.

Figure 3.7. Goddess Inanna or a priestess who receives offerings. Detail

of the Uruk-vase. The reparation in ancient times of a broken fragment of
the vase is still visible. (Braun-Holzinger, 2007, tafel 2; FS 1 katalog, p.
24, Uruk III/I7; W 14873; National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad, IM 19606)
Whether or not the woman depicted on the vase is the goddess Inanna or
a priestess serving in the temple of Inanna, is a question to which a
number of answers could be given.
 According to Julia Asher-Greve the woman on the Uruk-vase cannot
be the goddess Inanna,3 as if it was the goddess she would have been
standing on a podium or sitting on a throne. In later times Inanna is
almost always shown full face, with her head to the front, turned aside
from the cult activities and this pose would also be expected on earlier
pictures. Moreover, the gesture of kiri-šu-tag is an indication that the
woman cannot be a goddess because as Asher-Greves notes, this
greeting is essentially a mark of honour that one pays to a god or a
person higher in rank. She concludes that the woman must be a
priestess, who was of a lower rank than the man in the net skirt.
However doubts about the identity of the woman on the Urukvase
remain. Goddesses can be depicted in a standing position, while
priestesses are almost always depicted being conveyed while sitting on a
throne. Gods moreover can lift their hand to greet the king, as a
salutation itself does not necessarily say anything about the rank of the
one who is giving the greeting. Some scholars therefore suggest that the
woman on the Uruk-vase must be Inanna herself and this is made even
more plausible if what she is wearing on her head is in fact a crown with
bull horns.4
But the hat of the woman might well be the tall crown of a priestess,
besides which Inanna is already represented on the vase by her two
standards and at that time goddesses were probably not depicted in
anthropomorphic form. A salutation alone does not reveal something
about the rank of a person, but the kiri-šu-tag is a different matter. This
gesture was essentially used by human beings when they approached a
god or person of high ranking status as they were tactfully holding their
hand in front of their mouth so as not to offend the other with bad
smelling breath.5 On balance therefore, the evidence would suggest that
the woman on the Uruk-vase is indeed a priestess of Inanna, as Asher-
Greve has already indicated.
The En of Inanna
Just as it is difficult to assess the identity of the woman on the Uruk-vase,
establishing the identity of the man in the net skirt presents the same
problems. Is he a god or a human being?
In some very old texts we have already encountered a figure that in
the cuneiform texts is referred to with the sign EN.6 For lack of an
accurate term in our own language, we translate this sign as ‘city ruler’ or
‘priest’, the En being the leader of the Sumerians. They have even
named their land after their En: Kengi: ‘land of the princely En’ (ki-engir)
which brings us to the man in the net skirt. Was he an En?
In order to better understand the meaning of the En in this early
period in Sumer it is necessary to investigate the cuneiform sign with
which the Sumerians wrote the name ‘EN’. The En was responsible for a
successful harvest, so the ‘EN’-sign could represent a cultivated parcel of
land from which grows a flourishing branch and the stripes could
represent the canals that crossed the fields to drain the redundant
waters.
In the texts the En often appears together with the Nin, a ‘mistress’ or
‘lady’.7 Inanna was a Nin, but the high priestess and the queen were also
a Nin. The sign for Nin is composed of the signs SAL and NAM2, SAL is
a female genital, NAM2 is a sceptre or in the earliest texts ‘leader’, so in
combination with SAL, this sign means ‘a female leader’.

The word ‘nin’ originally could also refer to a male title, ‘master’, but
around the time this sign was formed, it had already taken on a single
meaning: ‘High Lady’ or ‘Mistress’.8 The Nin in older texts was more
important than later on and according to Charvát, the Nin in the fourth
millennium must have had a large measure of independence.9 She
played a major role in ritual activities and she was concerned with the
production and distribution of a large number of commodities such as
grain, bread, cattle, fish and also textiles. She had a staff of servants at
her disposal, including possibly farmers and priests and she was involved
with rites during which harp music was played. It appears as if the En
was her partner in a fertility cult as the texts mention a regular ceremony,
written with the sign NA2 , in which the En together with the Nin play the
leading roles. NA2 is the sign for ‘bed’ and ‘to lay’ and the ritual was of
importance for the stimulation of the fertility of the fields and cattle, the
fish in the water and the birds in the sky. Perhaps these are indications of
the celebration of a marriage between the En and the Nin. In many
agricultural communities in ancient times these rites were performed to
magically enhance the yield of the crops and from later texts we know
that once a year the En made his way to the temple of Inanna to
celebrate the wedding night with the goddess. We shall come back to this
issue in chapter 18.
The En and the Nin
The En of Uruk had a close relationship with the patron goddess of the
city, Inanna. A temple hymn to the ‘mother of Kullab’ has come down to
us, in which Inanna is praised and in which the En and the Nin are both
mentioned. 10 It is a very ancient text, as it is directed to the goddess of
the temple Irigal of Uruk, situated in the district of Kullab, a goddess
identified with Inanna. The hymn praises the temple, but then says
something very strange: that heaven and earth have brought forth the En
(literally: have given birth) and that the walls of Kullab have created the
En and the Nin.11 The town – in this case Kullab – was in fact the place
where the god had his seat, and in this way the city had a cosmic
significance, so obviously both the En and the Nin participated in this
divine power.
Temple hymn: Mother of Kullab
Irigal, pair of the twin standards
of Kullab,
to the En, who was generated by Heaven and Earth, Lady of Irigal,
blessings be upon you!
The inner walls of Kullab
Have generated the En and de Nin!
Diadem (MUŠ3), fruitfulness,
Generated by Irigal
Goddess Inanna, fruit,
ripe fruit.
Gipar of Heaven,
gipar of Heaven and the Netherworld,
Kullab, as the Heaven,
Nobody can touch it.
Blessings be upon you!
According the hymn a cosmic En existed, created by Heaven and Earth
but there were also an earthly En and Nin who had come forth from the
inner walls of the district of Kullab and as a priestly pair fulfilled the
mandate of the cosmic prototypes and executed certain temple rites,
aimed at fertility.
In the temple hoard where the Uruk-vase was found, there were also
found some cylinder seals on which figures are depicted which might
possibly be those of the En and the Nin. They are performing rites over
the storage containers to implore blessings and it is notable that the
woman is holding the sacred standard of Inanna, while the man in the net
skirt is carrying a huge ear of corn or sceptre. The man on this cylinder
seal is wearing the short ‘net skirt’ and is more likely to be the small
votary of the man in the net skirt of the Uruk-vase. It is possible the
figures performing the rites on these cylinder seals are meant to be the
En and the Nin, the priest and priestess who serve Inanna and take
charge of affairs and rituals relating to the goddess.

Figure 3.8. and 3.9. The Nin is performing the rites with the man-in-
netskirt somewhere around huge storage jars. (Heinrich, 1936, tafel 18,
W 14778 g; Heinrich, 1936, tafel 18, W 14 806 p)

Figure 3.10 en 3.11. A woman with a crown and a veil (or loose hair) is
keeping the standard of Inanna, the man-in-netskirt holds an ear of corn.
In between are life-sized storage containers. Sammelfund Uruk. Early
Dynastic period. (Heinrich, 1936, tafel 18, W 14819 f; Heinrich, tafel 18,
W 14772 c 2)
Figure 3.12. Cylinder seal from Urruk. Heigth: 4,7 cm, diameter: 3,8 cm.
(Courtesy © The Trustees of the British Museum, BM 116721)
We get the impression from these cylinder seals that the En and the Nin
are playing entirely equal roles, in fact on some cylinder seals deriving
from the Eanna district of Uruk, the Nin seems to have even a more
powerful position than the En, however these seals are probably of an
earlier date. We observe a man in a short net skirt in front of a woman
who is sitting on a bench with legs that bend up in a globular form (figure
3.13). The woman is sitting on her left leg and has pulled up her right
knee, meanwhile holding a cup in her hand. The man in the short net skirt
pours a liquid into the bowl of the woman while on the left a servant is
sitting on the ground and holding a bowl in readiness. Around her or him
little jars are on display and behind the woman we can observe the
façade of the temple. Everything indicates that the high priestess of the
temple is being depicted receiving offerings, possibly the En and the Nin
performing a ritual action together.

Figure 3.13. Cylinder seal with priestess on a ‘throne’in front of a temple.

A temple servant (or the man in his netskirt?) pours out a libation in a
goblet. In the field a figure is sitting behind a row of pots. (Asher-Greve,
1985, fig. 195; Louvre, A.117)
Statues of an En
At some time during the nineteenth century, a number of sculptures were
purchased by private art collectors in the Middle East and were
subsequently donated to museums. 12 They depict a nude male figure
and possibly date from around 3000 BC, but unfortunately we do not
know from where these statues might have been excavated.
Figure 3.14. Upper part of a statue of an En. Uruk. Gray albast. Heigth:
18 cm. W 19039. (Orthmann 1975, fig. 10; National Museum of Iraq,
Baghdad, IM 61986)

Figure 3.15. A statue of the En, nude. Grey limestone. Povinence

unknown. (Courtesy: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, section
Bagdad; Musée du Louvre, Département des antiquités and
Archäologische Sammlung der Universität Zürich, Swiss Inv. 1942;
Orthmann 1975, fig. 11 a en b)
The figures wear a headdress that was to become the permanent official
headdress of the kings of Mesopotamia, a hat with a roll. As has been
noted before, the beard and the nakedness of the male figure indicate
that the sculptures had a ritual meaning. Cultic nakedness is prescribed
in many cultures and has survived in our time in the prohibition of
wearing hat or shoes when entering a mosque.13 The opaque net skirt of
the En - through which his naked body is visible - was possibly a later
development superseding the mandatory nakedness.14 A ritual beard
was a token of dignity and was worn only by gods or the ritual leader of
the community, so it is possible these limestone sculptures are
representations of the En during some sort of ritual action. The pose of
his hands suggests that he was holding something, perhaps the reins of
a team of oxen yoked before the plough, which he would guide over the
fields in order to bless them.
The En as a shepherd of his people
The intimate cooperation between En and Nin disappears in the third
millennium and from then on the cylinder seals depict only the man in his
long net skirt, closely followed by his disciple in a shorter net garment.
The Nin has disappeared and in her place the goddess emerges as the
exclusive partner of the En, the new leader of Uruk, combining his worldly
mandate with the religious functions of the former En-priest. From now on
he has exclusive rights to maintain direct contact with the goddess, who
is still only represented by her symbols.

Figure 3.16. The man-in-netskirt is feeding the cattle with flourishing

branches. Behind him IS his small disciple. Marble. Height: 6, 3 cm,
diameter: 3, 7 cm, (Le Goff, 1963, fig.. 248, © Yale Babylonian Collection,
New Haven, NBC 2579)

Figure 3.17 and 3.18. The En is feeding the holy cattle of the Inanna-
temple with rosettes. Cylinder seal, early dynastic time (art market)
(Orthmann, 1975, fig. 126 a; Heinrich, 1936, Sammelfund van Uruk, tafel
17, BM 116722; Courtesy: Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, VA 10537)
From the literary sources of Sumer we know that the En was the leader
of Uruk, inhabiting the temple and responsible for the fertility and welfare
of the land. He features on many cylinder seals and must have been the
central figure in the Sumerian community, depicted as looking more like a
supernatural being, feeding the cattle with rosettes or large bushels of
grain stalks. This last seems to be a cosmic action related to the well-
being of the natural world, which was the field of action of the man in the
net skirt, but the representation might equally have had a symbolic
meaning, the leader of the city of Uruk, taking care of his cattle, the
people of the land.
Sometimes this figure is depicted on a stele performing another
function, not as a priest making offerings but as a warrior, aiming his bow
and arrow at wild animals (figure 3.19). He is dressed in his net skirt,
wearing a round turban on his head, his hair is bound in a chignon and
again he is sporting a long beard. This very same figure is shown on
cylinder seals (figure 3.20) and it is possible these images also had a
symbolic, perhaps even a propaganda function: here we see the vigilant
shepherd (the ruler) who is tending his cattle (his subjects) and protecting
them by keeping dangerous wild animals (the enemy) at bay. This image
of the righteous shepherd, protector of his flock, is a metaphor that rulers
like to present to their subjects and probably one of the most widely
spread pieces of propaganda used down through the centuries, even
until our own time. As a Sumerian proverb goes, people without a ruler
are like a flock of sheep without a shepherd.

Figure 3.19. Granite stela from Uruk. Twice a picture of the En as a

hunter: above is shooting on a predator, below he is shooting three lions.
Heigth: ca. 60 cm. (Frankfort, 1954, 9 A)

Figure 3.20. Cylinder seal with the En as hunter, behind him is the
standard of Inanna, followed by a little nude servant. (Orthmann, 1975,
fig. 39e, p. 223)
Later the En is depicted dressed in a smooth garment and this figure not
only performs religious duties, but is also active as enforcer of public
order in which role he is quite ruthless, as we can see on some cylinder
seals from Uruk. Archaeologists have found different impressions on
lumps of clay and have been able to reconstruct these to complete a
picture that must have been engraved on the original cylinder seal. A
man wearing a turban and dressed in a smooth garment rather than a net
skirt, is supervising the torture of naked prisoners. Possibly this man is
from the town of Susa, in the land of Elam in the east, where the Uruk
colonists had settled during the Uruk-expansion period in the fourth
millennium (see p. 23). Other findings also testify to the fact that the
influence of Elam in this period was important, not only in Uruk, but even
as far as Egypt. In Susa cylinder seals have been found depicting exactly
the same scenes, for instance a seal on which the En is depicted
standing with a bow and arrow in front of a temple façade while aiming at
a nude unarmed person. (figure 3.25). The purpose of these seals is
uncertain. It is unlikely that they were used to seal containers with food,
but Boehmer, who has investigated these seals from Uruk has prudently
concluded that perhaps they were used to seal doors.15 How to interpret
the images of the man in a smooth garment is also far from clear and
after the Uruk-period depictions of him do not reoccur.

Figure 3.21. Prisoners in front of the ruler. Uruk V. (Boehmer, 1999, tafel
14, nr. 4 D)

Figure 3.22. Reconstruction of the impressions of cylinder seals from the

early Uruk-period. (Boehmer, 1999, tafel 17, nr. 4 I-L)
Figure 3.23. and 3.24. Prisoners being tortured under the supervision of
the ruler (Boehmer, 1999, tafel 20, nr. 6 G W 21660; tafel 15, nr. 4 D, g)

Figure 3.25. Impression of a sealing from Susa. (Amiet, 1959, p. 41, fig.
4, Louvre Sb 2125)
Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta
There is a Sumerian myth that reveals something more about the role of
the En. In the myth, Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta, we meet Enmerkar,
the legendary ruler of Uruk and Kullab, whom we have already
encountered in Chapter 1 in connection with the invention of the script.
His name begins with ‘En’ and he was probably an En of the goddess
Inanna. He lived in the gipar of Inanna’s temple and entered into a
competition with the lord of Aratta about which of the two would be most
loved by Inanna.
The earliest versions of the story of Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta
were written down around 2600 BC. It is part of a cycle that describes the
eternal competition between Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta – a ruler
that lived in the east behind seven mountains. Whether these rulers and
an actual town called Aratta, ever really existed is difficult to assess but
Enmerkar does appear in the Sumerian king lists, having reigned over
Uruk after the Flood. About the lord of Aratta we know next to nothing
and archaeologists have not found the city of Aratta, although it might
possibly be Urartu, a region lying to the north east of Mesopotamia.
Enmerkar, the Sumerian ruler of Uruk, had a special connection with the
town of Aratta in the east, because according to the story this ruler of
Uruk was brought up in that city, which maybe the result of a vague
memory of a town from where the Sumerians had migrated to Uruk in the
distant past. What is striking is that both rulers have Sumerian names.
The name of the lord of Aratta also begins with ‘En’: Ensuhkešdana: ‘En,
who has tied the diadem (suh) of heaven’. The suh was also the
ornament that Inanna wore, according to the hymns. Both rulers also
appear to have worshipped Inanna as city goddess and both rulers boast
that Inanna has chosen them as her earthly husband and as En-ruler,
and that she has chosen them as her favorite En-ruler with whom she
prefers to spend the night in the gipar.
In the story Enmerkar and the White Magic Enmerkar takes a pride in his
good relations with Inanna. But the lord of Aratta outbids Enmerkar and
contends that Inanna extends her favours more to him. He instructs his
messenger to inform Enmerkar triumphantly16:
He (= Enmerkar) may dwell with Inanna within a walled enclosure,
but I dwell with Inanna in the E-zagin (=sparkling palace) of Aratta;
he may lie with her on the splendid bed,
but I lie in sweet slumber with her on the adorned bed,
he may see dreams with Inanna at night,
but I converse with Inanna awake.
He may feed the geese with barley,
But I will definitely not feed the geese with barley.
I will ]…] the geese’s eggs in a basket and […] their goslings.
The small ones into my pot, the large ones into my kettle,
and the rulers of the land who submitted will consume,
together with me, what remains from the geese.
That is was he said to Enmerkar.
Thus the Lord of Aratta challenged Enmerkar, but the sharp-witted
Enmerkar answers as follows:
He (= the lord of Aratta) may dwell with Inanna in the E-zagin of Aratta,
But I dwell with her […] as her earthly companion.
He may lie with her in sweet slumber on the adorned bed,
but I lie on Inanna’s splendid bed strewn with pure (gišna-gi-rin-na) plants
According to Herman Vanstiphout17 this fragment may be a reference to
a New Year feast as wild geese travel in the early spring to the north,
when the New Year feast is celebrated. The king goes to the temple of
Inanna to spend the wedding night with her there and Vanstiphout
suspects that the lord of Aratta in this fragment claims his legal ‘right’ to
celebrate the New Year feast with Inanna, so he will not slaughter his
geese before he can meet Inanna and lie with her. However, according to
Vanstiphout, Enmerkar, the lord of Uruk contends that he makes love
with the goddess, not just at the New Year, but every day.
Enmerkar’s description of his encounter with Inanna is full of obvious
sexual innuendo. These Sumerian rulers saw their relation with the city
goddess as a real marriage bond and this poem establishes Inanna, the
Morning and Evening goddess, as the lover of the En.
Is it possible to interpret the image on the Uruk-vase as a depiction of a
ritual being performed between the En and Inanna? On the Uruk- vase
the En is heading the procession with priests carrying the wedding gifts
for the goddess, while his small disciple may be the high priest of the
temple. The Nin is waiting for him at the front of the temple, with
everything prepared for the wedding ceremony and the festivities round
it. The festive foods could be destined for the wedding party of the Nin
and the En, but contrary to the custom of earlier times when the En-priest
celebrated the fertility rites with the Nin-priestess, they now are both put
aside and the big En-ruler of Uruk is ready to encounter the goddess all
alone in the temple.
In the storage room a stepped construction is shown, with the standard of
Inanna and two persons standing on the steps. The first person is holding
an object on which we may recognize the later cuneiform sign EN. This
scene could be interpreted as a picture of the Sacred Marriage From now
on the big En-ruler takes the place of the small En-priest and
consummates the Sacred Marriage with Inanna all by himself. During the
ceremony, in exchange for the offerings he presents to her, the goddess
grants him the signs of his En-ship and she predicts a fruitful and lucky
year for him. In this fashion the En acquires the authorization of the
goddess to rule his subjects in her name.18
Figure 3.26. Uruk-vase (detail). Two men are standing on a podium. The
first is holding an object that could be an image of the En-sign or the city
seal of Uruk. (Braun-Holzinger, 2007, tafel 2; FS 1 katalog, p. 24, Uruk
III/I7; W 14873, Bagdad, IM 19606)
Ziqqurat
A similar stepped construction as we have seen in the storeroom of the
temple of Inanna is depicted on some other cylinder seals and on one of
these - also found in the Sammelfund of Uruk – we can see the same
man in his net skirt making a journey by boat and again in front of him is
depicted the ram with the same stepped building on its back. In this
example there are no figures on the steps, but the two standards of
Inanna are streaming from the upper step and behind the man in the net
skirt is an image of the reed hut that presumably represents the façade of
Inanna’s tempel.

Figure 3.27. Modern seal if cylinder seal, lapis lazuli. Sammelfund of

Uruk. Ca. 3000 BC.; 4,3 by 3,5 cm. (Heinrich, 1936, tafel 17, W 14772
c1; courtesy: Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlijn, VA 11040)
Pierre Amiet suggests that the stepped structure is one of the oldest
precursors of the temple, built on an elevated terrace, the so called
‘ziqqurat’ 19. The ziqqurat of Inanna in Uruk was very famous and the
construction is carried by animals that were sacred to Inanna, rams,
sheep and the leopard, for which it is possible that later, the lion was
substituted. The priests, who worshipped the goddess in the early
evening or early morning when Venus shines in the sky, regularly
climbed to the roof of the temple in order to get nearer to the particular
divinity they were addressing in their prayer.

Figure 3.29. Constructions on the back of a ram or lion with the standard
of Inanna. (Amiet, 1980, afb. 653, 652, 654)
The stepped construction on the Uruk-vase could thus be the symbol of
Inanna’s ziqqurat in Uruk. In the next chapter we shall return to this
temple terrace.
Inanna loves the En
The En lived in the gipar of the temple and as a result of the Sacred
Marriage he had celebrated with her, he was the human husband
(Sumerian: dam) of the city goddess. Through this nuptial blessing, the
bond of the ruler with the goddess was strengthened, enabling him to
spread fertility and prosperity over the country and endowing him with the
necessary power and authority to reign over the Sumerians
Inanna was the goddess of love and in Sumerian literature
numberless songs have been preserved about Inanna and her lover. In
these songs the beloved of Inanna is called Dumuzi. All other gods have
a god or goddess as a beloved partner, only Inanna, the main goddess of
the Uruk pantheon, has the human shepherd Dumuzi as husband.
Dumuzi presumably had been an En in days long passed, possibly he
had been the En with whom the Nin and later on the city goddess had
celebrated a wedding ritual to enhance the fertility of nature. After his
death he became the subject of legend and divine status was conferred
on him, his divinity indicated by the determinative ‘dingir’ that preceded
his name in the cuneiform texts.
In many of these love songs Inanna features, not as the mighty
goddess of heaven, shining Venus in the sky, but on the contrary she is
depicted as a young woman who is about to marry her beloved Dumuzi,
as we shall see in chapter 14. In these songs Inanna is living in the gipar
of her temple in Uruk when her fiancé, the shepherd Dumuzi, comes to
the door. He wishes to ask her mother for her hand in marriage and
brings with him an abundance of gifts - the produce of the fields. One
song describes how Inanna is standing at the door of her mother’s house
and meets Dumuzi, who is called En in this text:
At the lapis-lazuli-door in the gipar she (Inanna) encountered the En,
At the alleyway (é- u š -g í d - d a) of the storeroom of the Eanna she met Dumuzi.20
E2 - uš-gid-da literally means ‘house with the long corridors’. This name
may be a reference to the enormous warehouses archaeologists have
excavated on the Eanna-complex, where the crops were stored.21
Anyway, these lines are reminiscent of the encounter between the man in
the net skirt and Inanna, as depicted on the Uruk-vase. Perhaps the man
in the net skirt and Dumuzi, the lover of Inanna, good shepherd, the
bringer of abundant harvests as a marriage gift for his divine bride, are
one and the same person. It would then be perfectly clear, as
demonstrated by the images on cylinder seals and reliefs, that the En, as
ideal leader of Uruk, conscientiously acquits himself of his duties and has
the full support of the mighty goddess and his first lady Inanna. How
exactly this came about we will see more closely in chapter 14 and 23.
Inanna and Gilgameš and the Huluppu-tree
In addition to Enmerkar and Dumuzi there was another city ruler of Uruk
with whom Inanna was having a love affair, the legendary hero Gilgameš,
who lived perhaps halfway through the third millennium in Uruk. The
Sumerian king list refers to Gilgameš as en-kul-ab-aki: ‘En of Kullab’. We
do not know whether Gilgameš as city ruler celebrated the Sacred
Marriage ritual with Inanna, as the Gilgameš-epic, which was written in
complete form only in the second millennium, is not quite clear about the
exact nature of the relationship between them. But there is another
preserved text that probably goes back to the third millennium, in which
Inanna and Gilgameš are in fact living peacefully together and in which
Gilgameš behaves with courtesy and consideration towards Inanna. This
is the story of Inanna and the Huluppu-tree, a mythic tree from prehistoric
times and in these verses Inanna stands out, not as the mighty and
supreme goddess, but as a woman of feeling, who still treads the earth
and has close contact with Gilgameš. The poem of Inanna and the
Huluppu-tree contains perhaps the earliest verses which are known to
refer to Inanna.22
The Huluppu Tree
In the first days, in the very first days,
In the first nights, in the very first nights,
In the first years, in the very first years,
In the first days when everything needed was brought into being,
In the first days when everything needed was properly nourished,
When bread was baked in the shrines of the land,
And bread was tasted in the homes of the land,
When heaven had moved away from earth,
And the earth had separated from heaven,
And the name of man was fixed;
When the Sky God, An, had carried off the heavens,
And the Air God, Enlil, had carried off the earth,
When the Queen of the Great Below, Ereshkigal, was given the
underworld for her domain,
He set sail; the Father set sail,
Enki, the God of Wisdom, set sail for the underworld.
Small windstones were tossed up against him;
Large hailstones were hurled up against him;
Like onrushing turtles,
They charged the keel of Enki’s boat.
The waters of the sea devoured the bow of his boat like wolves;
The waters of the sea struck the stern of his boat like lions.
At that time, a tree, a single tree, a huluppu-tree
Was planted by the banks of the Euphrates.
The tree was nurtured by the waters of the Euphrates.
The whirling South Wind arose, pulling at its roots
And ripping at its branches
Until the waters of the Euphrates carried it away.
A woman who walked in fear of the word of the Sky God, An,
Who walked in fear of the Air God, Enlil,
Plucked the tree from the river and spoke:
“I shall bring this tree to Uruk.
I shall plant this tree in my holy garden.”
Inanna cared for the tree with her hand
She settled the earth around the tree with her foot
She wondered:
“How long will it be until I have a shining throne to sit upon?
How long will it be until I have a shining bed to lie upon?”
The years passed; five years, and then ten years.
The tree grew thick,
But its bark did not split.
Then the serpent who could not be charmed
Made it’s nest in the roots of the huluppu-tree.
The Anzu-bird set its young in the branches of the tree.
And the dark maid Lilith built her home in the trunk.
The young woman who loved to laugh wept.
How Inanna wept!
(Yet they would not leave her tree.)
As the birds began to sing at the coming of the dawn,
The sun God, Utu, left his royal bedchamber.
Inanna called to her brother Utu, saying:
“O Utu, in the days when the fates were decreed,
When abundance overflowed in the land,
When the Sky God took the heavens and the Air God the earth,
When Ereshkigal was given the Great Below for her domain,
The God of Wisdom, Father Enki, set sail for the underworld,
And the underworld rose up and attacked him….
“At that time, a tree, a single tree, the huluppu-tree
Was planted by the banks of the Euphrates.
The South Wind pulled at its roots and ripped its branches
Until the water of the Euphrates carried it away.
I plucked the tree from the river;
I brought it to my holy garden. I tended the tree, waiting for my
shining throne and bed.
Then a serpent who could not be charmed
Made its nest in the roots of the tree,
The Anzu-bird set his young in the branches of the tree,
And the dark maid Lilith built her home in the trunk.
I wept.
How I wept!
(Yet they would not leave my tree.)”
Utu, the valiant warrior, Utu,
Would not help his sister, Inanna.
As the birds began to sing at the coming of the second dawn,
Inanna called to her brother Gilgamesh, saying:
“O Gilgamesh, in the days when the fates were decreed,
When abundance overflowed in Sumer,
When the Sky God had taken the heavens and the Air God the earth,
When Ereshkigal was given the Great Below for her domain,
The God of Wisdom, Father Enki, set sail for the underworld,
And the underworld rose up and attacked him.
At that time, a tree, a single tree, a huluppu-tree
Was planted by the banks of the Euphrates.
The South Wind pulled at its roots and ripped at its branches
“Until the waters of the Euphrates carried it away.
I plucked the tree from the river;
I brought it to my holy garden.
I tended the tree, waiting for my shining throne and bed.
“Then a serpent who could not be charmed
Made its nest in the roots of the tree,
The Anzu-bird set his young in the branches of the tree,
And the dark maid Lilith built her home in the trunk.
“I wept.
How I wept!
(Yet they would not leave my tree.)”
Gilgamesh, the valiant warrior Gilgamesh,
The hero of Uruk, stood by Inanna.
Gilgamesh fastened his armor of fifty minas around his chest.
The fifty minas weighed as little to him as fifty feathers.
He lifted his bronze axe, the axe of the road,
Weighing seven talents and seven minas, to his shoulder.
He entered Inanna’s holy garden.
Gilgamesh struck the serpent who could not be charmed.
The Anzu-bird flew with his young to the mountains;
And Lilith smashed her home and fled to the wild, uninhabited places.
Gilgamesh then loosened the roots of the huluppu-tree;
And the sons of the city, who accompanied him, cut off the branches.
From the trunk of the tree he carved a throne for his holy sister.
From the trunk of the tree Gilgamesh carved a bed for Inanna.
From the roots of the tree she fashioned a pukku for her brother.
From the crown of the tree Inanna fashioned a mikku for Gilgamesh
the hero of Uruk.
In the roots of the Huluppu-tree a snake nestles and in the crown of the
tree the storm bird (Anzu-bird) has its nest, both common mythological
images in the third millennium, the snake an animal of the earth and the
Anzu-bird, of the sky, the Huluppu-tree being therefore a cosmic tree that
connects heaven and earth. The position of the woman ki-sikil-lil2-la2 –
sometimes translated as Lilitu (Lillith) – is less clear. She was a storm
demon and these creatures, who had no permanent residence, obviously
lived in trees, just like birds.
Sumer was divided into some thirty city states, and each city had its own
patron god or goddess but the position of Inanna was far superior, as
only she could have marital relations with the city ruler, this act giving her
and her alone the authority to confer the En-ship. From the very
beginning Inanna had forged a close bond with the ruling dynasty of the
community and after the Sacred Marriage ceremony it was Inanna who
predicted a propitious future for the king and it was owing to her support
that the ruler was able to achieve a prosperous reign for his kingdom.
The god Enlil attempted at a later time to push her out of this prime
position, but was never completely successful. The Akkadian kings
regarded Inanna – whom they named Ištar – as the goddess who had
given them their position of authority and the kings of the Ur III-dynasty
who came to power after the fall of the empire of Akkad (circa 2000 BC),
still made their way to the temple of Inanna in Uruk in order to receive
from her the En-ship. In the second millennium the king of Mari, Zimri-
Lim, continued to receive the symbols of his authority from the hands of
the goddess Inanna, as we can see on the famous fresco in the palace of
Mari (figure 3.30). These symbols were the rod and ring, being the
symbols of the shepherds crook and the nose rope, with which a he hold
his cattle under control. Inanna has placed her foot on a lion, and
everywhere around her the abundance of nature is apparent and clear
fresh water bubbles forth freely from the springs.

Figure 3.30. Fresco in the palace of Mari, ca. 1800 BC . Ištar is

presenting the ring and staf to the king of Mari, presumably Zimri-Lim.
From her shoulders weapons grow upwards. She is standing with one
foot on a lion, the sign of her power.Length 250 cm; (Louvre, room 3, AO
19826) (Keel, 1992, fig. 119)
Endnotes Chapter 3
1 Heinrich, 1936
2 Strommenger, 2008
3 Asher-Greve, 1985, p. 8
4 Braun-Holzinger, 2007, p. 9
5 Hausperger, 1991, p. 107, she concludes this from some šu-ila
(hand lifting-)
texts.
6 Charvát, 1998, p. 58 e.v.
7 Charvát, 1998
8 Bauer e.a., 1998, p. 483
9 Charvát, 1998, p. 85 e.v.
10 Conti, 1993
11 Conti, 1993, p. 343
12 Schmandt-Besserat, 1993
13 Wilhelm, 2001, p. 481
14 Wilhelm, 2001, p. 482
15 Boehmer, 1999, p. 34
16 Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi, 2006, p.5, lines 27-38.
17 Vanstiphout, 1988, p. 71
18 Wiggermann, 1995, p. 1868. As it comes to pass more often when
we try to interpret the past one can see things in a completely
different way. We have too little information at our disposal. So
Daniel Hockmann 2008 has proposed a completely different
explanation for the image on the Urukvase. He recognizes in the
storage room a few very old cuneiform signs for three cities: Nippur,
Kutha en Zabalam. According to Hockmann these three cities were
under the obligation to pay contributes to Uruk, as can be deduced
from the ancient texts. The Uruk-vase then would, according to
Hockman, establish the way these cities discharged themselves of
this duty. The man in net skirt would be the one who was responsible
for collecting these debts and the delivery to the temple of Inanna. In
that case the image on the Uruk-vase doesn’t show the celebration
of the Sacred Marriage, but only the way how the allied cities were
paying their obligations to Uruk. These arguments of Hockman
 however are open to criticism. It is in no way certain that we can see
in the storeroom the pictures of various city symbols. The offerers
are nude, which is uncommon in case of normal tax payments. We
must moreover always realize that images in the ancient past are
never meant to represent reality as such, but are always an attempt
to convey some idea in visual form. The images on the Uruk-vase -
the water of the Euphrates, the grain stalks and date branches, the
sheep and rams, all are symbols of the generous gifts of goddess
Inanna. The vase was having a ritual value, and this is not
compatible with a burden of taxation on neighbouring cities. The
vase was carefully preserved and meticulously repaired in ancient
times when it had gone broken, and it was finally stowed away with
much care in the temple depot. All these considerations point more
to an important ritual meaning of the vase than to an image of forced
tax payments of adjacent cities.
19 Amiet, 1980, p. 91
20 Jacobsen, 1957
21 Sefati, 1998, note 169
22 Transltion by Alan Humm, based on: Wolkstein Diane and Kramer
Samuel, 1983, available on the internet:
www.jewishchristianlit.com/Texts/.../gilgamesh12.html
Chapter 4 The temple
In ancient times a temple was the residence of the divinity. The temple
could not be compared to a church as in the Christian tradition, where the
faithful of the community could meet each other. In a temple there was no
room for common people, only the king and the priests he had appointed,
were allowed to approach the god in his cella and that only after they had
observed the severe rites of purification. If the common people wished to
direct their prayers to the god of the temple, they did not pass beyond the
outer wall or inner court of the sanctuary.
How were proceedings ordered in the temple and what was the status
and function of a temple in Sumer? If we read the written tablets from the
end of the fourth millennium we find evidence of far reaching changes, a
historical and social development that had started much earlier. Uruk had
expanded into the largest city of the time and the structure of the
community had undergone drastic change. The Eanna complex had been
encroached on by a vast building project and according to tablets found
in the area the new structures were the hub of turbulent economic activity
that included extensive landed properties and huge stocks of cattle,
sheep and goats. We can read in these earliest tablets how the priests of
the temple administration kept a scrupulous and extensive accounting
system of all the commodities they had received and distributed.
Countless people worked in the service of the temple such as
ploughmen, plough leaders, ox drivers, herders of cattle and she asses
and pigs and numerous fishermen. Bakers and cooks, butchers, brewers,
and leatherworkers processed the products while the preparation of flour
and the spinning and weaving were the tasks of female slaves. Wood
workers, builders, smith, silversmiths, and stoneworkers were completely
or predominantly dependent on imported raw materials and messengers,
teamsters, boatmen, ‘merchants’ and ‘traders’ served for the exchange of
goods. There were tablet scribes and chief scribes, singers and snake
charmers and so many different sorts of priests that although they are
given different names we can hardly tell them apart.1 Profane and
religious functions seem to be completely interchangeable so that to
make a distinction between a temple and a palace is sometimes
impossible and archaeologists have a problem deciding whether to label
the buildings in the Eanna complex in Uruk ‘palaces’ or ‘temples’.

Figure 4.1. The Eanna-complex in Uruk. (Roaf, 1990, p. 63)

Sacred places however were not always as ambitious. Cylinder seals
which date from around 3000 BC present a picture quite different from
that with which we have become familiar from studying the earliest
cuniform tablets. Shrines are depicted as simple reed houses by the side
of which the standards of the gods are erected and bear no resemble to
the huge storehouses that have been excavated in the Eanna complex.
These seals convey a complete dissimilar surrounding than that which
we have come to know from the earliest cuneiform tablets. Figures walk
in procession towards a shrine that has the appearance of a small reed
construction carrying the standards of the gods and bearing offerings of
precious girdles made of rare stones for the statue of the god. We can
see the standards of the gods on both sides of the temple, indicating the
sacred space. Some participants in the procession are nude, as were the
men on the Uruk vase. We may even detect the little votary of the En in
his short ‘net skirt’, but the big En himself is nowhere to be seen.

Figure 4.2. Sealing of a cylinder seal. Early-dynastic, provenience

unknown. (Orthmann, 1975, fig. 126 f; Natioaal Museum of Iraq,
Baghdad, IM 11953)
Figure 4.3. Impression of a cylinder seal with three nude offerers in a
procession to a temple (Orthmann, 1975, fig. 39 f, p. 223)

Figure 4.4. Impression of a cylinder seal. Three people walk in

procession to a temple. The last two are nude and carry a standard of a
god (the middle is possibly the standard of), at the head is a man in short
net skirt with a scepter. Earlynastic. (Boehmer, afb. 121 a; Braun-
Holzinger, 2007, Tafel 14 FS 24)

Figure 4.5. Impression of a cylinder seal. Women with standards, ca

3000 BC. (Asher-Greve, 1985, afb. 35; Louvre Sb 5876)

Figure 4.6. Impression of a cylinder seal. Animals in front of the temple of

Inanna. Excavated in the Šara-temple in Tell Agrab in the Diyala district,
ca. 3000 BC. (Frankfort, 1995, pl. 80, afb. 854)
The scenes we see on these imprints are not mentioned on the
cuneiform tablets that have been excavated on the Eanna temple
complex, because they are aspects of the religion of the common people.
They depict sacred acts that must have been performed in this way for
centuries and that must have continued to exist parallel to the official
religion. The seals show that different people are involved in the ritual
solemnities, and probably not a few women. We observe how a woman
with a long pigtail is sitting on a raised ‘ladder’ (figure 4.7.). She must be
the leader of the cult, for she is the only person who is sitting on a
podium, the other participants are sitting on the ground.2 She has lifted
her arms up, a sign of prayer, which in Sumer in some cases was
performed with raised hands. In front of her are three standards.

Figure 4.7. A priestess with a long pig tail is sitting on a bench, behind
her are three (male?) figures. (Asher-Greve, 1985, afb. 58; British
Museum, BM 132336)
In the fourth millennium the old traditional family ties in the Sumerian
community are being broken up and people are for the very first time
living together in big cities. New institutions, such as the temple complex
and the court of the city ruler with the elite families around him were
determining the new image of the town. The same development is seen
in Egypt on the Nile and in India along the Indus River. It is no
coincidence that these antique cultures came into being along the banks
of large rivers. In these regions which suffer from drought farmers used
the water of the rivers to irrigate the fields, thus producing an even more
abundant crop than in regions with sufficient rainfall. This brought about
surpluses that could be traded or with which they could hire workers to
perform all sorts of activities. Merchants travelled in donkey caravans or
in boats to distant places to find a market for their commodities and they
returned with exotic merchandise or foreign raw materials. The cities
started to flourish thanks to this new economic industry and when some
people became richer than others it resulted in social inequality among
the citizens. Up till then people had been living in fairly egalitarian
communities, forming huge families in which nobody owned much more
than his immediate neighbours. As long as there was enough
uncultivated land available, younger generations could easily move
further afield and build a new existence that differed little from the way
their parents lived. But this equality changed drastically once cities were
formed, where riches piled up and people became dependent on wealthy
employers.
The urban elite now created their own world view which was a
reflection of the new society and in doing so they made very good use of
ancient religious notions, which proved invaluable in substantiating their
new position of authority. Their riches built spectacular temples for the
gods and they claimed exclusive connections with these supernatural
masters. The symbols of this new ideology were everywhere to be seen:
in the monumental buildings on the Eanna complex and the exuberant
decorations on the walls, but also in the style of myth that the scribes
composed under the influence of the new urban leaders.
Exactly how the new political leadership in the cities had evolved is
not quite clear. Thorkild Jacobsen conjectures that in the beginning, a
kind of primitive democracy existed between the different rich families
and that eventually from their midst, a powerful En would have emerged,
one who would have had enough means at his disposal to demand the
obedience of others.3 But the political elite would not have been able to
impose their authority without the support of urban factions and their
clients.4 It must have been about this time that the statues and steles
were made on which an En is depicted who is hunting lions or paying his
respects to the god of the temple. The En was respected by his followers
because he protected the community, and saw to it that justice was done
for which reason he seemed to have the support of the gods.5 He could
show that he had command of many followers, because they had been
deployed in the construction of the monumental temples and impressive
defensive walls around the city. There are cylinder seals depicting the
drudgery imposed on the workers, as they toil under the heavy burden of
the construction works and fill the storerooms of the temples with the
yield of the harvest.
Figure 4.8. Reconstruction of a cylinder seal form. Ca. 3000 BC.
(Boehmer, 1999, tafel 7, nr. 2)

Figure 4.9. The urban authorities built huge grain stores in the form of
bee hives that were filled from above (Amiet, 1959, p. 43; Steensberg
1989, p. 44)
In the architecture of Uruk we can see the results of this spectacular
urbanisation. The temples of the Eanna complex sprang up like
mushrooms and were administered by the new bureaucracy, evidenced
by cylinder seals and written accounting methods. Perhaps there existed
at the outset sharp competition between the different factions each of
which would have possessed their very own temple complex, but finally
one of their kind came to the fore, an urban ruler who was powerful
enough to dominate the others and who could claim that he in particular
was chosen by the city god.

Figure 4.10. Impression of a cylinder seal that have been found in Uruk.
The En in smooth skirt with an axe on his shoulder. He is facing another
person (a priestess?) opposite a monumental temple with seven niches
(Boehmer, 1999, Tafel 35, nr. 10 A-L’)
The new religion had little to do with the old reliable piety of the citizens
and the simple reed houses which were built for and dedicated to the
gods as we can see depicted on the earliest cylinder seals. In their
houses, the people constructed shrines or house altars for their gods and
attended to their deceased relatives that had been buried underthe floors
of their dwellings. The dead resided in the netherworld, where the gods of
the family resided as well and on certain days of the month the family
brought an offering to the dead and poured water into the pipes that had
been specially dug into the ground for these occasions: such pipes have
been regularly excavated by archaeologists. At the end of the month,
when the moon disappeared from the heavens, the family gathered in
their father’s house to commemorate their dead. The pater familias then
called all the known deceased ancestors by their name.
Besides the dead ancestors each house was being watched by a
number of protective spirits. These were supernatural beings that
shielded the house against evil powers from outside and figurines of
these friendly helpers were buried below the threshold of the front door or
near the doorpost of the bedroom.
The family was a unit within which members were dependant on each
other and women played an important role. 6 This was pre-eminently the
domain where magic was practiced, the technique of making contact with
the hidden world, as there existed between the world of the living and
that of the dead no impenetrable screen, but an intensive mutual contact.
It was mainly the women who preoccupied themselves with these
techniques in order to use the powers of the dead to ensure the wellbeing
of the family.
In addition to the protective spirits each family felt related to a specific
divinity that usually had its own small shrine in the city quarter or
neighbourhood. This was the god the family was devoted to from
generation to generation. Such a specific god had a more general
function for the whole clan, neighbourhood or district.7 The little shrines
that had been built for these local gods are shown on the earliest cylinder
seals and were the destination of the public processions.
The reed hut
In the Sumerian language there is no specific word to indicate a temple.
The cuneiform sign that was later used to describe a sacred space is E2,
‘house’. The house of a god was written with the cuneiform sign E2
followed by the symbol of the specific god. In the earliest texts the word
E2 is written with some parallel strokes that are at right angles to each
other and stand vertically on a bottom piece:

When the script was no longer written from top to bottom, but from left to
right this sign too made a quarter turn to the left and was subsequently
simplified (figure 4.11).

Figure 4.11. Development of the cuneiform sign ‘E2’, ‘house’.

Walter Andrae suggests that this sign represents the original divine reed
hut.8 According to him the sign looks like a stylized ‘windscreen hut’. The
god house had the appearance of a small chapel erected by the
neighbours for the god, modest structures consisting of two reed poles,
on which a bended piece of reed was fastened which gave protection
from the fierce sun. These constructions are sometimes shown on
cylinder seals (figure 4.12) and in the first millennium we still see the sun
god Šamaš sitting under a reed shelter.

Figure 4.12. Left: reconstruction of a ‘windscreeen hut’. Middle: stylized

picture of the windscreen on a cylinder seal. Right: a relief from the first
millennium with the sun god Šamaš under a reed shelter. (Andrae, 1930,
p. 64, afb. 64; tafel IIIb; p. 42, afb. 30)
This ‘windscreen hut’ was the residence of the god, ‘barag’ in Sumerian
(Akkadian: parakkum) which translates as ‘chapel’, ‘shrine’ or ‘holy
throne’. In the Egyptian hieroglyphs and images we can recognize
exactly the same construction. It was a tabernacle made of branches and
foliage and destined for a god. The hut was probably empty, only the
earthly presence of the god was what counted; the person of the god in
this early time had not yet been depicted. In our time during the Jewish
Feast of Tabernacles, exactly the same bower with branches of the palm
tree, myrtle tree and willow tree is constructed.

Figure 4.13. Egyptian pictures of the tabernacle. Next to it the god Ptah
and the god Osiris under the baldachin of a tabernacle (Kristensen, 1947,
p. 65/66 e.v.)
The windscreen hut developed during the course of time into a complete
reed house, as we can see on cylinder seals (for instance figure 4.2 up to
4.5). The god’s house looked exactly the same as the reed houses in
which the people themselves lived so archaeologists are therefore at
pains to make clear the distinction between a common house and a
temple.9 But a temple can be distinguished by the modest gifts that
people have left behind as an offering to the god in the hope that the god
would grant them a service in return. The gifts consist of little figurines of
baked clay or girdles of beads and all sorts of objects, which are to be
found quite often in the vicinity of a shrine and identify the building as a
god’s house.
The god’s house not only looked the same as a normal domestic
dwelling, but looked much the same as a cow or sheep shed. The holy
cattle of the land resided in the temple as well which is why the name of
Inanna’s temple in Babylon was: e2-tur-kalamma, meaning literally
‘Temple, the byre of the land’.10 On cylinder seals we can see the holy
cattle around the reed huts above which the symbols of the gods arise. It
is striking that the standard of Inanna can almost always be found near
the sheepfold, while the triple ringed standard– possibly the symbol of the
moon god – is placed near the cow shed.11 These images signify that
these sheepfolds and cow sheds are under the cosmic protection of
Inanna and the moon god and that the animals owe their wellbeing and
fecundity to both these gods.12 Cylinder seals were often used as an
amulet and so the more sheep and cattle were displayed, the stronger
the magic power of the amulet would be in effect. The animals were as
numerous as the stars in the sky, as we can read in a hymn to the moon
god (see chapter 12, p. 250).

Figure 4.14. Standards around the sheepfold and cow sheds.

(Szarzynska, 1987/88, tafel 5, p. 8-9, tafel 6)

Figure 4.15. Images of the reed hut on cylinder seals from the third
millennium. Late Uruk period. Ca. 3200-3000 v.C. Height: 5,3 cm. (Amiet,
1980, afb. 1613)
The Sumerian word for hut, tur, could also be read however as tud, ‘to
give birth’.13 According to Jacobsen the concept of the reed hut could
therefore be used as a metaphor for the womb. The reed hut could in that
case be seen as the holy spot where the mystery of creation had taken
place and where the life of animals and human beings had its origin.
Numerous goddesses were involved with the birth of new life, such as
goddess Nintur, ‘Lady of the hut’, the birth goddess Ninhursaga and the
goddess Ninmug, ‘Lady of the vulva’, who assisted labour pains. Quite
often it was common for women to withdraw into the hut to give birth to a
child and in Egypt potsherds have been found with pictures of a birth hut:
a bower with green branches and foliage in which the mother with her
new born child is resting.14 In ancient times a woman who was
menstruating or about to have a baby was considered impure and during
confinement had to retreat to a separate space, being allowed to return to
the community only after some time and after extensive purification rites.
 If a new statue of a god was required for the huge temples, the
sculptor still retreated into a special reed hut15 and accompanying
ceremonies were necessary in order to give life to the new statue of the
god. The Sumerians also used the verb ‘give birth’ with reference to the
creation of a god statue and it was therefore a matter of course that this
took place in the reed hut. The use of the reed hut was an aspect of the
ancient popular religion that continued to exist alongside the new official
religion of the urban elite. In this old prehistoric world people lived close
by their gods and goddesses and Inanna was one of the many among
them. She was the goddess of fertility and in the beginning she did not
have the definite characteristics that she would acquire later on, when
kings claimed her for themselves and ordered the scribes to compose
myths around goddess Inanna.
The ziqqurat
The Sumerian word sign E2 used to depict a reed hut, was also used to
indicate the new and huge residences of the gods that had been erected
on the Eanna complex. The temples still looked like normal houses, but
were much bigger than the simple reed huts for the gods. The statue of
the god was placed in the small cella and had to be cared for everyday
with food, clothes and precious jewels. The temple needed to exploit vast
fields of landed property to be able to make these offerings to the gods
and to support the numerous people who worked in the temple.
Around 3000 BC the concept of E2 somehow fell into disuse. This seems
to have been the contribution of another temple institute that in the texts
is referred to as AB or eš3 but which could also be translated as
‘sanctuary’. 16 Between the E2 and the AB there existed an ambivalent
relationship and possibly even rivalry.17 It seems as though the AB
belonged to a new constellation that had been created in the cities under
the direction of the new wealthy elite.
It is difficult to assess what exactly the sign of AB is supposed to
represent but it could be seen as depicting a terrace with a temple on top.
The ‘White Temple’ of the god of heaven An in Uruk had been built on
such an elevated terrace and scholars see in this terrace a precursor of a
ziqqurat. Sometimes the AB sign is accompanied by the sign of the god
concerned, such as the MUŠ3 standard of Inanna or the standard of the
moon god Nanna. We know that both gods had a ziqqurat of their own in
the second millennium but scholars suspect that in Uruk at the end of the
fourth millennium, a terrace temple had been dedicated to Inanna. They
come to this conclusion on the basis of a terracotta rosette that served as
decoration on the walls, and that has been excavated in the vicinity of the
‘Red temple’ on the Eanna complex (figure 4.18). Similar rosettes were
made with a shaft, to allow them to be inserted into the wall and on this
shaft the sign AB or eš3is drawn. So there must have been an eš3 on the
Eanna complex, and because the rosette was a symbol of goddess
Inanna, it seems not far from the mark to conclude that this building was
dedicated to Inanna.

Figure 4.16. Development of the sign AB/eš3.

Figure 4.17. Left: the MUŠ3-standard of Inanna next to the sign E2 and
AB. Right: the standard of Nanna with the AB-sign. (Szarzynska,
1987/88)

Figure 4.18. Rosette found in the vicinity of the Red Temple of the
Eanna-complex in Uruk. On the shaft the AB sign Ca. 3400B.C.
(Courtesy: Vorderasiatisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, VA
14942 (W 10220;) © Olaf M. Teemer/SMB; Szarzynska, 2011, fig. 1)
The Egyptian pyramids that were built around this time served as burial
tombs for the Pharaohs but a ziqqurat was not a tomb and had another
purpose. The ziqqurat was a temple built on a number of terraces in an
oval, rectangular or square shape. Egyptian pyramids were built of
natural stone and reinforced with stone inside, but the interior of a
ziqqurat was filled in with sun dried clay bricks, while the outside was
plastered with baked stone slabs. Because the terraces reduced the
space of the next tier, it was possible to climb the ziqqurat from outside
and steps were attached to the outer construction.
It is likely that each terrace of the ziqqurat had a different colour,
which perhaps accorded with the colours the astronomers had assigned
to the various planets.18 The ziqqurats that are known to archaeologists
are not earlier than the second millennium. These were the ziqqurats of
the moon god Nanna in Ur (figure 4.20) and of Inanna on the Eanna
complex in Uruk (figure 4.19). The latter had a square surface of about
56 meters on each side, directed to the four quarters.19 Unfortunately we
have very little information about it.

Figure 4.19. Ziqqurat in the Eanna-complex of Uruk. Ca. 2000 BC.

Square built, sides: 56 m. (Photo: Richard Ellis, Bryn Mawr College,
1967, available on the www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/
…/00100m.htm…)
Figure 4.20. Soldiers of the VS are climbing in 2010 the steps of the
ziqqurat of Ur. (Source: Wikipedia; Photo: Samantha Ciaramitaro)
The ziqqurat of Gudea, ruler of Lagaš (circa 2100 BC)
Although archaeologists have not been able to find any trace of a
ziqqurat in the third millennium, there exists a text from this period in
which perhaps a reference is made to the building of a ziqqurat. It is a
passage which gives an extensive account of how the city ruler,
Gudea of Lagaš, marked out the foundations for the construction of a
temple dedicated to the city god Ningirsu (cylinder A xx 24-xxi 12).
Gudea relates how he measures out the seven tiers of the ziqqurat
and assigns a special name to each layer20.
Gudea in charge of building the house,
placed on his head the carrying-basket for the house, as if it were a holy
crown.
He laid the foundation, set the walls on the ground.
He marked out a square, aligned the bricks with a string.
He marked out a second square on the site of the temple, saying:
´It is the line-mark for a topped-off jar of 1 ban capacity´
He marked out a third square on the site of the temple, saying:
´It is the Anzud bird (= mythic stormbird) enveloping its fledgling with its wings
´.
He marked out a fourth square on the site of the temple, saying:
´It is a panther embracing a fierce lion´.
He marked out a fifth square on the site of the temple, saying:
 ´It is the blue sky in all its splendour´.
He marked out a sixth square on the site of the temple, saying:
´It is the day of supply, full of luxuriance (h i - l i)´.
He marked out a seventh square on the site of the temple, saying:
´It is the E-ninnu bathing the country with moonlight at dawn´.
The development of the ziqqurat was probably influenced by a different
concept of the pantheon. The new urban leaders were in need of a world
view of their own and they created it by cherry picking from the stock of
ideas that were part of the long and ancient religious life of the people.
Some aspects of the traditional way of thinking lived on in the new
approach to religion. So for instance the reed tabernacle or giguna was
preserved and was now built on top of the highest layer of the ziqqurat.
The giguna was furnished with the scented branches of cedar wood and
decorated with precious stones and gold. This was the earthly residence
of the god, and perhaps it was in this place that the wedding ceremony
was solemnized between the city god and his divine spouse. It was still
the old reed house of the god but now removed from the profane world
and unapproachable by common people. Even in the fifth century BC
Herodotos would relate that in Babylon the temple on the summit of the
topmost tower displayed a fine large couch, richly covered.21 It is
remarkable that according to Herodotos the shrine was empty and
contained no image of the god, so apparently it was still the same reed
hut that made the divine presence visible. The old meaning of the
tabernacle had not been abandoned but was included in the new
religious constellation.
Temple economy
It was very much in the interest of the kings to be personally involved in
finding suitable dwellings for the gods and as a result the gods borrowed
more and more of the features of kingship, as they were set up in large
temples modelled after the royal households. The king installed as head
of the temple the ‘sanga’, a title that we translate for lack of a better
alternative as ‘priest’, although he has little in common with the priest in
the Christian tradition. The sanga was employed more as a temple
manager and he engaged the workforce to care for the domain of the
gods in return for which he was allotted a piece of temple land that he
could exploit for his own use. These professions were as a rule passed
down from father to son but the king had the power to reverse such an
appointment, as we shall see at the end of this chapter.
Sumerian society developed into what used to be referred to as a ‘temple
economy’. The temples in the third millennium were very important
enterprises that functioned as an economic engine for the extensive
urban civilization. The temple had at its disposal an enormous number of
landed properties, herds of cattle and sheep as well as access to a large
workforce that contributed even more wealth to the temple institutions.
The cattle were needed for the temple rites, for they were offered to the
gods and therefore should be of faultless quality and be fattened up with
great care. But the workforce of the temple was also fed and paid out of
the produce of the temple estates.
The city rulers utilized the new religion as a kind of glue that would bond
together the social fabric of the urban agglomerations.22 According to
Van Binsbergen and Wiggermann, Uruk appears to have been a fast
expanding, potentially explosive community and the novel wielders of
power were attempting to create a new social order in the field of
kingship and political relations, from the scattered remnants of previous
organisations that were no longer capable of meeting the demands of a
rapidly changing society.23 Until this point people had always lived in
close proximity to their relatives but this bond was no longer adequate to
guarantee loyalty, cooperation and solidarity when facing outsiders. In
the new Sumerian cities, Sumerians and Semitics lived together with
other peoples, and new mechanisms were needed to forge them into a
united body, so the new ruler now decided to enforce loyalty to his own
dynastic house and insist all citizens pay obeisance to him. The city ruler
acted in the name of the city god and demanded that all citizens submit
to this supra-natural being and pay him respect; an angry city god was
life threatening, a serious peril to the survival of the town. In the city
lamentations, the downfall of a city could be prophesied by the departure
of the city god, who despondently takes leave of his or her temple,
leaving the bewildered inhabitants to face their fate alone. The king had
economic and military power in the cities but he was constantly forced to
shore up his position in order to hold fast to the loyalty of his adherents.
To this end he commissioned special myths and hymns celebrating his
kingship and in numerous religious ceremonies he performed the leading
role.
Attendance of the gods
The gods were surrounded by an air of secrecy and stayed close within
the new temples built on elevated platforms or hidden behind tall
impenetrable walls. The god lived as a sovereign in his or her temple, not
very different from the way the king himself lived in his palace. The statue
of the god was probably concealed in a alcove behind a curtain, but
unfortunately no divine statues have survived, owing to the precious
materials from which they were made. On cylinder seals we sometimes
see the god sitting on a cube in front of his shrine. Gods were seated
higher than their worshippers and they had a footstool under their feet.
People believed that the god was present in his statue and it needed
an elaborate and highly secret ritual of consecration to transform the
lifeless matter of the statue into a receptacle of the divine presence. The
priest fixed an appropriate day for these rituals and during a long
nocturnal session he opened the eyes, nose and mouth of the statue, so
that the god was endowed with life and would be able to see, smell and
breathe. This performance was accompanied by the singing of the gala
priest, about whom we will learn more in Chapter 24. The gala singer
used words alluding to childbirth, and a reed mat and birth stones were
needed in the accomplishment of the ritual. According to Walker and Dick
the name of the ritual for the awakening of the divine statue was ‘Mouth
Washing’ (ka-luh; Akkadisch: mis pî), which may allude to the action of
the midwife as she cleanses and opens the breathing passages of the
new born at birth.24
The images were fashioned and repaired in a special workshop in the
temple that was called ‘reed hut’, which we may translate as ‘birth hut’ as
we have noted before.25 This special space ‘where the gods are created’,
was called in Akkadian bit mummi, ‘Mummu’s house’, the workshop
where the god was born.26 These ritual actions were designed to ensure
that even the faintest idea that the statue of the god had been crafted by
human hands was banished and it was only the successful creation of
this illusion which ensured that a statue had an undoubted right to be
called a divine effigy.
A divine statue needed the daily attention of the temple priests. An
explicit and detailed text of the first millennium has been preserved in
which the images in the temple of Uruk were depicted being served two
meals a day and Oppenheim gives a description based on this text.27
The first and the principal meal was brought in the morning when the
temple opened and the other was served at night, apparently immediately
before the closing of the doors of the sanctuary. Each repast consisted of
two courses, called ‘main’ and ‘second’. They seem to have been
differentiated by the quantities served rather than by their contents. The
Mesopotamian image was served its meals in a style and manner
befitting a king and they reflect the practices of the Babylonian court. First
a table was brought in and placed before the image, then water for
washing was offered in a bowl. A number of liquid and semi liquid dishes
in appropriate serving vessels were placed on the table in a prescribed
arrangement, and containers with beverages were likewise set out. Next
specific cuts of meat were served as a main dish and finally fruit was
brought in, in what one of the texts describes as a ‘beautiful
arrangement’. Musicians performed, and the cella of the god was
fumugated. Fumugation, Oppenheim notes, is not to be considered a
religious act but rather a custom used to dispel the odour of food.
Eventually the table was cleared and removed and water in a bowl was
again offered to the image for the cleansing of the fingers. Having been
presented to the image, the dishes from the god’s meal were sent to the
king for his consumption. The food offered to the deity was considered
blessed by contact with the divine and considered capable of transferring
that blessing to the person who was to eat it. The table on which the food
was placed as well as the image itself were surrounded by linen curtains,
all contact between the world of physical reality and the world of the god
being carefully hidden from human eyes. In every way the image lived
the life of a living king and we may assume that the priests of Inanna
surrounded her with the same care and pious devotion.
The Bau-temple in Lagaš: how the temple economy functioned
The ins and outs of the temple life can be reconstructed to a certain
extent, thanks to documents that have been excavated in the city of
Lagaš. This Sumerian city state lay to the north east of Uruk and
owned more than twenty temples dedicated to different gods. Some
temples accommodated not only the main god, but other gods as well.
The founder of the ruling dynasty in Lagaš was Ur-Nanše (circa 2500
BC) and there are numerous accounts of him boasting about how he
reconstructed the temple of the city god Ningirsu. On a stone plaque
he had himself depicted with a reed basket on his head, carrying away
the sand because the foundation of a temple had to be laid on ritually
purified ground. The spouse of god Ningirsu was the goddess Bau and
she was worshipped almost exclusively in Lagaš. Archaeologists have
excavated her temple and thousands of written tablets from the temple
archives have come to light. The name of the Bau sanctuary was
‘temple in the narrow street’ (é-sila-sír-sír), while on the other hand the
‘temple in the broad street’ (sila dagal) was the sanctuary of the god
Enki.28
Joseph Bauer has made a detailed study of life in Lagas and its
Bau tempel29 and from his research we know that the temple
possessed vast landed properties and was almost self-sufficient. The
temple servants were entitled to lease a small plot of land which they
could exploit to earn a living and temple property was also let out on
lease. Barley or še was the main crop as it was better able to tolerate
the salinity of the soil than ziz, ‘emmer corn’, or gig, ‘wheat’. The
temple domains also grew pulses, garlic, coriander and cumin and the
Bau temple possessed five orchards in which the temple servants
cultivated dates, grapes, apples and figs. The temple was in
possession of vast herds of sheep and goats, tended by shepherds
who guided them towards lush grasslands. The temple moreover
employed swineherds and fattened swine, an area where woman
servants laboured. Freshwater fishermen held leases on plots of
temple land where they were allowed to fish on the many canals and
lakes. The temple engaged a colony of sea fishermen, who fished at a
distance of 30 to 40 kilometres from the temple with nets.
The temple employed two brewers and had a kitchen and a bakery.
There also worked an apprentice smith, scribes, cooks, tanners and
cupbearers to the gods and barbers. The temple servants received
barley allotments as a monthly payment for their activities, the lowest
paid people being the singers and musicians. However, there was also
a so-called ud-tus, jester or ‘funny man’, whose income consisted of
the proceeds from a certain parcel of land.
Women workers were in a distinctive category and the tablets
register payments to various groups of women, such as female
woolworkers, flax workers, textile workers, assistants in the keeping of
swine and goatherds. Many women were employed in the processing
of raw wool or flax into threads that could be woven on the loom, and
in the making of articles of clothing and their adolescent children
received a small allotment from the temple as well.
Disbursements and allowances were made to women who worked as
high civil servants or priests and all workers, even slaves worked
under the supervision of the temple. The Goddess Bau in her turn was
served two meals a day in her temple with bread and fish cakes
dished up with beer or wine.
Attached to the Bau temple was the women’s house, the e2 - m i2 and
the position of director was filled by the wife of the city ruler of Lagaš,
who in this city state was not called the En, but ensi. At the time when
Lugal-anda ruled, it was his wife Bara-nam-tar-ra who filled this
position. Many tablets have been excavated in the temple house of
Bau and her name features so frequently that we can safely conclude
she must have been very much involved in the daily life of the
women’s house. However the tablets do not give much indication of
religious activity, but activities which usually involved the economic
management of Baranamtara’s properties.
Figure 4.21. cylinder seal of Baranamtara, spouse of Lugal-anda, Ensi
(city-ruler) of Lagaš. (Collon, 1987, nr. 525)

Figure 4.22. Figure 4.22. Imprint of a scribe of Lugalanda. Inscription:

dub-sar Lugalanda. (Boehmer, 1965, afb. 195; © Morgan, 166)
From time to time kings endeavoured to reform temple life in order to
strengthen their grip on the organisation. Urukagina, who reigned
around 2350 BC in Lagaš, established in writing that his predecessors
had been too greedy, exploiting the property which rightfully belonged
to the gods and he announced the implementation of certain reforms
to prevent such corruption.
He set down that the property of the ensi or governor was to be
returned to the divine legal owner, that the temple oxen of the god
should not be used to plough the gardens of the ensi and that the
cucumbers of the ensi were not to be planted in the best fields of the
gods.30 The predecessors of Urukagina had obviously enriched
themselves by exploiting the property of the gods and in his reform act
Urukagina gives examples of the abuses.31
Urukagina tried to curb the excesses of the elite and attempted to
break the connection between the power of the temple and the
monarch. He announced the dismissal of all the abusers and he
removed the skipper from control over the boats, the live stock official
from control over asses and sheep, the fisheries inspector, the silo
supervisor and the temple bureaucrats etc., they were all dismissed.
He returned the ownership of vast amounts of land to the gods
Ningirsu, Bau and their son Šulšagana. He reinstalled the goddess
Bau as head of the Household of Women, the e2-mi. The Household of
Woman he renamed as ‘House of goddess Bau, e2-dBa-u2, and placed
it under the supervision of his wife Šaša. However all his efforts seem
to have had little effect and his own wife Šaša, continued developing
her business interests, pulling strings in exactly the same way as her
 predecessor, Baranamtara: in fact a division between economic and
religious activities was never successfully effected.32 The text in which
Urukagina also solemnly promises never to subjugate the orphan and
the widow to powerful interests proved to be one of the oldest
examples of propaganda, such promulgations often coming into play in
later times when monarchs needed to appear in the role of
compassionate and righteous ruler.
In the third year of Urukagina’s reign, Baranamtara died. She received
a state funeral, which in fact consisted of two rituals, as we can
deduce from the account of the expenses, an interment and a
memorial festival. Among others, there were no less than 92 gala
singers engaged, 48 dam-ab-ba, which literally translates as ‘wives of
elders’ and there were moreover ten brothers of Baranamtara (šeš-tu)
present33. Some 148 slave women are mentioned, three quarters sent
by the tempel of Ningirsu and a quarter by the temple of Bau. All these
persons appear in the account of payments for the second ritual and
are referred to as, ‘people who have shed tears during the funeral rites
of Baranamtara’, but they form only a part of the vast numbers who
were involved in the funeral, the payment to the other participants
presumably having been noted elsewhere. The participants also
received an allowance of bread and beer of differing qualities and
varying proportions according to their station.
These tablets give us a superficial idea of the workings of life in the
temple and it is clear that the economic activities of the temple were
carried out with little consideration for the religious functioning of the
temple. The leaders of the temple were in the first place the servants
of the king and according to Maekawa, Baranamtara was possibly a
nin-dingir, which literally means: ‘Lady (who is) god ’. 34 Obviously, she
was on very confidential terms with the goddess of the temple and she
may have been her terrestrial stand-in or second wife of the main god
Ningirsu, however the exact meaning of the term is not clear.
The highest temple offices as hereditary property
Over the course of time the highest temple offices had become hereditary
and for the most part remained in the same family. The kings of the Ur III
regime however, were strong enough to counter the attempts of
particularly powerful families to pursue their own policy. This we can
gather from the administrative texts in Lagaš at the end of the reign of
king Šulgi (2094-2047 BC). The temple of Lagaš was in the control of the
then city ruler of Lagaš, Ur-Lama and his family, the members of which
had obviously become too powerful bringing them into conflict with the
authorities who resided in Ur. The king of Ur appointed a top officer at the
court of Ur to replace Ur-Lama and he confiscated the family’s property.
The result was that Ur-Lama and his family, including his four sons were
driven away, whereupon the newly appointed ruler of Lagaš annexed the
belongings of some of his predecessors, including, according to the texts,
the asses of two other sons of Ur-Lama.
In the city of Nippur another prominent family had monopolised the post
of highest officer in the temple, the ugula. Nippur was the major holy city
in Sumer and housed the main temple of the god Enlil, the highest god of
the pantheon at that time and also had a large temple dedicated to
Inanna. Administration of the temples of Enlil and Inanna was in the
hands of a certain Ur-Me-me and his family. We know about this priest
family of Ur-Me-me, thanks to a large number of tablets excavated
around these temples and it is clear that the history of this family does
not always present a rosy picture exactly.
The oldest layers of the Inanna temple date from 3500-3100 BC.
Archaeologists have dug up a large number of offerings and figurines
similar to figurines found in Mari in the Inanna temples, as we shall learn
in Chapter 5. The small statues have no inscription but archaeologists
came across more than forty stone bowls that do have an inscription.35
The name of Inanna was written with the MUŠ3 sign and from the
inscriptions we learn that these bowls were offerings to Inanna, mainly by
women, for the preservation of the life of their husbands and themselves.
These offering were costly, as the bowls were made from stone that had
been imported from elsewhere.
Figure 4.23. Inscription on a stone dish in the temple of Nippur. Third
millennium. Translation: To Inanna, (for) UR.UR, the field administrator
(sag.sug5), the son of Me.a.kušu, his wife the … (nin.SAL), dedicated
(this).’ (Goetze, 1970, p. 41, 6 N - 391)
The patriarch Ur-Me-me, the ugula of Inanna’s temple in Nippur, was
succeeded by his son who passed the function in turn to his son,
Lugalengar-du10. A cylinder seal which belonged to this son has been
preserved which shows the goddess Inanna in all her glory, and depicted
as a divinity with whom the king was on familiar terms. He pours out a
libation for the goddess over a plant, possibly a stylized date palm and
the goddess holds out the ring and staff to the king, the insignia of his
legitimate kingship. The seal has an inscription, the name of Inanna,
written with her MUŠ3 sign. The inscription is translated by William Hallo
as follows36,

Figure 4.24. Cylinder seal of Amar-Sîn with inscription. (Zettler, 1987, p.

60)
Oh, Amar Sin,
king of the four heavenly corners, beloved of Inanna,
Lugal-engar-du10
the prefect (ugula) of the temple of Inanna
(and) priest of Enlil
Son of Enlil-amaha,
the prefect (ugula) of the temple of Inanna
(and) priest of Enlil,
your servant.
This Amar-Sin (2046-2038 BC) was the third king of the Ur III dynasty
and he had succeeded his father, the mighty king Šulgi. On his seal he is
called the ‘beloved of Inanna’ just as Enmerkar in the early myths had
called himself the beloved monarch of Inanna. Lugal-engardu was
according to this inscription, ‘ugula’ of the temple of Inanna, apart from
his function as priest of Enlil. His office was also hereditary as his father
had borne the same titles and as Lugal-engardu (hereditary holder of the
highest office in the temple) refers to himself as servant of king Amar-Sin,
ergo the temple comes under the direct supervision of the king.
Four sons of Lugal-engardu are mentioned in the temple archives.37
The fifth son, Lugal-gizkim-zi, is not mentioned and the reason for this
can be deduced from another text which gives us a glimpse of a family
drama that must have lasted for several years and that had ended with
the death of one of the family members. The text was some sort of
contract in which the four sons of the Ur-Me-me-family made an
agreement about their father’s inheritance and the succession of his
office as ugula of the temple of Inanna. We learn from the text that the
fifth son had been sentenced to death, because he had made an
unsubstantiated charge against his father to the king. The nature of the
charge is not clear from this tablet. Probably he had accused his father of
theft of temple properties or of transgression of other temple taboos. In
any event at first he had been able to substantiate the charge against his
father as his father was condemned to death. As a consequence of his
father’s death, the son would have inherited his father’s high office in the
temple. But the verdict was never carried out because according to the
text the father was successful in appeasing the king, probably by bribing
him with a financial remuneration.38 How things went with the family Ur-
Me-me in the following years we do not know, but a father and son
reconciliation was never realized, for ten years later the son again
brought another charge against his father. This time the text is quite
explicit about the nature of the charges, an infringement of a cultic taboo
and interrupting and misappropriating foodstuffs designated for various
temple offerings. However Lugal-gizkim-zi was unable to substantiate this
second set of charges against his father and since the charges, if
confirmed were of sufficient gravity to warrant the death penalty, Lugal-
gizkim-zi himself was now subject to the death penalty and this time the
verdict was actually carried out.
This death penalty is in accordance with the first law of the codex of
Hammurabi, the famous king of Babylon in the second millennium. It
stipulates that if a man lays charges against another man, sufficiently
serious to warrant the death penalty and is unable to substantiate the
charges, the one who made the allegations shall himself be executed.
Because Lugal-gizkim-zi had falsely accused his father he himself
suffered the penalty demanded by the law.
Lugal-gizkim-zi was the principle heir of his father. Once he had been
condemned to death the four other sons had to make an agreement
about the division of their father’s inheritance. Presumably the father died
a natural death.
Endnotes Chapter 4
1 Falkenstein, 1974
2 Ascher-Greve, 1985, p. 36 e.v.
3 Jacobsen, 1943
4 Yoffee, 2005, p. 34
5 Yoffee, 2005, p. 39 e.v.
6 Van Binsbergen and Wiggermann, 1999
7 Van der Toorn, 1996, p. 66-93
8 Andrae, 1930
9 Kemp, 2006, p. 111 e.v.
10 Lambert (Maurice), 1950, p. 156
11 Delougaz, 1968
12 Horowitz, 2010
13 Jacobsen, 1973
14 Robins, 1993, p. 71
15 Walker en Dick, 1999, p. 58, 115
16 Charvat, 1998, p. 23 e.v.
17 Charvát, 1998, p. 40
18 Suter, 1997
19 Moortgat, 1967, p. 62
20 Suter, 1997, p. 3; ETCSL2.1.7.
21 Herodotos, I, 181
22 Crawford, 2002
23 Van Binsbergen and Wiggermann, 1999
24 Walker and Dick, 1999, p. 68
25 Walker and Dick, 1999, p. 58, 115
26 Walker and Dick, 1999, p. 115
27 Oppenheim, 1964, p. 186 ff.
28 Selz, 1995
29 Bauer, 1998
30 Selz, 1983, p. 31
31 Krispijn, 1983, p. 127
32 Krispijn, 1983, p. 39
33 Bauer p 559 e.v., Cohen 2005, p 157-159
34 Maekawa, 1996, p. 171-179
35 Goetze, 1970
36 Hallo, 1972
37 Zettler, 1987
38 Roth, in: Zettler, 1984, p. 13
Chapter 5 The temples of Inanna and Ištar
in Mari
Up until now we have only caught some small glimpses of the goddess
Inanna and sources for this part of early history tell us little more about
her. She was city goddess of Uruk and her temple was situated in a huge
complex packed with spectacular buildings which was the centre of
intense economic activity. Although the spirit of the goddess Inanna can
be felt like a shadow everywhere present in this temple complex, we do
not know exactly where her own temple was situated. Archaeologist
presume that the so called ‘Red Temple’, was dedicated to Inanna but
the fact is that we have no certain information about a temple of Inanna in
this early time in the city of Uruk. Fortunately this is not so in Mari, a city
which lay to the north of Mesopotamia on the banks of the Euphrates and
where archaeologists have found no less than three Inanna temples
dating from the beginning of the third millennium BC. Archaeologists
discovered the names of the three goddesses worshipped in these
temples written on little statues, Inanna Man, Inanna za za and Ištarat. It
is very difficult to know them apart or to be precise as to their meaning as
in the area around Mari people probably did not speak Sumerian, but
Akkadian. They not only worshipped the Sumerian Inanna, but also her
Akkadian counterpart, the goddess Ištar. Scholars suspect that ‘Inanna
Man’ is goddess Inanna as Morning star, invoked by Semitic nomads as
a male divinity. The temple of Inanna-za-za could then have been
dedicated to the goddess Inanna as Evening star, the female part of
Venus. The third temple was the temple of the goddess Ištarat and
possibly she was Aštarte, the goddess that was honoured by Semites in
Northern Mesopotamia, perhaps related to the Akkadian goddess Ištar
who was destined to have a brilliant future in Syria and in the end be the
model for the Greek Aphrodite.
In this chapter we will have a look at the three Inanna temples and
discuss the figurines that have been excavated in these areas. Some of
them have an inscription from which we can learn something more about
the people who venerated these three goddesses and to gauge how
Inanna was worshipped in the temple we finish this chapter with the
translation of a ritual that a later king of Mari probably performed in the
temple of Ištar.
Mari
Mari lay to the north west of Sumer on the borders of the Euphrates and
it was founded in the third millennium on virgin territory. There could not
have been much activity in the field of agriculture, as the city bordered on
the desert and even with the help of irrigation the moisture in the soil
evaporated immediately in the burning sun. Agriculture was only possible
on the small strip of land along the banks of the Euphrates, so there had
to be another reason why people came to this inhospitable environment
to found a new city. The purpose might have been to make use of the
strategic position of Mari on the borders of the Euphrates as all the
shipping traffic between Syria and the south of Mesopotamia passed
along this location. Jean Claude Margueron discovered a canal routed
right across the town that made the Euphrates much more navigable and
that could have provided the upper town with drinking water. Bronze
foundries were found everywhere in the city, presumably an important
source of revenue along the shipping routes.1 Mari dealt in tin, an
important requirement for bronze casting, supplied from Anatolia and
Elam and shipped to the towns along the Euphrates route, that led to the
cities in the north west.
We are badly informed about the history of the town in the third
millennium as fewer tablets have been excavated than in some other
cities, such as Ebla and Lagaš. We are acquainted with the names of a
few kings that have reigned in Mari and although their succession is not
known, it is however possible to glean from the scanty pieces of
information available that the kings in Mari did not speak Sumerian, but
Akkadian.
Mari possessed a number of imposing temples, including one
dedicated to the birth goddess Ninhursaga and the Sungod Šamaš, but
the main temple complex was dedicated to the city god of Mari. Although
the name by which he was known in the third millennium is not certain,
researchers assume that it was the weather god Dagan, a god
worshipped in many places in northern Mesopotamia. The temple of the
city god was situated next to the royal palace which occupied a dominant
space in the townscape. To the west of the palace was the residential
area and behind which lay the temple of Inanna Man. It is very likely that
Inanna in Mari was not referred to by her Sumerian name Inanna, but by
her Akkadian name, Ištar.
Temple of Inanna MAN
This temple was excavated by the famous French archaeologist André
Parrot in 1934 and the most recent building layer – level A – he dates
back to around 2500 BC, when Mari was a flourishing city and enjoyed
much economic affluence.
The temple (figure 5.1) consisted of a court (nr. 15 on the ground
plan) and a cella, the holy of holies, which accommodated the statue of
the goddess. (nr. 17). Later on, a second cella (nr. 18) was added with an
extra court to the south and next to these sacred rooms were probably
the quarters of the temple servants. In rooms 12, 13 and 14 Parrot found
a large quantity of jewellery and amulets and he assumes that these
rooms had been furnished for the female temple servants. The other
rooms gave way to the sacred court and cella only via street nr. 7. Parrot
found the temple utterly destroyed and every statue smashed to pieces
and it is surmised that it may have been the soldiers of the Akkad
dynasty who reduced the once flourishing city of Mari to ashes.

Figure 5.1. Ground plan of the tempel of Inanna.UŠ, level A. Ca.. 2500
B.C. (Parrot, 1956, p. 30, fig. 23)
In ancient Mesopotamia the statues in the temple depicted images of
powerful and important personages of the town, kings and their spouses,
or high priests and high priestesses. The well-to-do also liked to have
themselves represented in the form of a statuette which they set up in the
temple, so they were permanently in the immediate vicinity of the god.
The hope was, that they would not be forgotten by the gods and their fate
kindly decided. The statues are made of clay, gypsum or stone and some
have an inscription, but it was only the king and the elite who could afford
to use stone, the common subjects had to make do with gypsum or clay.
The most famous statues in the temple of Inanna MAN in Mari are those
of King Isqi Mari and Superintendant Ebih Il (figure 5.2 and 5.3). Both
statues were found in the court of the temple on the front side of cella
nr.18 (not shown in the ground plan of figure 5.1), their names engraved
on the backs of the statues, from which inscriptions we learn that they
were dedicated to the goddess Inanna MAN.

Figure 5.2. Isqi Mari, king of Mari. Statuette found by the team of
André Parrot in the temple of Inanna.MAN in Mari. Early-dynastic, ca.
2400 B.C. White stone (alabaster). Height: 0,272 m. Court 20.
Inscription: ‘Išqi Mari, king (šar) of Mari, ensi of Enlil, he has his statue
dedicated to Inanna.MAN.’ (Parrot, 1956, pl. XXV-XXVI; National
Museum of Aleppo, Syria, 10406; Courtesy © Hirmer verlag)
Figure 5.3. Figure of Ebih-Il. Found not far from the statue of Išqi-Mari
in court 20 of the temple of Inanna MAN; made from gypsum, lapis
lazuli and shell. Height: 0,525 m. Inscription: ‘Ebih Il, superintendant
(NU.BANDA) had dedicated to Inanna Man.’ (Parrot, 1956, Pl.
CCVIIXXIX; Louvre, AO 17551)

Figure 5.4. Inscription of the statue of Išqi-Mari. Statue found in court

20. Height: 27,2 cm. (Parrot, 1956, p. 69, fig. 46)
On the back of the statue of King Išqi Mari the inscription reads as
follows2:
Išqi-Ma-ri Išqi Mari
Šar Ma-ri King of Mari
PA.TE.SI Ensi
d En-Lil of god Enlil,
şalam šu3 his statue
a-na to
dInanna UŠ Goddess Inanna Man
išruk he has dedicated
The sign of Inanna UŠ is rendered in a somewhat stylized fashion in
 the inscriptions and is reminiscent of the earlier MUŠ3 sign of Inanna.
The sign for MAN is originally a penis.

Figure 5.5.The written characters of dInanna.MAN engraved on the

statuettes: a combination of the MUŠ sign and the giš sign,
accompanied by a star (= the divine dingir- sign). (Parrot, 1957, p. 73,
fig. 47, 49)
King Išqi Mari from Mari has the appearance of a real En ruler. He wears
a metal diadem, has his hair tied up in a bun and wears the ritual beard.
As recently as the year 2000 CE, archaeologists excavated an imprint of
a cylinder seal of this king on the palace floor, showing him enthroned as
king, while dressed in the ritual flounced cape (figure 5.6).

Figure 5.6. Seal impression of king Išqi-mari of Mari. Inscription: ‘Isqi-

mari, king of Mari’ (išx-qi4-ma-ri2/lugal ma-ri2). (Margueron, 2004, p. 311,
fig. 300)
The ritual flounced robe
Almost all persons who had a statue made of themselves in the temple of
Mari had themselves attired in an extraordinary flounced mantle. We do
not know exactly from what material it was made and it had been
suggested that the garment was made of leaves and tree bark but now it
is generally agreed that the garment was made of sheepskin which was
draped around the shoulders. When the weather was hot or in case the
attire was a hindrance, it was lowered to the waist and a kept in place
with a rope. Women sometimes wore this attire with a mantle on top and
according to Cherblanc the woolly side of the sheepskin was worn on the
exterior and twisted into tassels.3 Another design was a sheepskin
attached with small ribbons of leather and it is presumed that it was only
at the end of the third millennium that these garments were made of
woven textiles. The so called flounced garment then consisted of a series
of ruches attached to the fabric which was draped under the right arm,
over the back and then over the left arm. By holding the right arm
pressed close against the body it was possible to keep it in place. The
right shoulder remained uncovered and women wore it fastened at the
neck, letting it fall down as a cape. Braun-Holzinger contends however,
that the garment had never been made of animal skins.4 The earliest
images of humans and gods from the Early Dynastic time do not show
these flounced clothes so according to her it must have been made from
a woven material, a conclusion made even more plausible by the fact that
Sumerians were famous for their woven textiles.
Gods almost always wore these clothes from the third millennium
onward but kings and priests were also depicted wearing the flounced
garment. King Išqi Mari wore this mantle as did Superintendant Ebih Il of
Mari so the net skirt of the En priest that we know from the Uruk vase
may have been an early version of this garment. The texts mention a
‘piece of cloth of the En priestess’ (pala2 =TUG2.NAM.EN.NA)5 possibly
the ritual flounced garment that Sumerologists may refer to sometimes as
kaunakes, a Greek word. This is a name the Greeks gave to certain
dresses originating in the east which they ridiculed and described as a
piece of woven cloth that was far too warm and in which it was hardly
possible to move. They were said to be made of wool and trimmed with
hanging woven woollen tufts or tassels. In the Aristophanes play, Wasps,
the kaunakes are compared to entrails and rolled up sausages.6 From
this piece we can deduce that these woollen cloaks were still to be seen
in Athens in the fifth century BC, presumably worn only by travellers from
the east.7
Female statuettes
Archaeologists have dug up quite a number of statuettes of women in the
temples of Inanna in Mari. Unlike the male statuettes they have no
inscription, and so who the female statuettes are supposed to represent
is a question that remains unanswered. André Parrot racked his brains
about this question and in three successive publications revised his
opinion.8 At first he thought the statuettes represented the goddess
Inanna, later he changed his mind and thought they must have been the
queen and finally he suggested they were priestesses which goes to
show how difficult it is to interpret statuettes without the help of an
inscription. That the women represent the goddess seems the least
plausible explanation: they are more likely to be priestesses or the queen
or possibly both. The women wear a high conical hat and are wrapped in
the special ritual flounced cloak. In the left hand they are holding a date
branch and some women are depicted sitting on a particular type of stool
with cow’s or bull’s hoofs. In the chapter about the En priestess we will
see that this must have been the ritual throne of the high priestess.

Figure 5.7. Statuette of a woman in white stone (alabaster). She is

clothed in a kaunakes garment and is sitting on a stool with an ox leg
and hoof. The body was found in two pieces in the house near the
temple of Inanna MAN. The head is found in room 65 of the palace.
Height (without head): 0,193 m, head: 0,059 m. (© Service
Photographique de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris; Musée
du Louvre, AO 18213; Photo: Frank Raux)

Figure 5.8. Head of a woman in alabaster with high conical hat. Found
outside the temple of Inanna MAN, not far from the door, in a gutter.
Height: 14,8 cm, lenght: 12,6 cm. (© Service Photographique de la
Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris; Musée du Louvre, AO 18212;
photo: Frank Raux.)
Figure 5.9. Statuette of a woman of the temple of Inanna MAN in Mari
from the beginning of the third millennium. Found in two pieces: the body
in cella 17, the head on the threshold of the rooms 13-14 of the priests.
Albast. Height: 0,230 m. (Parrot, 1956, pl. XXXVI, nr. 172, p. 84, 85; pl.
XXXVI, nr. 340-331; Courtesy © Hirmer Verlag; National Museum
Damascus, Syria, 10103)
Figure 5.10. Found in two pieces in the temple of Inanna MAN, both in
cella 17. The face is heavily damaged. Two garments in kaunakes style.
Bare feet traces of paint still visible: black on the borders, red on the
kaunakes. Gypsum. Height: 0, 171 m. (Parrot, 1956, pl. XXXVI, nr. 340,
331; Courtesy © Hirmer Verlag; Louvre AO 17561)
The statuettes pose many questions that we will investigate further on in
this book. Among the findings for instance, was a statuette the
excavators at first described as two clowns as they look strange, wearing
the ritual flounced cloak and flat hat and their faces are contorted and
ugly. Muriel Williamson however discovered that they were not clowns,
but lyre players9 as they each carry a lyre and pluck the strings with their
right hand. It is possible that they belonged to the colourful bohemian
company of Inanna, of which we will tell more later.
Figure 5.11. two strange figures in kaunakes mantle in the temple of
Inanna-MAN. (Parrot, 1956, fig. 66, ‘les deux clowns’, p. 104)

Figure 5.12. Drawing of Williamson that makes clear that both figures in
fact do not play horns but a lyre (Williamson, 1969, pl. XLVI, fig. 2)
Another statuette that might be expressive of a ritual action was found in
room 17 of Inanna MAN. It represents a man and a woman who are
sitting together on a couch, embracing each other lovingly. Again it is
difficult to assess the meaning of this statue. Is it a married couple
placing their union under the protection of the goddess or is it the king
with his ‘spouse’ celebrating the Sacred Marriage under the auspices of
Inanna?
Figure 5.13. A man and a woman embrace each other while sitting on a
couch in the temple of Inanna-MAN. Both wear the kaunakes garment.
Found in room 17. Gypsum. Height: 0,126 m. (Parrot, 1956, pl. XLII 303;
p. 103, fig. 65; National Museum of Aleppo, Syria, 10104)
Temple of Ištarat and Inanna za za
Whereas the temple of Inanna MAN was situated in the west quarter of
the palace, the temples of Ištarat and Inanna za za were in the south east
part of the palace. Both temples lay in the path of a main road that the
excavator Margueron named ‘Holy Road’. On the other side of the street
the temples of the mother goddess Ninhursaga and the son god Šamaš
were found, while the Holy Road ended at a huge temple tower, the so
called ‘Massif Rouge’ in Durand’s terminology, the main temple of the city
god, presumably Dagan. The neighbourhood was really packed with
temples!
The temples of Ištarat and Inanna za za were built next to one another
and these buildings were also destroyed, probably by the soldiers of a
hostile army as they had smashed everything into the smallest
fragments, so Parrot writes. The head of the statuettes are always
missing and are sometimes to be found in another room.
Figure 5.14. Ground plan of the temples of Inanna za za (left) and Ištarat
(right). (Parrot, 1967, pl. II)

Figure 5.15. Temple of Ištarat and Inanna za za, reconstruction of

Margueron. (2004, fig. 233)
According to Margueron both temples were roofed and he deduces this
from the huge amount of debris that he found at ground level and from
traces of a flight of stairs that went up from ground level. Both temples
must have been built at the beginning of the third millennium, apparently
laid out like a domestic dwelling, with rooms around a court. In both
courts channels for waste water had been provided and below the
foundations the archaeologists came across foundation keys made of
bronze. They were pinned with a shaft that ended in the upper half of a
circle, in which a nail was struck. (see Chapter 1, figure 1.16).
Figure 5.16. Inscription of goddess Inanna-za-za: dingir-sign (a star) +
MUŠ3-sign (standard of Inanna) + the addition ‘za-za’ (four reclining
cuneiform signs). (Parrot, 1956, p. 48-49, pl. XXIII)
The inscription of Inanna za za is clearly readable on some of the male
statuettes dedicated to her and from the texts we learn that the kings of
Mari called themselves ‘god of the land’ (in Akkadian: il mâtim) and the
servants of the king also refer to him in this way in their inscriptions. In
room 13 of the temple of Inanna za za a statuette was found of a man in
a flounced garment with the following inscription, Salim, eldest brother of
the king, the god of the land, has dedicated his statuette to the goddess Inanna za
za.10 We do not know who this king is, who styles himself god of the
country, but just like the Sumarian kings who regarded themselves gods
and lovers of Inanna, the kings of Mari were apparently elevated above
the common people. The kings of Mari may also have regarded
themselves as the husbands of Inanna, this being the reason they
dedicated their statuettes in her temple. An inscription has been
deciphered on a heavily damaged statuette of a certain Bûr An, declaring
that during the reign of Ib lul il, king of Mari, whom he calls ‘offshoot’
(child) of the NIN, the king had dedicated a statuette to Inanna za za.
This might indicate that king Ib lul il was the child of a NIN, possibly the
goddess Inanna or a priestess or alternately just the queen who bore the
title of NIN and whether he was even a royal son might also be a
question. In short, divine and earthly relations seem to have been very
close and it is difficult to disentangle one from the other.
Figure 5.17. the inscription of king Bûr An, in which he writes that he is
the ‘the off-shoot of the Nin’.
The translation of George Dossin goes as follows: (During (the reign of)
Iblul Il, king of Mari, off-shoot of the NIN, Bûr An, son of Ur utu ša, the […] of
Nangar, the […] his statue he has dedicated to Inanna za za.11
We have the imprint of a cylinder seal of a spouse of the king of Mari, on
which she is not called ‘NIN’ but ‘dam’, ‘spouse’. This seal provides us
with a look at the entertainment provided at the court and reminds us of
the activities of Baranamtara in the women’s house in Lagaš. On the seal
three horizontal registers are created and in the top segment a woman is
sitting on a throne wearing a veil around her head and holding a date
branch in her left hand. Behind her a servant waves a fan and in the
middle register two persons sit facing each other during a banquet, while
musicians are depicted playing their instruments. Below women seem to
dance and clap their hands. One woman is playing the lyre and two
others beat time with castanets, long clappers of metal mounted on
wood. These instruments have actually been found in the graves of Ur.12
Figure 5.18. Imprint of a seal of a spouse of the En of Mari. Inscription:
Personal name (?) / DAM / Personal name (?) / EN mariki. (Braun-
Holzinger,Tafel 28 FD 25; Margueron, 2004, p. 311, fig. 300).
In this double temple of Inanna za za and Ištarat, statuettes of women
have been found (for instance figure 5.20 and 5.21). They resemble the
womens’s statuettes found in the temple of Inanna MAN, wrapped in the
kaunakes garment, wearing the same conical hat and sitting on the
throne carved with cow’s legs. Presumably they are priestesses as well.

Figure 5.20. statuette of a woman with a high round ceremonial hat. Her
seat is decorated on the front and back side with an oxen leg and hoof.
Found in room 3 of the temple of Ištarat (head) and room 13 of the
temple of Inanna-za.za (body and throne). Gypsum. Height: 0,24 m.
(Parrot, 1967, pl. LI, nr. 2273 p. 98-99)

Figure 5.21. A woman in kaunakes mantle is sitting on a throne with a

footstool and a high conical hat that is covered with a kaunakes cloth as
well. This figurine is found in room 13 of the temple of Inanna za za in
Mari. Height: 36 cm. (Parrot, 1967, pl. XLIX, nr. 2308, 2368; National
Museum Damascus, Syria, nr. 2072)
In the temple of Inanna za za the famous statuette of the gala singer Ur
Nanše has been found. Gala singers were dressed like females, but
could very well be men and Ur Nanše was probably a man, because his
name is masculine. Gala singer Ur Nanše lived during the reign of king Ib
lul il of Mari and he had also dedicated his statuette to goddess Inanna
za za. The text is written in Akkadian, but with many Sumerian signs
(written in capitals). The translation of Dossin goes as follows13:
Ib-lul-IL (During the reign of) Ib lul il
šar Mariki king of Mari
Ur-dNanše Ur Nanše
LUL.MAH (or: Nar.mah) gala singer
Şalam (= DUL) su(d) his statue
dINANNA za-za to Inanna za-za
išruk he has dedicated
Figure 5.22. Statue of Ur-Nanše, gala-singer with long hair and a tail on
his buttocks. Found in room 13 of the temple of Inanna-za.za. Height: 26
cm. (Parrot, 1967, pl. XLVI, nr. 2416; National Museum of Damascus,
Syria. Courtesy © Hirmer Verlag)
The loose hair of Ur Nanše is becoming to his status as a priest. Gala
singers occupied an important place in the temple in this period and his
ritual status is also apparent from the animal tail on his buttocks. In Egypt
too priests adorned themselves with the tail of a panther or a lion.
Pillar
In the court of the temple of Inanna za za, a path raised with a bed of
bitumen was marked out for processions. It ran along the high pillars that
were elevated against the walls and in the middle of the court
archaeologists made an extraordinary discovery, a pillar of basalt, about
150 centimeters in height. Parrot found the pillar in a layer he dates to the
second millennium, but believes that it could be much older. As
archaeologists never did find a divine statue of Inanna in the temples of
Mari, it is not impossible that this pillar was the goddess’s statue. This is
not such an odd idea as we may be inclined to think, as in ancient times
divine statues were not replicas but symbols of the gods and were not
necessarily representative images, but instruments to make visible the
presence of the god. The statues could well be in the form of an
anthropological being but the divine being could also be represented in
objects, plants or trees and even in rocks that had no definite form
whatsoever. A carved piece of rock could be a very appropriate divine
statue, because it was formed by nature, and already therefore
impregnated by the divine essence. There are letters from the king of
Mari dating from the second millennium in which he gives very definite
instructions to his superintendant to search for such a fitting piece of rock
in the North of Mesopotamia.14 Because this raw piece of nature was
already in the possession of the mystic essence, the complicated mouth
and eye washing rituals were not needed. These rites were only meant to
make the statue into a true divine object and even the faintest idea that it
had been made by humans had to be obliterated. The rock on the other
hand was already formed by divine nature and so the pillar hewn from
this raw material only needed to be polished in the right shape to serve
as a truly divine effigy.
In ancient Syria, gods were quite often worshipped in this form as in
the temple of the Phoenician goddess Aštarte, where a pillar symbolised
the divine presence of the goddess. It was said that in the temple of
Aphrodite on Cyprus, the goddess had the appearance of an iconic pillar
and it’s possible that Inanna za za in Mari was also venerated in this
form.

Figure 5.23. Photo of a round basalt pillar in court 13 of the temple of

Inanna za za. (Parrot, 1967, pl. 1, afb. 1)

Figure 5.24. Reconstruction of the central court of Inanna za za’s temple.

In the middle of the court a basal conical shaft. Height: 150 cm. (Haider
e.a., 1996, p. 73, afb. 28)
The temple servants must have been very busy attending reverently to
the needs of these goddesses every day. Within the court, basins were
provided everywhere for the libations of the goddess and on the floors in
the cella of the gods, archaeologists have found many ritual objects,
including a podium that was built in the cella to serve as the bed of the
deity. In some texts we read about the ritual of preparing the bed of
Inanna, more of which at the end of this chapter.15 The temple of Inanna
za za would have been a remarkable building and would have attracted
many pilgrims, although they were not allowed into the cella. This was
the private room of the statue of the goddess and only the highest
ranking temple servants besides the king himself, had access to the holy
of holies. A number of the temple servants lived in the temple, in the
rooms next to the sacred chambers, but the space available would have
been too restricted to house everyone, so some servants must have
been lodged outside the temple. Presumably they wore the sacred
kaunakes mantle and the conical hat that was a speciality of the temple
women in Mari, as is shown by the many statuettes that have been found
in this area.
A ritual of Mari
We have a text from the second millennium that provides an elaborate
description of a ritual of Inanna, to be performed in her temple in Mari.
The text was written in the Akkadian language, so the goddess is referred
to as Ištar. Rituals were always meticulously observed, and changed little
during the centuries, so this same ritual might have already been
performed for centuries past. An idea of how such rituals were performed
can be gleaned from the translation of George Dossin16 and Jean Marie
Durand17 although many aspects of this ritual still remain unclear.
In the first column we read that the king ordered a bed to be placed in
the temple of Ištar:
In case the king wishes he shall sleep on the bed of Ištar, but in the morning,
much earlier than usual, he is to be awoken and breakfast is to be served to
Ištar. The temple of Ištar will be cleaned thoroughly ….
Then the text gives guidelines about arranging the position of those
entitled to be in the temple: the singers will sit to the left and the
musicians to the right of the statue of Ištar, and the women are ordered to
stand to the left and right of the statue. Then the beer brewers, the
carpenters, barbers and leather dressers, the carpet makers and
weavers and other specialist workmen, shall exhibit their utensils. A table
is made ready for Ištar with muhatum flour and the priests erect the
statues of other gods next to the statue of Ištar, installing the emblems of
the goddess to the left and right of Ištar. Once everything is ready, the
king arrives in a lullumtum dress, and seats himself on a special couch,
behind the singers. The gala singers sing the lamentations and a seer
(mahhum) starts prophesying. At that moment a procession arrives at the
temple and is welcomed by the gala singers, singing a welcome hymn as
the procession is entering the vestibule. Then the king stands up and a
new song is intoned, the gala singers beat the halhalatum drums, the
sword swallower swallowing and the juggler juggling. Next the wrestler
and various acrobats show off their respective arts and then it is the turn
of the qadištu women to perform. Meanwhile the singing continues, the
various songs are recited and the king sits down again. Six girls, temple
sweepers, enter the temple court (kisalluhhatum girls) and start
sweeping, followed by the luhšu priest who is carrying a pail of water.
Placing himself in front of the statue of the goddess, he sprinkles water
three times and then does the same in front of the statue of the sun god
Samas, three times to the left, three times to the right. After that he
sprinkles water over the hands of the king and he is not allowed to leave
in the same way he entered but has to take the exit on the other side.
After the choir has sung the Mugimmugim song, the high priest (šangum)
and the temple sweepers approach the goddess and sprinkle water from
some special vases, after which the high priest pours out a libation in
front of the goddess with a šahhum vase and a temple sweeper pours a
libation in front of the orchestra, one to the right and one to the left.
This ceremony was possibly performed in one of the temples of Ištar and
not in the three temples we have discussed so far in this chapter, for they
were never rebuilt after their destruction. The ritual describes all
operations meticulously. In order not to offend the goddess everything
has to be done formally and precisely in accordance with the rules. The
king obviously plays a central role in this rite and the performance of the
arts in his presence is a very ancient custom common in other cultures as
well. The jugglers, sword swallowers and musicians were there to
entertain the gods pleasantly but the wrestlers probably had a different
function. They were not performing an ordinary competition as the
outcome had been already decided, the home team being the winners,
the losers being the team of the enemy. The outcome might even remain
open in order to redress the cosmic balance that was envisaged with the
contest. 18 The participants intervened in the course of nature to ensure
the favorable outcome of the progress and the sympathy of the god. It
was a dramatic staging of some of the central values of the community
and must have resulted in a reassuring feeling of euphoria and solidarity.
19
Endnotes Chapter 5
1 Margueron, 2004
2 Parrot, 1956, p. 70
3 Cherblanc, 1937
4 Braun-Holzinger, 2007, p. 68
5 Renger, 1967
6 Cherblanc, 1937
7 MacDowell, Aristophanes Wasps, 1971, p. 279
8 Parrot, 1967, p. 97
9 Williamson, 1969
10 Parrot, 1967, p. 41, 311
11 In: Parrot, 1967, p. 318
12 Woolley, p 127/128
13 Dossin, Parrot, 1967, p. 328
14 Durand, 1985
15 Durand, 2008
16 Dossin, 1938
17 Durand, 2008
18 Kristensen, 1954, p. 204
19 Gilan, 1994
Chapter 6 The secrets of the Royal Graves
of Ur (I)
To the south of Mesopotamia, where the Euphrates and Tigris flow into
the Persian Gulf the Sumerian town of Ur was established, a wealthy port
town made rich from seaborne commerce. Its merchants were in close
contact with an island group in the Persian Gulf, present day Bahrein,
where traders from distant countries arrived, bringing with them their
cargo for sale. In the hymns kings boast of the exotic materials they have
imported from distant countries to make the statues of themselves or with
which they have furnished the temples of the gods. Mesopotamia lacked
stone, wood and metal (gold, copper, tin) and the kings cast covetous
eyes on countries that were richly provided with these attractive
resources. The texts mention the mysterious country of Meluhha, a city in
India which had flourished along the banks of the Indus River around
2600 BC. From here large vessels must have hugged the Iranian coast
and the country of Elam, which was known to have been very active in
navigation and reached even as far as the shores of Egypt, famous for its
goldmines. Bahrein must also have been an important location for
transhipment and all the goods that reached Mesopotamia along this
route did so via the port of Ur, making huge profits for that city.
The city god of Ur was the Moongod Nanna, father of Inanna and the
prosperous inhabitants had built for its god a huge temple complex. The
other gods were also housed in beautiful shrines but it is not known if
Inanna, city goddess of the more northern town of Uruk, also possessed
her own temple in Ur. Until now no such temple has been excavated, but
there are indications that Inanna was not without lodging in Ur.
How rich Ur had been in this period became obvious to the world when in
the last century the British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley discovered
a cemetery with almost two thousand graves, dating for the most part
from the beginning of the third millennium. Most of the graves excavated
by Woolley and his team were those of ordinary people; the body had
been wrapped in a reed mat or placed in a simple coffin resting at the
bottom of the grave. But of the 660 graves they found from the Early
Dynastic period, sixteen were so richly provided with grave gifts, that
Woolley was convinced they must have been the graves of the dead
kings and queens of Ur, and so he named the place, ‘The Royal
Cemetery’. These must have been the kings from the first dynasty of Ur
that ruled from around 2700 BC. We are a bit more informed about this
dynasty from Ur than about the kings who were ruling Mari in the same
period as some of these kings are known from the Sumerian king list and
some from very old inscriptions.
The excavations of Woolley
Woolley had travelled to Iraq with his team in the twenties of the last
century to excavate the town of Ur. It was a time in which archaeologists
and their discoveries were of great interest to the public and their
adventures made headline news. Howard Carter had become famous in
1922 when he discovered the tomb of the pharaoh Tutanchamon but the
sixteen tombs that Woolley excavated in Ur some years later were at
least as spectacular, while they were more than a millennium older. The
riches that came to light were breath taking, everywhere golden objects
scattered about and the dead bodies adorned with jewels and other
precious ornaments. Woolley recorded his findings in two substantial
volumes Ur Excavations, The Royal Cemetery and in 1935 the English
queen raised him to the peerage as a mark of honour for his activities.
The most spectacular tomb found in the Royal Cemetery was grave
number RT 800 (RT stands for ‘Royal Tomb’, while the others are PG,
‘Private Graves’). The tomb was 4.35 meters by 2.80 meters, and the
walls rose to a height of 1.40 meters.1 There was no door into the tomb
chamber so the vault was built after the body was placed in the chamber.
It was not in a coffin, but was laid out on a bier and declared by Woolley
to be the body of a woman, identified by the lapis lazuli cylinder seal that
lay close to her, bearing a name and title in cuneiform script. On her seal
(figure 6.1) is carved a so called ‘banquet scene’, two persons sitting face
to face holding a cup in their hands and surrounded by a number
servants, which would indicate that they are of high rank. In the field we
see cuneiform signs, first read by Assyriologists as ‘Šub-ad, nin’, but
according to later interpretations written in Akkadian script and translated
as ‘Pu-abi’, literally, ‘The word of the father’. ‘Nin’ means ‘high lady’, but
also a priestess and the queen could be addressed as Nin. Pu-abi might
be the woman who is depicted on the seal, left in the upper register,
holding a cup and attended by two servants. She is sitting on a richly
decorated stool, while holding a branch in her right hand, probably a date
palm.
Woolley gives a meticulous account of how he had found the body of
Šub-ad, alias Pu-abi, in her tomb chamber.2 He writes that the queen lay
straight on her back, her hands crossed over her stomach and that her
regalia was magnificent. Her gold hair ribbon was unusually wide and
heavy and over this came a wreath of lapis lazuli cylinder beads and
carnelian rings from which hung gold ring pendants and a wreath of
similar beads but with gold ‘beech leaf’ pendants.

Figure 6.1. Modern imprint of a seal of lapis lazuli, which was found near
the body of Pu-abi. In the left top corner the inscription can be read as:
Pu-abi. Nin. (British Museum, BM 121544; © The Trustees of the British
Museum)
Over this came different layers of wreaths, one with willow leaf pendants
tipped with carnelian beads arranged in sets of three and between the
leaves of gold flower rosettes whose petals were inlaid with lapis and
white paste. At the back of the head rose a tall ‘comb’ of gold, that seems
to have been set so as to lean slightly forwards and its seven points
ending in rosettes of gold with lapis centres were bent so as to droop
over the crown of the head. Below the ears hung enormous gold earrings
of the usual lunate type (figure 6.2). This headdress was so big that it
must have been worn on a broad wig. Around her neck was a necklace of
small gold and lapis beads with a pendant in the form of a rosette wheel
of open work in gold set with carnelian. The whole upper part of the
queen’s body was covered with beads of gold, silver, lapis lazuli,
carnelian, and agate, astonishingly numerous and of exceptionally fine
quality, and must have, Woolley believes, formed vertical strings sewn on
to a kind of cloak (figure 6.3). This garment must have given a dazzling
impression and as the queen moved the clicking of the beads must have
been audible. The queen wore a necklace described by Woolley as a
‘dog collar’ (figure 6.4), a standing collar that was not tight, but was made
up of a number of triangles that would have hung loose in a manner quite
alien to its character and used as the standing collar of a cloak would
have served its purpose well, according to Woolley. Against the right
upper arm of the queen were found three gold pins, which probably
secured the cloak, left open on this side, as was the usual fashion. With
the pins were four amulets, two fish of gold and one of lapis, and one of
gold in the form of two seated gazelles. With them were three lapis lazuli
cylinder seals, the last of which bears the name of Pu-abi.

Figure 6.2. Wig of Pu-abi. (Courtesy: Penn Museum, Pennsylvania, USA,

fig. 150028)

Figure 6.3. Wig with dress of coloured beads of Pu-abi (Courtesy: Penn
Museum, Pennsylvania, USA, fig 184431)

Figure 6.4. So-called ‘dog collar’. Length: 21,6 cm. (British Museum,
122334; © The Trustees of the British Museum)

Figure 6.5. Diadem, gold and lapis-lazuli. Length: 88 cm. (Courtesy: Penn
Museum, Pennsylvania, USA, fig. 152101; B 16684)
There seems to be no end to Woolley’s description of the ornaments of
Pu-abi. On the fingers of the queen’s hands were ten gold rings and on
the thigh bones lay a number of large faceted date shaped beads of gold,
lapis and carnelian which were presumably connected with a belt. Around
her right knee the queen was wearing a ‘garter’ made of gold and lapis
lazuli beads, with a pendant of carnelian and to the left of the bier were
the remains of a wig made of gold ornaments, lying on carbonized
material that once must have been a small table. Here there were the
elements of a diadem, made of thousands of very small lapis lazuli beads
which lay against a strip of white powdery material the fibrous texture of
which suggested leather, presumably the material to which the beads
had been attached. Against this blue field there had been attached small
ornaments of gold, four pairs of animal figures, stags, bearded bulls,
gazelles and rams, small eight-petalled rosettes, ears of wheat, clusters
of three pomegranates with their leaves, plants with stems of gold leaf
over silver, and with gold, lapis, or carnelian pods, palmettos of twisted
gold wire, the last always inverted and so apparently hanging downwards
(figure 6.4). Alongside, perhaps part of the fastening arrangement was a
short gold pin with a flat head ornamented with a guilloche pattern. Lying
across the body was a silver lamp.
The queen was not alone in her tomb chamber. Woolley writes that
beside the bier where lay the Queen, was found lying the body of a
woman and at the foot of the bier there was another woman in a kneeling
position. Opposite the queen was the body of a man, his gender Woolley
inferred from the fact that he was wearing a belt on which a dagger and a
whetstone were hanging down. He was also wearing a chain of date
shaped beads of lapis and silver while next to him was found a silver pin
and the fragments of an ostrich shell which had been encrusted with
white, red and black tesserae. The woman at the foot of the bier of Pu-abi
was wearing, among other ornaments, a pair of gold hair rings. Another
skull was found next to the bier wearing lunate earrings and golden hair
ribbons in her wig, but these ornaments could have fallen from the filling
through the broken arch of the roof, as Woolley points out.

Figure 6.6. Groundplan of the tomb of Pu-abi of Ur. (Woolley, 1934, RT

800, pl. 36)
Besides these personal ornaments the tomb chamber was packed full of
precious grave gifts, such as gold and silver bowls and vases and
furniture. These objects were piled up against the wall or placed on the
floor and other pieces had fallen from shelving that had perished with
time. Woolley notes that there seemed to be no method in the way these
grave gifts were stowed away.3 He gives a meticulous account of each
single object in the smallest detail, page after page. The quantity is
staggering.
The tomb of Pu-abi not only consisted of her own tomb chamber,
according to Woolley. Above, a shaft had been dug out, seven meters
below the present day surface of the field and this shaft is referred to by
Woolley as the ‘death pit’. The soil of the shaft was very loose, because it
had been made to make space for an adjacent grave and later
interments. The death pit was about 11.75 by 4 meters and a sloped
dromos led into it from the south east (figure 6.6). The whole floor was
covered with mats and in the floor of the dromos, about two metres from
the entrance to the pit, there had been dug an oval hole about a metre
deep which according to Woolley must have had a ritual significance,
probably intended to receive libations from the surviving relatives poured
at the moment when the infilling of the pit had reached a certain level.4 At
the entrance to the shaft lay five human skeletons in a row, presumed to
be men, because they had with them dagger blades and a razor and
seven clay saucers.
In the middle of the pit, just in front of the dromos down which it had
been driven, was the sledge chariot of the queen drawn by two asses,
wearing copper collars with plates of thin metal. Mixed up with the bones
of the animals were those of four grooms, and a fifth human skeleton lay
just clear of the asses’ hoofs against the corner of the entrance, Woolley
writes.

Figure 6.7. Reconstruction of the sledge chair (or carrying chair) of Pu-
abi. (Woolley, 1934, afb. 124)
Three lions’ heads in gold with lapis lazuli and shell manes formed the
decoration of a panel high up on the side of the body of the chariot (figure
6.7). Above them was a row of very small heads, also in gold, of lions
and bulls alternately and between them were disks of shell and lapis,
while above them and connecting them all, was a band of minute inlay
which edged the top bar of the body of the chariot. The panel in the front
was again decorated with two lions’ heads.
In the middle of the pit, close to the chariot was a great wooden chest
measuring 2.25 meters by 1.10 meters. It was empty, presumably
because the contents had decayed and left no trace. Woolley concluded
it would be fairly safe to assume that the contents consisted of textiles
and that the chest was the wardrobe of the queen and that the body of
the man lying against the chest may have been the Keeper of the
Wardrobe. Around the chest lay an amazing wealth of offerings, vessels
of gold, silver, copper, clay and of such stones as white calcite, steatite,
obsidian, and lapis lazuli, silver heads of lionesses from a piece of
furniture, gold drinking straws, gold saws and chisels, an inlaid gaming
board and a harp covered with gold. Woolley describes the objects piece
by piece. The harp was lying at the end of a recess where the bodies of
many women were lying, all attired in their best clothes.
Human victims
The tomb of Pu-abi was indeed the richest of the sixteen king’s graves,
but the other tombs were also packed with treasure and numerous
human remains. According to Woolley only one conclusion could be
drawn from the evidence available, that the kings and queens interred in
the Royal Cemetery were surrounded by their palace staff that had
followed their masters voluntarily into their graves. These attendants
must have been sacrificed of their own free will, because according to
Woolley, there had never been found any sign of violence in the tombs.
All the dead persons had a cup nearby and Woolley presumes that they
had taken poison from these cups. Sometimes there were as many as
seventy or eighty persons, and as the number of bodies were too many
to be accommodated in the tomb chamber, special shafts had been dug,
‘death pits ‘as he called them, where the victims had lined up and that
they had been filled in after they were killed. The dead bodies were
arranged lying side by side, men and women, in their most fashionable
clothes with their most precious ornaments.
Woolley had come to this conclusion because the servants were not
provided with any grave gifts, the funeral had not been their own, and
they had not been interred in the grave as themselves but as the
servants of their dead masters. They had been arranged as if they could
resume at any moment their tasks after their death just as they had
fulfilled their duties during their lives. The hierarchy during their life was
maintained after their death: the soldiers were standing on guard, the
grooms were holding the heads of the draught animals and the driver
was on duty, the musicians were playing their instruments and the ladies
of the court in their most delicate attire remained as close as possible to
the body of the dead queen. In the grave of Pu-abi the bodies of ten
women were lying at the south west end of the shaft beside a harp. The
harp stood against the pit wall and one woman lay right against it with the
bones of her hands actually in the place of the strings. Woolley concludes
she must have been the harpist and was playing almost to the last.
According to Woolley the presence of human victims in the graves was a
sign of the royal status of the principle body and so graves without these
attendants were not royal graves in his view. This meant that tomb PG
755 could not be a royal grave, because although richly provided with
precious objects, there was no sign of any attendant so the incumbent of
the grave apparently entered it all alone. However, in tomb PG 755, the
name Meskalamdug was found to be engraved on some golden bowls, a
name which is also to be found in the Sumerian king lists where
Meskalamdug is mentioned as the founder of the first dynasty of Ur.
Woolley concluded that the fact that the incumbent of this grave shared
the name of the great king was accidental and that the lack of attendants
proved he was a prince only. The most precious object in this tomb was a
golden helmet, a masterpiece of repoussée gold in ancient times,
subsequently stolen from the Iraq museum, and probably lost for good.

Figure 6.8. Golden helmet of Meskalamdug in grave PG 755. (courtesy:

Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Orient-Abteilung, Berlijn)
Another grave – RT 789 – must have been a royal tomb, according to
Woolley, because there was a ‘death pit’ outside the chamber with 54
bodies of men and women.5 Against the wall was a long row of bodies,
mainly women most richly adorned and in the shaft immediately in front
of the entrance were the remains of two chariots or wagons each drawn
by three oxen. At the foot of the dromos lay the bodies of six soldiers
wearing copper helmets and carrying spears. North east of the wagons
the whole floor of the open pit was covered with human bodies, the total
number being 63 but the tomb itself was empty. According to Woolley it
must have been robbed in ancient times. Grave RT 789 was situated in
the northern part of the tomb of Pu-abi and this is why Woolley concluded
the kings’ tomb was older. He constructed the hypothesis that Pu-abi
must have been the spouse of the king that was buried in tomb 789 and
as the widow of the king she must have expressed the wish to be buried
next to her husband.6
As Woolley saw it, the king of tomb 789 had been laid in his grave
together with his servants, who crouched as for service and unprovided
with grave equipment, were kneeling around their master.7 When the
offerings had been set on the floor or on the shelves, the doorway was
blocked with brick and stone, then finished with a plaster coating and the
first ceremony was over. Woolley sketches out what, in his opinion, must
have taken place in the cemetery near RT 800, the tomb of Pu-abi or her
nameless husband of RT 789.8 After the tomb of Pu-abi or RT 789 had
been completed and the door sealed, the second part of the ceremony
started. A shaft was dug, which must have taken some time and then the
floor was covered with reed mats. A procession of people then entered
down the sloping passage, the members of the court, soldiers, men and
women servants, the latter in all their finery of brightly coloured garments
and head dresses of lapis lazuli and silver and gold, and with them
musicians bearing harps or lyres, cymbals and sistra. They all take up
their positions in the farther part of the pit and then there are driven or
backed down the slope, the chariots drawn by oxen or by asses, the
drivers in the cars, the grooms holding the heads of the draught animals
and these too are marshalled into the pit. Each man and woman has
brought a little cup of clay or stone or metal, the only equipment required
for the rite that was to follow. Some kind of service there must have been
at the bottom of the shaft, at least it is evident that the musicians played
up to the last, and then each drank from the cup, which they either
brought with them or they found ready prepared for them on the spot and
they composed themselves for death. Then someone came down, killed
the animals and perhaps arranged the drugged bodies and when that
was done earth was shovelled into the pit from above and the filling in of
the grave shaft was begun. When the filling of the shaft had reached a
certain height, a floor of trodden clay was laid over it, and on this new
rites took place. Drink offerings were poured to the dead, fires were lit,
some kind of funeral feast was prepared and new human victims were
sacrificed. Many new floors were built up in this way and on each floor
offerings were placed, vessels of food, animal bones and now and then a
human victim. When the final floor of the chamber was made ready a
sacrifice on an even larger scale was carried out, the complete funeral
ceremony having taken days and even months, so Woolley notes.

Figure 6.9. Reconstruction by A. Forestier of a scene from Ur-tomb PG

789, shortly before the participants in the ceremony were supposed to
drink the poison and buried next to their dead master. Published in the
Illustrated London News of June 23th 1928. (© The Trustees of the
British Museum)
Woolley was struck by the fact that in the tombs no images of gods or
religious texts were found, all objects meant for practical use only.9 He
did however find some bitumen boats, commonly used to navigate
through the reed lands. The boats had no oars, but a long copper punt
pole and in a few cases they had seats made of wood which had been
simply fixed in place by pressing the ends down into the soft bitumen.
The boats were actually made in situ, as is shown by the fact that the
bitumen had in many cases adapted itself to the irregularities of the
ground on which it rested, and that the clay pots placed on it had also left
their mark on the bitumen, which must therefore have still been soft.
Woolley believed these boats could have had the same meaning as the
Egyptian funerary boats in which the soul crossed the waters to the next
world.
Kings, Queens and Human sacrifices?
Woolley’s conclusion, that human victims were buried in the Royal
Cemetery of Ur was met with amazement as nowhere in the texts had
there ever been made mention of this practice. How was it possible that
such large scale funeral rites had left no trace in the written clay tablets of
the palace or temple archives? Woolley ascribed these doubts to our own
ignorance about the Sumerian culture and the unwillingness of scholars
to accept the existence of human sacrifice. Kings were considered as
gods, so Woolley said, and only gods can have eternal life and do not
die. The followers were likely to indulge in the hope of sharing in this
divine afterlife. Woolley referred to Herodotos, who had written in his
Histories (circa 500 BC) a detailed description of human victims that were
offered as sacrifice during the funerals of Scythian kings and at a later
date archaeologists did indeed excavate the human victims of these
Scythian monarchs and confirm Herodotos’ account.
Some scholars even suggested that the practice in Sumer and Egypt
of burying the complete court together with the dead king was adopted
from the Scythians, who originated from the area to the north of the
Indian peninsula. Herodotos gives a very lively description of the funeral
of a Scythian king who was accompanied by his complete court into the
grave. The women and concubines of the King were strangled and buried
in the open space next to the coffin and the same fate befell his butler,
his cook, his groom, his steward, and his chamberlain. Everything done,
a huge burial mound was thrown up and after a year, fifty of the best of
the king’s remaining servants were strangled and fifty of the finest horses
and a selection from his belongings, such as drinking bowls and gold
were buried with the king as well. (Histories IV, 71). Mongol nomads also
entertained the habit of attendants following the king into his grave.
But attendants in the graves in Ur were not strangled. Everything had
the appearance of voluntary participation in a merrymaking festival. The
dead persons had brought quite a number of harps with them and
gaming boards with stones and drinking bowls with copper drinking
straws. The graves looked like the banqueting scenes that were
engraved on some cylinder seals.
Other scholars pointed to a fragment from the Gilgameš epos. The
earliest parts of this poem must date from the beginning of the third
millennium, being the same period as the royal graves and it seems this
tablet relates how Gilgameš had died and was buried. His whole palace
staff, his women, children and servants come walking to bring offerings.
But nowhere on this fragment does it state that Gilgameš’ family and
personal servants were buried together with Gilgameš and positioned
themselves in his tomb chamber. Nor do the graves from Ur show any
evidence that the spouses of the king had ever been buried together with
their husband before their own demise. According to Woolley’s own
theory the widow Pu-abi was buried only after her own natural death, not
following her husband as she did in his death.
Sacred Marriage
Some scholars believed that the funeral gifts found in Ur were an
important aspect of a fertility celebration and they made a link with the
Sacred Marriage rite. Inanna’s lover had also died and it was believed he
would rise after his death, so this might have been the expectation of the
dead attendants and would explain why they had volunteered to follow
their masters into the grave. Scholars were also struck by the fact that a
surprisingly high number of women were buried in the Royal Cemetery of
Ur and they surmised that the women had been priestesses that had
played a part in the fertility rite. Moorey, who had collaborated with
Woolley in the Ur excavations, believed the dead bodies were not kings,
but priestesses and priests of the temple of the city god Nanna and other
members of the temple.10 Moorey denied the possibility of identifying the
dead bodies by depending on the evidence of the cylinders seals alone,
as Woolley had done. Cylinder seals were precious trinkets, given by
kings as gifts to their faithful servants or bequeathed as heirlooms to
children who used them for their own. Neither is it allowable, according to
Moorey, to identify tomb PG 755 as Meskalamdug’s grave solely on the
grounds that his name was engraved on the plates and dishes. He
suggested the funeral must have had a religious aspect and that the
dead had received special treatment not because they were of royal
blood, but because they had had during their life a divine or semi-divine
status. The large number of women buried in the cemetery might have
had to do with the cult of the city god of Ur.11 Perhaps they were temple
women, who during their life had been the human spouse of the Moon
god Nanna or had fulfilled a comparable position in the temple hierarchy
of Ur. Moorey however never doubted that these persons were
surrounded by people who had volunteered to follow them into the grave.
Woolley on the other hand utterly rejected this theory of Moorey. He was
opposed to the thesis that it was mainly temple servants that had been
buried in the cemetery of Ur. He pointed out that in the Sacred Marriage
ritual nobody was killed and that the deceased priests and priestesses
were never buried together with human victims.
Human victims?
Woolley’s theory about human victims has hardly ever been called into
question but in 2002 an article was published by the German
archaeologist Dietrich Sürenhagen in which he gave expression to
serious doubts about Woolley’s theory.12 This article however has met
with little response. His theory was that in Mesopotamia in the first half of
the third millennium, funeral traditions were fundamentally different from
previous ‘individualistic’ traditions, and that these burial practices by
contrast, appear to be marked by ‘collectivist’ conceptions with respect to
the identity of the buried individuals. Sürenhagen compared the tombs in
Ur with the cemeteries in Tall Ahmad al Hattu and Tall Kheit Qasim in the
eastern area of the Tigris that derive from the same date in the third
millennium, and he discovered many similarities. The extramural
necropolis of Tall Ahmad al Hattu and the shaft tombs of Ur have the
same one, two and four chambered tombs with practically identical
ground plans and measurements. In both cemeteries intact individual
burials can be observed alongside mostly fragmentary multiple burials,
skull deposits and nearly completely emptied tombs. The intact individual
burials exist only within the most recent tomb rows, as was the case in
Ur. But while in Tall Ahmad al Hattu and Tall Kheit Qasim no human
victims have been found. What archaeologist did find were skulls and
numerous long bones that were skeleton parts originally buried intact in
other tombs. He notes that in Ur a parallel can be found in RT 1050, a
tomb containing skulls and a few long bones but no offering. A clear
parallel exists in the so called ‘death pit’ 1332, in which were found only
two offerings but at least 6 deposited skulls and 13 skeletons heaped on
top of each other. In an intact tomb chamber tomb in Tall Ahmad al Hattu
a female skeleton lay in a flexed position, surrounded by numerous
offerings and previous burials had evidently been pushed aside to make
room for the new burial. It is also plain that still earlier burials from the
north chamber were taken to the south chamber, where the skulls were
deposited separately while long bones and the remains of offerings were
carelessly scattered over the floor. In the west part of the south chamber
are bones and ceramic remains, not belonging to these burials,
suggesting that they were placed there at a still earlier date but sometime
subsequently were almost completely removed, perhaps in connection
with the previously mentioned activities.
Sürenhagen concludes that the basic thought behind the funeral
tradition in Tall Ahmad al Hattu was the deposition of prestigious
offerings such as alabaster containers, copper containers and
instruments, carnelian and lapis lazuli beads and polychrome painted
luxury pottery. However the amounts found clearly exceed the standard
inventory of a single household.
According to Sürenhagen the tombs of Ur could be understood in this
same tradition, the so called main funeral being only that of the most
recently buried person and the skeletal remains in the forecourt
representing earlier burials in the chamber. Pu-abi’s tomb can be
interpreted in the same way, the tomb chamber was opened from the top
and the skeleton inside was removed, while the majority of the offerings
were left behind. Woolley assumed the tomb had been plundered, but
this need not have been the case. The transfer of the body to another
grave is just as conceivable and it follows that the numerous skulls
outside the tomb chamber are more likely to be evidence of skull deposits
than of the remains, originally intact, of in situ burials. There is no need to
interpret the skulls as the remains of human victims but simply the
remnants of previous interments that have been buried at a different
location. This theory also accounts for the tomb of Pu-abi, where the only
thing that can be said for certain, Sürenhagen says, is that the female
body on a bier was the last to be buried. It would be unwarranted to
attribute to this one body the huge quantity of offerings, pushed into a
heap against the wall of the chamber. The remains of other skeletons
were also present and it seems logical that some of the objects may have
originally belonged to them. Woolley was of the opinion that the shafts
and dead pits had all been utilised for one single funeral, presumably the
funeral of the local ruler or his wife, who was buried with great
ostentation. But according to Sürenhagen these bodies were not buried
at the same time as the principle body and this theory is made more likely
by the evidence - scattered skulls that have been found in the forecourt of
tomb 800 along with two rows of bodies in a flexed position, crossing
over each other, a larger number of offerings irregularly scattered around
an ox, the remains of a single carriage - which facts speak against rather
than for the theory, that these bodies and these offering were the result of
a single funeral.
Sürenhagen’s article has had no impact on other researchers, who stick
to the opinion that Woolley was right in his conclusion that kings and
queens had been buried together with their complete palace staff. It is
remarkable that archaeologists hold fast to this theory and construct
whole scenarios to substantiate it. while Assyriologists stay silent on the
subject as the sources never mention it.13 The New York Times of
October 26th, 2009 carried a news article about an investigation on two
skulls from the graves of Ur, undertaken by by researchers at the
University of Pennsylvania and involving the use of CT scans14. The
results are said to indicate that the dead bodies had not been killed by
poison, but by a sharp object that had penetrated the skull. The scene
had all the appearance of a mass murder according to one of the
researchers and he added that in those cultures it was a great honour to
be part of the palace staff.
It does beggar belief that this honour would outweigh the knowledge
that the fate of a palace servant was to be killed in order to accompany
the king or queen to the grave, and even more difficult to imagine the
scene of this immense slaughter in which the palace staff, attired in their
most fashionable clothes, volunteered to be stabbed in the head. In the
very same article it is written that the dead bodies had been mummified
in a primitive way, in order to prevent decay setting in during the funeral
rites. Obviously the dead must have lain in state for some time.
Woolley was working during the period before World War II. Archaeology
was then still in its infancy and had only recently developed a forensic
approach, breaking away from the romantic past of adventurers and
enthusiastic treasure hunters. Woolley himself delivered excellent work,
certainly when placed in the context of the period during which he
operated. Nevertheless his statements about these tombs in Ur have
never had been adequately settled. His decision to call the cemetery he
discovered, ‘royal,’ may have been a misnomer. In the tombs the said
kings never mention their heroic deeds, conquests of foreign lands or
boast about the great services they rendered their people. There are no
steles to be found, commemorating their achievements, nor any of the
paraphernalia befitting royal status or cylinder seals belonging to the
servants of a king.
In Woolley’s time human remains were not thoroughly examined but if
all the human remains found in the graves had been properly preserved,
specialists today would have been able to establish the cause of death
and in this way prove beyond any doubt Woolley’s theory. Now this is no
longer possible as only a few parts of 24 individuals appear to have been
taken to England, where they were housed in the Natural History
Museum in London where Theya Molleson and Dawn Hodgson have
submitted them to medical research. 15 From the time of the first dynasty
of Ur these are all that is left, the remains of only sixteen bodies. The
skull of Meskalamdug from tomb PG 755 and Pu-abi’s skull belong to this
group and in addition some individuals that were the attendants of ‘the
kings’. They show signs of physical damage that researchers ascribe to
repeatedly carrying heavy burdens and driving heavy chariots pulled by
animals.
No researcher has ever shown that the bodies of these persons show
traces of the poison, which according to Woolley must have been the
cause of their death, neither in the bodies nor in the cups that were found
in the tombs. The fact that all dead bodies are buried with a cup nearby is
not a sign that they had killed themselves. As Charvát notes, all dead
persons in Mesopotamia were buried with a cup as part of their funereal
equipment and it was always placed close to the mouth.16
From the archaeological records we learn that the tombs were
regularly visited from outside. These tomb attendants could have laid the
bodies decently in a row and it is not stretching the imagination too far to
believe that someone placed the fingers of the harp player on the strings
or arranged the dead bodies around the bier of Pu-abi. Whether the
grooms had really been standing in front of the wagons and had met their
death on that spot cannot be proven, not even by a photographic record.
They may well have been dead bodies from earlier interments, as
Dietrich Sürenhagen has suggested.
The majority of the corpses found in the so called ‘death pits’ were not
the bodies of wealthy courtiers but of common people interred in a very
simple way, wrapped in reed mats. Their bodies show signs of wear and
tear, not poison and the many cylinder seals found in the ‘death pits’
indicate that they had been the property of scribes, servants and
cupbearers.
The people of Sumer had a sombre view of life after death. The
netherworld was a dark, dismal place and if the dead had no relatives to
attend them they sank into starvation and misery. It seems incredible that
with this in mind the members of the palace staff were volunteering to
follow their masters into the grave and if it is true that a king and queen in
Sumeria could exert such absolute power over their subjects, it
completely contradicts evidence relating to the historical situation in
Sumer at the beginning of the third millennium. In Sumer, city states had
been formed under the direction of a monarch. Holding on to power
meant harassing the enemy from neighbouring cities and for this the ruler
needed the support of his subjects. From the sources we know that the
ruler did not have absolute control, as part of the land was in the hands of
independent families and temple domains and to guarantee the loyalty of
these groups the king had to find ways to ensure their support for his
cause. He could buy their support with presents and gifts but must
meanwhile be constantly on guard to ensure that he himself was not
trampled underfoot by neighbouring kings. In Sumer there was an urban
civilization that does not accord with the king subject relationship Woolley
had in mind when he excavated the cemetery in Ur and found the ‘death
pits’. According to Charvát17 there were no human victims in the graves
of Ur, but hundreds of followers of these charismatic kings that had been
brought to their final resting place with great ostentation of power and
wealth and prestige. Charvát states that the many dead bodies in the
‘death pits’ had been the dependent clientèle that had been given a
secondary burial around the grave of the king. The dead must have lain
in state elsewhere until the weak parts had perished while the traces of
fire could be explained by the fact that they had been put on a pyre for a
short time. The left over bones were later interred, collectively, close to
the tomb of their king.
But a question remains as to whether or not the evidence of these lavish
burials in the cemetery of Ur point to the burial of kings. The large
numbers of women in the tombs may point to the possibility that these
richly dressed ladies were priestesses who had been buried near the
temple where they had served during their lifetime. This question will be
discussed in the next Chapter when we will see that the jewels and
objects found in the graves were very likely to have been symbols of the
mythology of the goddess Inanna.
Endnotes Chapter 6
1 Woolley, 1934, p. 73 e.v.
2 Woolley, 1934, p. 73 e.v.
3 Woolley, 1934, p. 90
4 Woolley, 1934, p. 74
5 Woolley, 1934, p. 62 e.v.
6 Woolley, 1934, p. 72-73
7 Woolley, 1934, p. 35 e.v.
8 Woolley, 1934, p. 35 e.v.
9 Woolley, 1934, p. 144
10 Moorey, 1977
11 Moorey, 1977
12 Sürenhagen, 2002
13 Meijer, 2003; Marchesi, 2004; Cohen, 2005; Gansell, 2007; Dickson,
2007; Pollock, 2007; Vidale, 2010; Baadsgaard, 2011
14 www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/science/27ur.html
15 Molleson en Hodgson, 2003
16 Charvát, 2002, p. 225
17 Charvát, 2002, p. 225 e.v.
Chapter 7 The secret of the royal tombs of
Ur (II): a temple of Inanna?
What do we really know about the identity of the human remains found in
the richly endowed graves of Ur? Woolley believed the evidence pointed
to the remains being those of kings and queens from the first dynasty of
Ur, as only kings and queens would be accorded the honour of having
their servants accompany them into the grave. It was therefore natural to
assume, as Wooley did, that bodies found interred without numbers of
attendants to accompany them, could not be kings or queens. However
the graves themselves give scanty clues as to the identity of the dead, a
few names inscribed on golden bowls and cylinder seals belonging
mainly to scribes, priests, servants and cup-bearers.1 In sum, only three
king’s names have been encountered in the graves, Meskalamdug,
Akalamdug and Mesanepadda2, these names also to be found on the
Sumerian king list. However Pu-abi’s name is not included and neither do
we know of her from other inscriptions, so it may be possible that Woolley
was on the wrong track and the bodies found in the cemetery of Ur were
not those of kings and queens at all. Looking at the outfit worn by Pu-abi,
the heavily beaded dress and the profusion of golden ornaments, the
thought occurs that such attire might be more suited to a priestess than a
queen. Is it possible that Pu-abi was a priestess and could she have
served in a temple of Inanna in Ur?
Cylinder seals of the Nin and other temple servants
According to her own seal Pu-abi was a Nin. The Nin and the En lived
together in the gipar, the official residence of the En-priest as we have
learned from the hymns (p. 67). Was Pu-abi the Nin who performed ritual
acts together with the En? Did she fulfil the same role as the woman on
the Uruk vase, who received abundant gifts from the En? Or was she the
spouse of the ruler of Ur and in charge of the women’s house, as did
Baranamtara of Lagaš (p. 101 ff) ? There was at least one En in the
cemetery of Ur, as we can deduce from the presence of the golden
helmet of Meskalamdug. This masterpiece of art had the appearance of a
turban of the En, with a golden brim around the head and the hair tied up
in a bun. The delicate golden helmet must have had a ritual function, as it
was never meant to be used in battle.
But there are more cylinder seals from the cemetery of Ur inscribed
with the words En and Nin.3 On one of those seals a goddess is sitting on
a throne, presenting an object to a god who is standing in front of her.
Two geese, presumably a sign of fertility4 are flanking the seated
goddess and the moon is visible above. Can we consider this seal to be
the property of an En or a Nin?

Figure 7.1. Seal from the cemetery of Ur. Inscription NIN; EN. (Legrain;
in: Woolley, UE X, nr. 352)
Still more seals found in the cemetery of Ur have an inscription with the
title of Nin. There is an impression of a seal that according to its
inscription belonged to a certain ‘scribe of the Nin’, with the name Šara-
men. The inscription of another seal states that it belonged to a nin-dingir
priestess of the god Pabilsag. Her name is HE2 kunsig’ and her seal is
just like that of Pu-abi decorated with a banquet scene motif.5 A nin-dingir
was a ‘lady (who is) god ’; unlike the Nin they could be more than one at
a time in the temple. Moreover, there is the impression of a seal on a
bowl in the tomb of Meskalamdug, with the inscription ‘Nin-banda, NIN’,
literally, ‘Young Nin, NIN’.6
All these seals that make mention of a NIN give the impression that the
women buried in the cemetery of Ur were women that fulfilled the
function of an En priestess. According to Marchesi the title of NIN on
these seals can never have meant anything other than ‘queen’ but the
evidence does not necessarily support such a viewpoint.7 During the
Akkadian period (circa 2300 BC) there lived an En priestess of the god
Enlil that had the title Nin.8 Her name was Tutanamšum, daughter of the
Akkadian king Naram-Sîn (see Chapter 8) and in the texts this king’s
daughter is sometimes called Nin of the god Enlil. Because there could
never be more than one Nin at a time, her position seems the same as
that of the En priestess, the highest ranking function in the temple.
One cylinder seal is most intriguing because of the inscription which
includes the name Dumu-kisal (figure 7.2). This name means, ‘child (son
ordaughter) of the temple court’ and while it could be a personal name it
is also an indication of a function.9 Again we have a seal that might refer
to a temple. This seal was found in the great ‘death pit’ near tomb PG
1237, below the body of an individual that lay on the floor in the corner.
Next to the body laid three lyres of tarnished gold and silver, while the
third lyre had been made in the shape of a bull.10 The dead body was
hung about with various golden jewels, among others the so called ‘dog
collar’ that we have already encountered in the tomb of Pu-abi. On the
upper segment of the seal a double banqueting scene had been carved.
Three participants are depicted sitting and sipping from a drinking straw
that protrudes from a huge vessel, the inscription has been fitted in
between two of the figures, while below a dancing party is going on with
singing and musical instruments. From the left a man is depicted walking
with a stick over his shoulder, preceded by two women striking cymbals.
One woman is playing a bull shaped lyre, while below the instrument, two
small figures are dancing, perhaps dwarfs. The seal seems to depict one
of the many feasts that were connected with the agricultural cycle.

Figure 7.2. Lapis lazuli. Height: 4,5 cm, diameter: 1,5 cm. Inscription:
‘Dumu-kisal.’ PG 1237. The Great ‘Death pit’. Body nr. 7 (U12374).
(Pittman; in: Zettler, 1998, fig. 19 a en b)
The cylinders seals themselves present a puzzle that demand many
answers. They were made from precious materials, such as the
outlandish lapis lazuli, and seem to be brand new. They were not likely to
have been used to sign contracts or seal up store vessels. They must
have had a function other than that of the normal administrative cylinder
seals. Cylinder seals could be used as amulets because they were
accredited with miraculous power and set with precious stones that could
be polished to attain attractive vivid colours. To some stones were
ascribed a protective power or they were considered lucky and it was
believed they could bring good fortune. Different to stamp seals, cylinder
seals could be repeated continuously and it is presumed that by rolling
the stone over the soft clay of a tablet or vase the magic powers of the
stone could be passed on.11 May be the seals had some function
connected with the banqueting scenes depicted on them, although the
exact meaning of a banqueting scene is yet to be discovered.12 They
might symbolize the many festivities that were celebrated during the
agricultural year and that served to stimulate the growth of crops at the
height of the seasons. The help of the gods was an absolute necessity
and the priests played a crucial role.13 Women’s seals were almost
always decorated with banqueting scenes, while the seals for the
servants of the king were usually decorated with animal combat, as we
can see on the seal of king Naram-Sîn’s son (chapter 8, fig. 8.7). Is it too
far-fetched to presume that the precious cylinder seals found with the
women in the tombs of Ur were not owned by queens but by priestesses,
experts as they were at evoking the magical powers needed to grow the
crops?
As we have seen there was a sledge or a carrying chair in Pu-abi’s tomb.
This could also have had a ritual function as En priests and En
priestesses possessed not only a throne but a sceptre and a carrying
stool as well (gišgu-za). High ranking persons were carried around in a
sedan chair as we can see on a seal from Susa (figure 7.3). A woman is
sitting in front of the tilt of a sedan chair and while normally she would
have been sitting inside the tilt, sitting in this way she is more visible. This
stool was also used in the celebration of agricultural rites when it was
placed on top of a threshing board, a farm implement used to separate
cereals from straw and made from large wooden boards whose bottom
was covered with lithic flakes. During threshing the farmer sat on the
stool, adding some stones to make it heavier, and was pulled by a team
oxen over the fields so that the corns of grain were pushed out of the
ears. Even in our own time farmers in Anatolia use these threshing
sledges.14 The high priestesses might have been pulled over the fields by
a team of oxen to magically improve the harvest, as we can see on
another seal (figure 7.4).15 This seal features a woman with a pig tail
below the tilt of the sledge, while four other women with pig tails are
walking behind and beside the sledge. Below the skids of the sledge are
visible tiny kernels of grain, leaving one to imagine that Puabi’s sledge
might have been used in the very same way for religious purposes.
Depicted on a dark greyish chlorite vessel of unknown provenance we
see a person placed below the tilt of the sledge (figure 7.5). The figure
might be a man or a woman, an En or a Nin, we cannot tell. The sledge is
pulled by two oxen while a nude man handles the reins. According to
Nagel and Strommenger,16 the cabin was no fixed part of the sledge but
was only paced on the skids for ritual use. Nagel and Strommenger
suggest that the carrying chair was placed on the threshing sledge during
fertility rites at the time of certain harvest festivals.

Figure 7.3. A seal from Susa with a picture of a woman who is carried
around in a sedan chair. (Amiet, 1980, pl. 17, fig. 282)

Figure 7.4. Cylinder seal with sledge, pulled by an ox (Drawing:

Nagel/Strommenger, 1994, fig. 2, p. 202; seal from the J.P. Rosen,
collection, New York)
Figure 7.5. Dark greyish chlorite vessel of unknown provenance on which
a man with a beard and chignon and diadem is pulled by a team of oxen.
A nude man pulls the reins. (© The Trustees of the British Museum, BM
128858)
Pu-abi’s grave equipment has many features indicating that it might have
been the entourage of an En priestess. The diadems of the ladies in the
tombs of Ur and the so called ‘dog collar’ remind us of the jewellery and
attire traditionally worn by En priestesses (see chapter 10). However
there are more indications to justify the presumption that the dead had
surrounded themselves with ritual objects.
Bull
Everywhere in the graves, depictions of bulls were discovered, a possible
indication that the cemetery of Ur was connected with a temple. The bull
with horns was a sign of holiness, and the gods and goddesses wore
bull’s horns to distinguish themselves from the common people. The bull
can represent the Moon god Nanna, the city god of Ur and in the wealthy
tombs lyres were found in the shape of a bull. In Pu-abi’s tomb too there
was found a bull’s head, executed in silver and lapis lazuli.
In the ‘death pit’ belonging to tomb PG 789 the famous lyre with the bull’s
head was excavated and subsequently featured on the internet via:
Google Pictures ‘Bull headed lyre from Ur’. This is the emptied tomb
nearby Pu-abi’s grave which Woolley had ascribed to her royal husband.
The bull is executed in gold and silver and he is given a beard of precious
lapis lazuli stones. At the front side of the lyre there is a panel inlaid with
ivory, the pictures seeming to depict preparations for a funeral rite.17 The
bottom of the lyre was lying on the heads of three skeletons.18 According
to Woolley’s report the dead fingers of the female lyre player were still
touching the strings and a second lyre lay on the head of one of the dead
bodies that leaned against the tomb chamber. They could have been the
female lyre players of the temple.
Figure 7.6. Lyer in bull shape found in the tomb of Pu-abi. Height: 112,5
cm, length: 73 cm. (© The Trustees of the British Museum, BM 121198)
Was there a temple of Inanna?
Andrew Cohen entertains the view that the dead in the cemetery of Ur
must have had a connection with a temple.19 The stratum into which the
Royal Cemetery was cut lies in a substantial layer of debris from three to
five meters thick. Woolley called this ‘Seal Impression Strata’ (SIS)
because it contained many seals and impressions of seals. But in the
debris he found also clay tablets, miniature pottery vessels, clay figurines
and even a copper sculpture of four life sized bull’s hooves, which must
have come from a huge monumental statue. According to Cohen these
are all traces of a bureaucratic temple household that controlled both
goods and storage areas. He compared the debris of the cemetery of Ur
with the debris archaeologists have found around other sacred spaces,
temples such as Nippur, Tello and Abu Salabih. Perhaps the hastily
formed and unbaked clay vessels and figurines found at Ur were just as
significant an indication that it was a temple district.
Cohen argues that the placement of a midden connected with a
monumental building supports his argument that a temple household
stood next to the Royal Cemetery at Ur.20 The texts mention a temple
household of the goddess Inanna, a temple household of the god Nanna
and a palace, which is why Moorey also believed that the people in the
so called ‘royal graves’ in fact were servants of the cult of the Moon god
Nanna. But according to Cohen there is enough space near the cemetery
to allow for the presence of another monumental building that must have
produced the debris and in his view this might well have been a temple of
the goddess Inanna. The clay tablets that have been excavated in the
oldest strata quite often mention a ‘temple of Nanna’ (eš3-nanna). But
some tablets only use the word temple (eš3) and this might be the name
of the temple of Inanna that according to Cohen was situated at the east
side of the cemetery. It was taboo to bury the dead in the sacred space of
the temple but the other option was to be buried as near as possible to
the temple and this was in his view, in the open space adjacent to the
postulated site of the temple of Inanna. The temple was said to have a
divine aura (muš3 or melamma) and Cohen believes it not unlikely that
only people who had a bond with the temple were allowed to be buried in
its vicinity.

Figure 7.7. Groundplan of the ritual centre’s of Ur. (Gates, 2003, p. 58,
fig. 3.4)
However, Cohen’s theory might be a little premature. As we have seen in
Chapter 4, the sign eš3 was used to indicate a ziqqurat and the moon
god Nanna had a ziqqurat in Ur in the second millennium, the likelihood
being that its origin dates back to the third millennium. But whether there
existed a ziqqurat of Inanna is not substantiated from the written records.
Fertility goddess
In the tombs of Ur there are many indications that the dead must have
worshipped a fertility goddess. This could have been Inanna, but could
also have been the birth goddess Ninhursaga who had a temple not far
from the tombs, or perhaps the goddess Ningal, spouse of the moon god
Nanna. Many love songs are attributed to this goddess that show a
certain similarity with the love songs of Inanna and her fiancé Dumuzi, an
indication that the symbols of fertility used for Inanna could have been
used for other goddesses as well.
Pu-abi was wearing a diadem with four pairs of hoofed animals
reclining on each side of a tree (figure 7.8). Naomi Miller suspects that
the branches next to the animals must have hung the other way up and
were in fact male and female date inflorescences.21 These ‘male’ and
‘female’ symbols could be representative of Inanna and Dumuzi, recalling
the flowery metaphors that were used in the poetry of their love affair, a
sexual love that would make nature fertile (see chapter 14).

Figure 7.8. Diadem of Pu-abi. Each animal couple is reclining adjacent a

male and female florescence (U. 10984. Photo: courtesy Penn Museum,
Pennsylvania, fig. 152101/B16684).

Figure 7.9. Left: male, unfertile date branch, next to a fertile male date-
palm; right: female date, fruiting branch, and fruiting branch of female
date-palm. (Miller, 2000, fig. 3-6, p. 152-153)
The diadem of Pu-abi is also decorated with apple blossom. We have
discussed the artificial pollination of date palms in Chaper 2 and apple
trees can be treated in the same way. According to Cohen it is this
diadem of Pu-abi that actually shows how male and female trees flourish
as a result of divine fertilisation.22 Not only do apples grow in Iraq today,
Naomi Miller notes that dried apple halves were actually found in the
Royal Graves and as much as the date palm is commonly associated
with sexuality in Sumerian, so too are apples23. Apples and dates are
lavishly praised in the hymns of Inanna and Dumuzi. The sexual
connotations are obvious as we will see in Chapter 14 and more
extensively in the love poems of the goddess and her human lover.
Inanna very often compares Dumuzi with a date tree and she describes
her wedding bed as a dripping with date syrup. The cervids and caprids
on Pu-abi’s diadem on both sides of the date branches can also be seen
as symbols of the male and female principle of procreation and
abundance. On an ivory plaque found in the graves of Ur (figure 7.10),
two male goats are standing, one on each side of a stylised date tree and
nibbling on rosette leaves, symbols of Inanna.
Inanna had a close relationship with date trees and even in the
second and first millennium the date tree was pictured as the cosmic tree
of life. On a cylnder seal of the first millennium the mighty goddess is
standing next to a date tree (figure 7.11) and the goats are also present
although not now placed one on each side of the tree, but standing
crosswise beside it.

Figure 7.10. Plaquette of inlaid shell. Excavated in the cemetery of Ur.

Length: 4,40 cm, width: 4,40 cm. (© The Trustees of the British Museum,
BM 121529)
Figure 7.11. Modern imprint of a cylinder seal. Goddess Ištar in front of a
date tree. (Frankfort Art and Architecture, pl. 119a, BM 89769; © The
Trustees of the British Museum)

Figure 7.12. Fillet or headband of gold plate. Length: 32 cm, width: 2,8
cm. From grave PG 153 (U 8173). (drawing: Charles Henneberry;
Hansen, 1998, p. 65)
The same motif of goats stretching up to the tree to help themselves to
the juicy leaves is pictured on a diadem of a woman from PG 153 (figure
7.12). On both sides of the diadem a rosette with eight petals is shown. In
the middle a ram looks back while his fore legs rest on the branch of a
bush topped by a florescent rosette.24 The rosette and the ram are often
depicted together, possibly symbolic of Inanna and her beloved shepherd
Dumuzi.
During his excavations in the cemetery of Ur, Woolley had come across
two striking sculptures of a goat standing against a bush (figure 7.13) that
has rosettes of gold alternating with flower buds attached to the ends of
the branches. The construction was originally mounted on a wooden core
and intended to support something, perhaps a lyre. The goat is eating
from the rosettes, the symbols of Inanna. It could represent Dumuzi
eating the divine gifts of the goddess.

Figure 7.13. Sculpture with a ram, ‘Ram in a thicket’. Height: 45,70 cm,
width: 30,48 cm. (© The Trustees of the British Museum, BM 122200) the
second ram is in the Penn Museum and can be admired on internet:
http://archaeology.about.com/od/mesopotamiaarchaeology/ss/royal_cemetery_at_ur_
The rosette was one of the most popular motifs used in the design of the
female ornaments found in the graves. The upper part of the Pu-abi
wreath consists of a series of rosettes with eight petals topped by seven
floating rosettes, all fastened with a comb of gold foil. Some other
skeletons also had this same type of comb fixed in their hair (figure 7.14,
7.15 and 7.16).

Figure 7.14. comb on head ornament of gold, silver, shell and ivory.
Grave PG 1237. Height: 28 cm. (U 12423)

Figure 7.15. Comb of gold, silver, shell and lapis lazuli. Height 21 cm. (U
12420) (Courtesy: © Penn Museum, Pennsylvania, fig. 152129, 152130)
 Figure 7.16. Jewellery the dead persons were wearing in the graves of
Ur (AN319402001; © The Trustees of the British Museum; BM
122302; location: G56/MES1/18)
Rosettes adorn the game boards that were stowed away in the graves of
Ur (figure 7.17 en 7.18). These are the oldest gaming boards ever
discovered, precious objects that the dead were very keen should
accompany them into the afterlife. The gaming boards of Ur consist of
twenty squares divided over two unequal parts that are connected by a
‘bridge’. Signs are depicted on the squares and five of the squares each
have flower rosettes, ‘eyes’ and circled dots. The rosettes must have had
an important meaning or been a lucky sign. They are found on each
corner of the board and just in front of the transit to the smaller part of the
board. Unfortunately we do not know the significance of the signs but we
do know that in the third millennium game boards were used to interpret
the omens of the gods. In the town of Emar the high priestess was
appointed by the god by means of casting lots, just as was done in the
Hittite inauguration rite of the priestess.25 If the boards in Ur were used to
predict an omen of the gods, this would again point to a temple in the
neighbourhood of the graves. In Chapter 17 we will return to the function
of game boards.

Figure 7. 17. Game board from the cemetery of Ur, found loose in the
field. Heigth: 2,4 cm, width: 11 cm, length: 30,10 cm. (© The Trustees of
the British Museum, BM 120834)
Figure 7.18. Gaming boards from the graves of Ur (British Museum;
Moortgat, 1949, Tafel 23.b)
From grave PG 789, on a copper alloy relief probably a component of a
chariot, another example of the rosette motif is to be found. Two
addorsed lions are striding in opposite directions, trampling nude, bald
headed enemies lying face down. The relief rests on the hub of a wheel
decorated with ten rosettes, each finished with ten petals (figure 7.19).

Figure 7.19. Copper alloy relief. Heigth: 31 cm, width 45 cm. From grave
PG 789, ‘king’s grave’ (U 10475). (Gilbert, 1960; Penn Museum,
Pennsylvania, USA, B 17066)
The representation betrays an Egyptian influence, where the double lion
played an important role, a symbol of the pharaoh, the savage and
dangerous lion that defeats and tramples his enemies although later this
image is divided up into two addorsed lions, the sun rising between
them.26 This is a depiction of peaceful lions as on the copper relief of the
cemetery of Ur, two lions calmly walking over their enemies, so the
allegory of victory is awkwardly realised.27 On the other hand, lions and
rosettes again point to the Sumerian Inanna who is sometimes depicted
standing on two addorsed lions (see Chapter 25).
A seal with the rosette motif was found lying loose in the debris layer of
the cemetery of Ur, bearing the name of King Mesanepada from the city
of Kiš. In the inscription the king is named ‘husband of the nu-gig’ and
between the inscription of his name and the signs of ‘nu-gig’, a rosette is
pictured lying in the curve of a moon sickle. The inscription reads as
follows28,
[me]s-an-ni-pàd-dal Mes-ane-pad-da
lugal Kiš-ki king of Kiš
dam-nu-gig husband of the nu-gig

Figure 7.20. Ur SIS I Seal of Mesanepada. Inscription: Mesanepada, king

of Kiš, husband of the nu-gig. (Amiet,fig. 1063; Collon, fig. 522)
Inanna was the city goddess of the town of Kiš as well, so the inscription
may refer to her as the nu-gig par excellence, as we have seen in
Chapter 2 (p 49). Nu-gig was an honorary title with which the Sumerians
invoked Inanna in their prayers and while the star on the seal could refer
to Inanna, the crescent could refer to the moon god, Inanna’s father. Did
Mesanepada consider himself, just as other monarchs of the time, the
husband of a goddess? The glittering golden helmet that was found in the
grave of Meskalamdug (figure 6.8 p. 138) might have been an ornament
that was befitting his function as En of Inanna, this helmet being a
representation of the round cap and metal diadem of the man in the net
skirt (Chapter 3).
A cemetery of the temple servants of Inanna
There are various reasons to conclude that there were many priests and
priestesses buried in the graves of Ur as Kings had their own family
grave and were not usually buried among common people. But even in
the case that the dead in the cemetery of Ur were kings, they would have
been buried near the temple because of their function as En priests.
Nowhere in the cemetery have we found the propaganda kings are in the
habit of spreading about themselves on steles, on the contrary we only
see peaceful scenes depicted on seals and bowls implying the fertility of
the crops. On cylinder seals people are celebrating the success of the
harvest, drinking wine and beer from huge vessels and playing musical
instruments with bull’s heads that with their magical sounds must have
delighted and appeased the gods. The only weapons the dead took with
them were common knives and whetstones that the males carried on
their girdles and the copper ornamental axes that were scattered all over
the cemetery. The golden helmet of Meskalamdug was not a helmet a
king would wear during a battle to protect himself as we have said before,
but a showpiece that belonged to the equipment of an En priest of
Inanna.
So it looks as though the majority of those buried in the cemetery of
Ur were people that had a connection with the temple. They could be of
royal blood, because the king was closely involved with the temple and
preferred to appoint his own family to the office of high priest or priestess.
After death they were buried with much pomp and circumstance
providing an awesome spectacle for the local citizens of Ur.
As the title of Nin could refer to an En priestess, the cemetery was
possibly meant for them as they had no children that could attend them
after their death. At the time of the Ur III dynasty the temple of Ningal had
its own cemetery in which the deceased priestesses of the temple were
buried, as we will see in Chapter 11, and it was one of the responsibilities
of the En priestess to take care of the graves of her predecessors. The
cemetery that Woolley had termed Royal Cemetery, was perhaps in its
earliest time connected to an Inanna temple, which possibly had been on
the east side following the reconstruction of Cohen. But the symbols the
dead had taken with them to their graves suggest a much more general
idea of fertility. They are all signs that evoke the world of plants, rosettes,
dates and apple trees. One of the main tasks of an En priestess was to
soothe the gods so that the crops in the fields and the cattle in the barns
would be abundant the following year. These were the fertility aspects
over which the goddess of love reigned and perhaps we can discern her
presence in the rich jewellery and other precious ornaments the dead
took with them into the afterlife.
However besides qualities of fecundity, Inanna had close connections
with the netherworld. Maybe the dead in Ur wished to suggest the idea of
this connection, as Inanna’s power as the goddess of fertility originated in
the netherworld. To understand this we first have to know much more
about the mythology of Inanna and we will come back to this issue in
Chapter 23.
Endnotes Chapter 7
1 Burrows in: Woolley, 1934, p. 311 e.v.
2 Karsten, 1994
3 In: Woolley, Ur Excavations X, nr. 352
4 Battini, 2006
5 PG 580; U. 9315, Iraq. Translation inscription according to Eric
Burrows in: Woolley, 1934, p. 316
6 Burrows in: Woolley, 1934, p. 316
7 Marchesi, 2004
8 Stol, 1997
9 Asher-Greve, 1977, p. 122
10 Pittman in: Zettler, 1998
11 Hausperger, 1991, p. 62, she arrives at this conclusion from later
medicomagical texts.
12 Selz, 1983
13 Cohen, 2005
14 More information on Wikipedia ‘thresing board’
15 Published in: Littauer and Crouwel, 1990
16 Nagel and Strommenger, 1994
17 Wiggermann, 1996
18 Hansen, 1998, p. 53 e.v.
19 Cohen, 2005
20 Cohen, 2005, p. 59 e.v.
21 Miller, 2000
22 Cohen, 2005, p. 128
23 Miller, 200, p. 154
24 Hansen, 1998, p. 65
25 Taggar-Cohen, Ada, 2002
26 Gilbert, 1960
27 Gilbert, 1960
28 Collon, 1987 (a), fig. 522
Chapter 8 Inanna supports the kings of
Akkad
Until now, although we have gleaned tiny bits of information about the
goddess Inanna, we are very much in the dark after all. Her image is still
elusive and it is only at the end of the third millennium, during the reign of
the kings of the Akkad-dynasty that goddess Inanna in all her glory
emerges from the shadows. She developed into the mightiest goddess of
the empire and was going to keep this position for a long time.
Sumer was a patchwork of small city states in which kings reigned under
the auspices of the gods. Every town had its own patron god and
conflicts between the cities were explained by the monarchs as a conflict
between the city gods. If they conquered an enemy town, these deeds
were memorialised by being inscribed on large steles that told the story
of how their own city god had won a victory over the god of the enemy. In
the third millennium most of the city gods had been collected together
into a huge patriarchal family and at the head of this Sumerian pantheon
of the gods stood the mightiest god, Enlil, whose main temple was in
Nippur. Enki, who was the city god of Eridu and had probably been the
main god during the Uruk period, was now sometimes referred to as a
son of Enlil, while Inanna too was in some texts referred to as the
daughter of Enlil. Nanna, the moon god of Ur, in later times also turns out
to be a son of Enlil. How the god Enlil looked is a mystery as there are no
known pictures of him. Perhaps we must search for his image among the
many anonymous pictures of gods that feature on the cylinder seals.
Obviously Nippur was an outsider in the many conflicts occurring
between the cities. There was no city ruler of Nippur and in the third
millennium we know of no king that attempted to conquer this place. On
the contrary, in the legend of the Curse of Akkad, Naram-Sîn the great
king of Akkad humbly bowed his head to the oracle of Enlil in Nippur.
However, finally enraged by the fact that time and again good portents
fail to appear, he attacks Enlil’s temple, but the god Enlil in turn punishes
Akkad with total destruction
Figure 8.1. The Sumerian city states in the Early Dynastic period (Van de
Mieroop, 2004, p. 44, fig. 3.1)
The Sumerian cities were continuously waging war because by the end
of the third millennium the limits of possible expansion had been reached.
The south was completely dependent on the water supply of the
Euphrates and the Tigris, rivers that were fed by the melting ice of the
Anatolian plateau. Whenever a change of climate occurred, it
immediately affected the water level of the rivers. Because the depth of
the rivers in the flat land of Mesopotamia was extremely shallow, there
was always a risk that the flow would be diverted from their normal beds
and a flourishing river town could unexpectedly lose its water supply. For
instance, Nippur, Šupurrak and Uruk were situated on the Euphrates, but
once the flow of water shifted, towns like Adab and Umma found
themselves bordering on the river and in their turn began to enjoy
economic prosperity.
In the northern areas by contrast there was sufficient rainfall to allow
farming without the use of irrigation canals. The farmers stored the grain
in huge warehouses and shipped it as bulk cargo via the rivers to the
south. In these areas the influence of Sumer was substantial. The
contacts probably reached back to the Uruk period in the fourth
millennium. We can see this on the cylinder seals that have been found
in northern Mesopotamia and that imitate the prototypes of Sumer.
Relations were kept up mainly through shipping across the Euphrates
River and the city of Mari played a key role here, as we have seen in
Chapter 5.
The trading contacts of Northern Mesopotamia penetrated far into the
ancient world, in the east reaching the regions of Mohenjo Daro and
Harappa in the Indus Valley and even as far as Afghanistan. The Indus
Valley exported cornelian and other precious stones and a cylinder seal
(figure 8.2) from the Akkad period was discovered, known to have
belonged to an interpreter of the language of Meluhha in the Indus
Valley. Central Asia, famous for its rich tin mines was the final goal of the
donkey caravans and in Afghanistan precious lapis lazuli was quarried.
To the south the trade routes reached the Persian Gulf and faraway
Egypt, an important source of gold.

Figure 8.2. Cylinder seal of an interpreter of the language of Meluhha. A

man with a goat and a woman with a pail approach a goddess with a
child on her lap. Inscription: ‘Šu-ilišu, interpreter in the language of
Meluhha’. Late Akkadian. Provenance unknown. (Boehmer, 1965, nr.
557)
Around 2,400 BC economic stagnation took hold, perhaps due to
fluctuations in the climate and large regions struggled with serious
droughts. The age of the small city states came to an end and this
process was accompanied by serious unrest, with cities waging wars of
attrition against each other until in the end they were all overrun by the
armies of the Akkad dynasty. From the northern town of Kiš, a certain
Sargon founded a new empire that stretched from the South of
Mesopotamia to the borders of Anatolia in the north. Presumably he
reached the Mediterranean as well and fought his way west to the towns
of Mari and Ebla. His private goddess was Inanna and under this king
Inanna would acquire international status. The monarchs of the Akkad
dynasty regarded Inanna, whom they worshipped by her Semitic name
Ištar, as their personal protector, a goddess that helped them conquer
enemies. She had evolved into a war goddess and now weapons not
corn stalks rose from her shoulders. She no longer holds a date cluster in
her hands but a scimitar and a club while she rests her elegant foot on a
lion she controls like a trained lapdog.
Sargon of Akkad
Sargon came from the northern part of Mesopotamia, later called the land
of Akkad and he and his people spoke Akkadian, an East Semitic
language completely different from Sumerian. He settled in the town of
Akkad, making it the capital of his kingdom, a town that must have
bordered the Tigris, further north of the Diyala River and south of the
town of Aššur but where exactly we do not know. Archaeologists have
never been able to discover the place and suspect it to be hidden deep
below the present day town of Baghdad. According to a theory of Aage
Westenholz, the current name of Baghdad refers to the old name of
Akkad.1 The name of Akkad written in the cuneiform script as a-ga-de2ki,
is very similar in sound to Bagdad. This was not a new town however, as
there had been a king of Uruk before Sargon conquered and plundered
the town of Akkad.2
The miraculous birth of Sargon
The parentage of Sargon is veiled in secrecy. His name means ‘the king
is righteous’ (šarrum kinum) but such a throne name is often an indication
that the successor is not in fact legally entitled to this position and the
later king lists describe his father as a ‘gardener’. In the legend about
king Urzababa of Kiš, Sargon’s father was said to be a certain La’ibum
and there were other legends in circulation, one recounting that Sargon’s
father was unknown and his mother was a high priestess of Inanna.
Sargon would have been an illegal child, as a high priestess was not
allowed to bear children, so for this reason she placed her new born child
in a reed basket and let it float on the Euphrates just as in the Old
Testament, where the very same legend is told about Moses. The Sargon
legend starts as follows3:
Sargon, the mighty king, king of Akkade, am I.
My mother was an En-priestess. My father I never knew.
My father’s brother inhabits the highlands.
My city is Azupiranu, which lies on the bank of the Euphrates.
She conceived me, my En priestess mother, in concealment she gave me birth,
She set me in a wicker basket, with bitumen she made the opening water-tight,
She cast me down into the river from which I could not ascend.
The river bore me, to Aqqi the water-drawer, when lowering his bucket, did lift
me up,
Aqqi the water-drawer did raise me as his adopted son,
Aqqi the water-drawer did set me to his gardening.
While I was still a gardener, Ištar did grow fond of me,
And so for […] years I did reign as king,
The black-headed people (name the Sumerians gave to themselves) I did rule and
govern.
These narratives were written down much later, in the second and even
in the first millennium and include a story about how Sargon had come
into power4, again with the help of the goddess Inanna. The events take
place in Kiš at the court of king Urzababa where the gods An and Enlil
have decided to bring an end to the sovereignty of this town. At this spot
the narrative breaks off and by the time we can resume reading the
tablet, Sargon has already entered the service of king Urzababa who
appointed him cupbearer, putting him in charge of the drinks cupboard.5 The
narrative relates how Sargon had a dream in which he saw that the
goddess Inanna was drowning king Urzababa in a river of blood. Sargon
woke up screaming and the noise also woke king Urzababa who
demanded an explanation and so Sargon related his dream6:
“My king, this is my dream, which I will tell you about: There was a young
woman, who was as high as the heavens and as broad as the earth. She was
firmly set as the base of a wall. For me, she drowned you in a great river, a river
of blood
Urzababa chewed his lips and became frightened. Like a lion he
urinated, sprinkling his legs and the urine contained blood and pus. He was
troubled, he was afraid like a fish floundering in brackish water. Urzababa
attempted to explain the dream as Inanna drowning Sargon and not
himself, then he went to his chancellor and informed him: My holy sister,
holy Inanna is going to drown the cup bearer in a great river! In the
meanwhile he secretly ordered his chief smith to kill Sargon in the temple
of Inanna. But Inanna stood at the right hand side of Sargon and warned
him not to welcome the smith into the holy house, so Sargon met the
smith at the gate and did not go inside the temple with him.

Figure 8.3. Obverse side of the tablet with the legend of Sargon.
(Cooper/Heimpel, 1983, p. 68)
When ten days later Sargon again appeared, large as life before king
Urzababa, the latter was extremely frightened and he contrived at a new
way to dispose of Sargon. He dictated a tablet and gave it to Sargon with
the instruction to bring it to king Lugalzagesi in Uruk. On this tablet a
message was written for Lugalzagesi in which Urzababa warns
Lugalzagesi against Sargon and advises him to kill Sargon at the earliest
opportunity. The story continues with the observation that writing on
tablets had already been invented but that clay envelopes to cover
tablets did not yet exist. Unfortunately the text breaks off at this point, but
we may assume that Sargon was able to read the tablet owing to the lack
of an envelope and took precautionary measures. Clay envelopes
wrapped around a written tablet have indeed been excavated at a much
later date. King Lugalzagesi of Uruk refused to converse with Sargon, the
messenger of Urzababa, and by the time he agreed to do so it had
already become clear that he would have to submit to Sargon, or so the
fragmentary legend goes.
A narrative with the theme of a messenger that has to deliver a letter in
which his own death is requested is also related in the Bible. King David
sent the Hittite Uriah, who was a soldier in his army, to deliver a letter to
his general Joab (II Samuel 11:14-17). In this letter David ordered Joab
to put Uriah in the frontline where the fighting would be fiercest and then
to withdraw leaving Uriah undefended to meet certain death. Thus it
happened, Uriah died on the battlefield and King David was able to marry
his widow Bathsheba, who was pregnant by him and who would become
the mother of the succeeding king, Solomon.
The same motif is known from a Greek story about Bellerophon, the
legendary hero from Corinth. Bellerophon was staying with the king of
Tiryns when Anteia (or Stheneboa) the king’s wife, took a fancy to him.
When Bellerophon rejected her advances, she revenged herself by
accusing Bellerophon of attempting to ravish her. Her husband, bound by
the rules of hospitality dared not kill Bellerophone, so he sent
Bellerophon to his father-in-law, the Lycian king, Iobates, bearing a
sealed letter in a folded wooden tablet: “Pray remove the bearer from this
world: he attempted to violate my wife, your daughter. This time the hero
never read the message and delivered it to Iobates who assigned him a
series of life threatening tasks over which Bellerophon triumphed after
tough battles, thanks to the assistance of his gods. Then the king realized
that Bellerophon was a son of the gods and he gave him his daughter in
marriage (Iliad VI, 168/184).
The legend of Sargon is intricately woven around certain facts that
probably fit some historical reality. Sargon had indeed defeated
Lugalzagesi, the ruler of Umma, who is known from some other royal
inscriptions, but before Sargon had defeated Lugalzagesi, the latter had
already conquered the city state of Uruk and some other southern
regions from Sumer, so these regions also became a part of the
Akkadian empire. For the very first time in history some sort of national
empire had come into being, with a centralised administration. The Akkad
dynasty continuously waged war with the surrounding countries and in
doing so realised an empire that stretched from the Upper Sea
(Mediterranean) to the Lower See (Persian Gulf). In an early inscription
Sargon claims to have conquered Anaku and Kaptara, the countries of
the Upper Sea and Tilmun and Magan, the countries of the Lower Sea,
which boast would mean that all the countries from sunrise to sunset
were under his authority.7 It is conjectured that Anaku (‘Tinland’) is
Cyprus and Kaptara is Crete while Tilmun will be Bahrein and Magan
(Oman) both of which lay in the Persian Gulf. Old Akkadian cylinder seals
have been found in Cyprus, one of which bears the name of Šar-kali-
šarri, great grandson of Sargon. Cyprus was famous for its copper mines
and our word ‘copper’ is derived from the Latin word cuprum, that again
is based on the name of Cyprus. Whether Sargon himself had ever set
foot in Cyprus seems unlikely.

Figure 8.4. Copper head, perhaps of Sargon or Naram-Sîn. Found in the

Ištar-temple of Niniveh. Ca. 2400 B.C. (Courtesy: Deutsches
Archäologisches Institut, Orient-Abteilung, Berlin. © bpk - Bildagentur für
Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte; Courtesy: Vorderasiatisches Museum,
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, AO 2678//.AO 1679)
In the town of Nineveh in northern Mesopotamia, the copper head of a
Babylonian monarch was found in the temple of Ištar. Archaeologists
date the find to around 2400 BC and although the head is damaged, it is
a miracle that it has been preserved at all. Copper statues are rare as
they are so easy to melt down for a more utilitarian purpose. Most
scholars take it that the copper head of Nineveh represents Sargon or his
grandson Naram-Sîn. However it seems more plausible to ascribe it to
Sargon as the head bears the traits of a Sumerian En ruler and looks
similar to the golden helmet of Meskalamdug (chapter 6, figure 6.8). He is
wearing a turban with a rolled brim and a metal fillet around his head.
Sargon would have sought to be associated with the Sumerian culture
that in his time was much more developed than the Akkadian. It was
mainly under Naram-Sîn that the Akkad dynasty would choose to go
more its own way.
The kings of Akkad built a complete new centralised form of government.
Unlike the Sumerian En ruler the Akkadian kings did not live in the gipar
of the temple, but in the e2-gal, literally ‘big house’, a private palace so to
speak. From this complex Sargon ruled the surrounding areas,
subjugated the towns, imposed quotas for agricultural products and
introduced standardized weights and measures. His grandson Naram-Sîn
continued expanding the bureaucratic apparatus and from the
surrounding regions wealth was drawn to the capital, Akkad.
Ištar
The goddess Inanna was the personal guardian goddess of Sargon and
he identified her with the Akkadian goddess Ištar. The origin of Ištar is not
at all clear. The old Akkadian pantheon was not very large, and was
presided over by two main gods, Ilum en Aštar.8 Ilum was the term for a
god in a general sense and while Aštar was a male god originally, the
morning star, the female counterpart was Aštart the evening star. Both
were the children of the Semitic moon god Sîn and as the names Aštar
and Aštart are similar perhaps the Akkadians already understood that
both ‘stars’ were very closely related.
Even in the pre-Sargonic period in Sumer, Akkadian personal names
pop up in which the name of Aštar or Ištar is incorporated: ‘Ištar is my
mother’ (Ištar-ummi) and ‘My fruit is (d) Ištar’ (En-bi-Eš4-dar).9 The name
of Ištar is male, but could without much ado be identified with the female
Inanna, because they both complemented each other in the morning star
and the evening star. The Akkadian Ištar is a war goddess, and this can
already be observed in the earliest Akkadian personal names, such as
‘Ištar is my fighter’ (Ištar-qarradi). As we have seen in Chapter 5, Mari
had a temple of ‘Inanna (Ištar) Man ‘and this bisexuality will always be a
feature of Inanna/Ištar sometimes even apparent in a few personal
names like ‘Ištar is my husband’ (Eš-dar-mu-ti).
 The etymology of the name Ištar is unknown and many scholars have
proposed theories but none remain uncontested. In his dissertation on
Ištar in 1921, Joseph Pleissis had already abandoned any attempt to find
a plausible etymology for Ištar and suggested for lack of evidence that
the name perhaps was related to the Indo-European word for ‘star’, in
Greek, aster.10 But this linguistic link has not yet been proved.
During the dynasty of Sargon Inanna received her definitive iconography.
Inanna or Ištar assisted the Akkadian kings in their conquest of
neighbouring countries so she is equipped with weapons rising from her
shoulders and has a club and scimitar in her hands. The lion is her
permanent companion.

Figure 8.5. Ištar with one foot on a lion and weapons. Inscription: ‘For
Nin-iskun, Amurru, the gemcutter’. Cylinder seal. Provenance unknown.
(art market). (Courtesy: Oriental Institute Museum of the university of
Chicago)
The goddess is the focal point of ritual actions as we can see on a
cylinder seal of unknown provenance, once owned by a certain Iku
Parakkum from the Akkad period, (figure 8.6). The mighty goddess is
sitting on a throne with two crossed lions seated below her. Weapons
arise from both her shoulders and she is wearing the divine crown with
five tiers of bull’s horns. A woman, possibly the queen, is pouring a
libation before her. Ištar is almost always depicted enface, looking the
spectator right in the eye, while her supplicants are depicted in profile.
Figure 8.6. Goddess Ištar is sitting on a couch with lions. Inscription: ‘Iku-
Parakkum,superintendant’. Seal from the Akkad period. Provenance
unknown (art market). (Orthmann, 1975, pl. 135)
Ištar Annunitum
Sargon’s grandson Naram-Sîn continued to consolidate the position of
the goddess Ištar and worshiped her as Ištar Annunitum.11 From where
exactly the goddess Annunitum came is not known, perhaps she came
from the bordering land of Elam which lay east of the Zagros mountains,
as Naram-Sîn was married to an Elamite princess. According to Selz and
others, Annunitum was originally a surname of Ištar, and meant ‘warrior
Ištar’.12 Ananantu(m) indeed means literally ‘fight, combat’ in the
Akkadian language. It was this epithet that at a later date became the
name of an independent goddess
Ištar Annunitum was Naram-Sîn’s favourite goddess as to her he owed
his military successes and called himself her husband (mu-ut dInanna
annu-ni-tum). Whether this epithet meant that he celebrated the Sacred
Marriage rite with her we do not know but while the Sumerian city rulers
presented themselves as the worldly husband of the goddess, Naram-Sîn
at the end of his life took an even more audacious step by naming
himself ‘god’. His close relations with Ištar Annunitum were a guarantee
of this divine status, a privilege he had claimed for himself after a
massive revolt by the Sumerian city states had been finally overcome. In
an inscription Naram-Sîn refers to himself as ‘god of his city’ i.e. the city
of Akkad, a new town that Sargon had proclaimed capital city of his
empire but still lacking a city god. In an inscription that has been found in
Northern Iraq Naram-Sîn explains how he himself was elevated to the
status of city god of Akkad after he had led nine military campaigns to
victory in one single year, owing to the love Ištar cherished for him.
According to the available text, the inhabitants of Akkad requested the
gods of the other towns to proclaim Naram-Sîn the city god of Akkad,13 a
request the mighty gods accepted without demur: and so it happened
that the monarch of the Akkad dynasty became at one and the same
time, the ‘god of Akkad’.
According to Postgate we must understand the divine pretensions of
this ruler in the context of the new political situation.14 The empire of
Akkad was a completely alien concept at that time and without divine
sanction it was inconceivable that the rule of Naram-Sîn, a foreigner after
all, would have been accepted by the peoples of other countries. Naram-
Sîn styled himself ‘king of the four quarters of the world’ (šar kibrat
arba’im) and henceforward in written texts he had his name be preceded
by a divine determinative, the sign d from dingir, ‘god’, and called himself
‘god of Akkad’ and ‘consort of Ištar Annunitum’. This goddess had helped
him to gain his mega victory so it is not implausible that it was Naram Sîn
who founded a temple in the town of Akkad named E2.UL.MAŠ, ‘the
temple of Ištar at Ulmaš’.15 Naram-Sîn incorporated the name of the
temple in the name he gave to his son, Ukin Ulmaš literally: ‘faithful to
Ulmaš’.

Figure 8.7. Cylinder seal of a son of Naram-Sîn Inscription: ‘Naram-Sîn of

Akkad: Ukin-ulmaš, his son.’ (Collon, 1987, afb. 528)
But divine status for a king in Mesopotamia was not as odd as we may be
inclined to think and the rulers of Mari also styled themselves ‘god of the
land’. In the third millennium kings had very close connections with the
gods, and they had few scruples about styling themselves child or
husband of a goddess, thus the step to proclaiming one’s self god seems
less farfetched in these circumstances. Unfortunately our information
about kingship in the ancient world is too scarce to enable us to come to
firm conclusions.
Naram-Sin had himself represented on a victory stele, in a style
intended to impress the people with the idea that he was their god. The
stele is two meters high (figure 8.8) and celebrates the triumph of Naram-
Sîn over the Lullubi, a mountain people in the central Zagros region. He
climbs the steep slopes of the Zagros Mountain, his path bestrewn with
the dead bodies of his enemies. Like a Mao Tse-tung he beholds the
divine cosmos in the shape of two stars that glimmer in the sky.
Figure 8.8. Victory stele of Naram-Sîn as conquerer with a divine horn
crown. Height: 2,10 meter, width: 1,50 meters. (Courtesy: Musée du
Louvre, Sb 4; Foto: © Frank Raux; Service Photographique de la
Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris)
Naram-Sîn appoints his daughters as En priestess
In order to undermine local rulers in the south, Sargon appointed
Akkadian officials to take over local government, inaugurating his own
daughter and equipping her with the title ‘En’. She was named
Enheduanna, ‘En, jewellery of Heaven (or An)’. The Akkadian name for
the En priestess was entûm, but the Sumerian title En remained in use in
the south. Perhaps the En priestess was a title of the Nin, the native high
priestess of the Sumerians and the female counterpart of the En ruler.
May be the Akkadian kings used this Sumerian title for the female high
priestess they themselves had appointed, in the hope that they would
undermine the monopoly position of the Sumerian En rulers in the cities.
From that time, the policy of appointing the king’s daughters as high
priestesses of the temple became the permanent practice of Akkadian
kings and their successors. Naram-Sîn was not slow about appointing at
least four daughters as priestesses. In Mari precious bowls have been
found with inscriptions which indicate that two of Naram-Sîn’s daughters
called themselves priestess. One daughter Šumšani, calls herself
‘priestess of Šamas’ and another daughter, ME-KIB-BAR (we do not
know how we should pronounce the signs in Akkadian), is priestess of a
god whose name is not given.16 Yet another daughter, Tutanapšum, was
inaugurated by Naram-Sîn as En priestess of Enlil in Nippur. On her seal
(lost again after its discovery) a woman is sitting on a seat with a foot
stool (figure 8.9)17 dressed in a kaunakes mantle with a prickly crown on
her head. In front of her a servant is holding an object from which a cord
is hanging and the inscription reads: ‘Naram-Sîn, king of the four
quarters: Tutanapšum, Entûm of Enlil, is your daughter.’

Figure 8.9. Priestess with a servant that is perhaps playing a musical

instrument (a lyre?). Inscription: ‘Naram-Sîn, king of the four quaters of
the world: Tutanapšum, Entûm of Enlil, is your daughter.’ (Collon, 1987,
p. 125-126, afb. 530)
Again another daughter of Naram-Sîn was designated to succeed
Enheduanna as En priestess of Nanna. She was given the official name
of En-men-an-na, ‘En, crown of Heaven/An’ and various cylinder seals
have been found that feature her name. The seals were owned by the
servants of the temple of Ur at the time when she was holding her En
ship. On the seals the name of Naram-Sîn is preceded by a divine
determinative, as by then he had been made divine. In the same manner,
on the seal of Ištupilim, servant of Enmenanna, a dingir-sign is
accompanying the name of Naram-Sîn (figure 8.10).
 Seal of Ištupilim

Figure 8.10 Fragment found in Ur on a stone disk with inscription.

(Sollberger, 1954, p. 56))
Translation:
dn i n EZEN X LA To Nin-EZEN X LA
a - s u g - n i z - d u - a- ka - r a from …
n a m - t ì l for the life of
dna-ra-am-dsîn godNaram-Sîn

d i n g i r a - g a- d è ki - k a - š è god of Akkad
n a m - t ì [ l ] and for the life
e n - m e n - a n -- [n a] -- k a - [š è] of Enmenana -
iš-tu[p-d i n g i r] Ištupilum
š a b r a her šabra-servant
a - m [u- n a - r u] he has dedicated to her
Naram-Sîn husband of Ištar-Annunitum
In 2002 Donald Hansen published a fragment of a stone bowl on which
the goddess Ištar is depicted.18 It was said to be a shard of a mould used
for casting a bowl from metal such as gold (figure 8.11). Ištar is sitting in
state on a seat on top of a stepped construction that resembles a
ziqqurat. Seated below the goddess are two crossed lions, a motif with
which we are familiar from pictures on cylinder seals. Next to the
goddess is Naram-Sîn, sitting on a simple camp stool and wearing the
divine crown. Ištar has four horns of divinity in her crown, Naram-Sîn only
one, but none the less enough to count as a divinity. He is seated in the
presence of the goddess and this is already enough to denote equality of
status, as worshippers never make so bold as to sit in front of a god, but
always adopt a devout humble demeanour. Ištar grasps the left wrist of
Naram-Sîn with her right hand, meanwhile clasping the ropes that pass
behind her and are joined to the ring held in Naram-Sîn’s left hand.
These ropes leading to the noses of two deities and two fettered
prisoners continue to be a recurring motif in the iconography of Ištar as
she holds the enemy under her control with a rope while firmly placing
her foot on the back of a lion. The intended message, that she is a war
goddess and her power stretches all over the regions that have been
made subject to the Akkad dynasty, comes over loud and clear.

Figure 8.11. Picture of Naram-Sîn with a crown of divinity on a par with

Ištar-Annunitum. (Hansen, 2002, fig. 2, 3, 4)
However the sudden appearance of this fragment, the fact that its
provenance is not known and the rather strange remainders of the
damage make it likely that it is unfortunately a forgery.19 As is the case
with any object that has been purchased on the antique market we have
to take into account that it could be a forgery and this is the deplorable
consequence of the enormous value these antique objects have for
investors and collectors of valuables.
Figure 8.12. Relief of Anu-banini, end third millennium. (Orthmann, 1975,
afb. 183; Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin, ass. 2260)
For centuries to come, Ištar would be the goddess whose support and
protection were sought after by ruling kings. She was also the goddess
who confirmed kings in their office and offered them the divine right to
govern their subjects. She handed over to them the ring and staff,
symbols of kingship, the ring being the cord with which the goddess
controlled the enemies of the king, the staff being the king’s sceptre –
gidru – from ancient times the symbol of kingship. On a stele that was
carved on a rock, we see depicted the investiture of king Anu-banini by
the goddess Ištar who controls the enemy with a nose rope: the name of
the king is written into the relief (figure 8.12).20 King Anu-banini refers to
himself as king of the Lullubi but as he is not known from other
inscriptions, it is difficult to date the relief accurately.21 The kingdom of
Lullubi is mentioned several times in the cuneiform texts from ancient
Iraq, the first references dating from the third millennium BCE (Naram-
Sin’s famous Victory Stela, see figure 8.8), so the stele might have been
carved during the time of the Ur III dynasty. The relief with its inscriptions
was carved on a rock near Sar-e Pol e Zahab (‘Sarpol’) in the valley of
the Diyala River in the Zagros-mountains and 16 meters above the
ground so the text is almost illegible. However that makes little difference
to the fact that the victory is recorded in indestructible stone. The entire
concept is designed following the Akkadische prototype and Anu-banini
himself resembles Naram-Sîn in his triumphant pose on his victory stele.
Just like the Akkadian king, Anu-banini tramples his prisoners of war
below his feet, their hands bound behind their back and at the top of the
relief the star with eight beams is scintillating in a circle, the symbol of
Ištar.
The end of the empire of Akkad
The empire of Akkad could not escape its fate and was in its turn forced
to face the limits of its power. After a few generations the Akkadian world
collapsed, the end possibly hastened by a new deterioration in the
climate, for the northern regions fell into decay too. The Habur region
could not cope with a drought and the inhabitants moved away to other
places, the same phenomenon occurring in the Aegean area at the end
of the third millennium. Around 1800 BC the Indus civilisation also came
to an end, possibly because the river Ghaggar Hakra dried up
completely. However the Akkadian empire had already shown signs of
instability from within its own structure22 as a simmering enmity existed
between the native elite and the figureheads the Akkadian kings had
installed in the cities. The success of the Akkadian armies in subjugating
foreign countries carried with it the danger that the defeated areas would
join forces to battle the central administration. This was more likely as the
subjugated cities were expected to make increasingly heavy contributions
to finance military campaigns and other bureaucratic enterprises. The
Akkadian kings had never succeeded in binding the cities to the central
royal court and after Naram-Sîn the end came pretty fast.
The downfall of the Akkad’s hegemony is described in a majestic
lamentation, The cursing of Agade. This hymn recounts, in a very
comprehensive way, the end of the Akkadian period as an event that was
pre-ordained by the gods. The hymn was written in Sumerian and was
presumably composed during the Third Dynasty of Ur, around 2000 BC.
The contents reflect the biased view of the kings from this period and the
fact that it had been the Sumerian principalities that had always resisted
the dominance of the Akkadian kings. The Akkadian empire had never
been popular here and the kingdoms that came into being in the south
after the downfall of Akkad opted to return to the type of Sumerian culture
that had prevailed before the rise of Sargon of Akkad. The Sumerian
language revived in the written records, although the ruling kings
themselves probably did not speak Sumerian, but Akkadian. There were
few written tablets preserved from the time of Sargon and most written
sources we know of are from the time of the Ur III dynasty and the
succeeding Old Babylonian time. This might result in the development of
a biased view of the period, but we can only take cognizance of the
records we have even if they are sourced from the records of these later
rulers, with their biased views and their unshakeable belief in their own
indispensable role in the affairs of the world.
The Cursing of Agade must have been created in the tablet schools of
the king. The hymn explains the fall of Akkad as a punishment of the
gods for the haughty behavior of Naram-Sîn and the Greek word hybris –
‘haughty’, could be used in view of the fact that Naram-Sin had had
himself worshipped as a god. But this may be too modern a conclusion,
for the rulers of the Ur III soon behaved like gods themselves and their
names too were soon preceded by the divine determinative ‘dingir’.
The cursing of Agade
The hymn relates how the once powerful empire of Akkad had
dominated the world after the Sumerian cities in the south met their
downfall. The hymn lifts this event to the level of the cosmic world of
the gods and makes it appear that it was the god Enlil, head of the
pantheon, who had decided to transfer the kingship to Sargon, after he
had broken the power of the house of Uruk. This move was supported
by the goddess Inanna who left the Eanna in Uruk and took up
residence in the town of Akkad. There she set up her throne and her
presence resulted in success and prosperity for the city. Many
centuries afterwards people had obviously still not forgotten that the
goddess Inanna had once granted her support to the dynasty of
Sargon the Great. The hymn provides a nostalgic description of the
luxury and harmony that had once prevailed in Sargon’s capital.23 The
paradise that was Akkad in days long passed is first enlarged on, in
order to make a more dramatic contrast with the complete devastation
and chaos that was doomed to come. In those blessed times of old,
Inanna behaved like a young man building a house for the first time, like a
girl establishing a woman’s domain.24 She did not sleep as she ensured
that the warehouses would be provisioned and the land scattered with
prosperous cities. She gave people fresh water to drink and let them
feast in the courtyards. The streets were thronged with apes,
elephants, water buffalo and other exotic animals that had come to
Akkad from distant regions. Inanna filled the stores of Akkad with
emmer wheat, with gold and silver, copper, tin and lapis lazuli. She
endowed its old women with the gift of giving counsel and endowed its
old men with the gift of eloquence. She endowed its young women
with the gift of entertaining, she endowed its young men with martial
might and she endowed its little ones with joyful hearts. Inside the city
tigi drums resounded, outside resounded flutes and zamzam
instruments. The hymn paints a colourful picture of successful trading
with the surrounding countries of Elam, Subir and even distant
Meluhha (in the Indus valley). Holy Inanna could hardly accommodate
the lavish offerings people had come to give her, so abundant were
their gifts, a golden age indeed.
But then this good fortune takes a turn for the worse, when Naram-
Sîn, grandson of Sargon and great king of Akkad, decides to restore
the temple of Enlil, the Ekur. For this undertaking however, he needed
the permission of the god Enlil, who alas refused to give his consent.
This proves to be an ominous portent as Inanna followed by
withdrawing her patronage and leaving her temple in Akkad and she
was followed by all the other gods. Naram-Sîn first tries to mollify Enlil
by wearing mourning clothes for seven years and covering his chariot
with a reed mat. He even gave away his royal paraphernalia but to no
avail, the portents all remained negative. Finally, in a state of
desperation and despair, he decided to interpret the bad omen as a
favourable omen and gives the signal to start with the restoration of
Enlil’s temple and the pulling down of its walls.
The hymn relates that like a robber, Naram-Sîn set tall ladders
against the temple and removed the soil as if he were exploiting a
silver mine, splintering it as if it were a lapis lazuli mountain. He put
axes against its top and the temple like a dead soldier bowed its neck
before him and all the foreign lands bowed their necks before him. He
ripped out its drain pipes, and all the rain went back to the heavens, he
tore off its upper lintel and the Land was deprived of its ornament.
From the ‘Gate from which grain is never diverted’, he diverted grain,
and the Land was deprived of grain. He struck the ‘Gate of Well-Being’
with the pickaxe and well-being was subverted in all the foreign lands.
He had large spades cast, to be used against the E-kur and the people
could see the bedchamber, its room which knew no daylight and the
Akkadians could look into the holy treasure chest of the gods.
Although they had committed no sacrilege, Naram-Sîn threw into the
fire its lahama deities of the great pilasters standing at the temple and
the wood of its giguna shrine - the divine reed hut - was felled. Naram-
Sîn put its gold in containers and put its silver in leather bags then he
filled the docks with its copper as if it were a huge transport of grain,
while the silversmiths were reshaping its silver, jewellers were
reshaping its precious stones and smiths were beating its copper.
The hymn laments that with the possessions being taken away from
the city, good sense left Akkad and as the ships moved away from the
docks, Akkad’s intelligence was removed.
The hymn explains that Naram-Sîn could not desecrate Enlil’s temple
and get away with it. He had incurred the displeasure of the gods, and
soon disasters followed as the gods avenged themselves. The gods
caused barbarian nomads from the Zagros mountains to invade the
plains of Akkad, razing the whole region to the ground. This unbridled
people had human intelligence but canine instincts and monkeys’
features and the hymn assures us that like small birds they swooped
onto the ground in great flocks and that nothing escaped their
clutches, no one left their grasp. Messengers no longer travelled the
highways, the courier’s boat no longer passed along the rivers. The
Gutians drove the cows out of their pens and compelled their
cowherds to follow them. Prisoners manned the watch, brigands
occupied the highways, the doors of the city gates of the land were
dislodged and lay in mud and all the foreign lands uttered bitter cries
from the walls of their cities. They established gardens for themselves
within the cities and not as usual on the wide plain outside. As if it had
been before the time when cities were built and founded, the large
arable tracts yielded no grain, the inundated tracts yielded no fish, the
irrigated orchards yielded no syrup or wine, the thick clouds did not
rain and the mašurum tree did not grow.
The food became scarce. Those who lay down on the roof died on
the roof, those who lay down in the house were not buried and the
people were flailing themselves from hunger. By the Ki-ur, Enlil’s great
place, dogs were packed together in the silent streets and if two men
walked there they would be devoured by them and if three men walked
there they would be devoured by them. Honest people were
confounded with traitors, heroes lay dead on top of traitors and the
blood of traitors ran upon the blood of honest men.
The people who had survived the disaster built a small sanctuary for
Enlil wherein the god, heavily depressed took up his residence. The
temples of the other gods had also suffered much from the brutal
invasion of the Gutians so the gods of these damaged cities tried to
soothe Enlil by uttering curses over the town of Akkad. They
prophesised that the giguna shrine of Enlil’s temple would be reduced
to a pile of dust and that the pilasters with the standing lahama deities
would fall to the ground like tall young men drunk on wine. They
prophesied that the clay would be returned to its Abzu and cursed by
Enki, that the grain would be returned to its furrow, the timber returned
to its forest, the cattle slaughterer would slaughter his wife, the sheep
butcher would butcher his child, that the citizens of Akkad would lie
hungry in the grass and herbs and that men would eat the coating on
the roof. The list of curses goes on and on.
The closing sentence of the hymn directs that praise should be given
to Inanna for the destruction of Akkad as she is the symbol of the
towns of Kiš and Uruk, their patron goddess, and both towns had
revolted against the dominance of Akkad. Inanna , who had once
given her support to the Akkad dynasty, had now turned her back on
Akkad and offered her favours again to Kiš and Uruk. The new kings
 of the third Dynasty of Ur legitimised their position as the legal
successors of the dynasty of Akkad, by recording how Akkad had
disappeared as a result of the punishment of Enlil.25
The curse of the gods was truly realized. Akkad was to be completely
destroyed, weeds would grow over her ruins, and the city would never
again be rebuilt. Archaeologists indeed have never been able to
discover the city of Akkad.

Figure 8.13. Kiš, warrior goddess, presumably Inanna/Ištar, is standing

on the back of a lion that she controls with a leading rope. Terracotta
relief, yellow clay. 107 cm by 68 cm. (Barrelet, 1968, nr. 650)
Endnotes Chapter 8
1 Westenholz (Aage), 1999, p. 32
2 Westenholz (Aage), 1999, p. 31
3 Westenholz (Joan Goodnick), 1997, p. 39-41
4 Cooper en Heimpel, 1983; Alster, 1987
5 ETCSL, 2.1.4. The Sargon legend
6 ETCSL line 23-24
7 Malamat, 1965
8 Westenholz (Aage), 1999, p. 78
9 Roberts, 1972
10 Plessis, 1921
11 Gödecken, 1973
12 Selz, 2000
13 Van den Mieroop, 2004, p. 64
14 Postgate, 1992, p. 267
15 George, 1993, p. 155
16 Margueron, 2004, fig. 294, 295
17 Suter, 2007
18 Hansen, 2002
19 Michalowski, 2008; Marchetti, 2006, p. 216-217, note 28
20 Ornan, 2007, p. 66
21 Mofidi Nasrabadi, 2004, p. 292
22 Yoffee, 2005, p. 142-144
23 Jacobsen, 1987, p. 359-374; ETCSL 2.1.5, Cursing of Agade; Black/
Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi,2004, p. 116-125
24 Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi, p. 118 e.v.
25 Wilcke, 1993, p. 32
Chapter 9 Enheduanna’s hymns to Inanna
In the third millennium there is still an air of mystery about the goddess
Inanna. We come across traces of her everywhere, amid the ruins of the
temples in Uruk, Mari and Nippur, in the graves of the cemetery of Ur and
in the inscriptions of the kings, but the written texts from this time are still
very few. However there is one dramatic exception to this, three hymns
that were composed by the high priestess Enheduanna, daughter of
Sargon of Akkad and dedicated to Inanna.
Sargon nominated his daughter as En priestess and she is said to have
composed a number of hymns, although whether she alone is the
composer of these hymns is a matter of controversy. She is also said to
have composed 42 temple hymns to various temples in different cities in
Mesopotamia but in this case there is no doubt that she could not
possibly have written them as the name of a king from the second
millennium occurs in the verses. The three hymns dedicated to Inanna
however are so emotionally charged in tone that it seems highly likely
that they were composed by Enheduanna. If this is correct, it would mean
that she is the first poetess in history to be known by name.
These hymns are dedicated to the goddess Inanna which is remarkable,
as Enheduanna was not Inanna’s priestess, but priestess of the moon
god Nanna in the city of Ur. Enheduanna found herself in a very
precarious situation in Ur as she had been appointed by king Sargon, but
the southern city states were still refusing to accept his dominance. His
daughter was put in the position of having to defend the dynasty of her
father in an environment that regarded her with hostility. In her capacity
as En priestess she was the human consort of the moon god, but her real
interest lay, not with her heavenly husband of Ur but with the ‘national’
goddess Inanna. The kings Sargon and Naram-Sîn had established a
special bond with Inanna and regarded her as their personal goddess.
In the hymns, the struggle for power between the kings of Akkad and the
Sumerian city rulers in the south is depicted as a battle between the
moon god of Ur and the ‘national’ goddess Inanna of the Akkad dynasty
and for the very first time Inanna is imagined as a war goddess, as we
have already seen her depicted on cylinder seals. Although it is likely that
Enheduann normally spoke Akkadian, she wrote these hymns in
Sumerian, the language that learned scribes still adhered to for centuries
Enheduanna addresses Inanna not by her Semitic name Ištar but always
by her Sumerian name, Inanna or an epithet, ‘Lady of the greatest heart’,
for instance. The use of Inanna was probably meant to obscure the fact
that Enheduanna was actually worshipping the Akkadian goddess Istar,
in the Sumerian south. Sometimes Enheduanna uses still another name
for the goddess, Innin. This was an old native goddess that was later
coalesced with Inanna.
The first hymn: Inanna subjugates the mountain of Ebih

Figure 9.1. Warrior Inanna, obviously in battle with a mountain god, found
in the Royal Cemetery of Ur in grave PG 695. (Legrain, 1929, Tafel 35,
fig.. 72)
That this hymn about Ebih is probably the first hymn Enheduanna
composed,1 we may deduce from her later hymns where she sometimes
refers back to this text of Ebih. The hymn is about the revolt of the
mountain of Ebih against Inanna, Ebih being situated where lies the
present day Jebel Hamrin, a steep mountain ridge in north east Iraq,
running in a straight line some 250 kilometres to the North West.
Although the height of the mountain range is not extraordinary, nowhere
exceeding 300 metres, in a flat land like Mesopotamia it was an
impressive feat of nature. Mount Ebih could be seen as a metaphor for
the mountain peoples who inhabited this area and who had refused to
submit to Inanna.
In this poem Inanna probably represents the Akkad dynasty, but
Enheduanna makes use of the name Innin instead of Inanna. This name
is written syllabically as in-nin9 but elsewhere Enheduanna uses the
logogram of Inanna (MUŠ3), and this logogram we shall again have to
read as Innin. The warrior character of Inanna, displayed most clearly in
this hymn, was unknown before the Akkad period. In this hymn, Inanna
brings into play all her divine powers in order to defeat the rebellious
mountain of Ebih and subjugate it to her will, invoking the help of An, the
god of heaven. At this point An, dull and colourless but the oldest god of
Uruk, occupies an even a higher position than Inanna, but being a
newcomer in the city she has so far been unable to elbow him out. God
An is always depicted as an elderly father figure who keeps calm and
tries to soothe Inanna’s explosive temper. He is a deus otiosus (‘an
inactive god’), a god that has known better times and who’s role is
actually finished. The new generation of gods, Inanna and the moon god,
have obviously taken over the real power.
Inanna’s passionate temper, enlarged on in this poem, is to become
one of the permanent characteristics of her personality but other aspects
of her character also receive attention. Inanna is compared to a lion and
to an auroch, her position as Venus in the sky is mentioned, her
possession of the ME (more about the ME later on this chapter) and her
ability to unleash storms and tidal waves.
The hymn starts with a panegyric of the warrior qualities of Inanna. The
goddess is clad in fear inspiring armour, in splendour she shines as the
Venus star, her weapons drenched in blood. She is addressed with the
epithet of destroyer of mighty lands. She is ranging over the battle fields,
where she cleaves the shields and casts them on the ground. She sows
storm and flood. Exalted Lady, she knows how to plan conflicts. She
destroys mighty lands with arrows and strength and overpowers the
lands. She roars in heaven and on earth like a lion and like a huge wild
bull she triumphs over hostile lands. Inanna has bedecked her forehead
with terror and fearsome radiance. She has arranged cornelian rosettes
around her holy throat, she brandishes the seven headed šita weapon
and places straps of lapis lazuli on her feet.
We need entertain no illusions about the meaning of this poem. They
give us a glimpse of the horrible reality of the wars the Akkad dynasty
continuously waged in the Mesopotamian area. Apparently Enheduanna
employed the same language, swollen with propaganda, as was used by
the Akkad regime and she had obviously written these verses as a
warning, deterring anybody who would dare to oppose the Akkad
dynasty. Submission to Akkad meant unconditional surrender to the
warrior goddess Inanna.
Enheduanna adresses her goddess directly:
My lady, on your acquiring the stature of heaven,
Maiden Inanna on your becoming as magnificent as the earth,
on your coming forth like Utu the king and stretching your arms wide,
on your walking in heaven and wearing fearsome terror,
on your wearing daylight and brilliance on earth,
on your walking in the mountain ranges and bringing forth beaming rays,
on your bathing the girin plants of the mountains (in light),
on your giving birth to the bright mountain,
the mountain, the holy place,
on your […] on your being strong with the mace like a joyful lord,
like an enthusiastic lord, on your exulting in such battle like a destructive
weapon,
the black headed people ring out in song and all the lands sing their song
sweetly.
Inanna tells how she was walking in heaven and on earth, around Elam
and Subir and the Lulubi mountains but when she turned towards the
centre of the mountains, the mountain of Ebih showed no respect for her.
Ebih did not put his nose to the ground for her and did not rub his lips in
the dust, so Inanna announces that she will fill the soaring mountain
range with all her terror and she will storm the mountain and make her
ešemen felt. Ešemen literally means skipping rope and Kramer translates
it with ‘Inanna’s holy dance’, the ETCSL with ‘the game of holy Inanna’
(line 40). War is seen as the frenzy of Inanna, as the cracking of her
whip, as the game of the mighty goddess and it is an aspect of her
character that is inherently fitting as chief goddess of the Akkad regime.
She will prepare arrows for the quiver and sling stones with the rope; she
will start polishing her lance and prepare the throw stick and the shield.
She will call the fire god Gibil and set fire to the forests and drain the
watercourses. Like a city that was cursed by An, Ebih may never be
restored, Inanna shouts. Like a city at which Enlil has frowned, it may
never again lift up its neck. Ebih will tremble and honour Inanna, the
goddess thunders.
Figure 9.2. Warrior Inanna, terracotta relief, first half second millennium.
(Barrelet, 1968, fig. 792, pl. LXXVIII; Louvre, AO 6502)
But first Inanna visits An, the god of heaven to plead her case before him.
She puts on her royal garment and when evening falls she makes a regal
appearance in the evening sky as the star, Venus, following the path to
the Gate of Wonder (= u6-di, literally: ‘to say woowoowoo!’), possibly the
Milky Way.
Inanna makes an offering to An, addresses a prayer to him and calls him
‘father’. An is delighted to see her coming and stepping forward takes his
seat of honour in the heavens. In the conversation that follows we learn
that Inanna has received her great arsenal of weapons from An, enabling
her to support kings in their military campaigns, ensuring they are strong
enough to defeat lands that refuse to submit to their power. ‘How can it
be that the mountain did not fear me in heaven and on earth’ Inanna
complains to An, ‘that the mountain range of Ebih showed me no respect
and did not put its nose to the ground, did not rub its lips in the dust?’
She asks An’s permission to storm this mountain and let them make
acquaintance with the ‘ešemen of holy Inanna’. But An compassionately
shakes his head, ‘My little one demands the destruction of this mountain
but what is she taking on?’ Inanna argues that mountain of Ebih has
poured fearsome terror on the abode of the gods, has poured its terror
and ferocity over this land and has poured the mountain range’s radiance
and fear over all the lands. Its arrogance extends grandly to the centre of
heaven! Thus Inanna spoke.
But An compassionately paints a picture of the land of Ebih as a
paradise with fruit hanging in its flourishing gardens and its luxuriance
spreading forth. Its magnificent trees are themselves a source of wonder
to the roots of heaven. In Ebih lions are abundant under the canopy of
trees and bright branches. It makes wild rams and stags roam freely in
abundance. It stands wild bulls in flourishing grass. Deer couple among
the cypress trees of the mountain range. Maiden (nu-gig) Inanna, An
cautions her, you cannot pass through its terror and fear as the mountain
range’s radiance is fearsome. This peaceful picture of Ebih as described
by An resembles the luxuriant jewellery of the dead of the Royal
Cemetery of Ur. On the diadem of Pu-abi the animals are also depicted
peacefully reclining in the shadow of the trees. It was the same stylistic
device that was known from the Curse of Akkad and hymns from later
times that were celebrating the military destruction of a foreign enemy. It
was common practice first to elaborate on the peacefulness and welfare
of the land about to be destroyed. It was rather like the description of a
mythical time when the cosmic laws still reigned undisturbed and in which
a peaceful world order still prevailed. The intention was probably to make
even more stark, the difference between this ideal past and the complete
chaos with which the gods would presently strike the inhabitants.
Driven to a frenzy however, Inanna will not allow the words of An to deter
her from her plans. She opens the arsenal and pushes on the lapis lazuli
gate. She brings out magnificent battle and calls up a great storm and
with potshards holy Inanna stirs up an evil raging wind against Ebih.
Enheduanna recounts in her hymn precisely how the catastrophe
occurred. My lady confronts the mountain range, advances step by step
and sharpens both edges of her dagger. She grabbles with Ebih’s neck
as if ripping up esparto grass. She presses the dagger’s teeth into the
belly of the mountain. She roars like thunder and the rocks forming the
body of Ebih clatter down its flanks. From its sides and crevices great
serpents spit venom and Inanna damns its forests and curses its trees.
She kills its oak trees with drought. She pours fire on its flanks and
makes its smoke dense. The goddess establishes authority over the
mountain. Holy Inanna does as she wishes.
Then Inanna climbs the mountain range of Ebih and addresses it:
‘Mountain range, because of your elevation, because of your height, because of
your attractiveness, because of your beauty, because of your wearing a holy
garment, because of your reaching up to heaven, because you did not put your
nose to the ground, because you did not rub your lips in the dust, I have killed
you and brought you low. As a wild elephant I have seized your tusks. As with a
great wild bull I have brought you to the ground by your thick horns. As with a
bull I have forced your great strength to the ground and pursued you savagely. I
have made tears the norm in your eyes. I have placed laments in your hart. Birds
of sorrow are building nests on these flanks’.

Figure 9.3. Warrior Inanna /Ištar is pulling a lion by its tail that is
fighting with the ‘man with six locks’. Provenance unknown (art
market). Inscription: gir2-nun-ne2; dub-sar; dumu nigin3: ‘Girnune,
scriber, son of Nigin.’ (Courtesy: Vorderasiatisches Museum,
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; © bpk - Bildagentur für Kunst, Kultur und
Geschichte)
Again Inanna addresses the mountain of Ebih, boasting of her terrifying
rage. She shouts to Ebih that her ‘father Enlil has poured her great terror
over the centre of the mountains. In the end Inanna relates that she has
built a palace and put a throne in place and made its foundation firm. She
has given kurgarra cult performers a dagger and a prod. She has given
the gala cult performers ub-and lilis-drums. She has changed the
headgear of the pilipili, colourful figures that belong to the followers of
Inanna to which we will return in Chapter 24. For the very last time
Inanna praises her victory over Ebih. The hymn ends with praise to
Inanna because she has destroyed Ebih. Nisaba, the goddess of writing,
is praised as well, obviously because the hymn was written under her
auspices.
These verses must have made a deep impression on the listeners and
they were eagerly copied in the tablet schools. The hymn intended to
make it clear once and for all, to all enemies of the Akkad dynasty that
Inanna was not to be trifled with, that she would crush ruthlessly all
opposition against her rule and that every sign of resistance was doomed
to fail. It was a message of terror that was to remain stamped on the
memory of people long after Akkad itself had disappeared.

Figure 9.4. Cylinder seal, with Inanna as warrior goddess. Goddess with
flames from her shoulders and ring in her hands. Right a god with flames
from his shoulders stands in front of a mountain holding the tail of a bull
man, left a god with a whip who is holding the horns of another god that
falls in another mountain. Akkad-period, ca. 2330-2150 v.C. Haematite.
Height: 3,5 cm. (Louvre, AO 2485)
The second hymn: Mistress of countless ME
In Enheduanna’s hymn Nin-me-šara (‘Mistress of countless ME’) the fight
between the Akkad dynasty under the aegis of Inanna and the local
Sumerian city states in the south, headed by Ur with the support of the
moon god Nanna, is reaching a climax. In 1997 Annette Zgoll published
her dissertation on this hymn, in which she analyses Nin-me-šara against
the political background of the Akkad Empire. The following discussion of
the hymn is based on her research and her translation of the hymn.
Nin-me-šara was probably written at a time when the position of the
Akkad dynasty in the south was going through a severely critical phase.
Sargon had subjugated the southern city states and appointed his
daughter as En priestess in Ur. But her position was much contested.
The cities were not at all ready to submit to the power of the Sargon
dynasty and when Sargon’s grandson, Naram-Sîn succeeded to the
throne, they joined in a massive insurrection against Akkad domination.
After a number of ruthless military campaigns, Naram-Sîn finally
succeeded in putting down the uprising and the hymn Nin-me-šara is
possibly a reflection of the fierce battle that was then going on. From the
hymn we learn that in Ur a certain Lugal-ane had come to power. This
name is also known from an inscription of Naram-Sîn, that mentions
Lugal-ane2, as king of Ur. He is probably the same person who is
mentioned as being one of the southern kings that rebelled against the
central government and it is likely that he conquered Ur from Uruk, where
his family originated. As En priestess of the city god Nanna, it was
Enheduanna’s duty to inaugurate him and bestow on him the divine right
to rule. But his consecration would mean the betrayal of Akkad for
Enheduanna, so she refuses to do so. As a result, Lugal-ane chases her
from the temple of the moon god and has her driven out of the town of
Ur. Enheduanna presumably seeks refuge in Lagaš which has remained
loyal to the Akkad dynasty and where there is a temple of Inanna. On this
spot Enheduanna may have written the dramatic hymn to Inanna as she
fights for her position as En priestess and tries to win back the support of
the gods who appear to have turned their back on the Akkad cause.
The fight was after all, not only about Enheduanna’s own position as En
priestess but a struggle for the highest power in the land, between the
central kingdom of Akkad and the local city ruler in Ur. This fight is played
out in the hymn on the level of the kingdom of the gods, as a fight
between Inanna as goddess of the state and mainstay of the Akkad
dynasty and the moon god Nanna, the city god of Ur, whose support
Lugal-ane seems to have won to his side.
It is very clear from the hymn that Enheduanna was in a precarious
position and extreme caution was necessary. She supported the
‘national’ cause, but she herself was attached as En priestess to the
moon god of Ur. She believed Lugal-ane had acted illegally when he had
appointed himself king of Ur as according to Enheduanna, it was the
goddess Inanna who appointed the new city ruler, the man who would
also become Inanna’s human husband. Enheduanna maintains that
Lugal-ane should never have been consecrated by the moon god Nanna
but he had obviously been supported by the priests, otherwise his bid for
the office would have failed and this is why Enheduanna feels so
deserted by her heavenly spouse Nanna, although in her hymn she
would never dare to attack him openly. Therefore she addresses him not
with his familiar Sumerian name Nanna but by his Semitic name Sîn, a
name that would be in common use only much later in the second
millennium,2 and Enheduanna employs still another name for the moon
god, Ašimbabbar (‘White solo runner’). All these careful precautions
indicate that Enheduanna is being delicate in her choice of words in order
to avoid a direct confrontation with her heavenly consort.
Enheduanna evidently feels abandoned by both Inanna and the city god
Nanna. Inanna had not intervened when Lugal-ane had appropriated all
power to himself and had had it ratified by the priests of the moon god,
resulting in Enheduanna being passed over. However in her hymn,
Enheduanna appeals to Inanna to assert her authority over Nanna, who
will have to be made to accept that a new generation of gods (Inanna
after all was the daughter of the moon god), would now take over.
Inanna had of old the authority to designate the En ruler of Uruk.
Whether she possessed the authority to designate the En rulers of
various other city gods is very doubtful, but this is what Enheduanna tries
to make herself believe.

Figure 9.5. A worshipper stands in front of the ‘warrior goddess Inanna’,

who is sitting on a throne. Cylinder seal from Ur. Lapis lazuli Traces of an
inscription. (Legrain, UE X, 1951, 21, nr. 245)
Enheduanna’s hymn Nin-me-šara
Akkad empire
Inanna supports the cause of Akkad. She alone has the authority to
choose the En as city ruler of Ur. She is mistress of countless ME, the
cosmic world order that the Akkad dynasty imposes on the defeated
countries.
City of Ur
In the city of Ur the moon-god Nanna (also called Sîn or Ašimbabbar)
 is patron god. This god supports the cause of ‘usurpator’ Lugal-ane.
Lugal-ane claims to have been chosen by the moon-god, and forces
Enheduanna - the En-priestess of the moon-god - to consecrate him in
this position. Enheduanna refuses and accuses Luga-ane of violation
of Inanna’s authority to appoint the city ruler. Yet, in spite of that,
Lugal-ane is acclaimed as En-priest and En-ruler by the priests of the
moon-god. He relieves Enheduanna of her office and chases her from
the gipar, her residence in the temple. Presumably Lugal-ane had the
support of the (priests of) Nanna at his back. This verdict of the moon-
god, however, is contested by Enheduanna. She seeks the support of
god An in this, who still must give a ‘final sentence’.
Cosmos
All earthly developments are decided on the cosmic level by the gods.
Enheduanna directs an urgent request to Inanna to claim her legal
rights and make it plain to her father Nanna that it is she who decides
about the En-ship, not only of the En-priestess, but of the En-priest (as
city-ruler) as well. Nanna must give up his right to appoint Lugal-ane,
and Lugal-ane has no right whatsoever to remove Enheduanna from
her duties.
Inanna is mistress of countless ME
In this hymn Inanna is called ‘mistress of countless ME’. The concept ME
is untranslatable and concerns the divine rules that govern everything in
the cosmos. The concept is indissolubly connected with the way people
in Mesopotamia observed their world, as the result of an eternal and
unchangeble cosmos. The concept of ME is derived from the verb m e,
which means ‘to be; to exist’. The ME is a plurale tamtum, a noun that
only exists in the plural sense. The ME is the total of all quintessential
characteristics that rule human life as a reflection of the invisible cosmic
principles. Farber-Flugge translates this concept with ‘cultural heritage’
(‘Kulturgüter’),3 but this is only the visible ME. Visible ME are closely
connected with the invisible ME, the visible ME are a manifestation of the
invisible cosmic constellation. Inanna apparently can hold the visible ME
in her hand. It was the god Enki - the god of the Abzu, the subterranean
fresh water basin - who originally was in charge of all the ME. But
according to legend, Inanna had stolen the ME from Enki and took it with
her in a boat to Uruk, as we will see in Chapter 13. In this hymn
Enheduanna creates the impression that it was the god An who had
given the ME to Inanna, and Enheduanna emphasizes that Inanna is in
control of all the ME. This is not unreasonable, as one of the ME was her
competence to appoint the En ruler.
Enheduanna praises Inanna in the opening of the song with a number of
epithets4, lady (nu-gig) of the countless ME, resplendent light, clothed in
radiance (me-lam), beloved by An. Inanna is mistress of the suh-
kešinsignia’s, the mighty headdress befitting the kings, but Enheduanna
also emphasizes Inanna’s love for the righteous aga crown befitting the
office of the En priestess.
My lady, you are the guardian of the great divine powers! You have taken up the
divine powers (ME), you have hung the divine powers from your hand. You have
gathered up the divine powers (ME), you have clasped the divine powers (ME)
to your breast. Like a dragon you have deposited venom on the foreign lands.
When like Iškur (the stormgod) you roar at the earth, no vegetation can stand up to
you. As a flood descending upon those foreign lands, powerful one of heaven
and earth, you are their Inanna.
Raining blazing fire down upon the Land, endowed with divine powers (ME) by
An, lady who rides upon a beast, whose words are spoken at the holy command
of An! The great rites are yours: who can fathom them? Destroyer of the foreign
lands, you confer strength on the storm. Beloved of Enlil, you have made
awesome terror weigh upon the Land. You stand at the service of An’s
commands. (line 1-19)

Figure 9.6. Warrior Inanna. Terracotta plaquette. Beginning of the second

millennium. (Barrelet, 1968, pl. LXXVIII: 791; Louvre, AO 6779)
Lugal-ane however has won the support of Nanna and from the city of
Uruk he comes to stay in Ur and acts as the legitimate ruler. As En
priestess, Enheduanna feels herself pushed to one side and accuses
Lugal-ane of committing illegal ritual behaviour. But this could also have
been said of Enheduanna as well, as in the eyes of the southern city
states it was the Akkadian officials and the Akkadian cult servants
installed by Sargon that were in fact illegal. Enheduanna does her very
best to break the bond between the moon god and Lugal-ane, insisting
that the moon god has not yet given a final verdict and that the
inauguration of Lugal-ane is not yet absolute. In the last resort it is Inanna
who must give her sanction to the appointment and Enheduanna exerts
herself to the utmost in order to prevent Inanna from approving Lugal-
ane’s inauguration.
In the hymn Enheduanna paints a terrible picture of Inanna as a warrior
goddess, in the same way as she had done in Ebih. Inanna has power
over life and death, she carries with her death and destruction and
people are terrified of her. This must have been a very explicit description
of the war that was raging in Mesopotamia at this time. Enheduanna
compares Inanna with a storm and the storm god Iškur. She rides upon a
beast and this is probably the lion that is Inanna’s steady animal
companion as we see her depicted on cylinder seals and reliefs, her foot
on the back of a lion and lions reclining below her divine throne.
Enheduanna hammers on relentlessly about the good relations between
Inanna and the god of heaven An, the latter having apparently not yet
committed himself in this thorny affair and Enheduanna not hesitating to
appeal to him for her cause. By not calling Inanna by her name but by
referring to her as ‘that woman,’ or by speaking of ‘her temple,’
Enheduanna manages to distract attention from the fact that the
behaviour of Inanna might be described as ‘weak’.5 The subject of the
real opposition between the moon god and Inanna are meanwhile skilfully
avoided.
When humanity comes before you in awed silence at the terrifying radiance and
tempest, you grasp the most terrible of all the divine powers. Because of you, the
threshold of tears is opened, and people walk along the path of the house of
great lamentations
Enheduanna narrates how Inanna rages over the land and is roaring
continuously like the storm god Iškur. She destroys everything in her way
and her teeth can crush flint to powder. People seize their lyres to sing
songs of lamentation and the Anuna gods fly from her to the ruined
mounds like scudding bats. They dare not stand before her terrible gaze.
Who can cool your raging heart, eldest daughter of Sîn, the moon god?
Enheduanna exclaims. Then she describes what happens if a land
ventures to rebel against Inanna, possibly an allusion to the revolt of the
mountain of Ebih. When Inanna casts her gaze on the mountains,
vegetation is ruined and their great gateways are set afire. Blood is
poured into their rivers and people are forced to drink it. They must lead
their captive troops before Inanna, they must scatter their elite regiments
for her and they must give their able bodied young men to her service.
The pests fill the dancing places of their cities. They drive their young
men before her as prisoners. Inanna’s holy command has been spoken
over the city which has not declared ‘The foreign lands are yours!’ The
cattle will die in the pens. A woman no longer speaks affectionately with
her husband, at dead of night she no longer takes counsel with him and
she no longer reveals her body, the hope of new life to him. Enheduanna
calls Inanna lady of all the foreign lands, she praises her judgment and
wisdom, her deep heartedness, and she will enumerate all her ME for
her.

Figure 9.7. Prisoners in the neck clamp. Alabaster. Height: 21,2 cm.
Provenance unknown. (Orthmann, 1975, afb. 103)
Then follows a piece in which it appears that Enheduanna has
reappoined herself as En priestess, although she had become so afflicted
by the loss of her office that it is unlikely she could continue functioning
as an En priest anymore. Presumably she had become impure in a
religious sense by leaving the gipar6 which is why she tries to reinstall
herself as En priestess during a pathetic nocturnal séance. First
Enheduanna speaks of the cultic obligations connected with the
inauguration of an En priestess and makes it known that she has
returned to the gipar at the command of An7:
En-hedu-ana the En-priestess, I entered my holy gipar in your service. I carried
the ritual basket, and intoned the song of joy. But funeral offerings were
brought, as if I had never lived there. I approached the light, but the light was
scorching hot to me. I approached that shade, but I was covered with a storm.
My honeyed mouth became venomous. My ability to soothe moods vanished.
Suen, tell An about Lugal-ane and my fate! May An undo it for me! As soon as
you tell An about it, An will release me. The woman (= Inanna) will take the
destiny away from Lugal-ane; foreign lands and flood lie at her feet. The woman
too is exalted, and can make cities tremble. Step forward, so that she will cool
her heart for me. En-hedu-ana, will recite a prayer to you. To you, holy Inana, I
shall give free vent to my tears like sweet beer! I shall say to her “Your
decision!” Do not be anxious about Ašimbabbar. In connection with the
purification rites of holy An, Lugal-ane has altered everything of his, and has
stripped An of the E-ana. He has not stood in awe of the greatest deity. He has
turned that temple, whose attractions were inexhaustible, whose beauty was
endless, into a destroyed temple. While he entered before me as if he was a
partner, really he approached out of envy.
Enheduanna directs an urgent appeal to Inanna:
My good divine wild cow, drive out the man, capture the man! In the place of
divine encouragement, what is my standing now? May An extradite the land
which is a malevolent rebel against your Nanna! May An smash that city! May
Enlil curse it! May its plaintive child not be placated by his mother! Lady, with
the laments begun, may your ship of lamentation be abandoned in hostile
territory. Must I die because of my holy songs? My Nanna has paid no heed to
me. He has destroyed me utterly in renegade territory. Ašimbabbar has certainly
not pronounced a verdict on me. What is it to me if he has pronounced it? What
is it to me if he has not pronounced it? He stood there in triumph and drove me
out of the temple. He made me fly like a swallow from the window; I have
exhausted my life-strength. He made me walk through the thorn bushes of the
mountains. He stripped me of the rightful crown of the En priestess. He gave me
a knife and dagger, saying to me “These are appropriate ornaments for you”.
Most precious lady, beloved by An, your holy heart is great; may it be assuaged
on my behalf! Beloved spouse of Ušumgalanna (= Dumuzi), you are the great lady
of the horizon and zenith of the heavens. The Anuna have submitted to you. From
birth you were the junior queen: how supreme you are now over the Anuna, the
great gods! The Anuna kiss the ground with their lips before you.
The role of the Anuna gods is rather vague. In Chapter 17 we will discuss
a (controversial) proposal to consider them as gods of divination that play
a role in the oracles of the gods. Here also Enheduanna alludes to
Inanna’s role as one who has the power to decide the fate of others.
Enheduanna has fled, but in spite of the pressure of her present
circumstances, repudiation, chased from the gipar and the city of Ur, and
the victory of the opposition, she determines that these events affect only
Enheduanna, not Inanna. In this way she keeps the position of the
almighty Inanna unimpaired. 8
But my own trial is not yet concluded, although a hostile verdict encloses me as
if it were my own verdict. I did not reach out my hands to the flowered bed. I did
not reveal the pronouncements of Ningal to anybody. My lady beloved of An,
may your heart be calmed towards me, the brilliant En priestess of Nanna! (Lines
91-121)
From these lines we learn en passant that the En priestesses apparently
perform a rite in front of a flower strewn bed in the temple and that it was
one of her tasks to interpret the pronouncements of the goddess Ningal.
And then, apparently at midnight, we hear the En priestess proclaiming
the great power of Inanna, launching her words as loud incantations,
vehement as sledgehammer strokes. The supremacy of Inanna must be
known, that is the gist of the matter. The Sumerian words ‘it must be
known’ (he2-zu-am) sound like a mantra:
It must be known! It must be known! Nanna has not yet spoken out! He has said,
“He is yours!”
Be it known that you are lofty as the heavens!
Be it known that you are broad as the earth!
Be it known that you destroy the rebel lands!
Be it known that you roar at the foreign lands!
Be it known that you crush heads!
Be it known that you devour corpses like a dog!
Be it known that your gaze is terrible!
Be it known that you lift your terrible gaze!
Be it known that you have flashing eyes!
Be it known that you are unshakeable and unyielding!
Be it known that you always stand triumphant!
That Nanna has not yet spoken out, and that he has said “He is yours!” has
made you greater, my lady; you have become the greatest!
My lady beloved by An, I shall tell of all your rages!
I have heaped up the coals in the censer, and prepared the purification rites.
The Ešdam-kug shrine (de temple of Inanna in Ğirsu/Lagaš) awaits you. Might your
heart not be appeased towards me?
Since it was full, too full for me, great exalted lady, I have recited this song for
you. May a singer repeat to you at noon that which was recited to you at dead of
night: “Because of your captive spouse (allusion to the captive and killed Dumuzi,
lover/husband of Inanna), because of your captive child (again Dumuzi is meant), your
rage is increased, your heart unassuaged.” (lines 1229-143)
Then follows a final verse in which Inanna has accepted the offer of the
siskur and has returned to her place. It seems as if she has reassumed
her position in the sky as the star, Venus. Nanna watches her full of
admiration. Between both these gods, Nanna and Inanna, peace has
been restored.
The powerful lady, respected in the gathering of rulers, has accepted her
offerings from her. Inanna’s holy heart has been assuaged. The light was sweet
for her, delight extended over her; she was full of fairest beauty. Like the light of
the rising moon, she exuded delight. Nanna came out to gaze at her properly,
and her mother Ningal blessed her. The door posts (of heaven) greeted her.
Everyone’s speech to the nu-gig (mistress, honorific title of Inanna) is exalted. Praise
be to the destroyer of foreign lands, endowed with divine powers by An, to my
lady enveloped in beauty, to Inanna! (lines 144-154)
At the end of the hymn Enheduanna instructs the cultic singer to
rehearse by day the text she had been reciting herself during the night
and thus expound on the greatness of Inanna in a eulogy. This epilogue
was probably added to the text in later times.
The hymn Nin-me-šara is the pinnacle of Sumerian classic literature.
That it has been so long preserved is a token of the fact that this song of
praise has left a deep impression, generation after generation, down
through the ages. The shattering power of the drama in which
Enheduanna plays the leading part, can be understood and felt to this
day. The outcome of the struggle meant a victory for the Akkad dynasty
and after Enheduanna, the office of the En priestess in Ur remained still
in the power of the kings of Akkad. The successor of Enheduanna was a
daughter of Naram-Sîn, Enmenanna.
Third hymn: Mistress of a large hart.

Figure 9.8. Warrior Ištar is sitting on a throne, a king (?) pours a libation,
behind him a goddess (Lama?). Akkad period or Ur III period.
Provenence unknown (art market). (Colbow, 1991, tafel 5, afb. 31, kat.
nr. 27)
This hymn starts with the words in-nin ša-gur4-ra, mistress of a large hart
and celebrates the magnitude of the sphere of influence of Inanna as a
powerful warrior goddess, who literally carves up her enemies.9 There is
also mention of how she consecrated her disciples, but unfortunately
much of it remains very obscure. At the end of the hymn, there is an
enumeration of all the aspects of the ancient world that according to
Enheduanna belong to the field of action of Inanna, the ME. The list
defies every attempt to discover in it any systematic approach or clarity of
meaning and the language sounds archaic. Enheduanna seems again to
exalt Inanna as a warrior goddess in a kind of ritual of flattery as in those
turbulent, dangerous times the support of the mighty goddess was
certainly a matter of life and death for the Akkad empire.
The great-hearted mistress, the impetuous lady, proud among the Anuna gods
and pre-eminent in all lands, the great daughter of Suen, exalted among the
Great Princes (a name of the Igigi gods), the magnificent lady who gathers up the
divine powers (ME) of heaven and earth and rivals great An, is mightiest among
the great gods -- she makes their verdicts final. The Anuna gods crawl before
her august word whose course she does not let An know; he dares not proceed
against her command. She changes her own action, and no one knows how it
will occur. She makes perfect the great divine powers, she holds a shepherd’s
crook, and she is their magnificent pre-eminent one. She is a huge shackle
clamping down upon the gods of the Land. Her great awesomeness covers the
great mountain and levels the roads.
At her loud cries, the gods of the Land become scared. Her roaring makes the
Anuna gods tremble like a solitary reed. At her rumbling, they hide all together.
Without Inanna great An makes no decisions, and Enlil determines no destinies.
Who opposes the mistress who raises her head and is supreme over the
mountains? Wherever she [ ……], cities become ruin mounds and haunted
places, and shrines become waste land. When her wrath makes people tremble,
the burning sensation and the distress she causes are like an ulu demon
ensnaring a man. She stirs confusion and chaos against those who are
disobedient to her, speeding carnage and inciting the devastating flood, clothed
in terrifying radiance. It is her game to speed conflict and battle, untiring,
strapping on her sandals. (lines 1-28)
Again Enheduanna compares Inanna to the wind storm that brings about
the destruction of the mountain lands from east to west. Inanna is like a
leopard among the Anuna gods, crushing everything in her way. Her
wrath is like a devastating flood which no one can withstand. She is like a
hurin bird letting no one escape, or like a falcon preying on the gods.
Inanna rips to pieces the spacious cattle pens. She performs a song, but
it is a song of weeping, the food and milk of death. She washes her
weapons with blood and gore. Her aces smash heads, spears penetrate
and maces are covered in blood. On their first offerings she pours blood,
filling them with blood. On the wide and silent plain, darkening the bright
daylight, she turns midday into darkness. People look upon each other in
anger, they look for combat. The proud mistress holds a dagger in her
hand, a radiance which covers the Land. The lady is a leopard among the
Anuna gods.

Figure 9.9. Impression of a cylinder seal form Ešnuna, late Akkadian

period, with traces of an inscription (Colbow, 1991, p. 109-110, 10, kat.
nr. 6; Boehmer, 389; Mus, nr. A 17131)
In this hymn are mentioned rather curious followers of Inanna, to be
elaborated on in Chapter 24. The pilipili seem to have been removed
from the body of Inanna ‘as a great punishment’ and blessed thereafter. It
is not at all clear what is meant by this.
When she had removed the great punishment from her body, she invoked
blessings upon it; she caused it to be named the pilipili. She broke the spear and
as if she were a man [……] gave her a weapon (line 81)
Enheduanna assures Inanna that she is the mightiest, she occupies the
seat of her rivals An and Enlil and the Anuna gods bow down in
prostration before her. Inanna rides on seven great beasts as she comes
forth from heaven. An feared her MUŠ3, her holy precinct but he let her
take a seat in the dwelling place of the great An, and then feared Inanna
no more. This seems to be an allusion to the temple in Uruk. An, the god
of heaven had his own temple on the Eanna complex of Uruk but Inanna
moved into his temple in some obscure way. After that we encounter an
allusion to the mountain of Ebih:
The high mountain land, the land of cornelian and lapis lazuli, bowed down
before you, but Ebih did not bow down before you and did not greet you.
Shattering it in your anger, as desired, you smashed it like a storm.
Lady, pre-eminent through the power of An and Enlil, [……]. Without you no
destiny at all is determined, no clever counsel is granted favour.
ME
After this exaltation Enheduanna enumerates the competences of Inanna
that for us, so long afterwards, appear to be a very strange amalgam of
random human behaviours. These are the divine ME belonging to her
field of action. Enheduanna mentions them one by one and not only
positive but negative aspects are also part of the ME of Inanna. We get
the impression that Enheduanna as En priestess performs a complicated
nocturnal rite, lasting for hours and perhaps carried out in the open air.
By mentioning aloud the ME the priestess gives these abstract rules a
concrete worldly reality and she herself is the medium who invokes them
and brings them into play. Possibly she is behaving like a shaman who
mutters a long series of magical incantations, inducing a state of trance
which enables contact with the mighty goddess. Here follows some
fragments of the hymn (see frame) which for us as outsiders, seem
utterly strange and mysterious.
Enheduanna enumerates ME of her Mistress, goddess Inanna10
115-131To run, to escape, to quiet and to pacify are yours, Inana. To rove
around, to rush, to rise up, to fall down and to […..]. a companion are yours,
Inana. To open up roads and paths, a place of peace for the journey, a
companion for the weak, are yours, Inana. To keep paths and ways in good
order, to shatter earth and to make it firm are yours, Inana. To destroy, to
build up, to tear out and to settle are yours, Inana. To turn a man into a
woman and a woman into a man are yours, Inana. Desirability and arousal,
goods and property are yours, Inana. Gain, profit, great wealth and greater
wealth are yours, Inana. Gaining wealth and having success in wealth,
financial loss and reduced wealth are yours, Inana. Observation, choice,
offering, inspection and approval are yours, Inana. Assigning virility, dignity,
guardian angels, protective deities and cult centres are yours, Inana. 6 lines
fragmentary
132-154[……] mercy and pity are yours, Inana. […..]. are yours, Inana. To
cause the […..]. heart to tremble, [……] illnesses are yours, Inana. To have a
wife, ……, to love …… are yours, Inana. To rejoice, to control (?), […..]. are
yours, Inana. Neglect and care, raising and bowing down are yours, Inana.
To build a house, to create a woman’s chamber, to possess implements, to
kiss a child’s lips are yours, Inana. To run, to race, to desire and to succeed
are yours, Inana. To interchange the brute and the strong and the weak and
the powerless is yours, Inana. To interchange the heights and valleys and the
[…..]. and the plains (?) is yours, Inana. To give the crown, the throne and
the royal sceptre is yours, Inana.
12 lines missing
155-157To diminish, to make great, to make low, to make broad, to …… and
to give a lavish supply are yours, Inana. To bestow the divine and royal rites,
to carry out the appropriate instructions, slander, untruthful words, abuse, to
speak inimically and to overstate are yours, Inana.
158-168The false or true response, the sneer, to commit violence, to extend
derision, to speak with hostility, to cause smiling and to be humbled or
important, misfortune, hardship, grief, to make happy, to clarify and to
darken, agitation, terror, fear, splendour and great awesomeness in radiance,
triumph, pursuit, imbasur illness, sleeplessness and restlessness, submission,
gift, […..]. and howling, strife, chaos, opposition, fighting and carnage, [….],
to know everything, to strengthen for the distant future a nest built […..], to
instill fear in the […..]. desert like a [……] poisonous snake, to subdue the
hostile enemy, […..]. and to hate[ …..]. are yours, Inana.
169-173To […..]. the lots […..]., to gather the dispersed people and restore
them to their homes, to receive [……], to […..] are yours, Inana.
1 line fragmentary
174-181.[….]. the runners, when you open your mouth, [……] turns into
[……]. At your glance a deaf man does not […..]. to one who can hear. At
your angry glare what is bright darkens; you turn midday into darkness.
When the time had come you destroyed the place you had in your thoughts,
you made the place tremble. Nothing can be compared to your purposes (?);
who can oppose your great deeds? You are the lady of heaven and earth!
Inana, in (?) the palace the unbribable judge, among the numerous people
…… decisions. The invocation of your name fills the mountains, An (?)
cannot compete with your [……].
182-196Your understanding [……] all the gods […….] You alone are
magnificent. You are the great cow among the gods of heaven and earth, as
many as there are. When you raise your eyes they pay heed to you, they wait
for your word. The Anuna gods stand praying in the place where you dwell.
Great awesomeness, glory […..]. May your praise not cease! Where is your
name not magnificent?
9 lines missing
197-202Your song is grief, lament [……]. Your[ ……] cannot be changed,
your anger is crushing. Your creation cannot be [……], An has not
diminished your […..] orders. Woman, with the help of An and Enlil you (?)
have granted [……] as a gift in the assembly. Unison [……] An and Enlil
[…..]., giving the Land into your hand. An does not answer the word you have
uttered to him.
203-208Once you have said ‘So be it’, great An does not [……] for him. Your
‘So be it’ is a ‘So be it’ of destruction, to destroy […….] Once you have said
your [……] in the assembly, An and Enlil will not disperse it. Once you have
made a decision […..]., it cannot be changed in heaven and earth. Once you
have specified approval of a place, it experiences no destruction. Once you
have specified destruction for a place, it experiences no approval.
209-218Your divinity shines in the pure heavens like Nanna or Utu. Your
torch lights up the corners of heaven, turning darkness into light. […..]. with
fire. Your[ …..]. refining […… ] walks like Utu in front of you. No one can
lay a hand on your precious divine powers; all your divine powers [……].
You exercise full ladyship over heaven and earth; you hold everything in your
hand. Mistress, you are magnificent, no one can walk before you. You dwell
with great An in the holy resting-place. Which god is like you in gathering
together[……] in heaven and earth? You are magnificent, your name is
praised, you alone are magnificent!
219-242I am En-hedu-ana, the high priestess of the moon-god. [……]; I am
the […..]. of Nanna.
1 line fragmentary
20 lines missing
1 line fragmentary
243-253Advice [……], grief, bitterness […..], ‘alas’ […….] My lady, [……]
mercy [….].. compassion […… ]I am yours! This will always be so! May your
heart be soothed towards me! May your understanding …… compassion. May
[…..]in front of you, may it be my offering. Your divinity is resplendent in the
Land! My body has experienced your great punishment. Lament, bitterness,
sleeplessness, distress, separation [……], mercy, compassion, care, lenience
and homage are yours, and to cause flooding, to open hard ground and to
turn darkness into light.
254-263My lady, let me proclaim your magnificence in all lands, and your
glory! Let me praise your ways and greatness! Who rivals you in divinity?
Who can compare with your divine rites? May great An, whom you love, say
for you “It is enough!”. May the great gods calm your mood. May the lapis
lazuli dais, fit for ladyship,[ …….] May your magnificent dwelling place say
to you: “Be seated”. May your pure bed say to you: “Relax”. Your [……],
where Utu rises,[ …..]..
264-271They proclaim your magnificence; you are the lady[…….] An and
Enlil have determined a great destiny for you throughout the entire universe.
They have bestowed upon you ladyship in the gu-ena. Being fitted for
ladyship, you determine the destiny of noble ladies. Mistress, you are
magnificent, you are great! Inana, you are magnificent, you are great! My
lady, your magnificence is resplendent. May your heart be restored for my
sake!
272-274Your great deeds are unparalleled, your magnificence is praised!
Young woman, Inana, your praise is sweet!
Endnotes Chapter 9
1 Translation of Kramer in: Bottéro and Kramer, 1989; Limet, 1971;
Attinger, 1998; Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi, 2004, ETCSL
1.3.2.
2 Zgoll, 1997, p. 346
3 Farber-Flugge, 1973, p. 118
4 ETCSL, 4.07.2, (Inana B)
5 Zgoll, 1997, p. 124
6 Zgoll, 1997
7 ETCSL 4.72.2 line 66-90
8 Zgoll, 1997, p. 160
9 Translation: Sjöberg, 1975; ETCSL 4.07.3 (Inana C)
10 ETCSL 4.07.3 (Inana C), l. 109-274
Chapter 10 The appearance of an En
priestess
The fame of Enheduanna echoed down through the ages, her hymns
continued to be copied in the tablet schools and right up to the present
day we are touched by the emotionally charged tone of her prayers to the
goddess Inanna. How this woman looked and what kind of life she led,
confined as she was to the gipar in the temple complex is of such intense
interest that the discovery of an actual image of the En priestess was an
extraordinary piece of luck. When Woolley excavated the Royal Graves
at Ur he also discovered the gipar, the residence of the En priestess in
the temple complex of the moon god Nanna. Whether Enheduanna had
ever lived there we cannot say for sure, because the gipar Woolley found
is dated from the second millennium, but it was here on this spot in 1927
that Woolley made an exceptional discovery. In the debris of the gipar he
found the broken pieces of a limestone disc (figure 10.1) which according
to Woolley had been trampled into the ground and deliberately trashed.1.
An image of Enheduanna
After fitting the pieces of the disc together Woolley could make out the
depiction of three persons behind a nude temple officer who is pouring a
libation from a spouted vessel over a standard with a flowering plant. The
central figure on the disc is a priestess, standing right behind the temple
servant and dressed in the ritual kaunakes cape. She holds her hand to
her nose (kiri4 šu-tag: ‘to touch the nose with the hand’) to pay her
respects, in the same gesture as the woman on the Uruk vase. Her hair
hangs down over her shoulders in loose corkscrew curls and she wears a
tall conical hat featuring a rolled brim. Unfortunately the disc was
inexpertly restored and as a result the conical hat has been reduced to a
low square cap. The stepped edifice in front of which the figures are
depicted also seems somewhat inauthentic, the reconstructed disc
having given it the appearance of a ziqqurat, obviously because in the
second millennium the city of Ur was famous for the ziqqurat of the moon
god Nanna. It is also questionable whether this building was depicted on
the disc originally. It is more likely that the four persons are standing in
front of a temple facade.
The most spectacular feature of the disc is the inscription engraved on
the reverse side. In spite of the heavy damage to the text Sumerologists
have been able to decipher the name Enheduanna (en-he2-du7-an-na,
‘En, ornament of heaven’, (or: ‘En, ornament of An’) and scholars have
reconstructed the lines as follows2:
Enheduanna, the true woman (SAL.NUNUZ.ZI) of Nanna, the spouse (dam) of
Nanna, daughter of Sargon, king of Kiš, erected a table in the temple of Inanna-
za-za of Ur and named it ‘the offering table of heaven.’
The disc is a memorial to Enheduanna’s endowment of a table (or
throne) to the temple of Inanna-za-za of Ur. She has given it the title of
‘table (banšur) of heaven’ or ‘table of An’, ‘Table’ perhaps meaning
‘offering table’. Inanna-za-za is the goddess we encountered in Chapter
5, who had a temple in Mari in the third millennium.

Figure 10.1 Restored limestone disc of Enheduanna of Ur. Diameter: 26

cm. (Courtesy: © Penn Museum, Pennsylvania, USA 139330/B16665)
The title SAL.NUNUZ.ZI is a recurrent epithet for the divine wife of the
moon god Ningal, so by applying to herself the epithet SAL.NUNUZ. ZI
dNANNA, Enheduanna identifies herself with Ningal, or in other words,

she visualizes herself as the earthly consort of the god Nanna.3

Although Enheduanna was En priestess of the moon god Nanna, the disc
is a memorial to the erection of a throne in the temple of Inannaza-za,
rather than Nanna as might have been expected. The text clearly
demonstrates the ambiguous position of Enheduanna in relation to the
moon god and Inanna, her hymns also demonstrating a conflict of
interest. Enheduanna is priestess of Nanna, and in this capacity she is
his human consort, while at the same time she has a bond with the
goddess Inanna which is much stronger and has political implications. On
her disc Enheduanna explicitly mentions her father, Sargon king of Akkad
for whom the goddess Inanna had special importance as was the case
with Sargon’s daughter Enheduanna and his grandson Naram-Sîn.
Enheduanna continuously walked a political tightrope, her loyalties
divided between the two supreme gods, Inanna and Nanna, and their
contradictory interests for which she was responsible. It is also obvious in
her hymns that Enheduanna felt called upon to safeguard the position of
Inanna against the threat of claims made by the priests of the moon god
Nanna in Ur.
Relation of Enheduanna with Ningal, Nanna and Inanna

As Enheduanna held a high office it is not likely that traces of her history
would have entirely disappeared. In the cemetery of Ur cylinder seals
have been found deriving from people that served Enheduanna in the
temple, a scribe, her superintendant and a certain Diğirpalil, who calls
himself ‘her son’ (dumu-ni).4 The reading of ‘son’ is doubtful, because an
En priestess was not allowed to have children so perhaps ‘son’ should be
considered in a metaphorical sense, used by one of her servants to
express his devotion to Enheduanna. As a princess of high rank she
most certainly was not married off and to adopt a son to care for her
funeral rites after her death was not likely either, as the successors of an
En priestess took over this responsibility. Nevertheless, a translation of
‘son’ cannot be excluded because we do have some more texts in which
there is the question of a son that was said to have been born by an En
priestess. King Sargon in one of his myths is said to be the son of a high
priestess and king Iblul-il of Mari (see chapter 5, p. ..) called himself the
off spring of a NIN. King Šulgi also recorded in a laudation that he was
the son of an En priestess, as we will see in Chapter 16.
Recently another seal inscribed with the name of Enheduanna has
been deciphered (figure 10.5) and William Hallo has translated it as
follows: ‘Enheduanna, child of Sargon. SAG.A.DU, scribe, is your
servant’.

Figure 10.2. Impression of a seal from Ur with Enheduanna’s name.

Inscription: ‘Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon, Dingirpalil, his (or: her?)
son.’ (Boehmer, 1964, nr. 2)

Figure 10.3. Impression of a seal from Ur with Enheduanna’s name.

Inscription: ‘Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon, X, the scribe (is) her
servant.’ (Boehmer, 1964, nr. 5a, 5b)

Figure 10.4. Impression of a seal of Adda, found in the cemetery f Ur.

Inscription ‘Adda, super intendant (ugula-e2) of Enheduanna.’ (Boehmer,
1964, nr. 1)

Figure 10.5. Impression of a seal from Ur with Enheduanna’s name

Inscription: ‘Enheduanna, child of Sargon. SAG.A.DU, scribe, is your
servant’ (En-he2-du7-an-na/dumu Šar-ru-GI// SAG.A.DU/ dub-sar/ ir3-zu).
(Source: Enheduanna documentary & New Visual Evidence:
www.angelfire.com/mi/enheduanna/Whatsnew.html)
The En and the En priestess
In Chapter 3 we met the En of Inanna, the male official of this title. He
was city ruler of Uruk and the beloved husband of the goddess Inanna.
The position of the En ruler however, came under pressure when Sargon
founded his dynasty and called himself ‘king’ (lugal), a title which placed
him above the local city rulers of Sumer. Thereafter the role of the En
was confined to their own local domain while Sargon as king claimed a
‘national’ position of power.
We still do not know for sure whether the En priestess was the female
counterpart of the male En ruler, the man in his long net skirt depicted on
the Uruk vase. There are at least some similarities between the male En
ruler and the En priestess and they both called themselves ‘the consort’
of a god. The En ruler of course could only be the consort of a goddess
and En priestesses were the human consorts of a male god.5 Just as
with the En ruler there was always only one En priestess appointed as
consort for a certain god and she was appointed for life. It was the god
who chose his or her En priest or En priestess by leaving a sign in the
entrails of the young sheep killed in sacrifice. Several candidates were
selected and the barum priests interpreted that augury, but apparently
the king had a say in it as well, hardly surprising as since Sargon’s time it
was always a daughter of the ruling king who was elected as En
priestess
Besides, the insignia of the En priestess were the same as those of
the En ruler, 6 for instance she too possessed a throne, a carrying chair
and a sceptre. Even her outward appearance had much in common with
that of the En ruler. En priestesses wore a kaunakes mantle, as we have
seen depicted and in addition they wore the same headdress as the En
ruler, the ‘men’ or ‘aga’ crown, a turban with a fillet.7 On cylinder seals
this hat of the En ruler is also clearly visible as the headdress of the En
priestess. The En priestess wore it with a golden diadem, but this
particular addition was only standardized in the second millennium.8
Similarity between headdress of the En ruler and the En priestess:
Figure 10.6 Cylinder seal with the En surrounded by the holy cattle of
Inanna. (Orthmann, 1973, fig. 126a; Courtesy: © Vorderasiatisches
Museum Berlin)

Figure 10.7 Part of a statue of an En. Grey alabaster. Height: 18 cm.

(Schmandt-Besserat, 1993, fig. 1; Courtesy: © Deutsches
Archeologisches Institut, afdeling: Bagdad)

Figure 10.8 Statuette of Enanatuma, En priestess in Ur. Ca. 1953 v.C.

Height: 24 cm. (Courtesy: © Penn Museum, Pennsylvania)
Images of En priesteresses in the third millennium
Enheduanna was not the only En priestess in the Akkadian period, as
other gods also had a human spouse at their disposal. Tutanapšum (‘She
has found life’), daughter of Naram-Sîn, was En priestess of the god Enlil
in Nippur. The seal depicting her image shows a few characteristics
specific to an En priestess (figure 10.9). Tutanapšum is dressed in a
kaunakes mantle and she wears a prickly hat, which in a way resembles
the hat of the woman on the Uruk vase, and her hair hangs loose on her
shoulders, a typical characteristic of an En priestess. Behind Tutanapšum
is a tree and in front of her stands a female servant who is holding a
strange object, a lyre perhaps from which hangs a cord. The seat on
which Tutanapšum sits could be the official throne of an En priestess.
Figure 10.9 Priestess with a female servant in front of her, holding an
object with a cord. Inscription: ‘Naram-Sîn, king of the four quarters:
Tutanapšum, Entûm of Enlil, is your daughter.’(Collon, 1987, p. 126, afb.
530)
Quite a number of images of En priestesses dating from this period have
been discovered and according to Irene Winter we may see the image of
an En priestess on a votive plaque that was also found in the sacred
residence of the En priestess, the gipar, at Ur (figure 10.10).9 However it
is a much older example, dating from the Early Dynastic period, even
before the Akkad dynasty. The terracotta relief is divided into two
registers but resembles the lime stone disc depicting Enheduanna found
in the cemetery at Ur. The lower register shows a nude male who pours a
libation from a spouted vessel into a date palm stand before the exterior
of a building. Again the scene is taking place in front of a temple facade
while three figures stand behind the man. The last two figures are
possibly the king and his spouse, bringing an offering, a kid or a lamb.
The leading figure is a woman and she is intended to dominate the
picture, depicted in full frontal posture, wearing the tall conical headdress
with the same rolled brim, beneath which her hair hangs loose on her
shoulders. In the upper register a libation is poured before a male deity,
who is seated on a throne and is much bigger than the others, suggesting
his importance. The three persons standing behind the nude male each
wear a thick mantle, their hair is hanging loosely over their shoulders and
they all wear the same wide brimmed headdress. In the centre of the
terracotta relief there is a hole through which it was possible to push a
means of fastening the plaque to a wall.
Figure 10.10 Votive paquette of limestone from the gipar at Ur. Early
dynastic period Height: 22 cm. (British Museum, BM 118561; © The
Trustees of the British Museum)
Assuming that it is indeed an En priestess on this terracotta relief,10 she
is depicted standing in front of the temple of the moon god Nanna in the
lower relief and in the upper register in the presence of the moon god
himself, made recognizable by his crown, the crescent shaped divine
horn crown. Irene Winter notes that the En priestess occupies the same
position as Enheduanna does on her disc and is not actually pouring the
libation herself but is overseeing the action.
There is still another cylinder seal from the Early Dynastic period on
which Irene Winter recognizes the depiction of an En priestess (figure
10.11).11 To the left stands a woman dressed in a cape and a wide
brimmed hat while in front of her a long haired male stands holding a
spouted vessel. Before them is depicted a temple façade and a seated
deity at whose feet are a pair of addorsed bulls or calves, animals known
to have been associated with the moon god Nanna whose name is often
preceeded by the epithet ‘bull’. Again his horn crown has the shape of a
crescent, while the headdress of the En priestess is the typical cap with
rolled brim, the hair hanging loose over her shoulders.12 This time the
male temple servant is not nude.
This seal also depicts the remarkable picture of a vertical ram with a
construction on its back. The ram bears a striking resemblance to the one
Woolley found in the Royal Cemetery of Ur and had called ‘Ram in a
thicket’ (see figure 7.13.).

Figure 10.11 Impression of a seal from Umma (?). Early Dynastic period
III Translucent green marble. Height: 4.3 cm. (Courtesy:
Vorderasiatisches Museum, Staatlichte Museen Berlin, VA 3878; © bpk -
Bildagentur für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte, Berlin)
There are a number of female figurines known to date from the third
millennium but it is not easy to establish whether or not they are
priestesses. Sometimes their hair hangs loose and they wear a metal
diadem, characteristics that could be interpreted as the insignia of their
priestly office.

Figure 10.12 Female figurine. Height: 30 cm, depth: 13,5 cm, width: 15,8
cm. Provenance unknown (art market). (© The Trustees of the British
Museum, BM 90929)
Figure 10.13 Figurine from Lagaš. Early dynastic (Moortgat, 1967, afb.
100, Louvre)

Figure 10.14 Female heads with metal diadem, perhaps En priestesses’

(Asher-Greve, 1985, pl. XVIII, p. 81, fig. 482 en 486)

Figure 10.15 Female head, alabaster, from Tello. Height: 19 cm. (©

Louvre AO 4113; © Service Photographique de la Réunion des Musées
Nationaux, Parijs. Musée du Louvre, AO 18213; photo: Frank Raux)
Women that were not part of the religious establishment can be
distinguished by differences in their appearance.13 They wore their hair
up and dressed in woollen clothes, without the flounces of the kaunakes
cloak (see figure 10.16 and 10.17) and while En priestesses were almost
always seated on the ritual throne, secular women are most of the time
depicted standing upright. In the third millennium women’s clothes were
not as yet standardized in the same way as depicted in Ur III images of
the second millennium.

Figure 10.16. ‘Femme à l’écharpe’ from Lagaš. Third millennium

(Spycket, 1981, pl. 136a-b)

Figure 10.17 Torso of female figurine. Ca. beginning second millennium

Provenance unknown (Parrot, 1956, pl. XLV, nr. 434)
Mari
On her disc Enheduanna wrote that she had endowed the temple of
Inanna-za-z with the gift of a table. Inanna-za-za is also known in Mari as
we have seen in Chapter 5 and the female figurines found in her temple
are very likely to have been priestesses as well. They too are dressed in
the ritual kaunakes garment in combination with the high conical hat (see
Chapter 5, figures 5.7; 5.8; 5.20; 5.21), which seems to have had a
special ritual significance. On the base of the hat is a rolled brim,
reminiscent of the golden diadem of the En ruler and just like the hat
Enheduanna is depicted wearing on her disc. This is still visible from the
photograph which was taken of the original image, before the disc was
reconstructed during the restoration (figure 10.20).

Figure 10.20 Original disc of Enheduanna, before restoration. (Courtesy:

© Penn Museum, Pennsylvania 139229/B16665, U6779).

Figure 10.21 Two heads of female figurines that have been excavated in
room 3 of the temple of Ištarat and in room 13 of the temple of Inanna-
zaza. (Parrot 1967, Pl. LII, nr. 2273 en 2383)
As we have seen in Chapter 5, some female figurines found in Inanna’s
temple in Mari are depicted sitting on a throne while holding a date
branch, probably an indication of their office as priestess. Some chairs
are finished off with an ox or bull’s leg and hoof below the arm-rest,
perhaps symbolic of the presence of a god or goddess, who are often
referred to in the texts as ‘strong bull’ or ‘holy cow’. The thrones of the
moon god are often supported on carvings depicting bulls also.
Enheduanna’s position seems not to have been unique at the time as in
the third millennium, during the reign of king Sargon of Akkad and the
Sumerian period that preceded it, high priestesses held the top post in
many temples. They had their statues carried out wearing the ritual
kaunakes garment and they sat on the sacred throne with bull’s legs,
holding a sceptre or date palm. Their hair, adorned with a metal fillet, was
dressed to hang loosely on the shoulders and as depicted on seals, the
high priestess is never seen to pour a libation herself, but oversees it
being poured by a male temple servant. On some seals she is the
dominant figure, indicated by her frontal position but while many of these
women must have exercised the function of En priestess, others might
have been priestesses of a lower rank, such as the nin-dinger
priestesses.
Priestesses in the fourth millennium?
It has been possible to trace some priestesses in the Akkadian and
Sumerian period in the third millennium but as has been noted in Chapter
3, even in the fourth millennium a number of images are known to be
depictions of the En and the Nin. It is probable that they are both
depicted performing religious acts on the Uruk vase, as well as on the
several cylinder seals that have been found on the Eanna complex. The
Nin was probably the predecessor of the later high ranking En priestess.
Julia Asher-Greve has made a collection of images of figurines and
cylinder seals of high ranking women.14 The extraordinarily high status of
these women is clear from the fact that they always act alone and are
always depicted at the centre of religious ceremonies. The women are
seated on benches specially decorated and supported by distinctively
carved legs ending in a ball, probably a stylized bull’s leg. As sitting on a
‘throne’ was a sign of dignity, Asher-Greve draws the conclusion that
these women must therefore have been high ranking priestesses.

Figure 10.23 Cylinder seal with priestess on a ‘throne’. In front of her a

man in net skirt is pouring a libation from a goblet. In the field a figure is
sitting behind a row of pots. (Asher-Greve, 1985, afb. 195, Louvre A.117)
One seal shows a woman in front of a temple facade (figure 10.23) sitting
on a bench supported on carved legs ending in a ball, such as we have
seen before in Chapter 3. Her male companion is dressed in a short net
skirt and he is pouring a libation into a goblet that she is holding up for
him. This is possibly a depiction of the Nin priestess and the En priest,
the same couple as was engraved on the Uruk vase.

Figure 10.24 Cylinder seal with man in a net skirt who is feeding two
sheep with flourishing branches. Behind the cattle two rosettes are
shown. In the field a priestess is sitting on a low bench in the shape of
bull’s legs. (Asher-Greve, 1985, afb. 192)
Another seal shows a priestess seated on a bench which is supported by
carved bull’s legs (figure 10.24). In front of her we see a spouted vase, a
crescent and two large vessels. She holds up both hands in a posture of
supplication or prayer, the so called ‘šu-il-la’-gesture’. 2 In the field the
man in a net skirt is shown feeding the sheep with a flourishing branch.
He does not yet wear the round cap, the typical dress of the En, but a
prickly headdress. Behind him two rosettes are depicted floating in the
field and as a result of the impression made in the clay, the rosettes
appear on the other side of the seal. This is a familiar theme; the En
depicted feeding animals with rosettes, the symbol of the goddess
Inanna.

Figure 10.25 Priestess on a low bench, in front of her are three men are
performing offerings (Asher-Greve, 1985, fig. 193)
A seal from the same period shows a woman with long hair sitting on a
bench supported by legs carved to represent bull’s legs (figure 10.25).
She is holding a goblet while two nude cult servants walk towards her,
the first one raising his hands in prayer. The other holds a spouted vase,
while a second spouted vase stands on the ground in front of him. It is
likely that this woman is also a high ranking priestess being the only one
of the company who is seated, the focal point of the cultic performances.3
From these images we get the impression that at the end of the Uruk
period (circa 3400 B.C.) and even in earlier times there were many high
ranking priestesses. They are depicted seated on a ceremonial couch
with one leg pulled up and are often the centre of ceremonial
performances. The priestesses receive the En priest/ruler and are the
central figure in performing the liturgies or receive drink and food
offerings because they represent a god. Maybe she is the Nin who
together with the En performs fertility rites and later En priestesses,
including Enheduanna may be the successors of the Nin. Various
scholars have been struck by the large number of women depicted on the
cylinder seals dating from the most ancient times, far outnumbering the
depictions of females from later times.17 It is obvious that these women
played a leading role in the cult, some apparently at the top of the
hierarchy. However in the course of the third millennium and even more
so in the second millennium women are side lined, a fact connected with
urban development and the establishment of large temple complexes. In
the cities new leaders came to power that monopolized worldly and
religious functions and focussed on affairs far away from the private
domain in which women had played a central role. In the new public
domain women counted for less and less and the functions they had
performed in the past were taken over by men in the second millennium.
It is also noticeable that far fewer statues of women were made and
placed in the temples.
By the middle of the second millennium BC the office of En priestess had
disappeared completely, gods no longer needed a human spouse and in
the myths they are only provided with divine consorts. Rituals resembling
a wedding ceremony are from now on performed by the god and his
divine wife only, the gods being represented by their statues which are
meticulously cared for by temple servants. The many titles of female
priestesses such as ugbabtum, naditum, ištaritum and qadištum have by
then long lost their elevated status.
Endnotes Chapter 10
1 Hallo en Van Dijk, 1968, p. 2
2 Hall, 1985, p. 103; Westenholz (Joan Goodnick), 1989 translates
SAL.NUNUZ.
ZI as ‘zirru’ = female bird
3 Westenholz (Joan Goodnick), 1989, p. 544. Enheduanna calls
herself the true consort of Nanna. ‘Nunuz’ is Emesal for munus:
‘woman’ or ‘girl’. Sal means ‘women’ as well, and could be used as
determinative for ‘female’. ZI could mean ‘zid’: ‘righteous’ (or: ‘true’)
4 Burrows, 1934, p. 311; Sollberger, 1978, p. 26, note 92
5 Steinkeller, 1996
6 Renger, 1967
7 Renger, 1967
8 Renger, 1967; Suter, 2007
9 Winter, 1986
10 Winter, 1986
11 Winter, 1986
12 Winter, 1986
13 Suter, 2008
14 Asher-Greve, 1985
15 Asher-Greve, 1985, afb. 35
16 Asher-Greve, 1985, afb. 36
17 Asher-Greve, Westenholz (Joan Goodnick), Suter e.a.
Chapter 11 The En priestesses of Ur and
the cloister women of Sippar
The most important gods of the pantheon had a human consort, the En
priestess, who entered into a lifelong commitment to live in the temple
and perform the rituals necessary for their heavenly consort. We know
next to nothing about the temple of Inanna and the priests and
priestesses that lived in the gipar, their official place of residence.
However in this chapter we will attempt to depict the life of the temple
servants of Inanna with the help of the history of the residential quarters
of the gipar in the town of Ur, as well as information available from a
women’s convent near the temple of Sippar, a city that lay upstream of Ur
on the Euphrates River. Here tens of thousands of cuneiform tablets from
the beginning of the second millennium BC have been excavated that
should prove an aid in teaching us about the lives of the women who
resided in the temple cloister.
The En priestesses at Ur from the second millennium
The En priestess of the moon god Nanna of Ur was held in great respect
in ancient times, this already being so in the time of Akkad, when king
Sargon appointed his daughter Enheduanna to the post. But the
succeeding kings of the Ur III dynasty and Isin and Larsa dynasty’s also
each installed a king’s daughter as En priestess of the moon god (see the
list below), the most important post of the temple personnel in the so
called gipar. At the cemetery of Ur a number of seals have been
excavated belonging to servants of Enheduanna, as we have seen in the
preceding chapter, but cylinder seals from a scribe and a messenger in
the service of her successor, Enmenanna, daughter of Naram-Sîn have
also been found.

Figure 11.1 Seal from Ursi, courier of Enmenanna. Found at the

cemetery in Ur. (Boehmer, 1965, afb. 548; Legrain, Ur II, 198, p. 350)
Figure 11.2. Impression of a seal from a scribe of Enmenanna, his name
is partially legible as: LU […] Seal from Tello. Inscription: ‘(God) Naram-
Sîn, god of Akkad, Enmenanna, En of (god) Nanna, his daughter; LU-
[…], scribe, her servant.’ (Boehmer, 1965, afb. 725, Archeological
Museum of Istanbul, 1094)

Figure 11.3 Ziqqurat of Ur, reconstruction by Woolley. (Crawford,

2004, p. 87)
Figure 11.4 Groundplan of Ur during the third dynasty of Ur. 1 =
Ziqqurat/Nanna-temple; 2 = Nanna-courtyard; 3 = Gipar; 4 =
Ganunmah; 5 = Ehursag; 6 = Edublamah; 7 = Bastion of Warad-Sîn;
12 = Mausoleumsite; 14 = Enki-temple; 15 = Ningizzida-temple; 17 =
traces of private houses that were built against the city wall; 18 = West
harbor; 19 = North harbor; 20 = Canal. (Van de Mieroop, 1992, p. 27)
List of names of the En priestesses of Ur
En priestesses were given an official name when they entered the
temple. Scholars have been successful in retrieving the names of all
the En priestesses of the moon god Nanna in Ur.1 It is remarkable that
they all (with only one exception) have included the name of ‘An’ in
their cultic name. It is not entirely clear whether ‘An’ stands for
‘heaven’ or for the god ‘An’.
- En-he-du-an-na, ‘En,ornament of An/ heaven’, daughter of Sargon,
circa 2300
- En-men-anna, ‘En, crown of An/heaven’, daughter of Naram-Sîn,
circa 2250
- En-an-ni-pad-da, ‘En, found by An himself/heaven’, daughter of Ur-
Baba van Lagaš, circa 2170
- En-nir-ğal3-an-na, ‘En, great respect of An/heaven’, daughter of Ur-
Namma, Ur III, circa 2130
- En-nir-zi-an-na, ‘En, righteous trust by An/heaven’, daughter of
Šulgi, Ur III, circa 2100
- En-mah-gal-an-na, ‘very exalted En by An/ heaven’, daughter of
Amar-Sîn, Ur III, circa 2050
- En-nir-si-an-na, ‘En, right trust by An/ heaven’, daughter of Ibbi-
Sîn, Ur III, circa 2030
- Nin-zi-an-na, ‘righteous n i n of An/ heaven’, daughter of Isbi-Erra
of Isin, circa 2015
- En-an-na-tum-ma, ‘En, befitting An/ heaven’, daughter of Išme-
Dagan of Isin, circa 1950; she remains in her post under
Gungunum of Larsa, circa 1920
- En-me-gal-an-na, ‘En, great ME of An/ heaven’, daughter of
Abisare of Larsa, circa 1900
- En-šà-ki-áğ -dnanna, ‘En, beloved heart of Nanna’, daughter of
 Sumu-ilum of Larsa, circa 1880
- En-an-(ne)e-du7, ‘En, adorned by An/heaven’, daughter of
Kudurmabuk and sister of Warad-Sîn and Rim-Sîn of Larsa, circa
1820
The gipar where the En priestesses lived lay to the south of the temple
complex, just south east of the ziqqurat of the moon god. The ziqqurat
was enclosed by a courtyard and had a large rectangular inner yard in
front of it. Perhaps at certain times of the year priests carried the statue
of the god into this court, where citizens were allowed to catch a glimpse
of the moon god.2 The original entrance to the temple was the E2-
Dublamah, ‘house, the large platform’. According to a hymn to the moon
god Nanna, this was the place where the gods decided on what fate they
had in store for the future. To the east of the court lay the Ganun-mah,
the administrative centre of the temple economy, with a great number of
long store houses. Here presumably the treasury of Nanna was held in
safe keeping.
Figure 11.5 Ground plan of the gipar at Ur in the Ur III-period, residence
of the En priestess of the moon god. (Woolley, 1974)
The gipar of the En priestesses of the moon god was almost square, 79
by 76, 5 meter (figure 11.5). The corners were oriented to the cardinal
points of the compass and it was surrounded by a massive wall.3 Woolley
discovered foundations that dated back to the Early Dynastic period, so
we may conclude that the gipar was probably already functioning from
the third millennium onwards, perhaps during Enheduanna’s time. The
building was divided into three sections, labelled by Woolley Unit A, B
and C.
All the rooms and inner courts of the gipar were connected. Unit C on
the eastside was the temple household of the moon goddess Ningal, and
the En priestesses lived in fact in the temple of the consort of the moon
god, with whom they felt a special closeness. Unit C was divided off from
the other buildings of the gipar by a partition wall and traverse which
followed the entire length of the complex. This section was the earthly
dwelling place of the goddess.4 Its central court (C-7) was surrounded by
rooms, and is similar in plan to those in private houses. This inner court
was reached from the entrance (C-1) and was provided with a trough,
made waterproof with bitumen, for ritual washing, as a temple, a sacral
space, could not be entered before the priest had purified himself. The
statue of the goddess stood on a raised dais in the cella (room C-28), the
inner sanctuary of the temple, holy of holies where a platform probably
served as a bed for the goddess. Next to the rooms of Ningal lay the
kitchen which took up a lot of space but then the kitchen personnel had to
provide all the inmates of the gipar, whether human or divine, with food.
The traverse passage connected the kitchen and the private dwellings of
the goddess with the other sections of the building.
Unit B lay on the opposite side of this wide corridor. Here was the
dining room (B-12), conveniently located in relation to the kitchen. It was
a large room, obviously of considerable importance and on both sides
provided with antechambers. It was possible to enter this room via four
different doorways and from the inscriptions it is clear that here the urinnu
symbols of the gods were set up. These were presumably the standards
with symbolic attributes relating to the gods.5
Next to the dining room lay the cemetery, where were buried all the
En priestesses who had ever lived in the gipar, and where archaeologists
have discovered a number of empty tombs. From the texts we know that
two deceased En priestesses were provided with regular offerings and
that they consisted of cheese, ghee, dates and libations on the offering
place.6 Because En priestesses had no children to take care of them
after death, the next generation of En priestesses performed this service.
They supervised the funeral rites that were normally performed within the
family context and just like any other dead person the deceased En
priestesses had to be remembered each month and provided regularly
with flour and drink offerings.
On the north side of the gipar, Unit A, lay the private rooms of the En
priestess. This part was designed to act as a domestic dwelling and the
living rooms were built around a central courtyard (A-6). The ancestors of
the En priestess had their own room, entrance to which was via a small
court (A-4) where again a tarred trough was placed for ritual washing,
and it was here in this place that the En priestess would pray for the
health and wellbeing of her father, the king. Also in this section of the
temple the statues of the deceased kings of Ur were to be found (A-19)
and probably a statue of the god Dagan, the personal god of the royal
family of Ur.7 Dagan was worshipped by the Amorites from Middle
Mesopotamia, from where the dynasties of Ur had originated.
A number of images have been discovered that give us an idea of the
appearance of En priestesses in the second millennium. Their clothing
resembles that of Enheduanna and other En priestesses from the third
millennium, an indication that the traditional garb of the En priestess was
held in high esteem, including the golden fillet worn on the head and the
ritual flounced mantle. A statue of Enannatuma daughter of Išme-Dagan,
who resided in the gipar as En priestess around 1950 BC (figure 11.6)
has survived and provides us with an example, dressed in the kaunakes
garment and enthroned on a high seat that was fitting to Enship. Three
female heads dating from the beginning of the second millennium and
excavated in the surroundings of temples in Ur and Aššur, have such
charisma in spite of their tiny dimensions, that we may regard them as
being depictions of En priestesses (figure 11.7). They wear the golden
fillet around their head and perhaps the ‘dog collar’ around their neck
although not all of them wear their hair hanging loose on their shoulders,
the hairstyle with which we are familiar from the statue of Enannatuma for
instance.
Figure 11.6. Statue of En-priestess Enannatuma. Heigth: 24 cm. (Black
en Green, 1992, p. 138; Suter, 2007, fig. 9; Kramer 1983, p. 74;
(courtesy: © Penn Museum, Pennsylvania, USA, fig. 8437/B16229)

Figure 11.7 Female head with inlaid amber from Ur. Height 9,2 cm
(Courtesy: © Penn Museum, Pennsylvania, USA, fig. 150111/B16228)
 Figure 11.8 Female head from Aššur, Ištar temple Gypsum stone.
Height: 7,2 cm. (Courtesy: Vorderasiatisches Museum, Staatliche
Museum Berlin)

Figure 11.9 Female head from Ur, found in the gipar of the moon god.
Diorite Height: 8.3 cm. (British Museum, ANE 118564, ME)
The installation of an En priestess was a public event and it was of such
importance that the king named the year in which it occurs, after this
ceremony. En priestesses were installed for life and a new king did not
dare to remove her, even if she had been installed by a predecessor who
had been dethroned by the new king. So Enannatuma, daughter of Išme-
Dagan retained the post even after Larsa had defeated and deposed her
father.
We have a seal with an inscription from a scribe of an En priestess
(figure 11.10) called Me-Enlil, daughter of king Šulgi, although she was
given the ritual name of Ennirzianna. She had in her service a scribe by
the name of Giri-ne-ša. He left a sealing, meaning a single impression on
a clay tablet which has survived even though the seal itself has been lost,
depicting an enthroned god holding up a sabre with a curved blade. On
the right side, part of a worshipper of the god is still just visible, on the
original seal itself they of course were standing face to face and in the
brief inscription mistress and servant are mentioned in one breath:
Ennirzianna, En of Nanna − Giri-ne-ša, scribe, son of Hésag: her servant. This
picture is a so called ‘presentation scene’, the servant being received in
audience by his master or mistress and the inscription ends with the
words, ‘arad-zu’ (‘her/his servant’). The very same presentation scenes in
this period were made by order of the king, however it was not a god that
was enthroned, but the king himself (see Chapter 17).

Figure 11.10 Cylinder seal from Ur. Legenda: : ‘Ennirzianna, En of

Nanna, Giri-né-i-ša, scribe, son of Hé-šag, her servant (e n – n i r – z i –
a n – n a / e n d N a n n a / G i r i – n e2 – š a6 / d u b – s a r / d u m u H é
– š a6 – g [e] / i r 11 – z u.). (Braun-Holzinger, 1996, fig. 17)
After the downfall of the Third Dynasty of Ur, succeeding dynasties tried
to continue holding in high esteem the tradition of the En priestess but
the centralised bureaucracy was crumbling under the pressure of
ceaseless warfare and famine, and in the end the city of Ur was
destroyed. The tradition of the gipar survived however as the next
dynasty, settled in the town of Larsa, reinstalled the office of the En
priestess. The kings of Larsa did not appoint a daughter, but their sister
as En priestess and she was given the name of Enannedu, ‘En, adorned
by An’. This princess was to be the last En priestess to enter the gipar
because in 1763 BC the city was invaded and destroyed by king
Hammurabi of Babylon and instead of tracing their descent back to
Sumerian gods, the new Amorite kings reverted to their descent from
divine ancestors. During the old Babylonian period, the office and
residence of the En priestess came to an end.
Deed of foundation of an En priestess
Enannedu, the last En priestess at Ur, sister of the king of Larsa, has left
an elaborate record of her Enship in a clay cone inscription found at Ur
(figure 11.11). She relates how the gipar in the course of time had been
reduced to an impoverished state, with signs of decay and neglect
everywhere, a breach had been made in the protective wall and weeds
were growing all over. Enannedu herself endeavoured to rebuild the
complex and arranged that a wall was built encircling the grave yard of
the dead En priestesses and she set up a strong watch. She observed
that the place was no longer cleaned, so she provided the necessary
services for that and as the purification of the burial room had since long
been neglected, this situation was remedied as well. The text in which
she made a record of her Enship is partially written in Sumerian, but
contains many peculiarities, probably because Sumerian was no longer
used as a spoken language.

Figure 11.11 Cone inscription in Sumerian writing by En-an-ne-du.

Diameter: 15.4 cm. (© The Trustees of the British Museum, BM
130729)
Part of the cone inscription of Enannedu, translated by C.J. Gadd
(1951):
Enanedu, En of dNanna, greatness, priesthood (is) in (my) pure heart,
princeliness of An,
(…)
Enanedu, the priestess beheld by Nanna and Ningal of Ur, the city pre-
eminent in Sumer
the high placed created by the lord dAšimbabbar;
the one who built the gipar for his (her) priesthood in a clean place and
mightily rules it, am I.
When Nanna and Ningal had given me their look, life, their smile
in the shrine of Ekišnugal, at the abode of their godhead
they had exalted my name
in my pure mouth had put the incantation of life,
my righteous hand they had stretched out to lengthen unto age the day of life
of Rim-Sin, my brother, my patron,
and the country of the whole of his enemies had delivered into his hand
at that time, of the gipar the abode of my priesthood
its bricks had not been laid on its foundation
Enanedu, the priestess truly called by that exalted name
Child of Kudur-Mabuk (king of the Larsa-dynasty, father of Enanedu),
I, the pure gipar on its old foundation I laid its brick true and firm
I made its wall exact to the touch of a finger,
that house I created anew.
At that time the space of the temple ground, the clear ground, the portion
for the ancient priestesses
its place a wall did not border: its thorn, its bushes I felled:
a watch had not been set, its place had not been cleansed.
But I, in my wise understanding,
sought the place of portion, the clear ground at the back beyond the lying-
places of the ancient priestesses
I made a wide space
in its place where it was fallen I heaped up a great protective wall,
a strong watch I set, that place I cleansed.
In order to proclaim the name given to my priesthood
I put its structure into place.
I inscribed full many foundation-records of my priesthood
I laid them in […]
Of that wall I called its name ‘He that respects me […] shall be praised’.
Thus the wall was given a name that was meant to protect the grave
yard against intruders.
The En priestess was in charge of the management of the gipar and
related landed property. She supervised the funeral cult of her dead
forerunners, and the attendance of the goddess Ningal, the divine main
occupant of the gipar of Ur. Enannedu narrates in the following lines how
she had commissioned a statue for the gipar, presumably of Ningal, and
she enumerates a list of offerings of beer, flour, bread and meat. She
describes what the clothes and jewellery looked like, fitting the divinity of
Ningal and Nanna. She also mentions the bed, a subject to which we will
return later.
We do not actually know how long an En priestess remained in office.
There are documents with information about two En priestesses,
Enšakiag and her successor Enannedu, mentioned on an offering list and
according to estimations En priestesses lived very long lives in the gipar.8
Pamela Weadock presumes that when an En priestess became old in the
office she would be replaced by a younger woman as consort of the god
but this view is not substantiated. As Gadd notes, En priestesses were
not often replaced 9 and frequently grew very old because they were not
exposed to the risks of the childbirth and were spared the dangers of
infectious diseases as a result of their isolated way of life.
The entrance
As we said before the god made his choice of an En priestess known by
way of a sign on the livers of the sacrificed kids or lambs. Then followed
a formal entrance into the gipar, accompanied by an extensive and
complicated ritual. A heavily damaged text has been found that was
perhaps a kind of inauguration ceremony for the En priestess of the
moon god Nanna.10 The hymn appears to have been written by
Enheduanna, and the inauguration first starts in the temple of Nanna.
The text mentions the ziqqurat of the moon god and speaks of the šu-luh-
rites (litarally: ‘hand washing’), that is fitting for the Enship. Maybe it was
at this moment that the new En priestess was given her cultic name a
matter that was of the utmost importance for people in ancient times, as a
name conferred on them a specific identity. The hymn mentions
Enheduanna’s name four times and each passage seems to refer to a
different aspect of her role. The first time is during her elevation to the
status of Enship, then as the embodiment of Ningal, which is
Enheduanna as incarnation of the holy spouse of the moon god, and the
third time in relation to the ‘sacred marriage’ rite. Finally she is named
regarding her cultic functions, her personal grinding of groats for
example, in preparation for offerings.11
In the gipar, as we learn from Enheduanna’s hymn, the ME of Enship
is established. The En priestess begins a song in which she praises her
masters, Nanna and his wife Ningal. Enheduanna addresses Ningal with
the title ‘the true woman of Nanna’ – SAL.NUNUZ.ZI dNANNA – the very
same title Enheduanna had used for herself on her disc. Enheduanna
herself is also praised in this hymn, she is exalted in heaven and the
hymn continues with the rites that were possibly related to the ceremony
of the Holy Marriage. The hymn narrates that Enheduanna enters into the
bedroom and that the man will desire her beauty. The En priestess grinds
the barley for him and calls herself his miller, who knows how to mill the
barley for the offerings. In addition the En priestess carries the masabbu
basket, which article Enheduanna had also mentioned in the hymn Nin-
me-šara12:
According to the request of the gudu-priester (= purification priest) in order to bring
the masabbu-basket, to enunciate the asila (a rejoicing acclaim),
in order to beautify the temple, to uphold the temple,
in order to keep in order the place of the holy ablutions
O, Ningal, my Enheduanna,
may she (viz. Enheduanna) restore your heart (viz. Ningal’s haert) to its place
The masabbu basket is a basket for winnowing grain13 and from the text
we understand that this container was made of silver, copper and woven
rushes, sometimes filled with fish, dates and other fruits.14 Twice when
mentioning the carrying of the masabbu basket, the En priestess also
mentions the asila, perhaps a song of rejoicing or acclamation.
The hymn gives the faint impression of a very ancient ritual that was
performed on the occasion of the inauguration of a new En priestess. It
seems as though this ritual had been established by Enheduanna and
meticulously observed in later times.
The Sacred Marriage Rite
The En priestess of Ur was the worldly consort of the moon god. She
embodied his heavenly spouse but the modern researcher struggles with
the enigmatic quality of these religious practices and how the rites were
actually performed. En priestesses such as Enannepada and Enannedu
speak of themselves as a woman (‘with pure loins’) befitting Enship’15
and Enheduanna says she is ‘the true woman of Nanna’. These
priestesses did not conclude a worldly marriage but dedicated all their
lives to a heavenly spouse. Maybe we should regard this marital
relationship in the same way as nuns in the middle ages and later times
in Europe, regarded themselves as the brides of Christ, and wore a
wedding ring as a token of their holy bond.
All En priestesses felt closely related to the heavenly spouse of the god
of the temple. They were obviously her human substitute which begs the
question as to whether these priestesses played the role of the goddess
in the Holy Marriage ceremony, when the god and goddess surrendered
themselves to love making on the bed in the temple, adorned with sweet
smelling grasses, resulting in a blossoming fertility for the land. The king
was also intensely engaged in this ritual and in the second millennium
many songs of praise leave no doubt that the king in the temple shared
his bed with the goddess Inanna, in fact in the myth of Enmerkar (see
chapter 3) this is very explicitly described. Maybe we should interpret the
image on the Uruk vase as a historic memory of the encounter of the king
and goddess Inanna. In this rite the king played the role of Dumuzi, the
young mortal lover of Inanna but ascertaining who acted the role of
Inanna is more difficult. The En priestess could not possibly be involved
in the sacred marriage rite between the king and the goddess Inanna, as
she herself was the consort of the moon god, not of the king. The En
priestess was moreover the daughter of the king, so she could not
solemnize a marriage with her own father as this would mean incest, a
practice unknown in Mesopotamia, as distinct from the ruling dynasty in
Egypt at the time of the pharaohs.
So in fact we have no idea how the Sacred Marriage was celebrated
and it was a question never posed or answered by the Sumerians, as for
them it was simply a ritual which resulted in benevolent consequences for
the community. How this mystery was performed was the concern of the
participants, and this secret lore was not to be revealed to the uninitiated,
a subject to which we will return in Chapter18.
Naditum women
During the first half of the second millennium, women’s convents linked to
the temple of a high god appeared in some places in Mesopotamia and
wealthy families sent their young daughters to a cloister where they
would stay for the rest of their lives. The most famous cloister was the
E2-babbar, ‘the white house’, linked to the temple of the sun god Šamaš
in Sippar. Rivkah Harris has made a thorough study of these women in
Sippar16 and it is estimated that this convent accommodated some two
hundred women. They were called naditum women and some scholars
have suggested that the name naditum was possibly related to the
Akkadian word nadûm, which means ‘to lie fallow’. A naditum was not
allowed to have children or have sexual relations and in this sense she
‘lay fallow’,17 but it seems more likely that the word naditum is connected
with the verb nadanum, that is ‘to give’ or ‘to marry’, so the naditum
woman was in this sense ‘married’ or ‘given as a consort’ to her heavenly
husband.18
The compound in Sippar was enclosed by a wall, behind which lay the
domestic dwellings of the naditum women. This was an area known as
‘Closed house’ (ga3-gi4-a; Akkadisch: gagûm),19 where they owned or
rented separate houses, running their own households with servants and
slaves. The buildings of the officials of the gagûm were also located
inside this enclosure, besides the dwellings of the female weavers and
cooks, the gate officials and doorkeepers, the ‘judge of the gagûm’ and
other personnel employed by the cloister. The cloister compound was
laid out with streets, including a main street and a small arable plot of
land where sesame was cultivated. The gagûm was equipped with a
granary and an administrative building which may have housed the
archives of the temple.20 Responsible for the administration of the gagûm
was the ‘steward of the nadiatum’, an office which in the early period was
held by the nadiatum women themselves.21 It is known that there were
female scribes in Sippar and Rivkah Harris has been able to retrieve the
names of some of them, however there was never more than one female
scribe in charge at the same time, and at a later period this position was
occupied exclusively by men.22
The naditum women entered the cloister at the age when she would
otherwise be expected to marry and the expenses incurred by the cloister
on the admission of a girl as a naditum, were found recorded on a tablet
in the archive of the cloister of Sippar. The entrant to whom the tablet
referred was called Awat-Aja, daughter of Warad-Irra, and she was
escorted by her brother to the cloister. Among other things the text
mentions fish, oil, some silver coins, a belt, some rings and also
enumerates the expenses incurred by the brother’s caravan which
transported Awat-Aja23 to the cloister. These entries are described as
betrothal gifts paid by the cloister, so we may presume that the father of
the girl was dead, because they would usually be paid to the father of the
bride. The other tablets mention the cost to the cloister for the three days
of festivities celebrating the sun god Šamaš, including an offering made
on the second day of the festival, in honour of deceased naditum women.
Apparently the entry of a naditum was bound up with a religious festival
and at the end of the record the text mentions the outlay of 1/3 shekel of
silver for beer, to be enjoyed by the female slaves of the new naditum.
The considerations which decided that these women should be sent to a
cloister by their parents and remain childless for the rest of their lives
were purely economic.24 In the second millennium a number of upper
class families in Mesopotamia had succeeded, for the very first time in
accumulating wealth and property. They did not always marry off a
daughter, but preferred to let her enter the cloister enabling the family to
preserve the estate intact within the family. A girl who was married took
her dowry away from her family, as Harris explains. The dowry of a
naditum, though it belonged to her during her lifetime returned to her
brothers after her death and moreover, the parents of the prospective
naditum, just like the parents of the bride to be, received a betrothal gift
or a bridal present from the cloister administration. Sometimes the
naditum was even able to improve the family fortune to an extent and it
was moreover an attractive idea to have a member of the family close to
an important god and daily praying in his presence for the wellbeing of
her family. Am I not the praying emblem of your father’s house? Erišti-Aja,
daughter of Zimri-Lim, king of Mari writes to her father, I pray every day for
him in the temple of Šamaš?25 Royal heirs could also be sent to the temple
to dedicate their lives to a god, usually in order to prevent them from
being murdered by another claimant to the throne or a usurper.26

Figure 11.12 Cylinder seal and modern impression of Matrunna, daughter

of Aplahanda of Karkemiš. 2,4 bij 1,2 cm. Inscription: ‘Matrunna,
daughter of Aplahanda, servant of the goddess Kubaba.’ Matrunna was
naditum in the temple of Šamaš in Sippar (© Service Photographique de
la Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Parijs. Musée du Louvre, AO 30083;
photo: Frank Raux)
The naditum women must often have felt very lonely and abandoned to
their fate by their family. The above mentioned Erišti-Aja writes to her
mother, the queen of Mari27:
I am a king’s daughter! You are a king’s wife! Even disregarding the tablets
with which your husband and you made me enter the cloister - they treat well
soldiers taken as booty! You, then, treat me well!
In another letter to her mother she complains28:
I cry all the time, always! Last year you sent me two female slaves and one of
those slaves had to go and die! Now they have brought me two more female
slaves and of these, one slave had to go and die. Am I not the praying emblem of
your father’s house? Why am I not given provisions? They have not given me
money or oil.
The naditum women in Sippar held the position of second wife to the sun
god Šamaš, the first wife being Aja, his heavenly spouse. The naditum
had entered the family of the sun god and had a special relation with Aja,
who was the ‘mistress’ of the naditum. 29 This is made clear from the
choice of cultic names the naditum women were given when they entered
the cloister. Aya, the name of the goddess, is often part of the name
chosen like Awat-Aja (word of Aja), Aja-belet-matim (Aja, lady of the
land), Aja-damqat (Aja is good), Aja-kuzub-matim (Aja, the allure of the
land), Aja-tallik (Aja walks), Amat-Aja (servant Aja), Belti-Aja (Aja is my
mistress) and Eristi-Aja (called by Aja). Harris has found more than
twenty of these names.30
The naditum women in Sippar lived the greater part of their lives isolated
from the rest of the world however they did conduct a lively
correspondence with their families, friends and commercial agents. From
the tablets that have been preserved we learn that they might be
permitted to receive visitors, a conclusion Harris draws from a letter of
Awat-Aja to her brother, in which she writes:
When I last saw you, I rejoiced as much as I did when I first entered the cloister
and saw the face of my Lady (Aja). 31
There are not many reports about religious obligations imposed on the
naditum. There were no special rites to be performed but they did have
an obligation to bring an offering on special festivals called the piqittum,
to the temple of Šamaš.32 These offerings were sometimes paid by the
family or from the proceeds of personal property. We read, as Harris
notes, that one naditum woman disinherited her adopted daughter,
because the latter had not given her clothing, ointment, and her piqittum
offering.
The women remained in the cloister until their death, meaning in
many cases that they lived there for 25 to 55 years.33 Just like the En
priestesses of Ur the naditum women of Sippar could attain to a great
age owing to the isolated way of life, protected as they were against
contagious illnesses and the risks of giving birth.
Although the naditum women were under an obligation to lead a
chaste life, some of them seem to have borne children and this is clear
from a number of adoption agreements that have been found in Sippar. A
certain Huššutum delivered her child to her brother for adoption, although
it is decided that she will nurse the baby herself, and for this purpose
receives an allowance for three years, in advance. Two other naditum
women each gave their children into the care of married couples to bring
up as their own and it is not evident from the contracts that giving birth
adversely affected their status as naditum in any way.34
Financial issues
Iltani was a famous naditum of Sippar, the sister of king Hammurabi of
Babylon. She was rich as was becoming a true princess and she owed
extensive property that she exploited with the help of supervisors, also
lending money at interest and hiring out her slaves.
But not all women were that rich and the family of a naditum were not
always supportive and faithful. In the Codex of Hammurabi a few articles
are included that aim at protecting the legal position of temple women.35
These laws lay down that various temple women, such as an ugbabtum,
naditum and sekretum, can dispose of their dowry after the death of their
father and their brothers must respect their right of access to this property
although the inheritance belongs to her brothers. Article 179 of the Codex
lays down that a naditum, qadištum and kulmašitum who does not live in
a cloister and who has inherited no dowry from their father shall be given
the share of one heir from the wealth of their father’s house, and shall
enjoy it as long as they live: these women obviously needed less
protection from their families. In all cases, however, brothers are charged
with the management of the dowry and it is very clear from the written
records that the temple women were quite often neglected by their family,
which is why Hammurabi thought it necessary to legally protect their
position.
Although the convent looked after the interests of the naditum women,
they received no financial support from the temple. Many tablets written
by naditum women give evidence of the panic and fear that seized them
as they urgently begged their family to support them and send grain as a
religious offering, for instance. However the protective paragraphs of the
Codex of Hammurabi was not sufficient protection for the naditum,
because time and again the kings felt obliged to take action to alleviate
their precarious situation. King Šamšu-iluna, successor of Hammurabi for
instance issued an order that if the family of a naditum no longer
supported her, she was under no obligation to remain in the cloister. He
also promulgated a law that a naditum could not be held responsible for
the debts or other obligations of her parents.36
If the family abandoned their responsibilities to the naditum she had
no choice but to provide for herself and some naditum women arranged
to adopt a son or daughter who could take care of them in their old age.
Quite often a younger naditum from the cloister or a family member, or
she would adopt a loyal slave and in the contract agree that the slave
should obtain his freedom after the naditum woman had died.37 In some
cases it was the gagûm that settled the affairs of a naditum living in
straitened circumstances, such as a certain Lamassi, who fell seriously ill
and had no one to take care of her. The gagûm arranged that Huzalatum
was adopted by Lamassi on condition that he would nurse her during her
illness and care for her in her old age.38
The tablets excavated in the temple compound of Sippar give us a
glimpse of how these naditum women participated in various ways in the
economic life of the time.39 They entered into contracts by which they
sold their houses, landed property or slaves and were also actively
engaged in lending money or grain at interest. Sometimes they
cooperated with their father or brothers in increasing the family capital but
they regularly operated alone or in partnership with another naditum
woman. Some wealthy women had an administrative staff responsible for
the management of her properties while others earned their money from
spinning and weaving wool and a tablet has been preserved inscribed
with the contract of a naditum woman, who purchased a slave from the
income she made from spinning. After Hammurabi’s time the naditum
women disappeared, and so also the economic activities in which they
were engaged.
Endnotes Chapter 11
1 Sollberger, 1989
2 Van de Mieroop, 1992, p. 40
3 Weadlock, 1975, p. 108
4 Weadlock, 1975, p. 116
5 Weadlock, 1975
6 Weadlock, 1975, p. 109
7 Weadlock, 1975, p. 123
8 Sollberger, 1954, p. 56
9 Gadd, 1951, p. 30
10 Westenholz (Joan Goodnick), 1989, ‚text B’
11 Westenholz (Joan Goodnick), 1989, p. 545
12 Tranlation Westenholz (Joan Goodnick), 1989, p. 555; Zgoll, 1997,
p. 372-373
13 Gadd, 1948, p. 93-100
14 Westenholz (Joan Goodnick), 1989
15 Weadlock, 1975, p. 101
16 Harris, 1964, 1975
17 Harris, 1964, p. 108
18 Durand, 2008, p. 400
19 Lahtinen, 2011, p. 20
20 Harris, 1975, p. 304
21 Renger, 1967, p. 157
22 Harris, 1964, p. 132
23 Harris, 1964, p. 111/112
24 Harris, 1964, p. 109
25 ARM X 38.9-11, Batto, 1974, p. 98-99
26 Durand, 2008, p. 403
27 Batto, 174, p 99, X 43.12-22
28 Batto, 1974, p. 96 and 100, ARM X 39. 14-19
29 Lahtinen, 2011, p. 23
30 Harris, 1975, p. 116
31 Harris, 1964, p. 132
32 Harris, 1964, p. 128/129
33 Harris, 1964, p. 122
34 Lahtinen, 2011, p. 91
35 Codex van Hammurabi, par. 178-184; Richardson, 2000, p. 99, 101
36 Klengel, 1999, p. 261
37 Harris, 1987, p. 309
38 Lahtinen, 2011, p. 88
39 See more about this issue: Lahtinen, 2011
Chapter 12 The moon-god of Ur
In ancient Ur the En priestess was the earthly consort of the moon god
Nanna, the god who played a major role in various rites and hymns and
was expected to stimulate the fertility of the land. Inanna and the sun god
Utu were the children of the moon god, but in hymns to the moon god
they play no role whatsoever. In the distant past Inanna had probably
been the consort of the moon god, but his role was taken over by the
shepherd Dumuzi, the young fiancé of Inanna. This chapter will shed
more light upon the role of the moon god, and his capacity to stimulate
the fertility of the farmer’s crops and cattle. Many kings had incorporated
the Semitic name of the moon god, Sîn into their name, such as Naram-
Sîn, ‘beloved by Sîn’; Amar-Sîn, ‘calf of Sîn’; Šu-Sîn, ‘hand of Sin’; Ibbi-
Sîn, ‘fruit of Sîn’ and Rim-Sîn, ‘wild bull of Sîn’. The Amorite dynasties
worshipped the moon god, a tradition that probably dated back to the
time when their ancestors still roamed over the steppes as nomads. For
nomads the moon had always been more important than the fierce sun
scorching the earth during the day, as the moon was a beacon in the
night who, just like the nomads, led his stars, who were his cattle, over
the dome of heaven.
Nanna was the city god of Ur, where he resided in his principal temple
the Ekišnu-gal, his ziqqurat famous throughout the ancient world. It was
built in the second millennium by the founder of the third dynasty of Ur,
king Ur-Namma. He had erected a stele to commemorate his building
activities on which he depicted himself serving the moon god Nanna and
his spouse Ningal. The king is shown twice, to the right while pouring a
libation into a vase from which a date-palm rises up in front of the god,
and again to the left in front of the goddess (figure 12.1).
Figure 12.1 The moongod and his consort are sitting face to face while
king Ur-Namma is pouring a libation for both of them. (Courtesy ©
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology,
USA, 8881/B16676)
Nanna was the Sumerian name for the moon god, the Akkadian name
being Suen or Sîn. This Akkadian name has no clear meaning in the
Semitic language and possibly Suen did not originate in Mesopotamia.1
The tablet scribes wrote his name with the signs dEN-ZU and written this
way his name was more consistent with the names of the other gods in
the Sumerian pantheon, such as Enlil and Enki. The moon god EN.ZU
could then be understood as En.Sun, ‘Lord Suen’, later contracted in
Akkadian to Sîn. The real significance of his name was already a mystery
in the time of Gudea of Lagaš (2100 BC.), who wrote: Suen, whose name no
one can interpret. 2 A third name of the moon god was Ašimbabbar,
inscribed with the cuneiform signs AŠ (one), IM (to run) and BABBAR
(white). So, taking these three signs together, his name reads ‘The White
Solo Runner’. 3
The Sumerians gave various surnames to the moon. The most familiar
was u4.šakar, which was written with the signs UD.SAR, ‘waxing light’ or
the crescent that gradually swells. 4 In Akkadian the most famous
sobriquet of the moon god was bel agê, ‘lord of the crown’, the word
‘crown’, agû, referring to the dark side of the moon. The sun does not
illuminate this part but is illuminated by the reflection of sun light from the
earth, giving this part of the moon an ash grey colour.5
Figure 12.2 Some phases of the moon (Source: Wikipedia)
The hymns praise Suen and compare him to the dragon, the ‘ušumgal’,
which is also a surname of Dumuzi. According to Hall the meaning of the
name ušumgal for the moon is not so much ‘dragon’ as ‘sole ruler’’6,
however in a song to Suen the moon is positively compared to a roaring
dragon, with an enormous muzzle7:
Eršemma (song of the šem-drum) to Suen
In princeliness […] great Lord in the sky, who [ ]…
City (=Ur) that exists from itself like the sea […]
[…]
Suen, wide of vision, city ruler of Ur,
Born in the mountains, he comes forward in complete splendour,
he, nothing blocks his way, he roars in a towering rage, he, the big dragon,
Lord, who is swelling his chest
Suen, he has the muzzle of a big dragon, city ruler (ensi) of Ur.
One of the oldest sobriquets of the moon was ‘bull’, his crescent being
his golden horn, probably the crown with bull’s horns, which was a
distinguishing mark of a divinity. In images of the moon god, Nanna is
depicted as a bull and provided with a lapis lazuli beard, the beard
apparently a metaphor of the divine light, which was called ‘melamma’.
Bulls found in the Royal graves of Ur also sported a lapis lazuli beard.
Figure 12.3 Bull with a lapis lazuli beard. Part of a lyre from Pu-abi’s
grave 800 in the Royal cemetery of Ur. (Woolley, UE II, U 10412)
The Sumerians gave the moon the name of mu6-sub3, ‘shepherd’. 8 The
moon was a bull leading his cattle, represented by the stars of the Milky
Way. 9 The new moon was compared to a newborn calf, ‘the hope of
each shepherd’ and his sobriquet mu2-mu2, ‘eternal renewal’, refers to
the ability of the moon to renew and rejuvenate itself each month
becoming the symbol of new life, not only of the cattle, but of fields and
humans as well. 10
The dome of heaven was a cosmic cattle pen with sheep and cows and
in Sumerian, the planets were called udu-idim (Akkadian: bibbu), which
can be translated as ‘wild sheep’. Planets evidently walked over the
dome of heaven without bothering much about their place in the cattle
pen. The fixed stars on the other hands behaved like domesticated sheep
and cows, keeping a proper distance from each other.11 The name ‘Milky
Way’ (a translation of the Greek word galaxias) was probably invented by
the shepherds who compared the Milky Way with the creamy milk of the
cows and according to Egyptian mythology the Milky Way owed its
existence to the udders of the Heavenly Cow.
The great richness of the moon is praised in many hymns12:
How numerous are the sheep, how numerous are the cows in the cattle pen of
Suen, how numerous are they!
The black ones are shining there like lapis lazuli,
the white ones there are like the emerging moonlight,
the small ones [ …] you have made like grain,
the big ones you have made numerous like wild bulls.
He - the pride of heaven -
has released the numerous cows in his magnificent cattle pen from its tether
cord.
The creamy milk of the beautiful cows is poured over the offering table,
His shining hands have brought the milk.
My king, his work is fulfilled.
Suen […] the cows from the sparkling tether cord.
He […] the cows, he […] the cows.
He is a shepherd of his cows.
His mother who has born him, the Lady of Nippur,
says a prayer for the Lord of the steppe:
‘A prayer, O cowherd, a prayer!
Make for your suited steppe the cows numerous, when you in the night […]
Bring them forth in the Ekur, de exalted temple.
In this poem the Akkadian name of Suen/Sîn is used. 13 Sîn is the well
fed young calf, raised on the pure knee of his mother Ninlil or a calf made
of lapis lazuli of the Ekur. Ekur was the name of the temple of Enlil and
Ninlil, the parents of the moon god and in a hymn the moon god is
celebrated as the son of Enlil and Ninlil. Enlil had raped Ninlil and for this
reason the Assembly of the gods punished him by sending him to the
underworld. But Ninlil found she was pregnant and followed Enlil, so the
moon was born in the underworld. This was in line with the movements of
the moon as observed by people who saw how each month the moon
disappeared from the sky and they told each other that the moon lived in
the underworld. After three days the moon reappeared and started again
to grow.
Enheduanna composed a temple hymn to Ekišnugal, literally ‘house,
great light’. ‘Great light’ (gišnu) was a sobriquet of Nanna, 14 and
Enheduanna exalts this temple as a huge cattle pen15:
Tempel hymn to Ekišnugal
Ur, full of bulls standing in the canebrake,
Ekišnugal, calf of a great cow, light […] of the holy of heaven,
… wild cow […]
Ur […] giving food to all lands,
shrine, built on a pure place, earth of An,
House of Suen, your front is a prince, your back is a king,
your banquet-hall is filled with adab-songs,
your ‘Holy of Holies’ […] with […]- drums and [ …]- drums
The light which emanates from you and your true En-ship are mighty,
gipar, lofty shrine of the holy ME, shining as the sun,
Ekišnugal, beaming moonlight, which comes forth in the land,
daylight which fills all lands,
(…)
Your prince, the prince who makes decisions, the crown of the wide heaven,
the lord of heaven, Ašimbabbar,
has, O Ur, placed the house upon your MUŠ3 (splendour) and has taken his place
on your dais.
The following hymn is a šir3-nam-šub to Sîn and describes the moon god
as the god who brings forth life and fertility. Šir3-nam-šub is translated as
‘song for the casting of lots’ (šir = song; nam = lot; sub = to cast) and
possibly this song was sung during the casting of lots, when the
decisions of the god were indicated on a gaming board (see Chapter 17).
The song praises the moon god with great eloquence, exclaiming that his
field of control includes all life, spread wide over heaven and earth he is
the shepherd who tends his countless cows and who produces endless
quantities of milk, cream and cheese. Moreover his sphere of influence
stretches out to the rivers, the fields and the marshy swamps where the
reed grows and the fruit trees grow in the orchards16:
Song for the casting of lots (šir3-nam-šub) to Sîn
As the heaven is wide, as the earth is wide,
Lord Nanna, as the heaven is wide, as the earth is wide,
Lord Ašimbabbar, As the heaven is wide, as the earth is wide,
The shepherd on the place of his numerous cows
Suen has from the cattle pen of the shepherd […] his numerous cows […]
(There is mention of milk, cheese, cream and then it continues:)
When he fills the river with carp,
When he grows barley on the fields,
When he fills the marshes with carps and perch,
When he fills the marshes with bulrushes and green reed,
When he has fills the forests with trees and chamois and mountain sheep,
When he fills the steppes with mašgurum-trees,
When he fills the plantation of the fruit trees and the gardens with syrup and
wine,
When he fills the flower beds with salad and garden cress,
When he fills the palace with long life,
[……..] then I will live there, on his spot
in the brick work of his city (Ur), in the Dublamah, the place of judgement
in Your storeroom full of grapes and syrup,
at the ‘right Quay, the quay of Your magur-boat,
in Your ‘Exalted House’, Your beloved house, I will live, Nanna,
in the ‘Upper land’ near the ‘Mountain with sweet smelling cedar I will live,
Lord Nanna, in Your city I will live, with Your cows,
that are numerous, with the calves, that are numerous, I will live.
Nanna, in Your Ur I will live.
This description of abundance and prosperity is a motif which returns in
many hymns. When the sun rises in the constellation of Taurus (4000
BC) or Ram (from 2500 BC onwards) and the first new moon appears in
the Pleiad it is the beginning of the new year. This is the first day of the
month of Nisan, in spring (march/april)17 and in this month the moon god
travels with his boat from his temple in Ur to a place outside the city
where the barley crop is sown and where a rural temple is erected in
which Nanna takes up his residence. Spring was the sowing season and
the statue of the moon god only returns in autumn, when it is harvest
time. During the period between sowing and harvesting was when his
help was most needed to encourage and stimulate the growth of the
crops.
Boat god
The moon transported the prolific yields of the lands in his boat that
sailed over the dome of heaven and was called ‘magur’ (ma2 = boat; gur
= round). Seen from the earth the crescent of the moon lies much more
horizontally in Iraq than when seen from our more northern regions, and
it really does look like a boat, having the same form of the traditional
Sumerian river boats.

Figure 12.4 The crescent of the moon as seen from two different regions
on the earth.
Eršemma (song of the šem-drum) to Suen18
Holy magur-boat of heaven, exalted owing to your self
Father Nanna, Lord of Ur,
Father Nanna, Lord of Ekišnugal,
Father Nanna, Lord Ašimbabar,
Lord Nanna, firstborn child of Enil.
When You (in Your boat) sail along, when You sail along,
When You in the presence of Your father Mullil (= Enlil) be respected,
Father Nanna, when You are exalted, when You have ‘swollen Your breast’
When Your magur-boot sails along in the heart of Heaven, when You are
exalted,
Father Nanna, when You sail to Your ‘pure shrine’ in your boat
Father Nanna, when You like a boat sail along over the great flood When You
sail along, sail along, sail along,
Sail along, when beer is poured out, when you sail along,
Father Nanna, when You cherish Your numerous cows […]
(then) Your father has looked at You with pleasure, he has friendly spoken to
You.
He, the king, has verily praised You and let You shine as bright as the sun.
Mullil has given You a sceptre in Your hand for long days.
When You in Ur go on board of the holy ship,
when You are cherished by Lord Nudimmud (= Enki),
when You go on board on the holy ship in Ur,
Hero, father Nanna, when you are cherished,
Then You are a baldachin that is erected in Sumer,
Then You are a silver baldachin that is erected in Sumer.
(Much more praise follows)
It is not difficult to hear the rhythm of these lines and it is possible it was
sung in polyphonic choirs during the festivities in honour of the moon. At
the first, seventh, fifteenth and twenty fifth of the month the eš3-eš3-was
celebrated (literally: ‘feast of the temples’), these days being related to
the four phases of the moon month. This was a simple system because it
was more or less possible to tell from the position of the moon which day
of the week it was. At the end of the month the moon disappeared,
carried away (bubbulu) to the underworld and on the day of its
disappearance people made funeral offerings as it was a time of
mourning. But when the moon reappeared in the sky its return was
welcomed as rebirth, rejuvenation and the beginning of a new cycle.
Sometimes the moon is still visible on the western horizon while the sun
is already rising in the morning sky to the east, and while both shine in
the sky together, the moon is always full. It was at this time that their
magical strength was believed to reinforce each other and was said to
have an especially strong healing effect, an appropriate moment to direct
a prayer to Sîn. If a man with migraine was being chased by dead spirits
he was to dress himself in a linen garment on the fifteenth day, the day
on which Sîn and Šamaš stand together in the sky (full moon), incise his
temple with an obsidian knife and make his blood flow. He was to sit in a
reed hut, his face directed to the North. To Sîn, to the West he was to set
up an incense altar of juniper and offer a libation of cow’s milk. To the
East, he was to set up an incense altar of cypress, offer a libation of beer
and speak as follows: ‘To my left side (is) Sîn, the agû crown of the great
heaven; to my right side (is) Šamaš, the judge, father of the black headed
(= Sumerians) … etc.’19 This ceremony was to be performed in the early
morning, when the full moon is setting in the West and the sun is rising in
the East at the moment of prayer.
The moon played an important role during childbirth and an Assyrian
hymn tells about the moon god and the great cow, his servant and fiancé.
The moon in this hymn is an oestrous bull that deflowers the moon cow
who gets pregnant and during labour suffers from heavy painful
contractions. To relieve the pains of the moon cow the moon god sends
two ‘angels’, who descend from heaven and sprinkle the body of the
animal with life giving water. 20 The azu (doctor/magician) recites the text
of this hymn when he is called upon to assist a woman in painful labour.
According to the principles of magic, it is taken for granted that the
desired effect can be achieved through imitation, the doctor conjuring up
the details from this myth invokes them work in the human world along
the lines of similar events in the world of the gods. The azu invokes Sîn
to assist the woman giving birth in the very same way he had helped the
moon cow alleviate her pains and manage a successful outcome to the
happy event. In a different hymn to Sîn, in the Ur III period, princess
Geme-Sîn, literally ‘servant of Sîn’, invokes the moon god during her
labour and in gratitude for his help she names her son Amar-ga, ‘milk
calf’.21
The goddess Inanna is also sometimes addressed with the epithet ‘cow’
and in common with her father, the moon god Nanna, her cult is
concerned with aspects of fertility. Inanna in fact was the goddess of the
holy animal pen and in a residential area of Isin, circa 1850 BC, a
terracotta relief was found depicting a small shrine and a cow with horns
in a sitting position, wearing a kaunakes mantle (figure 12.5). According
to Agnes Spycket the cow could be a representation of Inanna.22

Figure 12.5 Small shrines with a cow, dressed in a kaunakes mantle. Isin,
ca. 2000 B.C. terracotta. (National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad; photo: ©
Yale University Library)
In the hymn Nin-me-šara, Enheduanna refers to Inanna with affection
as ‘impetuous wild cow’ and in hymns from the Isin-Larsa period, Iddin-
Dagan (1974-1954) calls the star of Venus ‘the good wild cow of heaven’.
Other goddesses are also addressed with the epithet ‘cow’ and the name
of Nin-sun, the mother of Gilgameš, means literally, ‘woman, wild cow’. In
ancient times, when cattle were such an important part of daily life, the
cow was the symbol of fertility and plenty and the terracotta relief with the
holy cow in the shrine was perhaps a general symbol of fecundity,
proximity to which farmers believed brought a benign influence to bear on
their livelyhood.
It is remarkable that we know of no myths concerning Inanna and Nanna
although their names in ancient times probably meant ‘Lord Heaven’ and
‘Lady Heaven’, as we have seen in Chapter 2. Maybe the shepherd
Dumuzi had replaced the moon god as Inanna’s partner, which would
explain the absence of love lyrics about Lord and Lady Heaven. However
there are certainly many love songs about the moon god and his consort
Ningal, ‘Ningal’ meaning literally ‘great lady’, and quite possibly a
sobriquet of Inanna. The hymns to the moon god and his spouse
resemble the love poems of Inanna and Dumuzi and in one of the love
songs Ningal expresses her desire to live with Nanna, enumerating
significant cult installations at Ur where she wishes to dwell with him: ‘In
your Dublamah, the place where justice is rendered’. ‘In your provisions
house, where there is wine and honey’. ‘At your ‘true quay’, the quay of
the Magur barge.’ ‘In your house of heaven, in your beloved house I
would dwell.’23 The heavenly house is the giguna, the reed hut at the top
of the ziqqurat and Ningal describes this temple as ‘up above on the
mount of fragrant cedar wood’, where Ningal says that she will ‘sweeten
‘Nanna’s bed.24 These songs were most probably part of the rite of the
Sacred Marriage and a heavily damaged text has been preserved, part of
which is a love dialogue between Nanna and Ningal and could possibly
have been composed by Enheduanna, although its date remains
uncertain. Nanna asks Ningal if he may accompany her to her house25:
‘O Ningal, you lovely person […]
butter of holy cows […]
pure hands, immaculate feet […]
the […] canebrake, the playground of […]
the […] reed spears, sharp daggers I would […]
to the goodly reeds marsh, I would go down.
O Mistress, I will seek the nest of the ubi- bird
its eggs, I will impregnate them for you, the nest I will […]
O En, Hen of Nanna,
When you have poured the rendered fat into a cruse, into a cruse
when you have mixed the eggs to make kukku-cakes
(…)
O Ningal, to your house I should be able to go with you.
When I have led the cows into the byre,
when I have poured pure milk into the holy churn,
(…)
When, o maiden, I have given my young calves milk to drink,
then, I shall […] for you in the sweet butter, the washed milk.
Then, O Ningal, I should be able to go with you to your house’.
Ningal answers him:
(…)
‘Lord, Nanna, bring it to me!
In the dwelling of the shepherd, in the house of the gleaned barley.
My Lord, in the storehouse I would come to you.
Shepherd, admiration of the country, I would come to you.
O my Nanna, your lover’s plaint is sweet, correspondingly, it is the plaints of my
heart!
In the subscript it is written that this hymn is a balbale (harp song) of
Nanna.
The moon god was important for the king, and some kings of the Third
dynasty of Ur, such as Šulgi and Šu-Sîn even maintained that Sîn had
fathered them. When the moon god sailed to Nippur to offer the first fruits
of the fields to his father Enlil, the kings travelled with him in his boat and
participated in the festivities.
Because the moon was so important, an eclipse of the moon was always
a very bad omen and during the lunar eclipse wailing priests sang
lamentations and common people were encouraged to shout short
apotropaic formula’s in the hope that the demons threatening the moon
would be frightened and put to flight. Making noise is an almost universal
mode of behaviour when the moon has darkened26 and in some parts of
Africa women try to catch the power of the moon in a vessel of water.
They place the vessel outside overnight leaving it exposed to the power
of the moon and thereafter this water is said to have magical powers.27
Nanna’s journey to Nippur
A number of Sumerian literary compositions have a thematic similarity
and have been classified accordingly as ‘divine journeys’. 28 They relate
how the city god goes to visit the god of a neighbouring town, the latter
usually a father figure or a higher god to whom divine honours has to be
paid. In the same way Inanna went on a journey by boat to her ‘father’
Enki in Eridu, as we will learn from the myth Inanna and Enki in the next
chapter. But most of the gods made a trip to Nippur, to pay their respects
to Enlil and so it happened that the moon god Nanna travelled to Nippur,
to see his father Enlil and his mother Ninlil. The purpose of the journey
was to receive the blessings of Enlil, blessings that would be of benefit to
the city of Ur, the richness of the cattle and the crops. By the middle of
the third millennium Enlil had become the most important god in the
Sumerian pantheon and he delegated his power to the city gods of the
Sumerian cities in his sphere of influence, who in their turn passed it on
to the city rulers. The city rulers shared it with the inhabitants of the land,
demonstrating that they were assured of the support of the gods, which
meant affluence and happiness for the whole land.29
The poets of Ur composed a long hymn about the journey of the moon
god Nanna to Nippur,30 presumably written about the time of the Third
dynasty of Ur.31 We learn that before he sets off to Nippur, Nanna first
must construct a ceremonial boat for the journey and he despatches
people to various places in order to bring back the materials needed to
build the barge. Then he gathers the offerings that he will transport in his
boat to be presented to Enlil, bulls for the cow pen and fattened sheep for
the house of Enlil, long tailed bush rats, kuda birds, small ubi birds and
other birds and fishes from the pond. He will bring along dried fish,
porcupines, eggs and reeds in his boat. He also collects a large number
of breeding animals, six hundred sheep, six hundred she goats and six
hundred cows to give birth to calves.
Nanna sets out on his journey up the Euphrates River and on his way
he visits five cities that lie on the banks of the river, Ennegi, Larsa, Uruk,
Šuruppak and Tummal. The city goddesses welcome him and honour
him with appropriate rites and presents. They prepare abundant meals
for him and try to persuade him to stay with them and to release his
cargo for them. But at every stop Nanna refuses to give them his cargo, ‘I
am going to Nippur’, he says.
Finally Nanna arrives at Nippur. He moors at the temple of his father
and shouts to the porter, Open the house, porter, open the house! Open the
house Kalkal, open the house! Kalkal, doorkeeper, open the house! Doorman,
doorkeeper, open the house! Porter, open the house! Kalkal, open the house! He
enumerates everything he has brought along in his boat and which he
intends giving as an offering to his father Enlil. He promises the porter
that he will give him that which is left in the prow and the stern of the boat
as a last offering.
Of course Kalkal is very pleased with this so he pulls the bolt aside
and lets Nanna in. Enlil rejoices over the visit of his son and his gifts and
in gratitude he lays on a dinner, consisting of sweet cakes and beer,
syrup and clear water. At the end of the visit Nanna asks his father Enlil
to give him abundant produce for the next year, a request which Enlil of
course willingly grants. Then Nanna returns with his boat to his own
temple in Ur where he gives the fields speckled barley, the marshes kuda
carp and suhur carp, the reed beds fresh reeds, the forests ibex and wild
ram, the high plain the mašgurum tree and the orchards syrup and wine,
then in the palace he gives a long and happy life to the king.
Lamentations about the destruction of Sumer en Ur
However the happy and abundant life with which the moon god endowed
the people through their king was not destined to last forever and came
dramatically to an end during the reign of the last kings of the Ur-III
dynasty. The Ur III period had seen the high point of neo-Sumerian
culture but after its sudden collapse nothing remained of this mighty
empire. The perplexing question as to how it was possible for the Neo-
Sumerian Empire to go under so quickly and so completely has
reverberated down through the ages and the breakdown of Ur III has
been deplored in five city lamentations. Four of them each give a
description of the destruction of a certain city, Ur, Nippur, Eridu and Uruk,
but a fifth narrates the devastation of Ur and Sumer as a whole. The five
lamentations resemble each other to a high degree and it is likely that
they are all related to the very same event, the destruction of the third
dynasty of Ur, leading to the end of the Sumerian civilization. The verses
are written in Sumerian but the preserved texts are all from the early old
Babylonian period, the time after these Sumerian states of Ur III and the
Isin-Larsa period.
The end of the city of Ur is mourned in two lamentations and in modern
literature they are referred to as Lamentation for Sumer and Urim and
The lament for Ur. 32 Both describe the tragedy as a catastrophe far
surpassing a common defeat in a war with a neighbouring country, as it
would appear to be the result of a decision taken by the three main gods
of the pantheon, An, Enlil and Ninhursaga. They have laid down the ME,
the cosmic laws of Sumer and determined that Sumer and more precisely
the town of the moon god Nanna will face inevitable and complete
destruction. In the Lamentation for Sumer and Urim this fatal
prognostication of the gods is announced. Enlil will send a storm to the
land, and one after another the list of disasters that will afflict Sumer are
recited by the gods. The gods of the land will desert their temples, the
town will be immersed in famine, the storm will sweep away all its
inhabitants and so through 519 verses the horror of this catastrophe is
vividly conjured up before our eyes. The population is cut down to the
ground, the power flown away from their bodies; the corpses lie in heaps
all over the streets or float in the Euphrates, brigands roam the roads.
The last king of Ur, Ibbi-Sîn sits in anguish in the palace, all alone and
crying bitterly. The temple which used to bellow like a bull is silenced.
The evening meal in the great dining hall of the gods is defiled. The
butcher’s knife that used to slay oxen and sheep lies hungry in the grass.
The mighty oven no longer cooks oxen and sheep, it no longer emits the
aroma of roasting meat. The ‘Shining Quay’ of Nanna is silted up, the
sound of water slapping against the boat’s prow ceases and boats no
longer dock at the quayside. The cows and their young are captured and
carried off to enemy territory and the dogs of Ur no longer sniff at the
base of the city wall. Those who were unfamiliar with butter are churning
the butter and those who are unfamiliar with milk are curdling the milk.
The sound of the churning vat does not resound in the cattle pen. Like
mighty fire that once raged, its smoke is extinguished.
 The moon god makes desperate attempts to mollify Enlil’s temper and
visits his father in Nippur to implore him to change his fatal decision. But
Enlil remains adamant and makes it quite clear that although Ur had once
exercised kingship it could not do so forever. Who has ever seen the reign of
kingship that would take precedence forever? the god Enlil says to his son
the moon god, O my Nanna, do not exert yourself in vain, abandon your city.
Nanna, driven to distraction over his beloved city decides in the end to
move away from his temple in Ur and the gods of the other towns follow
his example. The gipars of the gods are defiled and its En priestesses
are carried off to enemy territory. Again the moon god in desperation
drags himself to his father Enlil, falling at his feet, imploring him to save
his city and in the end Enlil takes pity on his son. Quite unexpectedly Enlil
decides that Ur will be rebuilt, prosperity will return and the big storm will
come to an end.
The lamentation describes the catastrophic effect of a storm or a flood
that razes Sumer and annihilates everything in its path. However it is
possible that the forces of nature are a metaphor for the invasion of
foreign forces such as the Amorites, the Elamites or the peoples of
Šimaški. According to sources from this period, foreign armies did indeed
devastate the cities of Sumer at the end of the reign of the Ur III kings
and the lamentation mentions that the last ruler of Ur III, Ibbi-Sîn was
taken in fetters to the land of Elam. According to Michalowski however,
the composition must be understood within the broad context of Isin
dynasty historiography and legitimization.33 The Isin dynasty had founded
a new state after the Ur III reign had been toppled and if at the end of the
lamentation the gods do indeed decide to let Sumer be rebuilt, it was
under the new regime of the Isin dynasty.
Vanstiphout however holds the opinion that these lamentations
cannot have been written to legitimise a new dynastic succession of
regimes. The Storm is much more important and must be a concomitant
feature of greater, more universal disasters, such as drought or famine or
epidemics. He argues that the Storm is a metaphor for the Great
Mortality, a term he chooses because of its connotations with Western
European in the fourteenth century. This Mortality is much more than the
death of thousands of people, Vanstiphout writes, whatever the exact
historical circumstances it is the Death of an Era that is lamented in these
poems.34
While in the Lamentation for Sumer and Urim35 there is in the end a
glimmer of hope that Ur will be rebuilt, in the The lament for Ur there is
nothing of the kind as in this lamentation Nanna has abandoned his city
and all the other gods have turned their back on Ur as well.36 Only the
goddess Ningal the spouse of the moon god remains and bears witness
to the final disasters inflicted upon Ur. She weeps bitterly over the havoc
that ‘the flood storm’ has caused, a storm that obscured the daylight and
swept away all the cities of the land so that even in the bedroom of her
temple Ningal could find no rest.
Because of the storm she trudged the earth like a cow looking for its calf.
She says: ‘‘Because there was bitter distress in my city, I beat my wings like a
bird of heaven and flew to my city and my city was destroyed in its foundations!’
The Ekišnugal had perished. Wind and rain had been made to fall on it,
as on to a tent, a shelter on the denuded harvest ground and like a
shepherd’s sheepfold it had been uprooted. However Ningal emphasizes
that on the day when the storm had created the devastation she had not
abandoned her city and had not forsaken her land. She went to An and
Enlil and prostrated herself on the ground before them and stretched out
her hands to them: “Let not my city be destroyed,” she implored them. “Let
not Urim be destroyed”, she wept. But alas, she exclaims: An did not change
that word. Enlil did not soothe my heart. Ningal went a second time to An
and Enlil, prostrated herself on the ground and stretched out her arms but
it was to no avail, Ur’s destiny was decreed. An was not one to change
his command and Enlil would not alter what he had uttered, Ningal
laments.
Then Enlil called up the storm that annihilated the land; it covered Urim
like a garment, it was spread out over it like linen. Enlil brought the fire
god to his aid.
After the haze had lifted at noon, he made fires blaze. He locked up the day and
the rising of the bright sun together with the good storm. In the Land he did not
let the bright sun rise; it shone like the evening star. In the delightful night, the
time when coolness sets in, he redoubled the south wind. The scorching
potsherds made the dust glow.
According to James Kinnier Wilson, the lamentations about the
destruction of Sumer and Ur do not describe an invasion of the Elamites
as is usually taken for granted, but describe a real flood storm, a tsunami,
followed by a great drought.37 The images the lamentations evoke are
not about war but about a great natural calamity before the Elamites
entered the land, the Elamites having invaded the land when it was
already devastated by these natural disasters. The storm that is recurrent
in all the five lamentations is, according to Kinnier Wilson, not symbolic
but a very real natural catastrophe. In his translation that deviates a little
from the translation of the ETCSL and W. Römer, the verses go as
follows:
On the site of the dancing ground the people had been piled in heaps. On the Ki-
ešemen-kalam-ma the people were piled in heaps. Their life-blood had drained
away as molten metals from the ore’; Their flesh had dissolved away like fat
placed in the sun.
Unlike men killed by hatches they were not covered with a head cloth;
they had slid into the dust like gazelles caught in a trap.
Men who might have bled from spear wounds were not bound up with bandages;
As naked as when their mothers bore them, so lay they in their death.
Unlike men clubbed to death they were not wrapped in shrouds.
They sprawled neck over shoulder though not as men who had taken drink.
‘Weapons struck down a man who withstood the drought!’ people had cried;
‘He who was spared the weapons will the drought have overcome!,
the people cried.
But in Ur both weak and strong died slowly of the famine,
The heat struck down parents unable to leave their families.
One child on its mother’s lap lay as a fish bereft of water:
The strong arms of a nurse lay unfolded beside him.
“‘The moral standing of our land has disappeared!” the people cried.
“The moral judgments of the land have drained away!” the people cried.
“The mother forsakes her daughter!” the people cried.
“The father turns from his son!” the people cried.
But as housewife and servant fell dead in the city, so was the enemy denied the
profits.
Should the black-heads have gone with them into servitude?
Ningal, the spouse of the moon god of Ur also left her temple. I am
Ningal, I have been exiled from the house, I can find no dwelling place. I am
sitting as if a stranger with head high in a strange city, she cries. I am one who,
sitting in a debtors prison among its inmates, can make no extravagant claims,
she weeps bitterly. All the treasures of the land were desecrated and
Ekišnugal was entirely smashed by large axes. The destroyers from Elam
en Kimaški counted its worth as only thirty shekels. They broke up the good
house with pickaxes. They reduced the city to ruined mounds, and Ningal cried:
“Alas, my city”, Alas, my house”.
The goddess cries. Her possessions, like a flock of rooks rising up, have
risen in flight, she laments. Men ignorant of silver have filled their hands with
my silver. Men ignorant of gems have fastened my gems around their necks.
Ningal pulls at her hair as if it were rushes and as if it was the holy drum
she beats at her chest, and cries “Alas, my city”.
The lamentation singer deplores the bitter sorrow of the goddess. The
lines are reminiscent of the ritual of the Great Weeping, which will be
discussed in Chapter 24. The lamentation indulges in endless bemoaning
of the fate of the goddess:
Queen, how is your heart […..].! How you have become! O Ningal, how is your
heart [……]! How you have become! O good woman whose city has been
destroyed, now how do you exist? O Ningal whose Land has perished, how is
your heart […..].! After your city has been destroyed, now how do you exist?
After your house has been destroyed, how is your heart?
Then suddenly an antiphony sounds in which the goddess is asked what
to do now her city is lost:
Its gudu priest no longer walks in his wig, how is your heart […..].! Its en priest
no longer lives in the gipar, now how do you exist? The uzga priest who
cherishes purification rites makes no purification rites for you. Father Nanna,
your išib priest does not make perfect holy supplications to you. Your lumah
priest does not dress in linen in your holy giguna shrine. Your righteous En
priest chosen in your ardent heart, he of the Ekišnugal, does not proceed
joyously from the shrine to the gipar. The aua priests do not celebrate the
festivals in your house of festivals. They do not play for you the šem and ala
instruments which gladden the heart, nor the tigi. The black headed people do
not bathe during your festivals. Like […..] mourning has been decreed for them;
their appearance has indeed changed.
Your song has been turned into weeping before you -- how long will this last?
Your tigi music has been turned into lamentation before you -- how long will this
last? Your bull has not been brought into its pen, its fat is not prepared for you.
Your sheep does not live in its fold, its milk is not made abundant for you. Your
fat carrier does not come to you from the cow-pen -- how long will this last?
Your milk carrier does not come to you from the sheepfold -- how long will this
last? An evildoer has seized your fisherman who was carrying fish -- how long
will this last? Lightning carried off your fowler who was carrying birds -- how
long will this last? The teme plants grow in the middle of your watercourses
which were once suitable for barges, and mountain thorn bushes grow on your
roads which had been constructed for wagons.
The lamentation is heartbreaking. Everything that had once been part of
the wealth of Ur and its temple and is now lost is enumerated. In the end
Ningal also flees and the lamentations beg her to return like a bull to your
cattle pen, like a sheep to your fold, to exercise again her En ship. The
moon god is also asked to return to Ur and accept their humble prayers.
The catastrophe was of such overwhelming power that it could only have
occurred in the absence of the moon god, who had kept aloof from the
supplications of Ningal to save his city, and seemed almost powerless to
do anything against the will of his father, Enlil. The hymn interprets the
disaster as an inscrutable decision by all of the gods, including their city
god Nanna, to harm the city of Ur.38 The verses endeavour to put into
words the completely unpredictable course of nature, with all at the
mercy of the caprice of the gods and even Nanna dependent on the
whims of his father Enlil. In the end people could do nothing but seek the
aid of Ningal, who had stayed in the city and who had twice implored Enlil
to concern himself with the fate of her city. In as much as the events are
a description of a real disaster that had befallen Ur, the loyalty of Ningal
must have given the survivors of the catastrophe and those who were
listening to the hymn some consolation.
After the old Babylonian time, the city of Ur never recovered, never arose
again from its ashes. The city of the moon god had perished for ever, just
as the god Enlil had decreed.
Endnotes Chapter 12
1 Hall, 1985, p. 34
2 Hall, 1985, p. 41
3 Lambert, 1962
4 Stol, 1992, p. 245
5 Stol, 1992, p. 249
6 Hall, 1985, p. 711
7 Sjöberg, Eršemma op Suen, Tempelhymnen, nr. 8, p. 89 e.v.
8 Hall, 1985, p. 681
9 Heimpel, 1989
10 Hall, 1985, p. 680
11 Horowitz, 2008
12 Sjöberg, 1960, 1. Balbal-Lied auf Suen, r. 13-34
13 Hall, 1985, p. 465
14 Hall, 1985, p. 109
15 Sjöberg, 1969, Tempel Hymns, nr. 8, p. 23; Nanna-Suen, p. 123-131
16 Sjöberg, 1960, nr. 7, p. 80 e.v.
17 Hall, 1985, p. 337
18 Sjöberg, 1085, nr. 3, Eršemma-lied for Suen, p. 44 e.v.
19 Stol, 1992, p. 256
20 Lambert, 1962, p. 100
21 Stol, 1992, p. 258
22 Spycket, 1994; Battini, 2009
23 Hall, 1985, p. 491/492
24 Hall, 1985, p. 492
25 Westenholz (Joan Goodnick), 1989, p. 550-552
26 Stol, 1992, p. 259
27 Stol, 1992, p. 259
28 Ferrara, 1973, p. 1
29 Hall, 1985, p. 519
30 Ferrara, 1973; ETCSL
31 Hall, 1985, p. 523
32 Michaloswki, 1989, ETCSL 2.2.3.
33 Michalowski, 1989, p. 6
34 Vanstiphout, 1980
35 ETCSL 2.2.2.
36 Hall, 1985, p. 523
37 Wilson, 2005, p. 54
38 Hall, 1985, p. 555
Chapter 13 Inanna as Venusstar
How can we bridge five thousand years, the distance that separates us
from the ancient world? People in the past lived in an environment almost
unimaginable to us and it shaped the way they thought, ignorant of the
scientific advances we take for granted. We know that the world is a
round tilted ball that moves around the sun causing the alternation of the
seasons and we know that the sun is a boiling fireball, the indispensable
cause of life on earth. We know that Venus is a planet that just like the
earth turns around the sun and that our climate is not decided on by the
gods or angry demons aiming at our misfortune by illness or beggary,
and this knowledge has drastically changed our view of the universe. Our
ancestors may not have had the advantage of knowing all this but they
still felt an urgent need to understand and explain the threatening forces
that determined their lives. Conjuring up a set of mischievous demons
and gods, made it possible for people to imagine that they could
understand how these forces operated and make sense of them. Their
myths provided an answer to the inexplicable riddles with which human
communities were confronted and that seemed to have their origin in
cosmic rules. There are Sumerian myths about the creation of the
cosmos and human beings and the ultimate fate of death that is awaiting
us all, as well as myths that tell the story of how agriculture was
discovered or the plough was invented. In rituals people tried to come to
grips with the effect of the cosmos on human life and to cast events in an
optimistic light where possible. In the performance of rites the experience
of the human community was passed down from generation to
generation, making visible the essence that was fundamental to the
cosmos and human society. Myths deal with absolute truths, truths that
are never openly discussed; they do not deal with what people know
about reality but what they feel about it.1 Rites contextualised myths in
the here and now, and participating in actions that have a sacred
meaning and are repeated scrupulously and with continuity from
generation to generation, created a deep bond between people, providing
the hope and comfort needed to engage with the harsh realities of
everyday life.
Venus
After the chapter about the En priestesses and the moon god of Ur we
resume the thread of our story about Inanna. Myths in which Inanna
featured were also meant to give an answer to the many puzzles with
which people were confronted and were unable to explain in common
words and concepts. In most ancient times Inanna was identified with the
planet Venus, and its occasional erratic behaviour was believed to have a
deep significance. The whimsical character they imputed to Inanna may
have been influenced by her unexpected movements in the heavens.
After Mercury, Venus is the second planet that revolves around the sun
completing its journey in 224.65 days, and earth is the third planet
needing 365.25 days to circle around the sun. So Venus travels faster
and is at one time of the year seen from the earth in the east as the
Morning star and at the other time of the year in the western sky as the
Evening star. Venus even seems to turn back on her path, what we now
understand as a retrograde move, but for people in the past it was a
great mystery.

Figure 13.1 Look at the south. Before sun rise Venus is in the east - right
on the drawing, the earth itself turns also around Venus - during eight
months Venus is visible as Morning star and disappears under the light of
the sun. During 80 days Venus journeys behind the sun and is not visible.
Then Venus reappears in the evening sky, after sun set (left). Venus is
subsequently visible for eight months at the western evening sky as
Evening star. Then Venus passes the path between earth and sun and is
not visible for three days (in winter) till two weeks (in the summer). Then
the whole cycle starts again. To have a clear idea how Venus is visible
from the earth see the website www.koertbroekema.com. (Source:
Wikipedia)
Astronomers can explain Venus’ path in the sky. All the planets revolve
around the sun in (almost) circular orbits, approximately in the plane of
the ecliptic. The position of Mercury and Venus is closer to the sun than
the earth and they can always be observed in the vicinity of the sun. This
makes them different from the so called ‘outer planets’ in the solar
system, like Mars, Jupiter and Saturn that can be found in the plane of
the ecliptic everywhere (seen from the earth) notwithstanding where the
sun is. They look like ‘skaters’ who take the outside track, while Mercury
and Venus take the inside track around the sun. When you are standing
on earth, a planet that itself turns around the sun, it seems as if Mercury
and Venus are accelerating sometimes, while going slower at other
times, seen against the background of the fixed stars. They accelerate
when both planets and the earth move in the same direction, they are
decelerating when both move in opposite directions.
When a planet approaches the sun you cannot see it anymore from
the earth and this happens when Venus travels between the sun and the
earth or when the sun is standing between Venus and the earth. Only in
cases when Venus is situated ‘far’ from the sun we can observe it.
Because the sun rises in the east, Venus can be visible sometime before
sunrise as the Morning star and because it sets in the west, Venus can
be visible sometime after sunset, as the Evening star.
Venus (and Mercury) move differently from the other fixed stars and
planets. Most planets and galaxies rise in the east and circle over the
dome of heaven to the west, where they set. Venus, however, never
traverses the complete path over the vault of heaven to the west and is
visible for about eight months as the Morning star. Then it disappears for
80 days behind the sun, to become again visible as the Evening star on
the western horizon.
When Venus was invisible in the sky people said that Inanna had
disappeared into the underworld and there are various myths told about
this journey. The most famous is Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld.
This myth will be related in Chapter 22. But first we will discuss two other
myths about Inanna in her role as the goddess Venus, although this is
not immediately apparent.
The myth of Inanna and Enki
Enheduanna addresses Inanna as ‘mistress of countless ME’ (in the
hymn Nin-Me-šara, Chapter 9) and she enumerates in a perplexing
compilation all the ME in the possession of Inanna, the ‘uncountable’
laws of the universe that influenced the earthly cultural heritage and
included both the positive and negative aspects of communal life that
people experienced. However Inanna had not always been the owner of
the ME and it was known that the god Enki, the city god of Eridu had
controlled the ME in his subterranean dwelling the Abzu. The fact that
somehow Uruk had come into possession of the ME was a puzzle which
is explained by the myth Inanna and Enki, in which we learn that Inanna,
city goddess of Uruk, had stolen the ME from Enki.
In the myth Inanna and Enki, Inanna undertakes a journey to the city of
Eridu to visit ‘her father’ Enki in his Abzu. Enki was the god of wisdom.
He was said to have brought civilization to the people and the Abzu is his
subterranean dwelling, through which the sweet water of life is flowing.
On cylinder seals Enki is depicted enthroned, while streams of water swirl
from all sides. Sometimes Enki has two streams of water flowing from his
shoulders and in his hands he is holding two globular vases, from which
the water spouts. In the Zodiac, Enki connects with the sign of Waterman
and the two streams are the Euphrates and Tigris that flow through the
marshy delta and are abundant with fish.

Figure 13.2 Enki is sitting in his subterranean dwelling; fishes are

swinning around him and two water streams flow from his shoulders. His
servant or messenger Isimud (Akkadian: Ušmu) with two faces takes a
worshipper by the arm who carries an animal to be offered against his
chest. He is followed by a woman who is holding a pail. Inscription: ‘I
have planted his standard; stock farmer.’ (Uri3-bi mu-si-ga. Kuš) (Buchanan
and Hallo, Kasten (ed.), Early Near Eastern Seals in the Yale Babylonian Collection, 1981, p.184,
fig. 472)
Inanna decides to undertake a journey to Eridu. As is always the case in
myths, her motivation is not explained but she does not leave for Enki’s
home without adequate preparations and as the goddess of love she first
invokes all her magical sexual powers2:
She praised herself, full of delight at her genitals; she praised herself, full of
delight at her genitals. She looked at [ …]
(…)
[ ] when I have gratified the En
[ ] when I have made brilliant
[ ] when I have made beautiful
[ ] when I have made glorious
[ ] when I have made young
[ ] when I have made perfect
[ ] when I have made luxuriant
[ ] when I have made exuberant
[ ] when I have made shining
[ ] when I have made return
[ ] when I have made brilliant
[ ] when I have made shimmering
I shall direct my steps to the abzu, to Eridu, I shall direct my steps to Enki, to the
abzu, to Eridu, and I myself shall speak coaxingly to him, in the abzu, in Eridu, I
myself shall speak coaxingly to Enki, in the abzu, in Eridu […]
(…)
Enki becomes aware of Inanna’s approach from afar, even though she is
still at the distance of a mile. He takes quick precautionary measures and
orders his servant Isimud to offer Inanna butter cake to eat and cool
refreshing water and beer to drink. Isimud meets Inanna in front of the
Lions Gate that in the second millennium was still visible in Eridu. Isimud,
the faithful servant of Enki is depicted on cylinder seals with two faces.

Figure 13.3 Cylinder seal. Enki in his Abzu, in front of him is Isimud. A
lahmu figure with six curls is guarding the entrance of the dwelling of
Enlil. Isimud is followed by a goddess with long hair that ends in a curl;
behind her is a figure without a divine crown, which probably is bringing
an offering animal (Boehmer, 1965, afb. 523, Louvre A 161)
Isimud does as Enki has instructed him. Soon Enki and Inanna are
pleasantly drinking beer and wine together but at a certain moment, when
they are already fairly tipsy, they decide to enter into a competition with
each other. Unfortunately, how this competition is carried out is not clear
as the tablets break off at this point but when the text is again readable it
appears that Enki is blind drunk, while Inanna is systematically stealing
from him all the ME. One by one Enki hands over some one hundred ME
to the goddess Inanna who immediately hides them away. The
enumeration of the whole list of ME is repeated six times which is rather
tiring, but is an aspect of the oral recitation of the myth. It was probably
sung also, the many refrains making it easier to remember and of course
the longer the sequence was extended, the longer the listener’s
expectations were kept in suspense3.
Holy Inana received heroism, power, wickedness, righteousness,
the plundering of cities, making lamentations, rejoicing.
“In the name of my power, in the name of my abzu, I will give them to holy
Inana, my daughter; […]
Holy Inana received deceit, the rebel lands, kindness, being on the move, being
sedentary.
“In the name of my power, in the name of my abzu, I will give them to holy
Inana, my daughter; […]
Holy Inana received the craft of the carpenter, the craft of the coppersmith, the
craft of the scribe, the craft of the smith, the craft of the leather-worker, the craft
of the fuller, the craft of the builder, the craft of the reed-worker.
“In the name of my power, in the name of my abzu, I will give them to holy
Inana, my daughter; […]
Holy Inana received wisdom, attentiveness, holy purification rites, the
shepherd’s hut, piling up glowing charcoals, the sheepfold, respect, awe,
reverent silence.
“In the name of my power, in the name of my abzu, I will give them to holy
Inana, my daughter; […]
Holy Inana received the bitter-toothed […], the kindling of fire, the
extinguishing of fire, hard work, […..], the assembled family,
descendants.
“In the name of my power, in the name of my abzu, I will give them to holy
Inana, my daughter; […]
Holy Inana received strife, triumph, counselling, comforting, judging, decision-
making.
“In the name of my power, in the name of my abzu, I will give them to holy
Inana, my daughter; […]
(…)
When Enki wakes up from his intoxicated sleep he asks Isimud where
Inanna has gone “Since she said that she would not yet depart from here for
Uruk-Kulaba” But Isimud says that Inanna has left with the Boat of
Heaven heading in the direction of Uruk-Kullab. Enki must first vomit but
when his head is clear from him he asks Isimud the whereabouts of his
ME. Isimud dutifully answers his master that Inanna has taken them onto
the Boat of Heaven. This involves the whole list of ME being enumerated
by Enki with Isimud responding to each query that the item has been
taken away by Inanna in her boat. The listed ME concern all the
important religious institutes in which Inanna participates. The many
repetitions probably reinforce the status of the ME:
Where are the office of En priest, the office of lagal priest, divinity, the great and
good crown, the royal throne?” “My master has given them to his daughter.”
Where are the noble sceptre, the staff and crook, the noble dress, shepherdship,
kingship?” “My master has given them to his daughter.”
Where are the office of egi-zi priestess, the office of nin-dijir priestess, the office
of išib priest, the office of lu-mah priest, the office of gudu priest?” “My master
has given them to his daughter.”
Where are constancy, [……],[ ……], going down to the underworld, coming up
from the underworld, the kur-gara priest?” “My master has given them to his
daughter.”
Where are the sword and club, the cultic functionary Sağ-ur-sağ, the black
garment, the colourful garment, the […..]. hair-style, the [……] hair-style?”
“My master has given them to his daughter.”
(…)
“Where are the standard, the quiver, sexual intercourse, kissing, kar-kid […..]
running (?)?” “My master has given them to his daughter.”
“Where are forthright speech, deceitful speech, grandiloquent speech,[ ……],
the kar-kid, the holy tavern?” “My master has given them to his daughter.”
Where are the holy nijin-gar shrine, [……], the nug-gig of heaven,
loud musical instruments, the art of song, venerable old age?”
“My master has given them to his daughter.”
(…)
At this point the tablets are too damaged to be able to reconstruct the
verses. Obviously Enki has inquired who was responsible for Inanna’s
escape from the Abzu and there is mention of a frog who was sitting by
the bolt of the temple door and who had apparently let Inanna through.
Then Enki asks Isimud how far Inanna has reached with the Boat of
Heaven. The minister Isimud dutifully and precisely reports the details of
Inanna’s escape. Each time Enki sends him out together with a number
of servants to fetch the Boat of Heaven but when they reach the boat,
Inanna announces that her father Enki cannot alter his words, break his
promise and claim back the ME. Quickly she addresses her minister
Ninšubur, who appears to be with her in the boat, uttering the words:
Water has never touched your hand, water has never touched your hand and
with these words Inanna managed to remain beyond the reach of Enki’s
powerful water domain. This episode is repeated six times, each time
with exactly the same words, but with different pursuers and in different
places.

Figure 13.4 Cylinder seal. Enki in his Abzu, in front of him is Isimud or
Ušmu. Two lahmu figures with six curls are guarding the entrance to
Enki’s dwelling. Inscription: God (dingir) Enki (Boehmer, 1965, p. 513; ©
Pierpont Morgan Library NW 202)
Finally Inanna and Ninšubur reach the town of Uruk and the myth now
relocates from the cosmic sphere to the earthly level. The heightened
status of Inanna, now in the possession of the ME, means power and
prosperity for Uruk and this will be celebrated on earth. Inanna exclaims:
“Today I have brought the Boat of Heaven to the Gate of Joy, to Unug Kulaba.
It shall pass along the street magnificently. The people shall stand in the street
full of awe. “
The king shall slaughter bulls, shall sacrifice sheep. He shall pour beer from a
bowl. He shall have the šem and ala drums sound, and have the sweet-sounding
tigi instruments play. The foreign lands shall declare my greatness. My people
shall utter my praise!
Inanna brings the ME to the holy Gipar Gate.
But Enki did not stand still either. He orders his minister to go to the
White Quay in Uruk, where the Boat of Heaven is moored and to express
his admiration for it, which is what Isimud does, again reciting the whole
list of ME. At last he mentions the brewing of beer in abundance which
may be interpreted as a comic allusion to his master Enki, which no
doubt will have the audience doubled up with laughter. Again there is a
break in the tablet and when the text is again readable it becomes clear
that Enki has come to Uruk to address Inanna.
The final part of the myth is unfortunately heavily damaged and in the last
sentence we read that there will be a festival and that the citizens of
Inanna’s Uruk will be permitted to hold on to their lives. According to
Alster’s interpretation the myth provides an explanation for the origin of a
festival that was celebrated in Uruk at regular intervals.4 Enki has
punished Inanna for the theft of the ME and has instituted a festival
during which the citizens of Uruk, in the company of their goddess
Inanna, are obliged to bring certain objects or persons to Eridu, never to
return to Uruk from the dwelling of Enki. This has an astral origin,
according to Alster, the movement of Inanna in the sky being imitated by
the people on earth, an earthly representation of the celestial journey of
the godess, as in fact all rituals are imitations of the divine acts.
This interpretation of Alster’s means that Inanna has to journey many
times to Eridu and the citizens of Uruk who travel with her follow her path.
Enki has relinquished his ME to Inanna, but she has to atone for the theft,
forced continually to descend into the underworld, Abzu. Uruk and
Abzu/Eridu are more than simple worldly cities, Alster writes, in fact, they
are two extremes of the cosmic journey of the goddess and in this way a
continuous cycle arises of to and fro between Uruk and Abzu/Eridu at a
cosmic level, just as Venus appears and disappears each time in the sky.
Inanna is forever condemned to descend down to and ascend up from
the underworld. The people who follow her, and who have become
acquainted with the ME, are also punished as they will have to procreate
and die and they will not, as distinct from the gods, be able to return from
the underworld, from where the ME had come. They will have to bring
their dead with them, when they travel with Innana to Abzu, the
underworld, never to return to the land of the living. According to Alster,
the price human beings paid for possession of the cosmic ME was
indeed a high one, their mortality. However, without the ME there would
be no human civilization because the ME consists of all the norms and
rules that characterise the behaviour of a civilized society. The way Alster
presents this myth has strong similarities with the fate that was inflicted
upon Adam and Eve in the Old Testament after they had eaten from the
tree of knowledge. Adam and Eve were forced to cultivate the ground
and to build up a civilization burdened with the knowledge of death and
the instruction Jahweh had given them, procreate and then die.
In Alster’s view the Sumerian concept of ME has a dialectiacal nature, for
it is simultaneously an abstract norm, ‘measure’ or plan and any existing
actualization of such a plan. Therefore, since ME is a plan which can be
manifested in visible shape, anything existing can be referred to as ME.5
When Inanna steals the ME from Enki and brings them along to Uruk in
the Boat of Heaven she makes the ME in this myth visible. The ME
become visible in everything that exists. When Inanna receives the ME of
the Abzu, she herself becomes visible as well, viz she appears as Venus
in the sky. People on their turn actualise the ME on earth by reciting
again and again the countless ME during this festival.
Alster sees the same basic structure in other myths about, Inanna’s
descent to the netherworld and Inanna and Šukaletuda, and in the hymns
Inanna and Ebih and Inanna Nin-egala-hymn1. In each case it is about
Venus that makes a strange journey along the vault of heaven. All the
myths of Inanna seem to be an explanation of this phenomenon. The
course of this cosmic event was having directly consequences for the
earthly reality.

Figure 13.5. Cylinder seal with winged Inanna and Enki in the Abzu and a
date palm. Inanna sets her foot on a mountain, and a mountain god
makes a hurried exit. Inscription: ‘Zaganita, scribe’ (za3-gani-ta, dub-sar).
(Boehmer, 1965, p. 379; Louvre, AO 11.569)
The mythe about Inanna and the gardener Šukaletuda
Inanna’s role as Venus planet is even more conspicuous in the myth of
Inanna and Šukaletuda. In this myth as well Inanna descends and
ascends from the Abzu of the god Enki. But now she does not bring
culture goods with her for Uruk, but she sends natural disasters to this
city.
In the opening Inanna is praised as mistress of countless ME.6 She
appears above the mountain range to detect falsehood and justice and to
inspect the Land closely. She fulfils the ME and makes herself visible, while
she went up into the mountains. Now, what did one say to another? What
further did one add to the other in detail? the narrator asks. Inanna left the
Eanna in Uruk and her temple in Zabalam and climbed into the mountain
(kur). Then the god Enki appears on the stage, but the tablets are too
much distorted to understand why. Enki gives instructions to a raven how
to plant date palms. He makes use of the šaduf, an irrigation device that
was invented in the past. It consisted of an upright frame on which was
suspended a long pole or branch. At the long end of the pole hangs a
reed basket. The short end carries a weight which serves as the
counterpoise of a lever. The counterweight will support a filled bucket to a
higher situated field.7 Why this episode is inserted into the story of
Inanna and Šukaletuda is puzzling. Presumably it is a folkloristic tale that
the narrator artfully has woven into rest to tell how this šaduf was
invented in ancient times by the god Enki. Follows praise to the date
palm. According to Konrad Volk this is the most ancient texts about the
mythical origin of the date palm. A tree growing forever -- who had ever seen
such a thing before? Its scaly leaves surround its palmheart. Its dried palm-
fronds serve as weaving material. Its shoots are like surveyor’s gleaming line;
they are fit for the king’s fields. Its branches are used in the king’s palace for
cleaning. Its dates, which are piled up near purified barley, are fit for the
temples of the great gods
Now, what did one say to another? What further did one add to the other in
detail?, the narrator continues.
Šukaletuda appears on the scene. The etymology of the name of
Šukaletuda is doubtful.8 The meaning appears to be ‘wart man’. Konrad
Volk presumes that this meaning has come about only after Inanna has
punished him with this disease. Šukaletuda is a gardener, just like his
father dIgi-sig-sig (litarally: ‘Greeneye’), who was the gardener of the god
An – sometimes Enlil. Šukaletuda is standing in his garden, he is about to
water the garden plots, but then he does something very strange: he
pulls them out by their roots and destroys them all. Not a single plant
remained there, not even one.
Then a storm wind brings dust of the mountain into his eyes. Šukaletuda
rubs his eyes to wipe it out.
He raised his eyes to the lower land and saw the exalted gods of the land where
the sun rises. He raised his eyes to the highlands and saw the exalted gods of the
land where the sun sets.
Then suddenly he saw a solitary ghost, a gidim, by her appearance. He
saw someone who fully possessed the divine powers, the ME. It was
Inanna who had just returned from the netherworld where she had stayed
for a while. It was Venus returning to the night sky, after she had been
invisible for some time.
In that plot that had not been approached for five or ten times before
there stood a single shady tree. It was a Euphrates poplar. Its shade was
not diminished in the morning, and it did not change either at midday or in the
evening. This shade was for Inanna an excellent place to lay to rest:
After Inanna had gone around the earth, after Inanna had gone around the
heavens, after she had gone around the earth, after she had gone around Elam
and Subir, after she had gone around the intertwined horizon of heaven, the
mistress became so tired that when she arrived there she lay down by its roots.
Šukaletuda stands in his garden plot and sees to his perplexity the
goddess laying in the shade of the tree. Inanna has bounded the loincloth
of the seven divine powers over her genitals. Šukaletuda undid the
loincloth and had sex with the sleeping Inanna. After that he returned to
his plot. As soon as the day had broken Inanna woke up and inspected
herself closely and discovered the rape. Then the woman was considering
what should be destroyed because of her genitals, the narrator of the myth
asks several times as in a refrain. The wrathful goddess filled the wells of
the Land with blood. So it was blood that the irrigated orchards yielded,
people drank blood, the black-heads drank blood. Inanna demands the
extradition of the one who raped her, but she could not find him.
Now, what did one say to another? What further did one add to the other in
detail? the narrator continues
Šukaletuda goes to the house of his father and tells him precisely what
had happened. The father advises his son to go to the city dwellers, his
brothers, the black-headed people, and hide there because ‘that woman’
(Inanna) won’t be able to find him there.
Inanna indeed cannot find Šukaletuda. She mounted a cloud and sends
from that place the second plague. Inanna lets it rain, she lets the south
wind and the fearsome storm go before her. She recruits her votaries, the
pilipili and a duststorm and some other indistinct figures and helpers.
Again Šukaletuda goes to his father and asks once more his advice.
Again his father advises him to hide in Uruk, where the goddess won’t be
able to find him.
Then Inanna sends her third plague. She blocks the highways of the
Land and Šukaletuda goes to his father to ask him again for advice. His
father says he should hide in the city, there Inanna will not find him.
Inanna decides to visit Enki in the Abzu of Eridu. She asks him to hand
over that young man to her. In return she promisses Enki to re-enter the
Eanna in Uruk. Enki admits her demand and Inanna leaves the Abzu of
Eridu. She stretched herself like a rainbow across the sky and reached thereby
as far as the earth. She let the south wind pass across, she let the north wind
pass across. From fear Šukaletuda tried to make himself as tiny as possible, but
the woman had found him among the mountains.
Šukaletuda avows his guilt. Then the tablet is badly damaged. Inanna
determines his destiny and changes Šukaletuda in something but we
don’t know what. Maybe his name ‘wart man’ has something to do with it.
Šukaletuda has to die, but Inanna decides that his name, however, shall
not be forgotten.
Your name shall exist in songs and make the songs sweet. A young singer shall
perform them most pleasingly in the king’s palace. A shepherd shall sing them
sweetly as he tumbles his butter-churn. A young shepherd shall carry your name
to where he grazes the sheep. The palace of the desert shall be your home.”
Interpretation of the myth
The myth has the aspect of a thrilling story but – as happens more often
in ancient times more is meant than meets the eye. Some assyriologists
see it as a masked description of the tension between the Sumerian
south and the rise of the Akkad during the Sargon dynasty.9 Just like the
hymns of Enheduanna this myth exalts the vindictiveness of the mighty
goddess. The myth then could allude to the time of the Akkadian king
Naram-Sîn, when Inanna/Ištar’s new position in the pantheon was
settled. The rape of Inanna by Šukaletuda should then be a symbol of the
massive revolt of the southern city states against the Akkadian empire.
Obviously Inanna had fled from the Eanna in Uruk, because in the end
she promises Enki to return to this place. Also the fact that Šukaletuda
was able to hide in Uruk is a token of the opposition of Uruk against
Inanna, who had taken sides with the Akkadians. She was the favourite
goddess of Akkad. But with the help of Enki the ancient order is being
restored. This could be an indication that the myth was written not before
the third dynasty of Ur, when the Akkad empire had gone for good and
the cult of Inanna revived again in Uruk, her ancient patron city.
But another interpretation is possible as well. According to Jeffrey Cooley
the myth is in the first place a description of Inanna in her astral
manifestation.10 Inanna’s departure from the sky and the earth and her
entering the kur symbolises the time she passes in the netherworld,
where she is no longer visible.11 In the beginning of the myth Inanna is
circling above the mountains in the east, where Elam and Subir lay. Then
she went to sleep in the shade of the Euphrates poplar in the garden of
Šukaletuda. According to Cooley this can be interpreted as the interval
between her last appearance in the west to just before her first eastern
visibility. It is at this time that the story of Enki and the raven in inserted.
When that is finished the story continues with Šukaletuda who gets his
first glimpse of the goddess. He looks down where the sun rises, he looks
up where the sun sets. Then he sees a lone travelling ghost (dgidim) and
he recognizes her sign (ğiškim). It was Inanna who was returning from
the underworld, in her ghost-like form. Inanna had been moving from
Elam to Subir, that lie in the east and north of Sumer and this brief
appearance in the night sky followed by her resting on earth decribes,
according to Cooley, Venus’ brief appearance before sunrise in the east
and her quick disappearance shortly after when the planet is lost in the
light of dawn just before sunrise.
Šukaletuda assaults the goddess in the brief period after she disappears
in the light of dawn and when the sun actually rises. The goddess
discovers this terrible fact after sunrise. In the translation of Coley:
When the day came and Utu had risen
The woman carefully examined herself
Shining Inanna carefully examined herself.
Enraged Inanna searches three times unsuccessfully for Šukaletuda: the
woman did not find him in the mountains. Then she descends in the Abzu, in
other words: Venus remains invisible during eighty days because she
passes behind the sun.
However, Cooley remarks, Inanna in the story is but a very short time
in the Abzu, so perhaps Inanna disappears only during the daytime,
when Venus is always invisible. When she returns from the Abzu she
stretches herself like a rainbow across the sky and reached thereby the
earth. Cooley supposes that this must be understood as a miraculous
event, as the planet Venus never crosses the entire sky. As an inner
planet Venus always stands low in the sky. This extraordinary ability to
cross the entire sky becomes the fulcrum event in the story, a true deus
ex machina, Cooley writes, which allows the goddess to find her attacker.
Celestial divination
The story of Šukaletuda could be understood according to Cooley as
related to celestial divination as a way to portend events which are to
happen later in the story, such as the three plagues. The astronomers of
Mesopotamia observed the movements of Venus and other celestial
bodies scrupulously. Venus has phases, just like the moon. At some
moments it shines much more at one side, being the side that is directed
to the sun, where the gravitational pull is the strongest. The astronomers
said that Venus was then having a beard, and they made all sorts of
divinations connected with this celestial event.
The movements of the Venus planet were recorded meticulously by the
astronomers in the time of the Babylonian king Ammişaduqa (1646-1626
BC). They connected Venus’ erratic course in the sky with all sorts of
events happening in the human world, like the prices of grain, the
invasion of a foreign army and all other important facts. After a few ages
they had the disposal of countless series of observations in which they
tried to discover regularities. These so called ‘Venus tablets’ describe the
appearance of Venus in the east normally as a positive sign. If it had
happed that at the same time of the year there was a successful harvest
of the crops if Venus appeared on the 28th of Šebet in the east – a
phenomenon that possibly occurred only a few times in a century - then
this was used for prediction: On the 28th day of Šebet, Venus appears in the
east: the harvest of the land will do well.12 If Venus was not visible, this was
normally a very bad sign: If Venus is not visible in the sky, destruction of the
land.13
The poplar tree was very important for divination in Mesopotamia, a field
with a poplar tree was considered to be a lucky sign: If he plants a poplar
in a field in the city, god will lead that man voluntarily.14 This is why
Šukaletuda was searching the sky to find a favourable omen. According
to the Sumerian Farmer’s instructions it was a good agrarian habit to pay
much attention to the sky: When the constellations in the sky are right, do not
be reluctant to take the oxen force to the field many times.15 The aim of
observing the constellations was to assess the proper moment of the
seasons. But other signs were searched for as well. Venus was
associated with Inanna, the goddess of fecundity, so her presence in the
sky was normally positive for agricultural success. Inanna’s appearance,
particularly after a period of invisibility, is a propitious omen for the
agricultural state of the entire land. So Šukaletuda searches the sky in
the hope to find a lucky sign, a giškim, which means ‘omen’. Portents in
connection with the appearance of Venus run as follows: If Venus rises in
winter in the east, at harvest time in the west; enemy kings will be reconciled;
the harvest of the land will prosper; the land will eat good bread; reconciliation
and peace will take place everywhere.16 It did not happen that often that
Venus appeared during the harvest in the west, but by the hundreds of
scrupulous notes in the Venus tablets it was observed from time to time.
But when the goddess enters one of the plots of the farmer this is an
even greater blessing, Cooley writes. In the celestial divinations this is
described as Venus’ s appearance in the Field (iku). This constellation
had the form of a rectangle 17:
If Venus appears inside the Field, there will be rains from
If Venus appears inside the sky and floods from the springs; the harvest of the
Westland will prosper; abandoned pastures will be resettled.
In the myth Inanna even enters the garden plot of Šukaletuda, for it is
here that his shameful act takes place. All signs were consequently
promising for Šukaletuda, his field should prosper abundantly. But he lay
violent hands on Inanna. A motivation for his act is not given. But
whoever harnesses Inanna and her ME will be punished severely.
Fertility rite
In the end the myth of Šukaletuda must have had a signification as a
fertility rite. The position of the planet of Venus was important. The
allusions to dates and plants in the beginning of the myth may also be an
indication for this. Šukaletuda’s garden plot was in a badly state: not a
single plant remained there: he had pulled them out by their roots and
destroyed them. Then he suddenly sees Inanna lying in a plot that he had
not approached five or ten times. The name of Ama- ušumgalama, this is
Dumuzi’s name, is mentioned. Then Šukaletuda has sex with Inanna.
Maybe he was performing a fertility rite of olden times. After sowing time
the farmers spend the night in their fields and had sex in order to
magically stimulate the vegetation. Frazer has given many examples in
his book The golden bow. Possibly in the ancient past the En and the Nin
performed a same sort of rite that would enhance the growth of the
plants. Šukaletuda copulated with the mighty goddess, but for simple
humans this cannot but end in a disaster. Only the En, as righteous
husband of Inanna, can have a sexual relation with Inanna in the rite of
the Sacred Marriage. After that the goddess decides a favourable destiny
for the king. For common people this ends in death. So Šukaletuda had
to die, but Inanna smoothens in a way his sad fate: his name will be
immortal and will live on in a song, that a young singer in the palace will
sing most pleasantly for the king and that the shepherd will sing as he
tumbles his butter-churn and a young shepherd shall carry his name to
where he grazes the sheep. The palace of the desert shall be his home.
Thus Inanna’s fate destination for Šukaletuda. He will live on in the
underworld and shall from there enhance the welfare of the people. His
death will be for the good of the king, the farmer en the shepherds and
they will therefore remember him. Have we here a faint reminiscence of
an ancient fertility rite of human sacrifice? In chapter 23 we will come
back to this issue.
1 For the Nin-egala- hymn see chapter7,
Endnotes Chapter 13
1 Doty, 2000, p. 50
2 Translation according to ETCSL 1.3.1 and Farber-Flugge, 1973
3 Alster, 1975, p. 22
4 Alster, 1975
5 Alster, 1975, p. 33-34, noot 33
6 Volk, 1995; ETCSL 1.3.3.
7 Source: Wikipedia
8 Volk, 1995, p. 171 e.v.
9 Cooley, 2008
10 Cooley, 2008
11 Cooley, 2008
12 Cooley, 2008, p. 90
13 Cooley, 2008, p. 90
14 Cooley, 2008, p. 89, tablet from the series Šumma alu
15 Civil, 1994, Farmer’s Instructions, r. 38-39, commentary of Civil p. 79
16 Cooley, 2008, p. 90
17 Cooley, 2008, p. 91
Chapter 14 The love lyrics of Inanna and
Dumuzi
Fertility songs
Life in ancient Sumer depended on agriculture and was dominated by
fears and uncertainties about the yield of next year’s harvest. It was the
very basis of their existence but it was a most precarious kind of
existence as an abundant crop was ultimately dependent on the
benevolence of the gods. Farmers strove to propitiate their mighty
masters with prayers and offerings, cherishing hopes that the gods would
be sympathetic and reward them with a successful harvest. In hymns, in
prayers and in songs the peasants expressed their concerns about the
precarious state of their existence. The songs they sang in the fields
mainly concerned the fertility of plants and cattle, and they compared the
mysterious laws which governed nature to the result of a sexual union
between a man and a woman. The En and the Nin may have played a
role but common people believed they themselves could also help the
process along by imitating the longed for fertility through all sorts of
actions. There were many goddesses with functions that could be helpful
but Inanna was important as she was in charge of sexual procreation.
Inanna compares her nudity with a plot of uncultivated land, urgently in
need of ploughing. In a bal-bale (a song of the lyre) she sings1:
My uncultivated land, the one left fallow in the steppe,
My field of ducks, where the ducks teem,
My field which is well-watered,
My own nakedness, a well-watered, a rising mound -
I, the maiden (ki-sikil) who will plow it?
My nakedness, the wet and well-watered ground -
I, the young lady - who will station there an ox?
Or in another harp song Inanna asks her lover to plough her: 2
Do not dig a canal, your canal I shall be!
Do not plow a field, your field I shall be!
Farmer, do not search for a wet ground,
Your wet ground I shall be!
The songs that were finally recorded in writing and preserved until our
own time must have been the result of thousands of years of tradition,
and what has survived is only the minuscule tip of an immense iceberg,
metaphorically speaking. The fertility songs related to wedding festivities
in which the whole village participated and which were carried out
according to fixed ceremonial traditions. The sexual union between
Inanna and her lover Dumuzi enhanced the flourishing of nature and it
was believed that the more erotic their imagined encounter, the more
fruitful the results would be. That their love affair had above all to do with
the fertility of the agrarian enterprise is made clear by the fact that these
songs deal only with sexual foreplay, the courtship between Inanna and
Dumuzi, described using metaphors related to agriculture and cattle
breeding. There is never any mention of the married life which followed
the wedding of this couple or the children that would have resulted from
their engagement. The interest remains focused on the immediate effect
of their union on the nature and the abundance of the agricultural
harvest.
Inanna’s lover was a human shepherd, called Dumuzi. Maybe at a time
now long forgotten, Dumuzi had been an En priest or a ruler who in that
capacity had been married to the city goddess. It was extremely
important for a city ruler to keep the gods on his side so that the citizenry
prospered, thus endorsing and legitimising his claim to rule. The love
affair of Inanna and Dumuzi therefore, is not only the theme of traditional
folk songs but recur in the delicate royal hymns that were performed at
the court. The beneficial gifts of the amorous couple were equally
important for every strata of society.
Shepherds and farmers
Peasants cultivated the crops and let cattle graze the pasture but as
there was not enough grass in the village to feed sheep and goats, these
animals were entrusted to shepherds who took their flocks to the steppe
along routes with water sources. The pastoral influence in Sumerian
culture was very important but between the farmers in the village and the
shepherds of the steppe there existed a certain animosity as the farmers
looked down upon the shepherds. However they needed them to tend
their sheep and goats, resulting in a mutual dependence.
The fact that Sumerian welfare is dependent upon co-operation
between these two aspects of the agricultural system is made clear in a
song about the choice of groom for Inanna. It appears that Inanna at first
had no interest at all in the shepherd Dumuzi, but is infatuated with the
farmer Enkimdu as he cultivates flax and barley and gives her new
garments. However Inanna’s brother Utu has different marriage plans for
his sister and had chosen the shepherd Dumuzi as the more suitable
candidate for marriage to Inanna. His butter is good, his milk is good, the
shepherd, all the work of his hands is splendid. Still Inanna resists, she wants
to marry the farmer whereupon Dumuzi is piqued, In what is the farmer
superior to me? Enkimdu, the man of dikes and canals - in what is the farmer
superior to me? Dumuzi asks and continues3:
“Should he give me his black garment,
I would give him, the farmer, my black ewe in return;
Should he give me his white garment,
I would give him, the farmer, my white ere in return;
Should he pour me his prime beer,
I would pour him, the farmer, my yellow milk in return;
Should he pour me his good beer,
I would pour him, the farmer, my kisimma milk in return;
Should he pour me his brewed beer
I would pour him, the farmer, my churned milk in return;
Should he pour me his diluted beer,
I would pour him, the farmer, my ‘grass-milk’ in return;
Should he give me his sweet pressed out beer,
I would give him, the farmer, my NUNUZ.TE -milk (beestings?)
Should he give me his small beans,
I would give him, the farmer, my small cheeses in return;
After having let him eat, after having let him drink,
I shall even leave him a surplus of butter,
I shall even leave him a surplus of milk,
In what is the farmer superior to me?”
In the end the farmer and the shepherd settle their dispute, the farmer
proposes that Dumuzi pasture his sheep on his good land and Dumuzi
invites the farmer to his wedding feast. This story would seem to be
endorsing the idea that the welfare of Sumerian society is dependent on
the co-operation between the suitors for the hand in marriage of Inanna,
symbolic of the two cornerstones of Sumerian civilization, the farmer and
the shepherd.
In a song that could be the continuation of the previous one, the sun
god Utu, brother of Inanna, says that he will bring the flax needed for his
sister’s nuptial bed linen. Inanna enquires anxiously about who will beat
the flax for her. I will bring it to you beaten, Inanna, I will bring it to you
beaten. But this was not enough to allay Inanna’s concern4:
My brother who will spin it for me?
“My sister, I will bring it for you spun,
“Brother, who will twine it for me?
“My sister, I will bring it for you twined,
“Brother, who will warp it for me?
“My sister, I will bring it to you warped,
“My Brother, who will weave it for me?
“My sister, I will bring it to you woven,
My brother, who will bleach it for me?
“My sister, I will bring it to you bleached,
“Brother, who will lie down with me?
Utu answers that her bridegroom will lie with her, the companion of Enlil,
he who emerged from the faithful womb, progeny of a king, will lie with
her. Then Inanna is delighted, he is in truth the man of her heart:
That man who has spoken to my heart!
Who hoes not, yet piles of grain are heaped up,
Grain is delivered regularly to the storehouse,
A farmer whose grain is of numerous piles,
A shepherd whose sheep are full of wool”.
In other verses Inanna suffers no doubts about her choice of husband as
she is in love with the shepherd Dumuzi.
Emesal: women’s language
Dumuzi is called ‘umun’. This is another word for En in the ‘language of
women’, Emesal. Emesal literally means ‘language (eme = tongue) of the
woman (sal)’. The Emesal is a special form of Sumerian, as we have said
before and while Inanna speaks mostly in Emesal, Dumuzi uses the
common Emegir, the Sumerian language. But it was not only women who
spoke Emesal, lamentations about the destruction of towns are written in
the women’s language although Enheduanna did not write in Emesal.
According to some scholars, Emesal therefore is not so much a women’s
language as a very special way of investing a particular emotional
character into language, but that being the case, it is still reasonable to
consider Emesal as a language typically used by women. Goddesses but
not gods, speak in Emesal and it was essentially the language the gala
singer employed when singing his lamentations. The gala singer had a
notably feminine appearance and it is presumed that he was a castrate, a
specialist in lamentation songs to soothe the gods for which the softly
spoken language of Emesal was particularly suitable.
Emesal has a proper vocabulary and a pronunciation that differs from
the normal Sumerian language. In writing it is usually written syllabically
instead of logograms.5 Emesal substitutes certain consonants from the
common Sumerian, most often by shifting the pronunciation of the
consonants to the front of the mouth. The ‘z’ in Emesal stands for ‘d’ in
the standard Sumerian, ‘udu’ (‘sheep’) is in Emesal ‘e-ze2’; and ‘dug3’ (‘to
be good’) is ‘ze2-eb’. 6 Emesal also has a number of proper words that do
not exist in standard Sumerian, such as ‘gašan’ (‘mistress’) instead of
‘nin’.
Courtship
The love songs of Inanna and Dumuzi are very lighthearted and
resemble the folk songs sung during the many festivities in springtime.
On these festive days the villagers danced in the fields and organized
parades in the streets. The many repetitions and the dialogue in the
songs are reminiscent of choirs that sing in turns, accompanied by
instruments, while the spectators keep time to the rhythm by clapping
their hands. The girls play the role of Inanna in the love affair7.
As I, the lady, was passing the day yesterday
As I, Inanna, was passing the day yesterday,
As I was passing the day, as I was dancing about,
As I was singing songs from morning till evening -
He met me, he met me,
The lord, the ‘companion of An’ met me,
The lord took me in his hands,
Ušumgalanna embraced me.
“Wild bull, set me free, that I may go home!
Companion of Enlil, set me free, that I may go home!
What can I present before my mother as a lie?
What can I present before my mother, Ningal, as a lie?”
Dumuzi knows precisely how to resolve this problem and tells Inanna that
he will teach her about women’s lies. She must tell her mother that she
was dancing with her girl friend, that she ran around with her, playing the
tambourine and the recorder, that she sang for her sweet songs and that
rejoicing in this sweetness had passed the whole day there with her. In
the meantime, Dumuzi says, let me make love with you by the moonlight! Let
me loosen your combs on the pure and luxuriant couch! May you pass there a
sweet day with me in abundance and joy!’ The text becomes illegible after
this passage but when the story is resumed it is obvious that Inanna has
not agreed to Dumuzi’s proposal. In the next part he is standing before
the gate of Inanna’s dwelling in order to propose to her mother in a
proper fashion, while Inanna is running about the house rejoicing.
Oh, that someone would tell my mother!
May our neighbour sprinkle water on the floor!
Oh, that someone would tell my mother, Ningal!
May our neighbour sprinkle water on the floor!
Her dwelling - its fragrance is sweet,
Her words are joyful ones:
Amaušumgalanna, the son-in-law of Sin,
The lord Dumuzi is seemly for the holy lap,
Amaušumgalanna, the son-in-law of Sin.
My lord, how sweet is your abundance!
How tasty are your herbs and plants in the plain!
Amaušumgalanna, how sweet is your abundance!
How tasty are your herbs and plants in the plain!”
Dumuzi is called ‘Ama-ušumgal-ana’ but the significance of this name is
not entirely clear. Literally it means ‘mother, dragon of heaven’ or ‘his
mother is a dragon of heaven’. The name ‘ušumgal’ occurs in some
personal names in Lagaš and there is even known to have been a
Lugalušumgal, a city ruler of Lagaš at the time of Sargon and Naram-Sîn.
But why Dumuzi is given this name is a mystery.
The subscript of this song indicates that it is a ‘sagarra’ (the meaning of
this word is not known) and a ‘tigi song’ (song of the kettledrum) of
Inanna. The subscript of songs often gives an indication of the
instruments used as an accompaniment such as, ‘This is a bal-bale song
for Inanna’, or ‘This is a tigi song for Inanna’ but the differences between
these names are not always clear. A balağ is an instrument, presumably
a drum and a tigi is a kettledrum. Sefati suggests that all these songs are
one way or the other related to the subject of love, courtship and the
fertility of the fields and cattle.8 May be the word ‘bal-bale’ means ‘to
speak’, ‘to converse’, and these songs could then be understood as a
form of dialogue. But not all chants are in the form of dialogue. Often
there are more than two speakers or sometimes only one or there might
be a choir that reacts and gives answers and a bal-bale song often
features a speaker delivering lines as if it were a stage play. According to
Sefati the bal-bale songs could have had a cultic function and formed a
part in the ceremony which was a celebration of the Sacred Marriage.
The king in his role as Dumuzi
When the Sumerian kings celebrated the Sacred Marriage rite, they
identified themselves with Dumuzi, whom they claimed as an ancestor.
This is clear from some bal-bale songs in which the king plays the role of
Dumuzi in the love act.9 Thus we can read between the lines in the
above mentioned bal-bale of Inanna with her brother Utu (who had
chosen her groom), You, Inanna, the protector of the king!10 In other
songs it is also made clear that Dumuzi had come from the palace and
that he is the comrade of An and Enlil, qualities normally characterising a
king. Dumuzi calls himself the brother-in-law of Utu the son god and the
son-in-law of the moon god Nanna, which means he has been accepted
into the family of his wife Inanna, precisely how the king liked to find
himself situated.
It is not clear where the name of Dumuzi as lover of Inanna originated but
he may have been a historical ruler of Uruk and these songs derive from
memories of an earlier time when he celebrated his marriage to Inanna.
The name of Dumuzi was not uncommon in the third millennium and
means literally ‘good child’ or ‘righteous child’ or it may be an
abbreviation of ‘lugal-dumu-zi’ which means, ‘The king is a good child’. 11
According to the most ancient myths, Innanna was having a relationship
with Gilgameš and Enmerkar, two legendary city rulers of Uruk and at
first would have nothing to do with Dumuzi who in ancient times had also
been a city ruler. His name is mentioned twice in the Sumerian king list,
the younger Dumuzi coming from Kuara or Kullab, a district of Uruk and
the elder having lived in Badtibira where there was a temple dedicated to
him. Enheduanna in fact wrote a hymn about this temple, mentioning the
sacred bed with girinna plants where Inanna refreshed herself and
Dumuzi the shepherd, described as the holy spouse of Inanna, who
travelled with his sheep in the steppe. 12
The younger Dumuzi, according to the Sumerian king list, was En
ruler of Uruk, this tradition possibly referring back to his position as city
ruler of Uruk and automatically therefore, the righteous consort of Inanna.
Both the younger and the elder Dumuzi become one and the same, as
the human lover of Inanna.
Wedding songs
In these songs many elements occur that are a feature of normal
wedding festivities and this is essentially what links them to the folklore
tradition. Dumuzi needs to ask Inanna’s mother for her hand in marriage,
the father playing no role whatever. He brings wedding gifts with him and
knocks on the door of Inanna’s house but of course she cannot simply let
him in. First she has to prepare herself thoroughly, so she has a bath,
washing herself with sweet smelling soap and after that she embrocates
her body with fragrant oil. Then she puts on her royal clothes, (tug3pala3)
she applies black kohl to her eyes and gathers up her hair. She puts on a
bracelet and a chain of lapis lazuli beads around her neck. 13
Through the medium of folk songs we learn that the love play of the
En and the goddess Inanna was traditionally imitated by young lovers
about to get married. The bride and his groom were called Inanna and
Dumuzi and in fact at wedding feasts in the Middle East it is still the
custom to address the bride and groom as ‘king and queen’ at wedding
feasts. During the festivities, as described in one of Inanna’s songs,
choirs chanted songs which were familiar to all and to which they danced
the whole day. Inanna’s brother is called Utu, the name of the sun god,
but his role in these songs has nothing in common with the sun god we
know from the myths, who shines all day in the sky and travels at night
through the underworld.
Dumuzi stands before the gate of the temple of Inanna, laden down with
gifts and tells Inanna that he has brought her all that she desires: My
sister, to whom I have brought five things, my sister, to whom I have brought ten
things. Inanna calls Dumuzi her ‘brother’, a term of endearment that
lovers in the Middle East like to use. “When my brother comes into the
palace, Inanna answers the choir: Let the musicians play there; and I will
pour wine into his mouth; this will gladden his heart”.14 Dumuzi enters
bringing with him wedding presents in abundance, lambs, kids, goats and
ewes and Inanna, who is called ‘Baba’ in these verses, answers using
the royal ‘we’, a form that was thought becoming for a goddess 15:
“Behold, our breasts have become firm,
Behold, our nakedness has sprouted hair.
Baba, went to the lap of the bridegroom, let us rejoice!
Dance! Dance!
Baba, for my nakedness let us rejoice!
Dance! Dance!
Afterward it will please him, it will please him”
It is a balbale-song of Inanna
“Let him bring, let him bring.
Please, let him bring abundantly.
It is its antiphon.
It is a balbale song of Inanna and directions for performance given at the
end of the lines would seem to indicate that various choirs sing in turns,
accompanied by music and dance.
The songs make it clear that the union between Inanna and Dumuzi
stimulates agricultural fertility in the country. There are constant allusions
to blossoming orchards and vegetables that grow abundantly or syrup
flowing copiously from the dates, a figurative language with clear sexual
connotations16:
It grows, it flourishes, like well watered lettuce,
My shaded garden of the steppe, richly blooming, favourite of his mother,
My barley full of allure in its furrows, like well-watered lettuce,
My choice apple tree, bearing fruits like well watered lettuce.
“The honey man,””the honey man “sweetens me ever,
My lord, the “honey man” of the goddess, my favourite of his mother,
His hand honey, his foot honey - sweetens me ever,
His limbs are honey sweet - sweeten me ever.
Navel, ring […] my sweet things, my favourite of his mother],
My [..] of the fairest thighs and elevated arm, like well watered lettuce.
Two balbale songs of Inanna
An important question is whether Inanna, in choosing a shepherd as her
husband, isn’t marrying beneath her station. Inanna states that Dumuzi is
worth nothing without her family behind him,17 her mother Ningal, her
sister Ningikuga, her father Sîn and her brother Utu without whom You
would become a ceaseless wanderer in the dark paths of the steppe, she throws
in his face. Dumuzi attempts to soothe her and counters this claim by
defending his family and pointing out that they are equal to her’s in
importance. The god Enki, whom Dumuzi calls his father, is the equal of
Inanna’s father Sîn, the moon god, Dumuzi’s mother Duttur is equal to
Inanna ‘s mother Ningal and his sister Geštinana is equal to someone
whose name is not readable anymore in the text. Ultimately Dumuzi says
that he stands on an equal footing with the sun god Utu.
Once Dumuzi has made it clear that his family is a match for Inanna’s
family, he says he will plough the ‘šuba stones’ for Inanna. The little šuba
stones he will lay down as a seed, the big šuba stones, he will pile up as
grain piles up. Inanna asks for whom will he plough his šuba stones:
The little ones of his šuba stones gleaming on our neck,
The large ones of the šuba stones gleaming on our pure breast.”
dAma-ušumgal-ana answers the nu-gig:

She is a nu-gig, my wife who is a nu-gig - for her ‘he’ will plow.
My holy Inanna, the priestess - for her he will plow.
Her one of the šuba stones, her one of the šuba stones will indeed plow the šuba
stones,
dAma-ušumgal-ana, her one of the šuba stones will indeed plow the šuba stones.

The significance of ‘šuba stones’ is not clear, possibly they are agate18 or
maybe the šuba stones refer to all stones that radiate a shining
brightness. In a hymn to Nininsina, identified with Inanna as the Venus
star, we learn that it was the goddess Nininsina who invented these
stones and that it was the nu-gig of heaven who ploughed and sowed the
jewels of the šuba stones. 19 Various scholars wonder if this expression
is an allusion to sex. Sefati believes that the groom’s preparation of
adornments to be worn by his bride on her wedding day is a metaphor.20
This threading of the beads is compared to the act of throwing the seeds,
one by one into the furrow during the ploughing season.
The subscript states that this hymn is a ‘kun-ğar’ for Inanna but the
significance of the term is not clear. Possibly it is an instrument used to
provide an accompaniment to this song.21
In this song Inanna is referred to as nu-gig and nu-bar. The Sumerian
word nu-bar (Akkadian, kulmašitu) occurs sporadically in texts and while
dictionaries translate nu-bar as ‘temple prostitute’ this translation is
controversial, as will be seen in Chapter 20.
Erotic encounter
The hymns describe in an open and uninhibited fashion the sexual
encounter between the lovers and there is no trace of any moral taboo. In
the hymn Dumuzi and Inanna (nr. D in ETCSL), the choir asks Inanna
what her ‘brother’ said to her when she was wandering outside and she
replies that he brought her home and that he let her lie down upon the
bed dripping with honey22:
‘As I set my eyes upon that place,
My beloved man met me,
Took his pleasure of me, rejoiced alone in me;
The brother brought me into his house,
And laid me down upon a bed dripping with honey
A precious sweet, when lying next to my heart,
Time after time, making tongue, time after time,
My brother of beautiful eyes, did so fifty times,
Like a powerless person I stood there for him,
Trembling from below, I was dumb silent for him there.
With my brother, placing my hands upon his hips,
With my precious sweet, I spent the day there with him.’
Set me free, my sister, set me free!
Please. My beloved sister, let me go to the palace!
(..)
Judging by the last sentence Dumuzi lives in a palace and this could be
seen as an indication that these bal-bales had originated in the circles
around the court and were composed by one of the women of the Ur III
kings. But ‘palace’ could also be understood as a metaphor used by the
shepherd for his sheep pen, in which case we are still dealing with
common folk songs.
In the bal-bale that Sefati translates as, The women’s oath, the brother
extols the eyes, mouth and lips of his beloved, his ‘sister’23 and although
the names of Dumuzi and Inanna are not mentioned the subscript
indicates that it is a bal-bale of Inanna. Jacobsen interprets it as a
dialogue between a customer and a barmaid in the tavern. The customer
praises the bodily charms of the hostess whom he calls the lushest one,
then he lauds the excellence of the different kinds of beer she has on tap,
the glance from her sweet eyes and he flatteringly calls her the child of a
king (dumu-lugal-la). However the woman wishes her brother to take an
oath, swearing that he has not laid hands on a strange woman, which
according to Sefati is a request from the woman that the man takes a
vow of chastity. According to Jacobsen’s translation however, the women
requires the stranger, who lives in another town, to swear an oath that he
is not an enemy spy. This taking of the oath is solemnized in a very
curious way:
Your right hand on my nakedness should be placed,
Your left on my head should be laid;
When you have brought your mouth close to my mouth,
When you have seized my lips in your mouth,
By so doing you will take an oath to me,
Thus is the oath of the women, oh my brother of beautiful eyes!
My blossoming one, my blossoming one, sweet is your allure
My blossoming garden of apple trees, sweet is your allure!
My fruitful garden of celtis trees, sweet is your allure!
My Dumuzi-abzu by his own virtue, sweet is your allure!
Alabaster figurine, adorned with the lapis lazuli diadem, sweet is your allure!
This is a balbale song of Inanna
Sefati thinks that this remarkable type of oath is in fact, a vow of chastity
taken by the bridegroom in the presence of the bride before the marriage
is contracted, while Jacobsen sees it as merely an erotic ploy.24 In
ancient times an oath was sometimes taken in this special way, as in the
Old Testament (Genesis 24:2-9) when Abraham asks his servant to
swear to him that he will not seek a wife for his son among the
Canaanites and asks him to put his hand under his thigh, to confirm his
promise. The allusion to the apple tree in the poem above should be
interpreted, according to Jacobsen as a metaphor for the male member,
with the pubic hair the garden in which it stands. The pillar of alabaster
set in dark blue lapis lazuli is a metaphor also for male genitalia. In other
texts of the Ur III period the planting of trees in the garden, among them
the apple tree, are metaphors for sexual intercourse, just as is the
invitation to go into the garden.25 Following this line of thought, the
significance of the lapis lazuli crown on top of the pillar is then not difficult
to understand either.
In the second millennium the allusions become much more frank and less
refined making it questionable whether these songs belong to the same
courtly milieu. They are no longer simple folk songs or hymns for the
king, but vulgar verses or magically empowered texts. We will come back
to this issue in Chapter 18, which deals with the Sacred Marriage rite.
Endnotes Chapter 14
1 Sefati 1998, DI P ii, line 22-28, p. 91
2 Sefati 1998, p. 91 (Text A CBC 8530 o.b.v. line 21-24),
3 Sefati, 1998, nr. 24, p. 324-343
4 ETCSL 4.08.01, Inanna and Dumuzi A; Sefati, 1998, p. 120-127
5 Sefati, 1998, p. 53 e.v.
6 Rubio, 2001
7 ETCSL 4.08.09, Inanna and Dumuzi nr. I; Sefati, 1998, nr. 8, p. 185-
193
8 Sefati, 1998, p. 22 ff.
9 Sefati, 1998, p. 25
10 Sefati, 1998, l. 19, p. 332
11 Krebernik, 2003, p. 153
12 Sjöberg, 1969, Temple hymns, nr. 17
13 For instance: Inanna en Dumuzi nr. C, ETCSL 4.08.03; Sefati, 1998,
p. 132 ff.
14 Sefati, 1998, p. 134, line 27-31; DI-C
15 Sefati, 1998, p. 134, line 39-49
16 Sefati, 1998, The Honeyman, p. 165 ff., ETCSL 4.08.05, Inanna and
Dumuzi nr. E
17 Sefati, 1998, The lovers’ quarrel, p. 194 e.v.; ETCSL 4.08.09, Inanna
and Dumuzi nr. I
18 Westenholz (Joan Goodnick), 1992
19 Westenholz (Joan Goodnick), 1992
20 Sefati, 1998, p. 200
21 Sefati, 1998, p. 200
22 Sefati, The bed of love, p. 151-163; ETCSL 4.08.04, Inanna and
Dumuzi nr. D
23 Sefati, 1998, p. 128 ff.; Sefati, 1990, p. 45-63
24 Jacobsen, 1987
25 Jacobsen, 1987, p. 62, note 29
Chapter 15 The Death of Dumuzi
The relationship between Inanna and Dumuzi does not last for long as
shortly after their marriage Dumuzi is killed. In the lamentation Dumuzi’s
Dream, Dumuzi’s sister Geštin-ana plays the part of the heroine and
Inanna has no role at all, but in the myth Inanna and Bilulu, the
assassination of Dumuzi takes place in the steppe while Inanna is at
home, anxiously awaiting the return of her husband.
Dumuzi’s dream
Right at the beginning of this poem the narrator tells us that Dumuzi has
set off for the steppe with his shepherd’s stick resting on his shoulder,
assailed by doubts and misgivings, sobbing all the time, his heart full of
tears. We are not informed where he came from but it is likely that he had
left the city of Uruk, to meet his sister Geštin-ana in the sheep’s pen.1 He
feels lonely and abandoned now that he has been forced to leave the
protection of the city and fears that he will meet his death in the steppe.
He cries to all the countryside for help, the marshes, the crabs and frogs
of the river, and he asks them to call his mother if he should die. His
mother will lament for him and weep five, ten times and Dumuzi fears that
otherwise he will not be buried decently and will not receive offerings
after his death. Heavily depressed he lies down to sleep but he has a
terrifying dream and wakes up in a state of panic. He cries out for his
sister, Bring my sister, he shouts, who knows the meaning of dreams, bring my
sister! I will relate the dream to her. Apparently Geštin-ana rushes to join
him, as Dumuzi immediately proceeds to tell her the details of his
dream2:
“A dream, my sister! A dream! In my dream,
rushes were rising up for me, rushes kept growing for me,
a single reed was shaking its head at me;
twin reeds -- one was being separated from me.
Tall trees in the forest were rising up together over me.
Water was poured over my holy coals for me,
the cover of my holy churn was being removed,
my holy drinking cup was torn down from the peg where it hung,
my shepherd’s stick disappeared from me.
An owl (?) took a lamb from the sheep house,
a falcon caught a sparrow on the reed fence,
my male goats were dragging their dark beards in the dust for me,
my rams were scratching the earth with their thick legs for me.
The churns were lying on their side, no milk was poured,
the drinking cups were lying on their side, Dumuzid was dead,
the sheepfold was haunted.”
Geštin-ana is very frightened because the dream forecasts the imminent
death of Dumuzi and she would have preferred not to interpret the
dream, but finally she does.
The rushes that rose up in his dream are bandits rising up against him
from their ambush. The single reed that shook its head at him is his
mother shaking her head for him. The twin reeds, of which one was being
separated from the other, are you and I, Geštin-ana said. The tall trees in
the forest that rose up together over you are the evil men catching you
within walls. That water that was poured over your holy coals means the
sheepfold will become a house of silence. That the cover of your holy
churn was being removed means the evil man will bring it inside in his
hands. Your holy drinking cup being torn down from the peg where it
hung is you falling off the lap of the mother who bore you. That your
shepherd’s stick disappeared from you means the demons will set fire to
it. The owl taking a lamb from the sheep house is the evil man who will hit
you on the cheek. The falcon catching a sparrow on the reed fence is the
big demon coming down from the sheep house. The churns lying on their
sides, means that Dumuzi is dead, and the sheepfold haunted, means his
hands will be bound in handcuffs, his arms will be bound in fetters. That
your male goats were dragging their dark beards in the dust for you means that
my hair will whirl around in the air like a hurricane for you. That your rams
were scratching the earth with their thick legs for you means that I shall lacerate
my cheeks with my fingernails for you as if with a boxwood needle.”
Hardly has Geštin-ana spoken these words when Dumuzi asks her to
keep watch on the top of the mound. But before she goes Dumuzi warns
her not to go like an ordinary person, but to lacerate her heart and her
liver, her clothes and her crotch as these are gestures which express
mourning and apparently Dumuzi entertains the hope that his sister will
be able to hoodwink his enemies. Strangely, these actions anticipate the
unavoidable fate that will be inflicted upon Dumuzi and she is in fact
already mourning her brother’s death while he is still alive.
Dumuzi calls to his sister saying that she will easily recognize his
pursuers as they hold in their hands the wood to bind hands and the
ropes with which they bind prisoners. The evil men come over the water
in a river barge! Geštin-ana runs to the mound and looks around. Her girl
friend warns her: ‘The big men who bind the neck are already coming for
him!’Geštin-ana calls to her brother; ‘My brother, your demons are coming
for you! Duck your head down into the grass! Dumuzi answers that she must
not reveal his whereabouts to them and that he will duck down into the
ditches of Arali, Arali meaning not only ‘steppe’ but also ‘underworld’,
again an intimation of his imminent fate. Geštin-ana swears to her brother
that she will not betray him: “If I reveal your whereabouts to them, may your
dog devour me! The black dog, your shepherd dog, the noble dog, your lordly
dog, may your dog devour me!” she assures her brother. Dumuzi asks the
same pledge of a friend, who also swears like Geštin-ana, that he will
never betray him. “If I reveal your whereabouts to them, may your dog devour
me! The black dog, your shepherd dog, the noble dog, your lordly dog, may your
dog devour me!”
Both Geštin-ana and the friend are saying that they may die and serve as
carrion for the dogs if they don’t redeem their pledge. The identity of
Dumuzi’s friend is not revealed.
Then the pursuers arrive, a motley crew described as demons and the
fact that they have come from the underworld is indicated by their attitude
to food and drink. They do not accept gifts, they do not enjoy a wife’s
embraces, never kiss dear little children, never chew sharp tasting garlic,
eat no fish or leeks. Although the pursuers of Dumuzi are clearly demons,
they are subsequently described as men from the cities of Adad, Akšak,
Uruk, Ur and Nippur, ‘who come for the king’. The ‘king’ (lugal) refers it
seems, to Dumuzi. According to Alster the myth is an allusion to the
despicable character of recruitment officers, who were desperately feared
by the people and were described as thistles in dried up waters, thorns in
stinking waters. ‘His hand was on the table, his tongue was in the palace’, a
proverb, Alster believes, used to define these men as visitors who abuse
the rules of hospitality by passing on information to the palace.3 The
enemies of Dumuzi seize Geštin-ana and try to bribe her with gifts but
she disdains them declaring, Who since the most ancient of times has ever
known a sister reveal a brother’s whereabouts? They then turn to Dumuzi’s
friend and bribe him with a ditch of water and a field of grain. The friend,
however, reveals the hiding place of Dumuzi: He has dropped down into the
ditches of Arali, but I don’t know his whereabouts”.
When Dumuzi realizes that his friend has betrayed him, he begins to
weep and turns very pale, “In the city my sister saved my life, my friend
caused my death. The men surround Dumuzi. They twisted a cord for him;
they knotted a net for him. They wove a reed hawser for him, they cut sticks for
him. The one in front of him threw missiles at him, the one behind him […] one
cubit. Dumuzi invokes the help of the sun god Utu and reminds him that
he is his brother in law. I am your sister’s husband! He says he has carried
food for Inanna to the Eanna, and brought wedding gifts to Uruk. I am the
one who kisses the holy lips, I am he who dances on the holy knees, the knees of
Inanna
Utu responds by changing the hands and feet of Dumuzi into those of
a gazelle and Dumuzi flees to a strange place called Ku-birešdildareš.
The demons lose track of him but then decide, Come, let us go to Ku-bireš-
dildareš, and there they catch Dumuzi. Again Dumuzi invokes the help of
the sun god, who again changes him into a gazelle and as in a folk tale
this is repeated three times. The second time Dumuzi escapes to the
house of the Old Woman Belili where he explains to her that he is not just
a man, but the husband of a goddess. He asks her to pour water so that
he can drink and to sprinkle flour so that he can eat, this request again
reminiscent of the commemoration of the dead, when relatives pour
water and scatter flour on the ground for their dead. The old woman Belili
does as Dumuzi asks and then leaves the house whereupon the demons
see her. Apparently the old woman behaves as a female mourner,
lamenting the death of Dumuzi and so putting the demons on the track of
the hiding place of Dumuzi. “Unless the old woman is aware of Dumuzi’s
whereabouts, she is indeed looking frightened! She is indeed screaming in a
frightened way!”, say the demons to each other. They break into the
house of Belili and find Dumuzi whom they seize, bind with cords and
assault with missiles. They wove a reed hawser for him, they cut sticks for him,
the one in front of him threw missiles at him, the one behind him […..]. His
hands were held fast in handcuffs, his arms were bound in fetters.
 For the third time Dumuzi invokes the help of Utu, who again changes
his hands and feet into those of a gazelle. This time Dumuzi escapes to
the home of his sister Geštin-ana in the sheepfold but as soon as she
sees her brother she starts screaming. Geštin-ana cried toward heaven,
cried toward earth. Her cries covered the horizon completely like a cloth; they
were spread out like linen. She lacerated her eyes, she lacerated her face, she
lacerated her ears in public; in private she lacerated her buttocks.
These actions also refer to rituals of mourning during funerals, when
relatives lament and lacerate their skin with their nails. Geštin-ana acted
in this way, because her brother had asked her to do so in the hope of
putting the demons on the wrong track but it only made matters worse.
Dumuzi had entertained the hope that his enemies would stop their
pursuit, thinking that he was already dead but the men interpreted the
mourning rites of Geštin-ana as an indication that she was well informed
about the refuge of Dumuzi and the unavoidable fate that was waiting
him. They now knew that Dumuzi was hiding in her house and they broke
into the sheepfold and cow pen. The first man set fire to the fold, the
second man set fire to the shepherd’s stick and the third man removed
the cover of the holy churn. The fourth man tore down the drinking cup
from the peg where it hung. When the fifth man entered the churns lay on
their side, no milk was poured and the drinking cups lay on their side.
They poured water over the holy brazier. Dumuzi was dead, the
sheepfold was haunted.
The myth does not explain why the demons were chasing Dumuzi or why
they murder him so viciously and it is strange that Dumuzi fails to behave
like a proper mythological hero, boldly fighting his enemies, but instead
starts crying and runs away, invoking the help of his sister. In this myth
he is sometimes called ‘king’, as the men from the surrounding cities of
Adab, Akšak, Uruk, Ur and Nippur have come to catch the king. Inanna
plays no role whatsoever in this myth and is only mentioned when
Dumuzi invokes the help of her brother, Utu. On the other hand the sister
of Dumuzi plays the role of heroine, refusing to succumb to the bribes of
the men. There is in existence another text in which the pursuers of
Dumuzi are somewhat less considerate and torture her terribly. In that
myth they scratch her skin, throw her to the ground and pour boiling pitch
in her lap but she does not give in and does not betray the whereabouts
of Dumuzi.4 The role of the friend is not clear. Unlike the sister, he does
betray Dumuzi’s hiding place and possibly his action is meant to better
accentuate the sister’s loyalty but we will come back to this theme in
Chapter 23.
The text of Dumuzi’s Dream shows traces of the oral tradition some
passages being copied from other hymns and there are many standard
expressions and repetitions. The myth is called a šir-kal-kal ‘a precious
song’, for the dead Dumuzi. The basic meaning of kal-kal is ‘to become
precious or rare’ and according to Dahlia Shehata this could be related to
the absence and loss of Dumuzi.5 She suspects that this text would have
been recited or narrated rather than sung.
Inanna and Bilulu
There is still another myth about the death of Dumuzi, which deals with
Inanna and Bilulu6 whom we have already met above, as the Old Woman
Belili, in whose house Dumuzi took refuge from the demons and who
inadvertently betrayed Dumuzi to his pursuers by mourning his death in
advance of the actual event. However in this myth, Inanna and Bilulu,
Inanna does succeed in playing an important role as the young wife of
Dumuzi, waiting and longing anxiously for him to return to their home,
while Dumuzi is wandering about with his cattle. Inanna has a
premonition of tragedy and she asks her mother’s permission to go to the
sheepfold of Dumuzi.
Then we learn that a robbery has taken place and although the text is
much damaged, we can gather from the legible lines that Dumuzi has
been beaten to death by Girgire, the son of Bilulu. Someone tells Inanna
that a man, other than Dumuzi, is returning in charge of Dumuzi’s sheep
and Inanna’s initial reaction is pride in her husband who always makes
sure to protect his sheep, standing guard over them day and night.
Meanwhile, Bilulu’s son enters her house with the cattle and the grain
that was stolen from Dumizi’s fields, leaving his victim stricken dead by
the mace. In the house of Bilulu there is in addition some sort of demon
called Sirru of the Edin-lil2-la2 which means literally, Sirru of the blowing
wind of the desert, ‘no one’s child and no one’s friend’.
Inanna broods on revenge. She makes her way to Edin-lil2-la2 to the
house of Bilulu and probably kills the woman and her son, then enters the
tavern, the eš-dam, climbs on to a seat and utters her revenge and her
curse. She will change Bilulu into a water skin for cold water commonly
used in the desert and Bilulu and Girgire will become protective spirits of
the desert. Sirru of Edin-lil2-la2 will walk in the desert and keep an
account of the flour, when water is poured and flour sprinkled for
Dumiuzi, wandering in the desert. Inanna decrees: Let the protective god of
the desert and the protective goddess of the desert call out: “Libate!” call out:
“Sprinkle!”, and thereby cause him to be present in the place from which he
vanished, in the desert! Let old woman Bilulu gladden his heart!” In this way
they will invoke the spirit of Dumuzi in the desert and allow him to
continue to remain present on the spot where he had disappeared.
This myth may explain the practise of desert nomads, who traditionally
make offerings of water and flour to their dead in the desert. Each time
someone in the desert offers water, Bilulu is obliged to pay honour to
Dumuzi and in this way Inanna takes revenge on Dumuzi’s killers while
providing him with a good resting place. Dumuzi will receive what is his
due in the desert: water and food, the offerings of the commemoration of
the dead.
According to Alster it is unlikely that the Dream of Dumuzi had any
cultic function.7 However this may not be correct as the kal-kal-song
about the Dream of Dumuzi and the myth of Bilulu seem to have had a
true cultic function in the commemoration of the dead, as we will see in
Chapter 23. The mysterious conundrum of course, is why Dumuzi was
killed. Why was his fate unavoidable and was he chased by Galla
demons? Why did he make so little effort to defend himself against his
attackers, but took flight instead? Why was Inanna unable to protect him?
These questions will be further dealt with in chapter 23, where we will
also note that in Sumer the death of a young son or brother was a cause
of the greatest sorrow, their early death lamented in plaintive verse by
their mothers or sisters. Moreover, we will deal with a myth that provides
a plausible reason for the pursuit and death of Dumuzi, apparently
ordained by no less a person than the goddess Inanna.
Endnotes Chapter 15
1 Alster, 1972
2 ETCSL 1.4.3., l. 26-39
3 Alster, 1993, p. 31
4 Bottéro/Kramer, 1989, p. 298; ETCSL 1.4.1.1., ‘Dumuzi and Gestin-
ana,
line 57-64
5 Shehata, 2009, p. 282
6 Jacobsen, 1953; ETCSL 1.4.4.
7 Alster, 1972, p. 13
Chapter 16 Neo-Sumerian kings make love
to Inanna
After the fall of the Akkad Empire at the beginning of the second
millennium, the southern city states of Uruk and Ur regained a strong
position. This period which saw the revival of Sumerian culture is referred
to by modern scholars as the ‘Neo-Sumerian period’. Enlil was the
highest god of the Sumerian pantheon and his principal temple was in
Nippur but it is not clear when exactly Enlil had become the mightiest god
of the pantheon, presumably already before the Akkadian period.1 Where
exactly Enlil had come from is not very clear either. According to some
scholars Enlil had been a Sumerian god,2 but this has been disputed by
others3 who believe Enlil was a Semitic god that had come from the north
of Mesopotamia to Nippur. This would seem to accord with the situation
we encountered in Mari (see Chapter 5), as King Isqi-Mari reigned in the
time before Sargon of Akkad, but he was already calling himself ensi of
Enlil. Did this happen to the detriment of the position of Inanna? Isqi-Mari
had placed his statue in the temple of Inanna Man and dedicated it to
Inanna, so why then was Enlil promoted to the position of highest god in
the pantheon and was it the caste of the mighty priests of Nippur who so
successfully pushed through Enlil’s dominant position? In the Cursing of
Akkad it is the god Enlil who lectures King Naram-Sîn of Akkad and who
decides on the downfall of the dynasty of Akkad. But it has to be
remembered that this lamentation was composed after the fall of Akkad,
and demonstrates the distinctly prejudiced view of the new Sumerian
kings.
The principal temple of Enlil was located in Nippur, a city which since
time immemorial already had its own Sumerian city god, Ninurta so in
order to resolve this problem Enlil was made his mythological father and
took over a number of the myths previously told about Ninurta. 4 In the
hymns it was subsequently told that it was the god Enlil who granted
kingship to the rulers although thus far it had always been Inanna who
had conferred the kingship5. However this attempt by Enlil to oust Inanna
from her pre-eminent position did not prove to be that easy as is clear
from the hymns of the kings of the Third dynasty of Ur. In these
panegyrics Inanna always features as the principle actor on the scene
and remains the strong support of the kings. Her role as the divine
consort of the king was not by any means finished and in the songs of
praise these monarchs still make love to her in her temple.
The third dynasty of Ur (2112-2004 BC)
After the fall of the Akkad Empire and a period of much confusion,
Sumerian culture revived in the southern city states. In Ur a new dynasty
had come to power, called the third dynasty of Ur, this name given by
archaeologists because it was, according to the Sumerian king list, the
third time that kingship was granted by the gods to Ur. The royal dynasty
of Ur III originated in Uruk, perhaps the reason why these kings brought
with them Inanna the city goddess of Uruk, when they moved to Ur.
The third dynasty of Ur knew five successive kings who reigned over
a period of some hundred years, during which time they were successful
in establishing a huge bureaucratic administration. A complicated
taxation system collected and transported commodities from the
provinces to a central point, from where they were redistributed to the
rest through the administration of the state. With Elam and Mari the kings
of Ur III maintained diplomatic relations and daughters were married off
to friendly royal houses. Merchants travelled to Dilmun and Magan in the
Persian Gulf, Dilmun being present day Bahrein, and Magan probably
Oman. These regions were an important intermediate stage for overseas
trading with India, the mysterious far away land of ‘Meluhha’ that
produced carnelian stones and other exotic products.
In no other period have there been preserved so many cuneiform
tablets, and while the lion’s share were administrative recordings, the
kings were keen to have the tablet scribes compose literary texts as well.
The art of writing was taught in the ‘house of tablets’, the ‘e2-dubba’.
There were private tablet schools in domestic residential areas where a
teacher received and instructed his pupils in his home, but in addition
there must have been a lot of writing schools paid for by the palace or the
temple and we know that king Šulgi (2094-2047 BC) founded quite a
number of tablet schools over the whole country. Most Sumerian
literature that has survived dates from this period, which explains why our
view of Sumerian culture is so distorted, because monarchs do not
scruple to falsify history and adapt it to their own needs. They
commissioned dozens of hymns which bear witness to their loving
relationship with the goddess Inanna. The king was Inanna’s beloved
husband and celebrated with her the ritual wedding night in her temple in
Uruk.
Utu-Hegal (2116-2110 B.C.)
Utu-Hegal (literally, sungod Utu + abundance) was the first Sumerian
king that came to power after the fall of the Akkadian empire. As we said
before this king came from Uruk and from this city he engaged in
continuous warfare against the foreign Gutians, who had occupied a
large part of the region. The Gutians were a mountain tribe that
continuously carried out fierce attacks from the Zagros highlands in the
east. In the hymns of these kings it is clear that by now there was an
obvious apportioning of roles between the god Enlil and Inanna. Enlil was
the master, but Inanna on the other hand was city goddess of Uruk, with
whom the king Utu-Hegal, entertained a loving relationship. There is a
poem in which Utu-Hegal describes how he defeated the Gutians, and
how he obtained the services of Inanna6:
Enlil, the king of all the lands, entrusted Utu-hegal, the mighty man, the king of
Unug, the king of the four quarters, the king whose orders cannot be
countermanded, with wiping out the name of Gutium, the fanged (?) snake of the
mountains, who acted with violence against the gods, who carried off the
kingship of Sumer to foreign lands, who filled Sumer with wickedness, who took
away spouses from the married and took away children from parents, who made
wickedness and violence normal in the Land. He (i.e. Utu-Hegal) went to his lady,
Inanna, and prayed to her: “My lady, lioness in the battle, who butts the foreign
lands, Enlil has entrusted me with bringing back the kingship to Sumer. May you
be my help!”
Enlil is the national god who gave Utu-Hegal the mission to expel the
hostile Gutians, while in the Cursing of Akkad it was this very same Enlil
who sent these despised Gutians as a punishment to the land. But Utu-
Hegal, as city ruler of Uruk, appeals to Inanna for assistance. Utu-Hegal,
chosen by Inanna with her holy heart calls up the population of Uruk and
Kullab and says to them:7
Enlil has given Gutium to me and my lady Inanna will be my help! Dumu-zid-
ama-ucumgal-ana (= surname van Dumuzi) has declared “It is a matter for me!”
and assigned Gilgameš , the son of Nin-sun to me as a constable!” The citizens
of Unug and Kulaba rejoiced and followed him with one accord.
The poetic imagination is boundless. Utu-Hegal claims that Inanna the
city goddess of Uruk and Kullab, together with her husband Dumuzi,
supports his plans and he also identifies himself with the legendary
Gilgameš in order to win the support of the citizens. The ploy is
successful according to the poem and also benefits the enemy, the
Gutian people, who extradite their own king to Uruk because Utu-Hegal
has the support of Enlil, the head of the pantheon! A bit strange as we
are soon to learn that the Gutians were not yet defeated, but for the
courtly poets no creative interpretation of the facts was too absurd.
Ur-Namma (2110-2095 B.C.)
Utu-Hegal’s victory was short lived however, as after seven years he was
fatally injured on the battlefield and his brother Ur-Namma succeeded
him, moving his residence to the city of Ur. Why he did not stay in Uruk is
not known. He conquered Lagaš and parts of Northern Mesopotamia and
called himself in some songs of self praise ‘king of Sumer and Akkad’.
The power base of Ur-Namma was now Ur and during his reign this city
achieved immense prosperity. Trade with Dilmun on the Persian Gulf
flourished like never before and in his hymns Ur-Namma boasts that he
has dug canals and brought opulence to his land. The crops grew
abundantly on the land and the cattle were numerous in the fields. This
king built many temples, the most famous being the ziqqurat of Ur-
Namma, the temple of the moon god Nanna. On the stele of Ur-Namma
we see him twice, first in front of the moon god Nanna and then in front of
the goddess Ningal (figure 16.1).
Figure 16.1. Stèle of Ur-Namma, detail of the observe site. Ur. Ur-
Namma pours a libation in a vase with a stylized date palm in front of the
moon-god Nanna and presents himself at the same time before goddess
Ningal. (Courtesy: © Penn Museum, Pennsylvania, United States,
8881/B16676)
Ur-Namma too saw himself as a king who was beloved of the gods and
just like the kings of the Akkad dynasty he aligned his family with the
gods. The ancestors with whom he felt an affiliation were the legendary
kings of the Sumerian mythology, Enmerkar, Lugalbanda and Gilgameš.
The goddess Ninsun, mother of Gilgameš now becomes the mother of
Ur-Namma also. In a song of praise to the moon god Ur-Namma relates
that his mother had decided on a great destiny for him: 8
After my seed had been poured into the holy womb, Suen, loving its appearance,
made it partake of Nanna’s attractiveness (hi-liallure). Coming forth over the Land
like Utu, Enlil called me by an auspicious name, and Nintud (= birth goddess)
assisted at my birth. As I came forth from the womb of my mother Ninsun, a
favourable destiny was determined for me.
In other songs too it seems as if the gods had decided on an
advantageous future for Ur-Namma. Enlil and An spoke favourably about
the ‘shepherd’ Ur-Namma. God Enlil had assigned to Ur-Namma the task
of protecting the country, but it is the goddess Inanna with whom he
performs the Sacred Marriage rite9:
I am clad in linen in the gipar.
I lie down on the bed with girinna-plants in its sweet smelling bedchamber.
I cause the people to eat splendid food; I am their Enkimdu (i.e. the god of irrigation
and cultivation).
I am the good shepherd whose sheep multiply greatly.
I open the […..] of the cattle-pens and sheepfolds.
I am peerless. [……] the pastures and watering-places of shepherds.
It is owing to this love encounter with the goddess in the gipar that the
country will flourish under the reign of Ur-Namma. It is still the goddess of
sexual love who is able to laden the king with her gracious gifts. The
support of Inanna was still essential to the prosperity of the kings.

Figure 16.2. Detail of a copper head of Ur-Namma from the Inanna

temple of Nippur. (Kramer, 1983, p. 70)
But all these promising portents of the gods did not come true as Ur-
Namma died unexpectedly when he was severely injured on the
battlefield, fighting the Gutians. The shock was enormous and
inexplicable. How was it possible that the gods let this happen? In the
Lamentation The Death of Ur-Namma, the incident is explained as an
alteration in the fateful decisions of An and Enlil, and the other gods react
with deep dismay. His mother Ninsun weeps and laments
uninterruptedly, the crops decay in the fields and the cattle die in the
sheds. The king agonizes on the battlefield and his soldiers carry him to
Ur, where he passes away as an uprooted tree, in the arms of his
spouse. Following his funeral, his soldiers shed tears while they
accompany the king to his grave then they sink Ur-Namma’s boat, in a
land as foreign to them as Dilmun.
The boat was stripped of its oars, punting poles and rudder, and the
donkeys that had pulled the wagon of Ur-Namma were buried with him.
The funeral is reminiscent of the situation found by Woolley at the Royal
Cemetery of Ur, which was more than half a century older (Chapter 6 and
7).
Then Ur-Namma has to make the lonely journey to the land of no return.
The deceased king distributes the presents he has brought with him to
the gods residing in the underworld, Enlil, Ereškigal, Gilgameš, Dumuzi
etc. When everybody is provided with gifts the goddess of the
underworld, Ereškigal, decides that Ur-Namma will from now on issue the
judgements of the underworld together with Gilgameš.
In the meantime in the upper world, the mourning for Ur-Namma
continues. His spouse weeps bitterly in the palace realizing that the dead
king will never again sit with his sons on his knees, that he will never see
them in their prime, nor the beauty of their little sisters who have not yet
grown up. In the underworld Ur-Namma in his turn laments for his wife
who has become a widow:
She is cast adrift like a boat in a raging storm; the mooring pole has not been
strong enough for her. Like a wild ass lured into a perilous pit she has been
treated heavy-handedly. Like a lion fallen into a pitfall, a guard has been set up
for her. Like a dog kept in a cage, she is silenced. Utu [……] does not pay heed
to the cries “Oh, my king” overwhelming her.
The lamentation explains why the goddess Inanna had not intervened
when Ur-Namma’s fate was decided. The reason so we are told, is that
Inanna was not present when Enlil modified his judgement, in fact he had
sent Inanna as his envoy to distant lands on matters of importance. In
other words, it was a control damage exercise. Inanna needed to be
shielded, as she had predicted a long life for Ur-Namma as the outcome
of their Sacred Marriage rite and the failure of her prediction could not but
result in a severe loss of face for the goddess. However the hymn
assures us that it had all been concocted behind her back and she
herself was not to blame. As soon as Inanna returns and enters the
temple of Enlil, this highest of all the gods explains to her that once
someone has bowed down, he cannot rise up anymore. The trustworthy
shepherd, Ur-Namma, has abandoned the Eanna, the holy temple of
Inanna in Uruk and Inanna will not see him anymore.
When Inanna hears these words she becomes enraged and she
makes the heavens tremble and the earth shake, she destroys cattle
pens and devastates sheepfolds, saying:” If there are ‘written laws’
imposed on the Land, but they are not observed, there will be no abundance at
the gods’s place of sunrise.
Inanna does use the word ‘written laws’ (giš-hur, line 210) because fates
decreed by the gods (nam-tar or ME) can never change, as that would
not square with the cosmic constellation. Inanna groans:
My holy gipar, the shrine Eanna, has been barred up a mountain. If only my
shepherd could enter before me in it in his prime -- I will not enter it otherwise!
If only my strong one could grow for me like grass and herbs in the desert. If
only he could hold steady for me like a river boat at its calm mooring.”
It is possible that here Inanna is making an allusion to her encounter with
Ur-Namma in the gipar and that he, just like Dumuzi, will revive like grass
and herbs after his death.
By way of solace, Inanna decrees that Ur-Namma may have died, but
his name will survive forever. People will remember him because of the
canals he dug, the large and grand arable tracts which he made to
prosper, the reed beds he drained, the fortresses and settlements which
he protected. The fate of Ur-Namma is now decided and his fame will be
inherited by his descendants. Wilcke remarks that it is curious that in the
enumeration nothing is said of his victories on the battlefield, his
legislation, and his temple building.10

Figure 16.3 Ruins of the city of Ur, in the distance the restored ziqqurat of
the moon god (Source: Flickr, photo: M. Lubinski, VS; photo available on
the internet: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lubinski/177560242/)
Šulgi (2095-2047 BC.)
The violent death of Ur-Namma as related in the lamentation raises the
suspicion that it was still a very troubled time and that the menace of the
Gutians was still very real when Šulgi, son of Ur-Namma, succeeded his
father. He must have been very young as he would reign for more than
forty eight years, and during his regime the Sumerian culture would enjoy
the summit of its prosperity.
Šulgi nominated his daughter Ennirzianna as En priestess of the
moon god. He married his other daughters off to his vassals and
developed a huge and complex state bureaucracy. He was forced to
engage in bloody battles with the Gutians, as is clear from several year
names such as the year in which Šulgi conscripted as archers ‘the son’s
of Ur’. 11 The king entertained very friendly relations with the gods and
just like his father he regarded the Sumerian gods Ninsun and
Lugalbanda as his ancestors while Gilgameš was his own brother.
Goddess Inanna was his legitimate spouse and he visited her in her
temple in Uruk to celebrate the Sacred Marriage rite with her. But halfway
through his reign he took a step that even Ur-Namma had not attempted,
Šulgi even during his lifetime, became a god. Just like Naram-Sîn of
Akkad in the past, Šulgi added to his name in writing, the divine dingir-
sign.
Sumerologists have succeeded in reconstructing some twenty hymns
about Šulgi from fragments of more than two hundred clay tablets. Hymn
Šulgi D deals with his military campaigns against the Gutians,12 and from
the year names of his reign it seems that these campaigns were carried
out in the twenty fourth year of his reign. The hymn narrates how the king
ensures that he is supported by a well-chosen selection of the Sumerian
gods including Ninsun ‘his mother, who gave birth to him’ and
Lugalbanda, who fashioned him. Šulgi is further protected by ‘mother’
Nintu, who nurtured him Enlil who lifted his head and Ninlil who loves
him. Nanna also, the moon god who travels with his magur boot over the
vault of heaven, stands behind Šulgi. Finally the gods Enki of Eridu and
Utu of Larsa support his military campaign against the Gutians. Having
invoked so many divine helpers, it is curious that Šulgi does not mention
his divine spouse Inanna, war goddess par excellence, in this heavenly
line-up of battle.
Then follows Šulgi’s heroic combat on the battlefield, described in
literary details. He caught the foreign warriors as if they were fish or
ailing, and with his throw stick and sling he cut down like locusts the
crushed people of the rebel lands. The young ones of the foreign lands
he placed on ships, but he killed the adults in revenge. The king avenged
his city and whatever has been destroyed in Sumer he destroyed in the
foreign lands. He let long grass grow in their fertile fields of shining barley
and uprooted their small trees. With the axe he destroyed their thick and
tall trees, and he tore down by the crown their valuable trees. In their
irrigated gardens, where honey and fig trees used to grow, he made
weeds grow, so that plants and herbs broke through the soil. The king
destroyed the cities and ruined the city walls, he terrified the foreign lands
like a flood, and scattered the seed of Gutium like seed grain. On his way
back he visited with his magur boat, all the temples of the gods who had
supported him and he brought his spoils of war to the temple of Enlil and
Ninlil. Enlil was in a rapture of delight and decrees a happy fate for Šulgi.
The end of Šulgi D-hymn is missing but according to Jacob Klein the
hymn Šulgi X is possibly a sequel to it, as this hymn has in fact no
prologue.13 Right after reporting Šulgi’s arrival in Ur, the text mentions his
paying a visit to Inanna, without any reference to his previous departure
from Ur. Furthermore, this song would be a good continuation of the
account in Šulgi’s hymn of the cities that he was to visit with his magur
boot on his return journey after his victory over the Gutians. He moored
at the quayside of Kullab, a suburb of Uruk, with a large bull and sheep,
and led by the hand of an En priest at his right side and two kids clasped
to his breast, he visited Inanna in her shrine. Šulgi was dressed in his ma
garment and with his hili wig on his head and Inanna looked at him with
admiration and spontaneously started to sing a song. She bathed and
adorned herself for the shepherd Dumuzi, i.e. the king in his role as
spouse of Inanna. She has rubbed her thighs with ointment, painted her
eyes with kohl and anointed her mouth with balsamic oil. The king lies
beside her; he takes her in his arms and with his fair hands holds her
hips. He ruffles my pubic hair for me, when he plays with the hair of my head,
when he lays his hands on my holy genitals, when he lies down in the [……] of
my sweet womb.14
While lying beside him Inanna speaks soft words to him and decrees a
destiny for Šulgi: “I will decree the shepherdship of all the lands as his
destiny!” she says. Then she enumerates his excellent qualities the
success that his fate has in store for him:
The lady, the light of heaven,
the delight of the black-headed,
the youthful woman who excels her mother,
who was granted divine powers by her father,
Inanna, the daughter of Suen,
decreed a destiny for Šulgi, the son of Ninsun:
“In battle I will be the one who goes before you.
In combat I will carry your weapon like a personal attendant.
In the assembly I will be your advocate.
On campaign I will be your encouragement. You are a shepherd chosen by holy
[……].
You are the generous provider of E-anna.
You are the pure (?) one of An’s Iri-gal. You are worthy of[…….]
You are one who is entitled to hold high his head on the lofty dais.
You are one who is worthy of sitting on the shining throne.
Your head is worthy of the brilliant crown.
Your body is worthy of the long fleecy garment.
You are worthy of being dressed in the royal garb.
You are suited to hold the mitum weapon in your arm.
You are suited to run fast with the battle-mace.
You are suited to hit accurately with the barbed arrows and the bow.
You are suited to fasten the throwstick and the sling to your side.
Your hand is worthy of the holy sceptre.
Your feet are worthy of the holy shoes.
You are a fast runner suited to race on the road.
You are worthy to delight yourself on my holy breast like a pure calf.
May your love be lasting! An has determined this for you, and may he never
alter it!
May Enlil, the decreer of fates, never change it!”
Thus Inanna treated him tenderly.
Those who wield great power often show a tendency to inflate their
importance to an absurd degree, commissioning colossal statues of
themselves or demanding adulation and glorification from those they
control and Šulgi was no exception. In the hymn Šulgi A Šulgi boasts that
he is a fantastic runner, able to cover the distance between Nippur and
Ur, a distance of more than 160 kilometers, there and back in one single
day, even though it was pouring with rain, a storm shrieked and the west
wind howled15. The north wind and the south wind howled at each other.
Lightning together with the seven winds vied with each other in the heavens.
Thundering storms made the earth quake, and Iškur (the stormgod) roared in the
broad heavens. The rains of heaven mingled with the waters of the earth. Small
and large hailstones drummed on my back. The king however was not afraid,
he rushed forth like a fierce lion and he galloped like an ass in the desert
and thanks to this heroic deed he was able to celebrate the ‘eš3-eš3’-
festival in both Nippur and Ur on the very same day. I drank beer in the
palace founded by An with my brother and companion, the hero Utu. My singers
praised me with songs accompanied by seven tigi drums. My spouse, the maiden
Inanna, the lady, the joy of heaven and earth, sat with me at the banquet.16

Figure 16.4 Seal given (in-na-ba) by Šulgi ‘to Ea-niša, his travelling
companion (lukur-kaskalla). (Mayr/Owen, 2004, fig. 1)

Figure 16.5 Seal given (in-na-ba) by Šulgi to Geme-Ninlila, his beloved’.

(Mayr/Owen, 2004, fig. 1)
The hymn Šulgi G describes the miraculous and divine birth of Šulgi in
the temple of Enlil. The moon god had gone to Enlil’s temple in Nippur to
plead with his father for the birth of a son to which request Enlil had
willingly agreed. The moon god placed his semen in the womb of the En
priestess whereupon she gave birth to a son, whom Enlil caused to
emerge as a royal child perfectly fitted for the royal throne, no less a
person than King Šulgi. Enlil gave him a good name and conferred on
him the crook (eškiri) and staff (šibir), the scepter (gidri) and the throne
(dur2-nam-lugal-la2).
Some scholars see in these verses an indication that Šulgi was the
physical son of an En priestess, but Jacob Klein believes that we need
not take this hymn too literally. According to him the miraculous birth of
Šulgi is no more than a myth that was used as propaganda to underscore
the divine origin of Šulgi. The circumstances under which Šulgi had come
to power after his father’s death had been perilous. His father had died
unexpectedly, his early death completely at odds with the favourable fate
decreed by Inanna, who had foretold for Ur-Namma a long and
prosperous life with eternal fame. The sudden death of their king had
plunged the land into despair and was a cause of severe embarrassment
to the priests of Nippur. Šulgi must have been very young at the time and
according to Jacob Klein the hymn Šulgi G about the divine birth of Šulgi
was a reaction to the serious political and religious crisis that followed the
unforeseen death of Ur-Namma. The son would be seen to function as a
substitute for his father and be granted a long and glorious reign,
enabling the descendants of Ur-Namma continuity of existence after all,
and proof that the gods still were favourably disposed towards this
dynasty.17
The question remains whether Klein’s interpretation of the birth of a
king by an En priestess is the complete story. It is remarkable how often
kings have hinted that they were the child of an En priestess or a Nin. In
the myth of Sargon of Akkad, his mother was a high priestess of Ištar
(Chapter 8), king Ib-lul-il of Mari called himself the ‘offspring’ (child) of the
NIN (Chapter 5), Enheduanna appears to have had a ‘son’ according to a
seal that was found in Ur (Chapter 10) and now we learn from Šulgi’s
hymn that his mother was said to be an En priestess. Could this mean
that En priestesses were allowed to bear a child that was intended for
kingship or are we to interpret these allusions merely as symbolic?
Unfortunately the information available is insufficient to attempt an
answer to these questions.
Hymne Šulgi P relates how Šulgi was crowned.18 Šulgi now appears to
be in possession of a divine mother Ninsun, who requested An to make
Šulgi the trustworthy shepherd of the black headed people. Of course An
is very pleased to comply with this request and he decrees a splendid
future for the king. Ninsun took Šulgi by his right hand and led him joyfully
to the ‘Egal-mah’, ‘Great Temple’, seating him upon the exalted dais
erected by An. She assured him that he was born to her, that he was of
the good seed of Lugalbanda and that she had raised him upon her holy
lap. An gave him the sceptre for rendering justice and Lugalbanda named
him the ‘Valiant one (= Šul, or: youthful) whom An made known among the gods’.
He bestowed on him the crown of kingship, Šulgi son of Ninsun and
Lugalbanda and the brother of Gilgameš. In Šulgi P it is moreover
stressed that Geštin-ana, in the myth the sister of Dumuzi, is also Sulgi’s
sister, making Šulgi an incarnation of Dumuzi. The hymn makes no
attempt to explain the intricacies of these relationships but repeats time
and again with every possible variation that Šulgi is a righteous king who
was chosen by the gods.
Essentially, the hymns demonstrate the urgent need of these kings to
justify their powerful position. They not only use political force to vindicate
their legitimate rights to rule but ideological means as well.19 In the hymn
Šulgi E, ‘The testament of Šulgi’,20 the king says that the hymns the
poets have composed about him at the command of the gods must never
be forgotten so he had them written down line by line in the House of the
Wisdom of Nisaba in holy heavenly writing, as great works of scholarship (…).
They would always be remembered, since indestructible heavenly writing
has a lasting renown, the king observes and he will be marked in memory
till the end of time. Let my songs sparkle like silver in the lode! Let them be
performed in all the cult-places, and let no one neglect them in the Shrine of the
New Moon. In the music-rooms of Enlil and Ninlil and at the morning and
evening meals of Nanna, let the sweet praise of me, Šulgi, be never-ending.
Šulgi orders that the priests in the Ekur tempel of Enlil should sing for
ever about his wisdom and intelligence during his lifetime and during the
monthly eš3-eš3-festivities after his death, so he may never be forgotten.
It was for this reason that Šulgi enhanced the prestige of the tablet
schools to have as many scribes as possible copying the hymns and
songs about him (adab, bal-bale, širnam šub, tigi, etc.) and to pass them
on to the next generation with the result that indeed many hymns about
Šulgi have been preserved until our time. Whenever these hymns are
sung Šulgi returns to earth while simultaneously he is raised to heaven
and takes his place among the stars.
Amar-Sîn (2046-2038 .BC)
The successors of Šulgi continued to follow the course outlined by Šulgi.
Amar-Sîn succeeded his father Šulgi although why he was the chosen
heir is not clear, as Šulgi had no less than thirty one children, among
whom were seventeen sons. 21 About Amar-Sîn not much is known as he
reigned for only a short time and was succeeded by his brother Šu-Sîn.
There may have been a quarrel among the brothers and afterwards Šu-
Sîn had deliberately ignored or cast aspersions on the memory of Amar-
Sîn. There is indeed not one known hymn about this king nor are any of
his letters copied by scribes in the tablet school, as with other kings. All
the correspondence we have of Amar-Sîn dates from his own time and
these letters do not deal with military matters or diplomacy as was the
case with the other kings but with the water economy and the release of
slaves.22 Only two texts about Amar-Sîn himself have been preserved
and they relate how Amar-Sîn was not able to restore the temple of
Enki,23 a theme reminiscent of The cursing of Akkad. In this hymn
Naram-Sîn also had little success in restoring the temple of Enlil as the
gods would not give him permission. Naram-Sîn wrapped himself up in
mourning clothes in order to soothe the gods but from the fact that no
answer was forthcoming, we can infer that the gods had turned away
from the king. Amar-Sîn seems to have found himself in the same
position and is described as an Unheilsherrscher24, a deplorable ruler
who ruled only to the detriment of the country.
Šu-Sîn (2037-2029 v.C.)
Šu-Sîn succeeded his brother Amar-Sîn but he would not rule for a long
time either. During his regime the Amorites (of them more later) attacked,
and in order to check their advance, Šu-Sin the penultimate king of his
dynasty, started building a wall 180 kilometres long, between the
Euphrates and the Diyala River. He called this project ‘wall withholding
the Amorites’ (muriq Tidnim), but it was to no avail and the Ur III dynasty
would come to an end during the reign of his successor Ibbi-Sîn. The
succeeding dynasties, however, would continue the Sumerian tradition
and culture of the Ur III kings.
About Šu-Sîn a number of love lyrics are known that are a match for the
songs written about his father Šulgi and it is clear from the subtext that
Inanna is still in charge as love goddess.25 The following rather obscure
song seems to be an ode to some women around Šu-Sîn, his mother, his
wife and his concubine,26 although which woman is taking which position
is not very clear, and neither is it obvious who speaks what words. The
names of Šulgi and Šu-Sîn are preceded with a divine determinative (d):
It was she who gave birth to the holy one, gave birth to the holy one;
the queen gave birth to the holy one,
Abi-simti (i.e. Šu--Sîn’s mother) gave birth to the holy one,
the queen (nin) gave birth to the holy one --
my cloth beam of the cloth of pleasure, my Abi-simti!
My warp beam placed for weaving, my queen Kubatum (i.e. Šu-Sîn’s concubine)!
My one suited to a mane of hair, a wonder to behold, my lord
dŠu-Sîn, my one […..]. in words, my son of dŠulgi -- because I uttered, because I

uttered, the umun (Emesal for EN, ruler) gave me a gift, because I uttered an
exclamation of joy, the lord gave me a gift. The lord gave me as a gift a golden
pin, a lapis-lazuli seal. The lord gave me as a gift a golden ring, a silver ring.
O lord, your gifts are [……] , may you cast your eyes on me.
O dŠu-Sîn, your gifts are [……] , may you cast your eyes on me.
[……] lord[ …… ]lord […….] Like pleasant …….
May your city stretch out its hands to you like a cripple, my lord
dŠu-Sîn.

May it lie down at your feet like a lion-cub, my son of dŠulgi.

My[ ……], the barmaid’s beer is sweet.
Like her beer her genitals are sweet, her beer is sweet.
Like her mouth her genitals are sweet, her beer is sweet
Her diluted beer, her beer is sweet -- my dŠu-Sîn, who pleased me, who pleased
me, who delighted me, my dŠu-Sîn who pleased me,
my dŠu-Sîn, beloved of dEnlil,
my king, the god of his Land!
It is a bal-bale of dBau.
It is difficult to know what to make of this song or why it is called a balbale
song of the goddess Bau, a goddess who is mostly identified with Inanna.
Who speaks what? Various suggestions have been made and it is clear
that Abisimti is the mother of Šu-Sîn as the poem praises her because
she gave birth to him. A certain Kubatum is called ‘my Nin’ and both she
and Abisimti are poetically compared to the components of a weaving
loom. It is difficult to know if the woman who receives presents from Šu-
Sîn is a chantress who is recommending her own body or the voice of
Kubatum. A number of scholars take the line that Kubatum was a lukur
priestess perhaps the Nin of Šu-Sîn and that she must have been of a
high status as Šu-Sîn provides her with precious gifts. In Uruk during the
excavations on the Eanna precinct archaeologists dug up two costly
chains of Šu-Sîn on one of which is written, Kubatum, beloved lukur of dŠu-
Sîn and on the other, Ti’amatbašti, beloved lukur of dŠu-Sîn.27 Šu-Sîn might
have offered these chains to the lukur priestesses of Uruk which would
be an indication of a Sacred Marriage rite. But whether the lukur
priestesses played the role of Inanna when they were visited on New
Year’s Day by the King Šu-Sîn or whether this was the thousand year old
rite depicted on the Uruk vase, when the En ruler paid his respects to the
En priestess of his spouse Inanna, is a question that remains
unanswered.
‘Lukur’ was a title for the queen of the Ur III regime, but it was only
introduced during the reign of Šulgi and before that time the title of queen
was dam(-lugal), ‘woman (of the king)’ or simply nin. Steinkeller
presumes that the royal title ‘lukur’ must have had something to do with
the divination of Šulgi,28 as halfway through his reign Šulgi was
worshipped as a god and his name was preceded by the dingir sign. A
god was provided with a temple and priestesses, a lukur, therefore it
seems quite natural that the god king was also given a priestess, a lukur,
as spouse or concubine. The successors of Šulgi continued this tradition.
The Isin-dynastie (2017-1794 BC)
However the third dynasty of Ur came to a catastrophic end and the
effect on the people was staggering. During the reign of the last king,
Ibbi-Sîn, the land of Sumer had to contend with interminable warfare and
drought. Because of food shortages large sections of the population had
broken adrift and sought their salvation on the frontiers of the Ur III nation
but these regions were rendered unsafe because of severe pressure by
the Amorite people. The wall of defence that Šu-Sîn had laid right across
the land was not successful in preventing the Amorites from settling on
the lands of the Ur III state. There is a large uncertainty about the identity
of these Amorites and until now it was always taken for granted that they
were nomadic tribes that lived in the steppe with their cattle, sheep and
goats. But this is contested by Michalowski29, and it was indeed clear that
many people with an Amorite back ground had already settled in the
cities, where they had slowly merged in with the native inhabitants. In the
last weeks of the reign of Ibbi-Sin there seems to have been a dispute
with a high official, Išbi-Erra, who was stationed in Mari and had been
assigned the task of arranging the transportation of a large amount of
barley to Ur, which for some reason he failed to do. It is possible he
withheld the stock in order to black mail the King of Ur because he was
planning a coup, or perhaps the region was too unsafe to attempt a trip
by cargo boat from Mari to Ur and King Ibbi-Sîn no longer had sufficient
resources to arrange to collect the cargo with his own men. Whatever the
reason, Ur was left without food and a large famine was the result,
presumably followed by epidemics. The forsaken land now was prey to
the Elamites who invaded the country from the east. They forced their
way on to the plain of Mesopotamia and gave the Ur III reign the fatal
blow, capturing the last ruler, Ibbi-Sîn, and carrying him off to Elam in
fetters. A decade afterwards Išbi-Erra, the high official in Mari, was able
to drive out the Elamites and he founded the new Isin dynasty, named
after the place where his family had settled. Išbi-Erra and his successors
of the Isin dynasty behaved as heirs to the kings of Ur and tried to
continue the traditions of Sumerian culture, but their country was much
smaller and their power much more restricted.
It appears that for the rulers of the Isin dynasty the goddess Inanna was
as ever, their divine spouse. At the end of this chapter we will discuss the
famous hymn of the third king of this dynasty, Iddin-Dagan (1974-1954
BC) in which he relates how he celebrates the Sacred Marriage rite with
Inanna. In an inscription, the fourth king Išme-Dagan (1953-1935 BC),
refers to himself as ‘beloved husband of Inanna’30 and in the hymn Išme-
Dagan I the poet asks the god Enlil to give the goddess Inanna, whom he
calls the eldest daughter of Enlil, as spouse to Išme-Dagan 31:
Grant Inanna, your beloved daughter, as a wife,
That they might embrace forever!
May he enjoy delight and sweetness in her holy lap,
Which is full of life, for long days.
The Larsa dynasty (2025-1763 BC)
The kings of the succeeding Larsa dynasty also reigned by divine grace
and in the opening of a prayer of Rim-Sîn, his name is again written with
the divine determinative, king godRim-Sîn is addressed as a leader who is
in the possession of the princely divine ME.32
Larsa waged an exhausting war against its neighbour Isin, a conflict that
finished with the defeat of Isin. The triumph of Larsa was not of long
duration however as in the meantime King Hammurabi in the north of
Sumer had gradually been extending his power and attentively following
the progress of the skirmishing between Isin and Larsa. When he
estimated the time was ripe, he conquered the whole region of Larsa and
former Isin, incorporating all within his own state. This meant the end of
the neo-Sumerian period and in the following old Babylonian period,
Akkadian and not Sumerian was the spoken tongue and the names of the
kings were no longer preceded by a divine determinative sign.
Divine kings
For us it seems rather absurd that kings from the neo-Sumerian period
could entertain the idea that they themselves were gods but in ancient
times the gods had not as yet withdrawn completely into an unreachable
paradisiacal after life . Gods stood at the head of creation, and the king
stood at the head of the human world so from this position the king could
approach much nearer to the gods than any other mortal. All the kings of
the ancient Near East felt themselves related to the gods, considering
themselves the sons or husbands of the gods. It seems as though people
could only understand the extraordinarily large range of a king’s power as
a privilege that was bestowed on them by the gods.
But if we read the letters that kings wrote to their subordinates, we
notice very little of this divine status.33 The king was the highest authority
in the land who could give orders to his servants, while the servants
subserviently addressed the king, but not in the same way as they would
have addressed a god. On the cylinder seals of these kings of the Ur III
dynasty (we will return to this in the next chapter) they do not depict
themselves with the divine horn crown but with the same crown as of old,
the simple brimmed turban with a metal ring. It seems as if royal divinity
had more to do with the visible emblems of power, the throne, the sceptre
and the royal seat, which had been granted to the king by the gods, and
for that reason had a sacred meaning. Thanks to these holy emblems the
king was in possession of the divine power which enabled him to perform
his office and rule over others.34 The divinity was more an aspect of the
office of kingship and less related to the person of the reigning king,
which meant the king constantly needed to prove that he was the right
person to occupy this office and that he had been selected by the gods to
rule the land on their behalf. In countless hymns the kings exerted
themselves to win the sympathy of the gods, for without their support he
would not be able to realize his power and on the battlefield he could
certainly not hope to achieve any success. In this way the divinity of
kingship was on the one hand rather prosaic, on the other hand the king
was surrounded by many rituals that continually reaffirmed his sacred
position.
Hymn to Inanna Dilbat
The hymn that most explicitly reveals the divine marriage connections of
the king is the famous panegyric to Inanna by Iddin-Dagan (1974-1954
BC) the third king of the Isin dynasty. In this hymn the king lauds his
intimate relationship with the goddess Inanna whom the poem describes
as ‘Venus star’ (Dilbat), in the sky. Together with Enlil, Inanna determines
the fate of the land and is accompanied by a motley retinue, who parade
before her, singing and playing musical instruments. The sağursağ file
along with their hair bound up in a chignon, men dressed as men on their
right side and dressed as women on their left side, walk along with
Inanna, competing with each other. Young men with their neck in
neckstocks parade before Inanna like the šugitu girls with veiled
foreheads. The kurgarra wield their daggars and swords, spattered with
gore and blood. In the land there is fertility in abundance and everybody
participates in the festivities with food and drink. The first fruits are
offered on the altars, the storerooms of the land bulge with food, the
images of abundance still the same as on the Uruk vase in Chapter 3,
where the nude bearers carry the produce of the fields as an offering to
the storehouse of Inanna’s temple. On the roofs people make their
offerings and burn incense for the planet Venus which together with the
moon is shining in the sky. At night the man makes love to his spouse,
while Venus nods approvingly.
Then the king prepares for his encounter with Inanna on New Year’s
Day. The bed is made ready and the king approaches the holy thighs of
Inanna, thighs which Inanna has bathed for King Iddin-Dagan, who in his
role as Dumuzi shares her bed and makes love to the goddess. Inanna
determines a favourable fate for him and the next morning the king sits
together with Inanna on a podium, with the palace banqueting and
feasting joyously, all signs of abundance and wellbeing displayed publicly
before them. The whole population can observe that the king has won the
support of the mighty goddess of sexual love.
Hymn to Inanna Dilbat and the Sacred Marriage of Iddin-Dagan
This hymn gives a detailed description of the Sacred Marriage rite
between the goddess Inanna and King Iddin-Dagan. Below follow
some couplets35
I shall greet her who ascends above, her who ascends above,
I shall greet the Mistress who ascends above,
I shall greet the great lady of heaven, Inana!
I shall greet the holy torch who fills the heavens, the light, Inanna,
her who shines like daylight,
the great lady of heaven, Inanna!
I shall greet the Mistress, the most awesome lady among the Anuna gods;
the respected one who fills heaven and earth with her huge brilliance;
the eldest daughter of Suen, Inanna!
For the young lady I shall sing a song about her grandeur,
(…)
When standing in the heavens she is the good wild cow of An, on earth she
instils respect; she is the lady of all the lands. She received the divine powers
in the abzu, in Eridug;
her father Enki presented them to her.
He placed the lordship and kingship in her hands.
She takes her seat on the great dais with An;
she determines the fates in her Land with Enlil.
Monthly, at the new moon, the gods of the Land gather around her so that the
divine powers are perfected.
The great Anuna gods, having bowed before them,
stand there with prayers and supplications and utter prayers on behalf of all
the lands.
My lady decrees judgments in due order for the Land.
Her black-headed people parade before her.
(…)
Combing their hair for her, sağursağ parade before her, holy Inanna.
Their locks of hair at the back are adorned for her with coloured bands (?);
they parade before her, holy Inanna.
Clothed in the leather of divinity, they parade before her, holy Inanna.
The trustworthy man lu2-zi) and the proud lady, the doyenne of the great wise
women, parade before her, holy Inanna.
(…)
Dressed with men’s clothing on the right side,
they parade before her, holy Inanna.
I shall greet the great lady of heaven, Inanna!
Adorned with women’s clothing on the left side,
they parade before her, holy Inanna. I shall great the great lady of heaven,
Inanna!
Competing with skipping ropes of coloured cords for her,
they parade before her, holy Inanna.
I shall greet the eldest daughter of Suen, Inanna!
(…)
[ ……] sword and dagger for her,
they parade before her, holy Inanna.
With daggers in their hands, [ ……] kurgara priests parade before her, holy
Inanna.
Those who cover their swords with gore spatter blood as they parade before
her, holy Inanna. Blood is poured on the dais standing in the guena hall, as
tigi, šem and ala drums are made to sound loudly.
(…)
When at evening, the radiant star, the Venus star,
the great light which fills the holy heavens,
the lady of the evening, ascends above like a warrior,
the people in all the lands lift their gaze to her.
The men purify themselves, the woman cleanse themselves. The oxen toss
their heads in their yoke.
The sheep stir up dust in their pens.
Because of my lady, the numerous beasts of Šakkan (god of the cattle), the
creatures of the plain,
the four-legged animals under the broad heavens,
the orchards and gardens, the plots, the green reed-beds,
the fish of the deep, the birds of heaven,
all hasten to their sleeping places.
All the living creatures and the numerous people bend the knee before her.
When called for by my lady the matriarchs plentifully provide food and drink,
and my lady refreshes herself in her Land.
There is play in the Land, which is made festive.
The young men take pleasure in their spouses.
From the midst of heaven my lady looks down with joy.
They parade before her, holy Inanna .
The lady of the evening, Inanna, is august; I praise the young lady, Inanna.
The lady of the evening, her grandeur reaches the borders of heaven!
(…)
After the storehouses of the Land have been filled with fine food, and all the
lands and the black-headed people have assembled, those who sleep on the
roofs and those who sleep by the walls step up before her with [……] and
bring her their cases.
Then she makes her orders known, and identifies the evil.
She judges the evil as evil and destroys the wicked.
She looks with favour on the just and determines a good fate for them.
From the midst of heaven my lady looks down with joy. They parade before
her, holy Inanna .
The lady exalted as high as the heaven, Inanna, is august! I praise the young
woman, Inanna .
The lady exalted as high as the heaven,
her grandeur reaches the borders of heaven.
(…)
As the lady, admired by the Land, the lone star, the Venus star, the lady
elevated as high as the heaven, ascends above like a warrior,
all the lands tremble before her […….]
The faithful black-headed people bow to her.
The young man travelling on the road directs himself by her. The oxen raise
their heads in their yoke to her.
With her the storehouses of the Land prosper.
Everybody hastens to holy Inanna.
For my lady in the midst of heaven the best of everything is prepared.
In the pure places of the plain, at its good places,
on the roofs, on the rooftops, the rooftops of the dwellings, in the sanctuaries
of mankind, incense offerings like a forest of aromatic cedars are transmitted
to her.
They sacrifice alum sheep, long-haired sheep, and fattened sheep for her.
They purify the earth for the Mistress,
they carry out purification rites for her.
They fill the tables of the Land with ghee, dates, cheese,
and seven sorts of fruits as first-fruit offerings for her.
They pour dark beer for her, they pour light beer for her. Dark beer, emmer
beer, and emmer beer for my lady bubble in the šagub jar and the lamsari vat
for her.
(…)
When the black-headed people have assembled in the palace, the house that
advises the Land, the neck-stock of all the foreign countries,
the house of the river of ordeal, a dais is set up for Ninegala. The divine king
stays there with her.
At the New Year, on the day of the rites,
in order for her to determine the fate of all the countries,
so that during the day the faithful servants can be inspected, so that on the
day of the disappearance of the moon the divine powers can be perfected,
a bed is set up for my lady. Esparto grass is purified with cedar perfume and
arranged on that bed for my lady, and a coverlet is smoothed out on the top of
it.
In order to find sweetness in the bed on the joyous coverlet, my lady bathes
her holy thighs.
She bathes them for the thighs of the king;
she bathes them for the thighs of Iddin-Dagan.
Holy Inana rubs herself with soap;
she sprinkles oil and cedar essence on the ground.
The king goes to her holy thighs with head held high, he goes to the thighs of
Inanna with head held high.
Ama-ušumgal-ana lies down beside her and caresses her holy thighs.
After the lady has made him rejoice with her holy thighs on the bed,
after holy Inanna has made him rejoice with her holy thighs on the bed,
she relaxes with him on her bed: “Iddin-Dagan, you are indeed my beloved!”
To pour libations, to carry out purification rites, to heap up incense offerings,
to burn juniper resin (?), to set out food offerings, to set out offering-bowls,
he goes into her Egal-mah. She embraces her beloved spouse, holy Inanna
embraces him. She shines like daylight on the great throne dais to her like the
sun.
Abundance and celebration are prepared before her in plenty. He arranges a
rich banquet for her.
The black-headed people line up before her.
With instruments loud enough to drown out the south windstorm,
with sweet sounding algnar instruments,
(…)
In this hymn the encounter between Iddin-Dagan and Inanna takes
place behind closed doors where a bed has been prepared and they
have sex.
But the next day Iddin-Dagan is left sitting alone in a niche and Inanna
is shining alone in the sky, so with whom Iddin-Dagan spent the night
and who was actually playing the role of Inanna, remains an
unanswered question. In the literature all sorts of solutions have been
provided, priestesses such as lukur, nin-dingir, nu-gig the En priestess
or even the queen playing the part of Inanna. However it has to be
considered possible that no woman played the role of Inanna and that
the rite was performed with a statue of the goddess or perhaps nothing
ever happened and Inanna was only present in a virtual way in the
temple. Certainly we must not take this hymn too literally as it was a
poetic and symbolic description of the close relationship between
Iddin-Dagan and Inanna, enhanced by the court poet with lively
metaphorical images.
Endnotes Chapter 16
1 Westenholz (Joan Goodnick), 2000
2 Jacobsen, 1987
3 Steinkeller, 1999, p. 114, note 36
4 Steinkeller, 1999, p. 114, note 36
5 Westenholz (Joan Goodnick), 2000
6 ETCSL, 2.1.6, Poem of Utuhejal, line 1-12
7 ETCSL, 2.1.6, Poem of Utuhejal, line 24-34
8 ETCSL, 2.4.1.3, Urnamma C, line 43-49
9 ETCSL, 2.4.1.6, Urnamma C, line 70-78
10 Wilcke, 1969
11 Falkenstein, 1963
12 ETCSL, 2.4.2.04, Šulgi D; Klein, Three Šulgi Hymns, p. 50 e.v.
13 ETCSL, 2.4.2.24, Šulgi X; Klein, 1981, p. 125 e.v.
14 ETCSL 2.4.2.24, line 14-35
15 Klein, 1981, Šulgi the king of the road (Šulgi A), p. 167 e.v.
16 Klein, 1981, Šulgi A, r. 80-83
17 Klein, 1987, p. 99
18 ETCSL, 2.4.2.16, Šulgi P, r. 39-41
19 Nyhowne, 1999, p. 71
20 ETCSL 2.4.2.05
21 Vacin, 2011, p. 61
22 Michalowski, 1977
23 ETCSL, 2.4.3.1, Amar-Suena and Enki’s temple (Amar-Suena A)
24 This term is used by Michalowski, 1977
25 Zie: ETCSL 2.4.4.2, Shu-Suen B; 2.4.4.3, Shu-Suen C
26 ETCSL, 2.4.4.1, Shu-Suen A; Jacobsen, 1987; Sefati, 1998
27 Sefati, 1998, p. 45-46
28 Steinkeller, 1981
29 Michalowski, 2011
30 Sefati, 1998, p. 38
31 Sefati, 1998, p. 37
32 ETCSL 2.6.9.6, A prayer for Rim-Sîn (Rim-Sîn F)
33 These letters are published by: Michalowski, 2011
34 Selz, 2008, p. 19
35 Inanna and Iddin-Dagan (Iddin-Dagan A): translation ETCSL 2.5.3.1.
Chapter 17 The king on the throne and the
divine oracle
Kings were not only glorified in hymns, they also made use of images in
order to advertise their ideological message. This method had been well
tested by the Akkadian king Naram-Sîn in the third millennium, when his
famous stele was made on which he is depicted in the pose of the sun
god. The kings of the second millennium tried to spread their propaganda
also by way of cylinder seals and as the variation in the images on
cylinder seals was dramatically reduced during this period, it must be
seen as an indication that the palace could dictate what iconography was
depicted on the seals.1. A helpful insight into the significance of divine
kingship and the role played by the goddess Inanna is provided by a type
of iconography known to scientific literature as ‘presentation seals’ or
‘royal gift seals’, depicting the king’s servant paying his respects to the
king.

Figure 17.1 Presentation seal. The king is sitting on a seat with an ox

hoof. Inscription:: ‘Ur-Namma strong man, king of Ur, Haš-hamer,
governor (ensi) of the city of Iškun-Sîn, is your servant (arad-zu).’ Height:
5,3 cm, diameter: 3,3 cm. (© The Trustees of the British Museum, BM
89126)
The seals the king bestowed on his servants show how a formal
audience with the king should be conducted. A subordinate could never
have free access to the king, an introduction by a trusted intermediary of
the court was necessary and the king is always enthroned, his seat
placed on a raised platform, on a level higher than his servant so his
position as sovereign is immediately visible. His servants are never
seated but stand humbly in front of the king, with close cropped hair and
with the right hand raised to the nose (the so called kiri-šu-tag-gesture),
usually dressed in a simple fringed cloak, with the end folded over a
shoulder. The audience was not to be understood as an ordinary event,
but one that took place on a divine level. On the seal of Haš-hamer
(figure 17.1) 2 we see how a mediating goddess takes a bashful Haš-
hamer by the hand and introduces him to King Ur-Namma. Ur-Namma
was not yet referred to as a god in writing, that step would later be taken
by his son Šulgi, but his kingship had already acquired the trappings of
divine status, as can be observed on the seals. The introduction of Haš-
hamer is carried out by a goddess. Behind the servant stands another
goddess, Lama, a protective goddess who is always represented with
both hands lifted up before her face, while she holds her palms turned
outward. The seat of the king is equipped with the bull’s legs and the holy
crescent of the moon god is floating in the field above, the whole setting
an indication of the supernatural surroundings of the encounter.
It was not only the representations on the cylinder seals that all began to
look alike, but also the inscriptions on the seals were more and more
couched in the same phraseology. They record the name of the king, his
epithets, the name of the owner of the seal, his official status, sometimes
the name of his father is recorded and finally a declaration of servitude.
For instance: Ibbi-Sîn, mighty king, king of Ur, king of the Four Quaters:
Erradan, scribe, son of Aršiah, his servant (arad-zu) (figure `17.2).

Figure 17.2 Presentation seal. Inscription: Ibbi-Sîn, mighty king, King of

Ur, king of the Four Quaters: Erradan, tahe scribe, son of Aršiah, is his
servant (arad-zu). (Collon, 1987, p. 125-126, fig. 533)
There was a difference between cylinder seals with an inscription that
ended with the words ‘his servant’ (arad-zu), and inscriptions with a much
longer text, ‘to his servant (the king) has given’ (arad-da ni-ir in-na-ba). 3
Seals with this latter text were only intended for the highest officials at the
court and members of the royal family while the arad-zu-seals by
contrast, were meant for common servants with a lower station, thus
preserving a distinction between high ranking nobility and common
servants within the hierarchy of the court.
The emission of seals was a sign of the authority of the king. 4 The
seal was a mandate for the servant to act on behalf of the king and to
participate in this sense in the divine kingship. The kings of the Ur III
dynasty had developed a huge bureaucratic apparatus that covered the
whole region of the empire so the king was consequently interested in
binding his subordinates closely to him. On cylinder seals the king
stressed the divine status of his office as can be inferred from the fact
that the king seated on his throne has much in common with a seated
god. In fact there are similar presentation scenes where a worshipper is
introduced to a god or goddess (see for instance figure 17.3 and 17.4),
the god being recognizable by his horn crown, his kaunakes garment and
by a kaunakes blanket that often covers his seat. Sometimes the seat
has the shape of a temple so that the god is then in a way, depicted
sitting on top of his own temple, while in front of him stands the king.
However some city rulers, like the ensi of Ešnunna (figure 17.5), were
pictured in this same way on cylinder seals, the mediating god or
goddess being the personal deity of the owner of the seal, having been
worshipped in his family for centuries.

Figure 17.3. A goddess takes the king by his hand to a seated goddess.
The legend of the inscription has been wiped out. (© The Trustees of the
British Museum, Collon 1987(b), nr. 378)

Figure 17.4 Presentation seal, the city ruler (ensi) of Ešnunna stands
directly in front of the god Tišpak. Behind him is goddess Lama.
Inscription: ‘Tišpak, mighty king, king of the land of Warum, Kirikiri, ensi
of Ešnunna, has presented (this seal) to his son Bilalama.’ (Collon, 1987
(a), fig. 500)
On the seals of the kings of the third dynasty however, a major innovation
can be observed as it is no longer a god receiving a high ranking person
but the king himself, sitting like a god on his throne receiving his
subordinates. He is not completely identical with a god, as he wears the
royal turban with rolled brim rather than the divine horn crown with bull’s
horns, however he does wear a kaunakes mantle, an indication of divine
status and the seat of the king is often covered with a kaunakes rug or
blanket.

Figure 17.5 Presentation scene in front of a deified king. Inscription: ‘Ibbi-

Sîn, god of his country, strong king, king of Ur, king of the Four Parts:
Aham-arši, scribe, son of Babati, is your servant.’ Babati is known from
other sources as servant of Amar-Sîn and Šu-Sîn, whose uncle he was.
(Collon, 1987 (a), fig. 118, BM 102510)

Figure 17.6 Presentation scene. Inscription: ‘Ilum-muttabbil, purification

priest of Inanna of Zabalam (her temple was standing in Der), son of
Shu-ili.’ The owner of the seal may later have become ensi of Der, in this
quality this seal must have been issued to him (Collon, 1987 (a), fig. 157,
BM 89714)
According to Irene Winter these seals depict deified kings in the role of
the sun god Utu, sitting on the throne.5 The sun god had always been the
highest judge in the country, as the sun in the sky was perfectly
positioned to observe all earthly activities and the king in his turn made
righteous judgements, just as the sun god did on a cosmic level. Šulgi
was the ‘highest judge in the land’, Amar-Sîn was addressed as ‘the true
sun god of his land’ and Ibbi-Sîn called himself ‘the king who took the
right decisions among the gods’. Irene Winter believes that we can see
this reflected on the cylinder seals, the king in his role as sun god, taking
his legitimate position in front of his subordinates.
The sun god was already depicted on cylinder seals in the Akkadian
period, with flames rising from his shoulders, appearing above the
mountain range in the east through the gates of heaven. In his hand he
wields the šaššaru, a saw with which he cuts in half the fateful
decisions.6 In Sumerian the word di-kud (Akkadian parasum) means to
pass judgement, in the sense of cut, cleave or split.

Figure 17.7 The sun-god Utu rises in the morning between two door
wings out of the netherworld. In his hand he yields the šaššaru, with
which he cuts in two halves the fate decrees. (Boehmer, 1965, fig. 409.
(© The Trustees of the British Museum, BM 89110)
But the king does not hold a šaššaru in his hand like the sun god. Ever
since Šulgi’s time the king on cylinder seals holds up an object that
scholars describe as a cup and only the king holds this cup, the god with
bull’s horns never does. Some researchers see a connection with the
banqueting scenes in the third millennium in which the participants
frequently hold a cup, as we have seen on the seal of Pu-abi (Chapter 6,
figure 6.1). But as Irene Winter notes, the cups of these banqueting
scenes look quite different and are held in a distinctive way, leaving her
wondering therefore, whether the cup on the royal gift seals perhaps
have something to do with the oil oracles. This form of predicting required
the barum priest to sprinkle a few drops of oil on water and then to
forecast the future from the way the oil circles formed on the surface of
the water. The ‘cup’ however is impracticably small for this purpose.
Sometimes the king holds the object with only two fingers which leads
Claudia Fischer to believe that the object is a miniature cup of bronze or
copper, not a real utensil, but a symbol of royal power and prestige.7 In
her view the king is holding the metal cup in his role as divine cupbearer,
as the cupbearer was the highest official in court and exercised
supervision on the extispicy, a role the king would have chosen for
himself as protector of the divine order.
However it seems unlikely that the kings of the Ur III dynasty, who
wrote their name with the divine determinative, would compare
themselves with a subordinate servant from their own administration,
besides which, the connection between the cup and extispicy is not clear,
nor the reference to the cupbearer. Maybe the king was not holding a
‘cup’ in his hands but something else.

Figure 17.8 Cylinder seal with so called ‘presentation scene’ with king
and servant, Old Babylonian period, (Vorderasiatisches Museum VA
3233, Schaudig 2013, abb 18.3)
Extispicy
Kingship without divine endorsement was inconceivable and the goddess
Inanna played an important role in this context, but she was pushed into
the background by the god Enlil. The customary way of legitimising the
election of a king had to be based on divine approval. Effectively, the king
needed to be chosen by the gods but how the chosen one was
established is not clear. One method of detecting the decisions of the
gods was extispicy. The priest (barum) led an animal to the gods in the
temple, and as soon as the animal had been sacrificed he took the
entrails of the dead body in order to inspect what patterns the gods had
left behind on the quivering liver. This practice was not only known in
Mesopotamia, but was common practice everywhere in ancient times, as
far as China and south east Asia while in the west the Romans had
copied it from the Etruscans, who had brought this knowledge with them
from their homeland in Asia Minor.8 In the palace of Mari clay models of
the liver have been found inscribed with signs that served as a guide to
interpreting omens (figure 17.9).

Figure 17.9. Liver models in clay form Mari. Ca. 1800 BC (Meyer, 1987,
tafel 14)

Figure 17.10 Etruscan model of a sheep’s liver, probably used for starting
haruspices – persons trained to practice a form of divination by the
inspection of the entrails of sacrificed animals. Liver of Piacenza. End
second or beginning first century BC. (Museo archeologico di Piacenza)

Figure 17.11 Model of a sheep liver with Etruscan signs. Second or first
century BC. (Source: Wikipedia)
However it is questionable whether the art of liver inspection was also
known in Sumer. All the existing texts are written in Akkadian9 and the
Sumerian name for the priest who carried out the liver inspection was
maš2-šu-gid-gid: mas = ‘kid’, ‘young animal’; šu-gid = ‘to stretch the hand
to (the offering animals)’, but this name occurs only sporadically in
Sumerian10 so perhaps the Sumerians employed another method of
divining the will of the gods.
Ascertaining the divine will
It had always been extremely imperative to be informed about what the
gods had in store. From of old it had been essential to recognise the
importance of the ME, the unchangeable cosmic laws. The ME originated
from the Abzu, a subterranean freshwater basin where the god Enki
guarded them. However the goddess Inanna had cunningly wheedled
them away from Enki and brought them back to Uruk. During the third
dynasty of Ur, however, a new concept of the supernatural came into
existence that put a spoke in the wheels of the older concept of the ME.
This was the idea of the NAM-TAR. The word ‘tar’ means ‘to cut’ or ‘to
decide’, the word ‘nam’ refers literally to ‘that which exists’ and is used in
the sense of ‘fate’; so nam-tar is ‘fate decision’. While the ME belonged to
the domain of Enki and the goddess Inanna, the concept of nam-tar was
especially related to fate as decreed by the god Enlil.11 This is related to
his position as the highest god in the pantheon, a position he had
achieved in the course of the third millennium. But on cylinder seals from
the third millennium it can be seen that originally it was not Enlil, but the
sun god Utu who had been in charge of making the decisions, by cutting
them with his šassaru.
Between the ME and the nam-tar there was a clear difference. While
according to Sumerian cosmology, the ME had always been there even
before the existence of the gods, only the god Enlil enjoyed discretionary
power in relation to the nam-tar and apparently it was the god Enlil who
had delegated this power to the other gods. The birth goddess
determined the fate of every human being at the moment he was born
and the umbilical cord was cut.12 On New year’s Day the gods
determined the fate of the coming year, and at the end of the month the
gods determined the fate of the next month and every morning when the
sun rose from the underworld the gods gathered to determine the fate of
the new day.
While little could be done to change the timeless, irrevocable laws of
the ME, this perhaps was not the case with the nam-tar decrees.13 The
nam-tar were controlled and delegated by god Enlil and so these could
possibly be manipulated by seers and exorcists and therefore by the
king. If the gods were empowered to cut the fate decisions, then maybe it
was achievable to influence them with magic and persuade them to
decide on a more favourable fate. However as their decisions seemed
irrevocable, it made sense to attempt to influence the gods before they
actually cut their resolutions.
Janice Polonsky14 has made a study of the old texts to discover how the
fate decisions of the gods were actually accomplished and imparted to
the priests in ancient Mesopotamia. It appeared to involve an extensive
ritual attended by the king and his offering priests and enacted daily at
sunrise, when the sun god opened the bolts of the doors of heaven and
ascended to his throne to preside over the judgements made by the
assembly of the gods. This was the moment which decided the fates of
heaven and earth so if the intention of the gods was to be influenced, it
was a good time to attempt it. The king made his way to the temple,
bringing offering animals and went to the ‘place of the king’ where he
then ‘elevated his head’ (the Sumerian term is sağ-il2) to make contact
with the sun god. This contact was realised, as Polonsky writes, when the
sun god from his side ‘threw his eye’ upon the king, the so called igibar.
The king then asked a question of the sun god and the answer was read
from the entrails of the sacrificed animals.
The kings attended the gods in their temples and brought plentiful
gifts to these divine masters, hoping that in exchange the gods would be
inclined to determine a favourable fate for the king. However in his turn,
the Sumerian king assumed the identity of the sun god and received the
full honour of his subjects, in exchange for which he dispensed divine
justice to his petitioners, the representative of the world of divinity
handing down divine justice to his realm. It is this symbolic role within the
political and religious ideology and his function in the ceremonial context,
which reinforces the divine status of the king.15
The king is enthroned on a dais and receives worshippers, in his role as
the sun god. The ruler’s status is elevated above the human inhabitants
of the land and the image of the king on his throne as we see him on
cylinder seals, is a metaphor for the rising sun, an idea reinforced again
and again in the hymns about these kings. The hymn Iddin-Dagan A
describes how the king is received by the goddess Inanna in her temple,
where she shines like daylight enthroned on the great dais and makes
the king position himself next to her like the sun god Utu.16 The king as
the supreme judge renders justice just like the sun god and in this sense
he is a reflection of the sun god as the highest divine judge. The ruler
himself is also a source of sun light for the country, having the knowledge
of the fate of his subordinates, even described as the sun god of the land
of Sumer (dUtu-kalam-ma) while the Babylonian king Hammurabi
describes himself as the ‘Legitimate king, the sun of Babylon, who
causes light to rise over the land of Sumer and Akkad’.17 The Egyptian
pharaoh was equal to the sun god and the king of the Hittites was
addressed as ‘My Sun’, indeed the idea of the French king Louis XIV in
the 17th century calling himself ‘Sun King’ (Le Roi Soleil) was verily a
long standing tradition!
Inanna and the fate determination
The goddess Inanna played an important role within the ceremony of fate
determination. While the god Enlil was in charge of the nam-tar, goddess
Inanna retained as far as possible, power over the ME. She had after all,
stolen the ME from the god Enki and was according to the hymn of
Enheduanna ‘Mistress of countless ME’ (‘Nin-ME-šara’; see Chapter 9).
The opening of this hymn tells how Inanna seized all seven ME and is the
guardian of the great divine ME. She has taken up the ME and hung the
ME from her hand, she has gathered up the ME and clasped the ME to
her breast (line 4-8). Maybe the second couplet of the Hymn to Inanna
Dilbat and the Sacred Marriage of Iddin-Dagan (see Chapter 16) could
also be a reference to Inanna’s role as goddess of fate determination:
She received the ME in the abzu, in Eridu;
her father Enki presented them to her.
He placed the lordship and kingship in her hands.
She takes her seat on the great dais with An;
she determines the fates in her Land with Enlil.
Monthly, at the new moon, the gods of the Land gather around her so that the
divine powers are perfected.
The great Anuna gods, having bowed before them,
stand there with prayers and supplications and utter prayers on behalf of all the
lands.
My lady decrees judgments in due order for the Land.
Her black-headed people parade before her.
According to these verses Inanna together with the god Enlil determines
the fate of the land but originally it was Inanna alone who determined
fate, and without her Enlil and An could not take a decision.18 There is
another song of praise to Inanna, probably composed in the Ur III period
on the occasion of the opening of the inauguration of her temple in
Nippur, built by King Šulgi. In these verses Inanna is invoked as Ninegala
(literally, ‘Lady of the palace’), and her role as mistress of all ME is again
made very apparent.19 The refrain resembles Enheduanna’s hymn
Mistress of countless ME (Nin-me-šara):
You are the lady of all ME (Nin-ME-šar2-ra), and no deity can compete with
you. Here is your dwelling, Ninegala; let me tell of your grandeur!
After the first watch of the night has passed, as like a shepherd you get up from
the grass, you seize your battle-mace like a warrior, you fasten the guma-cloth
on your arms, and you bind on your indefatigable strength ….
When Inanna has gathered her divine ME she takes possession of her
dwelling on earth, the hymn narrates. On earth she is sitting on her holy
throne, her feet are placed on seven dogs, her seat is set upon a lion and
a leopard and people bring cattle and sheep to her for inspection. Inanna
is seated on a special throne (called ‘bara2 KA.AN.NI.SI’), by her ‘Gate of
Four Eyes’. She regulates the ME in heaven20 and again there is an
allusion to the ‘eyes’(‘igi’) in connection with the determination of the ME,
for Inanna is sitting on a throne at the Gate of the Four ‘igi’. The hymn
describes a strange ceremony that is performed in the great hall of the
kur-ra-igi-gal2 where judgement is passed (line 109-115):21
When you act as a shepherd with the herdsman,
when …… with the cowherd you throw the halters on the cows,
when you mix the butter, when you purify the milk,
when you find joy in the embrace of your spouse Dumuzid,
when you have pleasure in the embrace of your spouse Dumuzid,
when you take your seat on the high dais in the great hall in your
Kura-igi-gal where judgment is passed, then the people of the holy
uzga (unknown word) stand there at your service.
People bring offerings to Inanna and the pipes dug into the earth are
opened to pour in libations for the dead. The En priests, the lumah priests
and the nin-dingir priestesses play their part, as well as the luzi, ‘the
righteous man’ while the goddess takes her seat on the ‘Dais of silence’.
Young men fastened in neck-stocks, mothers with sick children and
people uprooted from their homes parade by Inanna in the great hall.
The hymn mentions different parts of the temple in Nippur, such as
the ‘great hall’ (unu2-gal), where the ‘elevated throne’ (bara2-mah) was
situated.22 In other temples also special thrones were erected for Inanna,
and in Eridu the Ekununna, a room in the temple, was dedicated to
Inanna. As a part of this temple a ‘throne where fate is determined’ is
mentioned (bara2-nam-tar-re-da), and in Uruk there was a throne near
the river called ‘pure throne’ (bara2-ku3) as well as a throne named ‘Dais
of Silence’, which we mentioned earlier,23 to be found in Kulab, a suburb
of Uruk in a temple dedicated to Inanna.
Cleromancy
The gods divulged their fate decisions through signs on the livers of
sacrificed animals but there existed other methods of conveying to
humans knowledge of what the gods had in store. According to an old
theory of Margarethe Riemschneider through the KIN oracle of the
Hittites, the gods’ decisions could be read from a gaming board
24although it is still not exactly clear how this oracle functioned. The Old

Woman (munusŠU.GI) presented the questions to the gods, to which they

could give a negative or a positive answer only, the answer depending on
the position of the dice and pawns that were placed on a gaming board.
25 For instance, a typical question the Old Woman might ask the god on

behalf of the king was, ‘Shall I attack the town of X?’ The answer would
be ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ depending where the dice by chance, landed on
the board. In general all signs on the left side of the board were bad and
all signs on the right side were good.
In the Hittite KIN oracle all sorts of figures occur which represent the
‘lords’. According to Riemschneider the KIN oracle goes back to an old
warrior game 26 which could predict various conditions on the battlefield
or particular qualities of the king and his manpower. KIN is written with a
Sumerian ideogram that in the language of the Hittites means ‘to
manipulate’ (iia). On behalf of the gods the Old Woman ‘manipulates’ the
pawns she places on the gaming board, this action of ‘placing’ (Hittite:
dai) being written with the sumerogram ME, that may refer to a kind of
prediction or cleromancy which the Old Woman deduces from the result
of a throw of the dice. The pawns could represent various properties or
conditions, such as lucky, to prosper, capable, power, danger and
defence. Riemschneider writes that results of the pawn ‘dapi ZI’, which
represented the comprehension of all positive powers, was of the most
interest.
According to Riemschneider these gaming boards served the same
purpose as the livers of sacrificed cattle and sheep. The position of the
pawns on the board indicated the answer to questions raised and the lu-
zi, literally ‘righteous man’, who appears quite often in the hymns, could
be the king who estimated his opportunities on the gaming board.
Some Sumerian hymns to the gods are called šir3-nam-šub and as has
been noted in Chapter 12, š ir3-nam-šub is translated as the ‘song of the
casting of lots’ (šir = song; nam = lot; sub = to cast), possibly an allusion
to the fact that this song was played as an accompaniment to the practice
of cleromancy. In the cemetery of Ur a large number of gaming boards
were found in the graves. The ultimate fate of a human being is death
and in Akkadian the verb ‘to die’ was expressed as, ‘to meet one’s fate’
(ana šimtu alaku). Later, gaming boards dating from around 1800 BC
were found in the palace of the king in Mari and drawn on the paving
stones in the forecourt, copies of the boards already found in the graves
of Ur.27 The rules of the game are not known but the number five seems
to have had a special meaning. The boards consist mostly of two
sections on each of which twenty squares are drawn, both parts
connected by a ‘bridge’ (over the water?). The squares are sometimes
decorated with signs, rosettes stylised as diagonals.28 The rosettes are
usually drawn on two corners of the largest field and just before the
bridge to the smaller field.
The liver models that the barum priests used to determine the decisions
of the gods have much in common with the gaming boards found in Ur
and Mari and other places in Syria. The clay models of the livers are also
divided into twenty squares, representing the distortions of the livers of
the sacrificial animals. Both model livers and game boards consisted of
two different parts connected by a ‘bridge’.

Figure 17.12 Gaming boards excavated in the graves of the Royal

Cemetery of Ur. (British Museum, ME 120834; © The Trustees of the British
Museum)
In Kamid el Loz in Lebanon, a gaming board was found in a temple
dating from the second millennium BC.29 It was divided into twenty
compartments with one row of eight squares extending from the centre
field. However Jan-Waalke Meyer, who has examined these liver models
and has come to the conclusion that they could not have had the same
function as the gaming boards and that there is insufficient proof to
consider the liver models as a precursor of the gaming boards with
twenty squares.30 Whether the gaming boards could in any possible way
be the precursor of the liver models was not investigated by Meyer
however.

Figure 17.13 Gaming boards from Kamid el Loz (Bekaa-vallei, Libanon,

from Ain Shems (Israël) and from Tell Halaf (Syrië)). (Meyer, 1982, afb.
5)
Although gaming boards dating from the most ancient times have been
found only in graves and later in the palace of the King of Mari, they
eventually became so popular among the population that they must have
lost their sacred meaning. They became games of chance in which the
players assessed their luck with dice or astragaloi (a Greek term).
Potsherds were used as pawns and the dice were bones of sheep or
oxen and perhaps on the flat side of the dice signs were drawn that
corresponded with the signs on the gaming board. The result of the throw
decided the course of the pawns on the board.
Oracle games must have been immensely popular in the whole of the
ancient world and are found widely from the eastern Mediterranean and
Egypt to India. The Chinese I Tjing oracle is one of many ways of seeking
an answer to a particular question.
Figure 17.14. Astragaloi. (Source: Wikipedia)
A tablet from the second century BC and found in Babylon, gives a short
description of a track that two opponents had to follow on a board. 31 In
the text the dice are described in some detail with instructions also as to
how they should be thrown. Each player had five different pawns and a
special ‘throw’ was needed to get started at the beginning of the board.
The board had twenty squares, five of which were marked with a rosette
design. These squares were considered to be lucky, as if a player landed
a pawn on one of them it meant extra winnings, however when a pawn
did not land on a rosette, the player had to pay a fine. On the reverse
side of the tablet a curious design is drawn with twelve squares, three
along the short side, three along the long side, each with a sign of the
zodiac and a short note as to whether it was a favourable or unfavourable
sign. It seems that the pawns were compared with the planets that
moved across the sky and that the aim of the game was to predict
somebody’s fate32. How precisely the game was played is not known, but
the text of this tablet dates from more than two thousand years after the
oldest gaming boards of Ur, which in the meantime had largely evolved
into boards for playing gambling games.
The game was still popular in the new Babylonian period, the first
millennium before our era, as is clear from a piece of graffiti found in the
British Museum, discovered between the hind legs of two lamassu
statues (protective spirits) that in the 8th century BC stood in front of the
palace of Niniveh. The guardians of the palace of the King of Niniveh had
carved squares in the stone sculptures to use as a gaming board to pass
the time. Similar games have been found on sculptures in other
museums.

Figure 17.15 Graffiti carved between the hind legs of two lamasso
statues of the palace in Niniveh. Ca.eighth century BC. (British Museum,
internet: http://www.flickr.com/photos/liz/5179239680/meta/)
The gods of the fate determination
When the gods were busy making their decisions, the mysterious Igigi
and Anuna gods were always somewhere in the vicinity and one way or
another they must have had something to do with the ritual of fate
determination. They were never seated, always ‘standing’ in the
assembly of the gods, congregating together each month when the gods
were determining fate, and always bowing and praying. According to
Riemschneider the dice and pawns symbolized these Igigi and Anuna
gods and in her opinion the name Igigi referred to the Sumerian word i g
i, which means ‘eye,’ an appropriate term for the ‘eyes’ of the dice, the
astragal. The word igi-bar, so important when the gods were determining
fate for the king, literally means ‘to cast an eye’ and was according to
Riemschneider an expression for throwing the dice. In the fate
determination rites it is said in the texts that the god threw ‘a favourable
eye’ on the king. Eyes are also depicted on the sides of the gaming
boards

Figure 17.16 Side view of a gaming board with ‘eyes’, excavated in grave
580 of the Royal Cemetery of Ur.
Figure 17.17 Dice that have been found loose in the ground of the
cemetery of Ur. (Hansen, 1998, p. 60, U 9776 en U 9320)
What is known about the Igigi and Anuna gods is rather vague. The
Anuna sometimes function as practitioners of the fate determining and
flutter around like bats, often kneeling and bowing for the gods or
shuddering from fear. We know of no temples dedicated to them and the
meaning of their names is also uncertain. The number of Anuna gods
varies as in Eridu they are fifty but in the myth of Inanna’s descent to the
underworld they are seven judges of the underworld. When Inanna is
about to leave the underworld the seven Anuna judges impose the ME of
the underworld on her and demand that she supplies a substitute to take
her place in the land of death.
The origin of the Igigi gods is also a conundrum. They appear for the
first time in the old Babylonian texts as a translation of the Sumerian
dnun-gal-e-ne, literally ‘the great divine princes’ and it is possible that the

Anuna gods are a parallel form of the Igigi, da-nun-na, ‘the princely ones’.
Burkhart Kienast wonders whether the Igigi and Anuna were not the
same groups of gods. In a Sumerian epos (Etana epos) the Anuna play a
role as fate determinants and advisors and the Igigi operate as creatures
that remain on the shores of the earth where the divine ME are being
settled. Some have even suggested that the Igigi were the stars around
the Polar star that never disappear below the horizon, always visible in
the sky and that the Anuna were all the other gods or stars that sink into
the underworld.
In hymns, when the gods are determining fate, the king begs them to
direct their ‘eye’ towards him and in a song about the sun god Utu33, the
‘lu-zi’, the righteous man’ whom we have met before, brings offerings to
the sun god and urges him to grant him a long life in return. As always it
is about fertility, so when the sun god eats food the flax will shoot up in
the fields, when the sun god drinks water the water of the rivers will rise
and the lu-zi, who may be the deified king, demands emphatically that the
sun god should cast his eye upon him:
Gaze upon him, gaze upon him!
O Utu, gaze upon him, gaze upon him!
O wild bull of the E-babbar, gaze upon him, gaze upon him!
O bearded one, son born to Ningal, [……], gaze upon him!
When you gaze upon the bulls in the cattle-pen, bulls fill the cattle-pen.
When you gaze upon the sheep in the fold, sheep fill the fold. When you have
gazed upon the man […….]
The gods disclosed their decisions by means of a sign to the king but
how did the Sumerian king convey his divine mandate to his
subordinates? On cylinder seals we see the king as representative of the
sun god, sitting on a dais in front of his servant and showing an object to
his servant, perhaps symbolizing the divine power with which he was
endowed, an object in some way related to the ME of kingship which was
exercised by the deified king.

Figure 17.18. Cylinder seal, deified king shows a ‘cup’ to his subordinate.
Behind him a gazelle, a lion and perhaps some sheep; Isin-Larsa period,
inscription: d Utu d Aja, (Collon 1987 (c), fig. 73 (c) the trustees of the
British Museum 102046, haematite 2.35 x 1.5 cm)
The tablet of destinies and the ME
In the hymn Nin-me-šara, Enheduanna addresses the goddess Inanna
with the epithet ‘mistress of the countless ME’, enumerating a long list of
all possible ME belonging to the domain of the goddess, that could be
interpreted as the general abstract fields of power of Inanna. However
actually visualizing these ‘ME’ is not easy. Sometimes they appear to be
cosmic laws that were already in existence at a time beyond imagining
but some hymns give the impression that the ME are concrete objects
that the gods can actually hold in their hands. This last is what we learn
from the myth of Inanna’s descent to the underworld, when she sets out
for her journey, taking her seven ME in her hand (see Chapter 22). It
seems as if the ME are jewels with which Inanna adorns herself, and that
they are the materialization of her power.
We get a different picture of the ME in a myth about the god Ninurta,
in which it is related how the the evil bird Imdugud steals the tablet of
destinies (dub nam-tar-ra) from the god Enki. The god Ninurta tries to
recover the tablets by shooting the malicious bird with his arrow.
Frightened, Imdugud drops the ME and they fall back into the Abzu, the
domain of the god Enki, who guarded the ME34:
The bird Imdugud says to Ninurta:
At his command your weapon struck me evilly.
As I let the ME go out of my hand, these ME returned to the abzu. As I let the
divine plan (ğis hur) go out of my hand, the ME returned to the abzu.
This tablet of destinies (dub nam-tar-ra) returned to the abzu.
I was stripped of the ME.’
In these lines it seems as if the tablet of destinies is only one tablet, while
the ME are loose accessories that belong to this tablet. It is often said
that there are a large number of ME and in a (heavily damaged) hymn to
Ninurta there is even mention of fifty ME of the E2-igi šu-galam35 (literally,
‘House, the eyes of the happy hand’). In some myths the number of ME
is even larger still, as in the myth of Inanna and Enki, in which Inanna
stole more than hundred one ME from him and brought them back to
Uruk in her boat.
Jacob Klein conceives the ME as concrete objects.36 He thinks that the
ME refer not to an abstract concept, nor to a concrete object connected
with it, but to a two dimensional symbol or image, engraved or painted on
a sign, banner or standard, representing the underlying abstract concept.
In the same way he interprets the ME of kingship as a two dimensional
representation, drawn, painted or engraved upon a wooden sign or
banner. According to him, they were the symbols of kingship such as the
throne, the sceptre and the crown. This description, however, does not
always agree with what the myths tell us. The ME could sometimes be
the banners, as Klein suggests, as in the myth of Inanna and Enki, in
which Inanna steals the ME from Enki. But perhaps it could also be that
the ME were implied in all the divergent objects that were themselves
defined by these ME37 A statue of a god manufactured by a human being
could have been be endowed with the divine essence, after the mouth
openings rites (ka-luh, Akkadian: mîs pî) had been performed. The ME
were said to be encapsulated in the ornaments with which the goddess
Inanna had adorned herself. During her journey she takes them off one
by one and so loses all her divine powers.
The ME could have been other objects, such as the pawns that were
placed on a gaming board and described in the language of the Hittites
with the Sumerogram ME, however the ME could also be made visible by
naming them one by one, as Enheduanna did during her nocturnal rite in
which she recited all the ME that were thought to belong to Inanna’s
domain of power.
Knowledge of the ME was probably an aspect of the secret lore of the
priests and priestesses and not meant to be revealed to the uninitiated. In
the Old Testament the mysterious urim and tummim are mentioned.
These terms are mostly interpreted as two oracular stones that could be
hidden in the breastplate of the high priest of Israel and which could
make known the answers of Yahweh. It was sometimes said to be a kind
of dice that was thrown after the priest had asked a question of Yahwe
which could be answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no’. However whether these
oracular stones had something to do with the ME from Mesopotamia
cannot be established due to lack of sufficient information on the subject.
Divine kingship
At the beginning of the second millennium the neo-Sumarian kings (see
the last chapter) ordered a hymn to be composed, in which they
constantly emphasize their ownership of the divine ME of kingship,
granted to them by the gods. It becomes clear that by now Enlil has
attracted the ME to himself; however Inanna also constantly makes her
presence felt as mistress of countless ME. Išme-Dagan approaches Enlil
in his temple bearing an offering of a white kid and a lamb clasped to his
chest and proceeds to the place of the ‘royal offering of life’, where he
implores Enlil to determine a favourable future for him. Enlil casts his ‘eye
of life’ upon Išme-Dagan and determines a fate for the king: Prince Išme-
Dagan, as your fate, you shall be given a throne which concentrates all the
ME.38 Later kings from the Isin-dynasty also had the divine ME bestowed
on them, as is recorded byking Lipit-Ištar in a hymn.39 The god has looked
at him with a long lasting favour (…) at the place of where the destinies are to
be decided, all the Anuna gods gather around him. He has made all the great
divine powers (ME) manifest; the gods of heaven stand around him.
In a hymn to Inanna, King Ur-Ninurta describes how the goddess Inanna
took him by the hand and led him to the place where destinies are
determined, promising him, “May you establish the divine powers of E-ana!
Ur-Ninurta, I am your great wall permanently and forever!”. 40 She says that
she has gathered the nam-tar of An and Enlil and has placed all the ME
in the hands of King Ur-Ninurta.41 However in all these cases, of what the
ME actually consists or how it looks, is never indicated. It could even
have been the pawns that the priests used to indicate the decisions of the
gods on the models of clay livers or perhaps the stones placed on a
gaming board or tablet of destinies (dub-nam-tar-ra).

Figure 17.18. Cylinder seal with divinised king on a throne who hold up
an object for his servant. Behind the throne stands goddess Inanna.
Inscription: God Iškur and goddess Šala ; Quartz red, brown and white
jasper. (Collon 1987, nr. 62, BM 122834)
The ME of the presentation seals
The divine kings had received the ME of kingship from the gods and were
empowered to convey this lore to their subjects. On the cylinder seals we
see the king enthroned, and in his hands an object which represents this
power, a visible symbol to his servant and almost certainly the symbol of
his divine mandate. The inscription on the cylinder seal states that the
king has given this seal to his servant, in-an-na-ba and it is possible that
the seals the king bestowed on his servants symbolised his wish to
implicate them in his task, to involve them in realising the cosmic ME of
kingship. The king gave his servants a share of his responsibility in the
realisation of his divine mission and the object he holds up for them,
could be a visible token of his ME. Sometimes the symbolic object looks
like a vase or cup that has the same shape as the cups of the
participants in a banquet on cylinder seals in the third millennium.
However in the banqueting scenes depicted on the seals of the Ur III
kings, the king is the only one holding this cup, as he of course is the
source of this divine power. In other situations the object resembles a
stone, perhaps the image of the cylinder seal itself on which was written
that it was the king who had given ‘it’ to his servant (in-an-na-ba), the
very object that the king showed to his paladin, a symbol of the ME. Or
perhaps this symbol was a pawn that could be placed on the model liver
or tablet of destinies and with which the ME that the gods had determined
for the people, was sealed.

Figure 17.18 Impression of a seal of king Ibi-Sîn of Ur on a written tablet.

Inscription: ‘Ibbi-Sîn, king of all the lands, king of Ur, king of the four
quarters, has given to his servant Sag-Nanna-izu, ambassador of Enlil,
(this cylinder seal?, the ME?).’ (Ibbi Sin lugal kala-ga lugal Uri5 Ki-ma
lugal an-ubda-limmu2-ba-ke4//Sag-d Nanna-zu/sukkal-denlil/arad2-da-ni-
ir/in-na-ba.) (Courtesy: © Penn Museum, Pennsylvania, USA,
6386/B12570)
Endnotes Chapter 17
1 Nyhowne, 1999, p. 73
2 Irene Winter wonders whether this seal is not a forgery because of
the sharp edges and the strange seat the king is sitting on (Woods,
2004, note 115, p. 46, his reference to Winter however is not
correct). Also the fact that the king on this seal is pictured a bit lower
than his guest could be a clue, because this is not common practice.
3 Franke, 1977
4 Winter, 1987
5 Winter, 1987
6 Woods, 2009, p. 218
7 Fischer, 2008
8 Oppenheim, 1977, p. 207
9 Oppenheim, 1977, p. 206
10 Falkenstein, 1966, p. 47
11 Van Binsbergen and Wiggermann, 1999
12 Polonsky, 2002, p. 124 e.v.
13 Van Binsbergen en Wiggermann, 1999
14 Polonsky, 2002
15 Polonsky, 2002, p. 527
16 Iddin-Dagan A, l. 201-202, geciteerd door: Polonsky, 2002, p. 508
17 Codex of Hammurabi, Prologue, col. V 3-9, cited by: Polonsky, 2002,
p. 503
18 In: Mistess of the largest heart (innin-ša-gur-ra), r. 14: ‘Without
Inanna great An makes no decisions, and Enlil determines no
destinies; ETCSL, 4.07.03
19 Behrens, 1999; ETCSL 4.07.4
20 Behrens, 1999, r. 46-50
21 Behrens, 1999, r. 95-102
22 Behrens, 1999, p. 26
23 Behrens, 1999
24 Riemschneider, 1953
25 Riemschneider, 1953; Orlamünde, 2001
26 Riemschneider, 1971, Orlamünde, 2001
27 Parrot, 1958, p. 13, fig. 7; p. 183, fig. 211
28 Meyer, 1982
29 Meyer, 1982, p. 56
30 Meyer, 1982, p. 69
31 Finkel, 1991, p. 154
32 Finkel, 1991, p. 154
33 ETCSL 4.32.e, Utu E, line 60-66
34 ETCSL 1.6.3, Ninurta and the turtle, segment B, r. 1-4
35 ETCSL 4.27.02, A shir-gida to Ninurta, Ninurta B, Ninurta’s journey
to Eridug
36 Klein, 1997
37 This is what Alster 1975 suggests when he discussed the myth of
Inanna and Enki, as we have seen in chapter 13
38 ETCSL 2.5.4.02, Išme-Dagan B, r. 43
39 ETCSL 2.5.5.3, Lipit-Eshtar C, An adab to An for Lipit-Eshtar, r. 18
40 ETCSL,2.5.6.1, A hymn of Inana for Ur-Ninurta (Ur-Ninurta A); line
41-42
41 Id. line 68-74
42 Mayr en Owen, 2004, seal nr. 22, translation p. 161
Chapter 18 Sacred Marriage

Figure 18.1. Inanna with ring and staff and a scimitar in her left hand.
Below her foot a dressed lion is reclining. The king offers Inanna a kid.
Inscription: ‘Iliška-utul, scribe, son of Sîn-ennam, servant of Irra-imitti’ (=
the 9th king of the first dynasty of Isin). (BM 130 695; Collon, 1987, fig.
538)
In previous chapters we have seen how Inanna made love to her
shepherd Dumuzi after he had lavishly provided her with the riches of the
fields and their encounter is described as a metaphor for abundance,
exuberant growth, copious yields from nature and the agricultural
enterprise. Not only farmers had a vital interest in a successful yield of
nature, the king also made every possible effort to participate in the
generous gifts that only the goddess of sexual love could bestow. He
needed her indulgence just as badly as everybody else as it was in her
power to ensure him a long and successful reign. It was for this reason
that the kings so frequently visited the goddess in her temple and
celebrated with her the fertility rites that kept their realm flourishing.
These gifts of abundance were solely at the disposal of the fertility
goddess so the rites with which she was worshipped were performed with
all the symbols of a sexual encounter. The king drew from the same
source that since time immemorial had been used by the farmers in the
villages, and the songs composed for the king were remarkably similar to
the age old songs that had been chanted about the love between the En
and the Nin. The image that was depicted on the Uruk vase and the
cylinder seals conveyed the same idea of a ritual encounter between the
En and the Nin (see Chapter 3) under the patronage of the love goddess
Inanna, which would result in granaries packed to the very roof with the
wealth that the goddess had at her disposal. It is possible that the
villagers performed a fertility rite which dated back to the customs of the
very earliest farming communities around 80000 BC, when agriculture
slowly spread all over the Middle East and farmers developed those
rituals they believed would help stimulate growth and prosperity. Imitation
was an important asset and anything desired by the people was given
symbolic form and re-enacted in some ritual configuration which was
expected to yield a concrete result, provided the prescribed action had
been scrupulously executed. James Frazer in his famous book The
Golden Bow has given many examples of magic rituals. Sexual
intercourse during the time the seeds were buried in the earth was even
prescribed by the priests in some cultures as a religious obligation.1
Frazer elaborates on how the villagers personified the powers of the
plants in male and female characters, and married them in order to
enhance the fertility of nature. The May Queen and May King or the
Easter Bride and Easter Groom in our time, are late relics of these
traditions. 2
Everything became more complicated when the cities started to
develop and the En ruler assumed more and more power in these urban
economies. He sought a relationship with the city goddess, who had
taken on human features, and this probably obscured his old time
relationship with the Nin priestess. As chosen husband of Inanna the En
ruler had the privilege of sharing the nuptial bed with the goddess and the
Nin was now left without a partner. Perhaps she became the human
consort of the god of the temple, the stand in wife for his divine heavenly
spouse. In the meantime the En ruler as Inanna’s husband performed the
rites that he had originally performed with the Nin priestess. The farmers
who had once sung about the love of the En and the Nin were now
chanting about the En ruler and his divine spouse, the goddess Inanna.
These rituals, so deeply anchored in Sumerian culture had an enormous
influence on the king. As sexual consort of Inanna he identified himself
with her fiancé Dumuzi, which may seem rather odd, as Dumuzi was by
no means the prototype of a hero but on the contrary, a terrified and
defenceless victim who was hunted down and murdered by the Galla
demons. Obviously, Dumuzi’s role in the fertility rite was so important for
the king that he kept Dumuzi’s tragic death in the background, never
identitifying with the Dumuzi who was beaten to death by the demons.
However it was vital for the king that Dumuzi remained in the realm of the
dead as from this place Dumuzi was able to exert his influence in support
of the king when he spent the wedding night with the mighty love
goddess Inanna. Dumuzi was a shepherd who wandered about the
steppe but in the songs he takes on the attributes of a king, sometimes
appearing to have close connections with the palace. In some hymns
Dumuzi literally takes the king by the hand and leads him to the bed of
Inanna, and in the hymn Dumuzi and Inanna Y, although Dumuzi is dead,
the king as his incarnation performs the Sacred Marriage rite with
Inanna.3 The goddess calls her groom and asks him to come to her
house, saying she has pulled the bolt across to let him in the door, and
although the names Dumuzi and Inanna are not actually mentioned, we
may presume that they are the protagonists in this hymn4, as the
language and expressions do indeed correspond to the other love lyrics
of Dumuzi and Inanna.
Then follows a passage that is reminiscent of the imprisonment and
liberation of Dumuzi in which Inanna exclaims that it is her fault Dumuzi
has been taken to the underworld by the Galla demons. If you are
captured, what will become of us? They have let you go: come into our house!
she cries in despair.5 Dumuzi is summoned to return from the
underworld, possibly to assist the king during his encounter with the
goddess, after which Inanna describes the beautiful locks of her dearest’s
hair, like the branches of a palm tree. Rub it against our breast, my sweet!
Noble one, honoured in the assembly with your shock of hair! Rub it against our
breast, my brother with kindly eyes! She praises his blue lapis lazuli beard
and compares him with a date palm, calling him her ivory and golden
figurine, made by a skilled metal worker. Dumuzi celebrates the
nakedness of Inanna: Come, my beloved sister! [ …..] Her genitals are as
sweet as her mouth. Her mouth is as sweet as her genitals. These are exactly
the same flowery metaphors used in the common love songs about
Inanna and Dumuzi that for so long had been sung by the people during
the festivities of the agricultural year. After this amorous play between
Inanna and the king, Inanna determines a favourable future for him,6
verily a song that had been composed for the king, with an ending which
legitimised his position with the support of the goddess:
May you be sweet words in the mouth!
May you be a reign which brings forth happy days!
May you be a feast which brightens the countenance!
May you be a shining mirror!
Beloved of Enlil, may the heart of your god be assuaged towards you!
Come at night, stay at night!
Come with the sun, stay with the sun!
May your god pave the road for you,
may he level the hills and depths for you!”
Sexual intercourse with the goddess brings the land to full bloom and the
goddess compares her female genitals with well irrigated arable soil: My
own genitals, the maiden’s, a well-watered opened-up mound -- who will be
their ploughman? My genitals, the lady’s, the moist and well-watered ground --
who will put an ox there? the goddess exclaims.7 “Lady, the king shall plough
them for you; Dumuzi the king shall plough them for you. The hymn then
describes how the embrace of Inanna causes the fruits of the land to
shoot up. As she arises from the king’s embrace, the flax rises up with her, the
barley rises up with her. With her, the desert is filled with a glorious garden. In
another song the priest asks Inanna if she will irrigate the fields with her
breasts8:
“Oh mistress, let your breasts be your fields! Inanna, let your breasts be your
fields, your wide fields which pour forth flax, your wide fields which pour forth
grain! Make water flow from them! Provide it from them for the man! Make
water flow and flow from them! Keep providing it from them for the man! ……
for the specified man, and I will give you this to drink.”
Scholars have labelled the sexual encounter of the king and the goddess
with the term ‘Sacred Marriage’, a translation of the Greek hieros gamos.
The Greeks used this name in classical times for the marriage between
the god Zeus and his first divine wife Hera. This was a marriage between
two gods, Inanna, however has a unique position in the Sumerian
pantheon as she has not a divine, but a human shepherd, Dumuzi as her
consort with whom the city ruler and later the king identify themselves.
Inanna was the only goddess in the pantheon with whom the monarchs
could have a marital relationship and whom they considered as their
proper wife. Thus way Naram-Sîn referred to himself as the husband of
Inanna-Anunitum and the kings of the Ur III dynasty behaved as worldly
substitutes for Dumuzi, Inanna’s fiancé. This marriage bond conferred on
these kings a divine status, as they had no hesitation in saying. The
hymns of the kings of Ur III are rather explicit about their relations with
the goddess. According to these songs of praise they were actually
having intercourse with Inanna, as was also suggested in Hymn to
Inanna Dilbat and the Sacred Marriage of Iddin-Dagan (see Chapter 16).
Probably all temples were provided with a ritual bed, the gišna-gi-rin-
nabed, meant specially for the nuptial night 9 and mentioned by the lord
of Aratta in the story of Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta: but I lie on
Inanna’s splendid bed strewn with pure ( gišna-gi-rin-na) plants (see Chapter
3). In Mari the ritual of Ištar begins with the words: In case the king wishes
he shall sleep on the bed of Ištar, but in the morning, much earlier than usual, he
is to be awoken and breakfast is being served to Ištar (Chapter 5). King Ur-
Namma spreaks of the gipar where he lies down on the bed with girinna
blossoms10:
In de gipar I put on the linen garment.
On the fruitful bed (gišna2-gi-rin-na), its sweet sleeping place I lay down
In Lamentation about the devastation of Sumer and Ur a holy bed is
mentioned that was placed in the bedroom of the moon god, where in
times of peace musicians played the balağ instrument (a drum).11
In the songs of praise the kings fulfilled the role of the dearest husband
(dam-ki-ağ2) of Inanna. The king embarked at the quay of Kullab and
loaded his ship with wedding presents that he was to offer to his
heavenly bride. He made his way to the Eanna in Uruk in the very same
manner as Dumuzi, when according to the old love songs he had come
to Inanna to ask for her hand, wearing a garment made from linen and
wearing a special crown on his head. In the royal hymns the kings relate
proudly how they have shared the marriage bed with Inanna and
delighted in her thighs. Inanna, in her turn, praises her own genitals and
compares herself with a fallow land that needs to be ploughed, or she
compares her nakedness with the ‘horn’ of the ‘boat of heaven’ that is
tied with ropes to the new crescent.12 Inanna is the goddess of fertility
and abundance and by forging intimate links with her the king participates
in her beneficence. The Black Heads, in their turn, also participate in this
wealth of abundance.
In the hymn Iddin-Dagan A the bed is prepared on New Year’s Day,
the day of the disappearance of the moon. In the hymn Dumuzi and
Inanna D, it also says that the bed is made ready on the day of the
moon’s disappearance,13 and although the name of the king is not
mentioned, he may very well be one of the kings of the Isin-dynasty14:
On the day of the moon’s disappearance,
the day appointed,
the day when the couch will be inspected,
the day when the lord will make love,
grant life to the Umun and give the staff (eškiri)and the crook (sibir). to the Umun
There then follows an outburst on the part of Inanna, expressing her
desire to receive the (unfortunately anonymous) king in her bed. It is
remarkable that the name of Inanna is not used either, there is only the
question of the ‘nin’, which could be translated as ‘queen’ but may also
be a reference to earlier times, when the Nin played a role in fertility rites
with the En (see Chapter 3)15:
She desires it, she desires it, she desires the couch.
She desires the couch of heart’s joy, she desires the couch.
She desires the couch of the sweet embrace, she desires the couch. She desires
the kingly couch, she desires the couch.
She desires the queenly couch, she desires the couch.
(….)
Ninšubur, the good minister of E-ana,
clasps him (the king) by his right hand and brings him in bliss to Inana’s embrace:
“May the lord whom you have chosen in your heart, the king, your beloved
husband, enjoy long days in your holy and sweet embrace!
Give him a propitious and famous reign, give him a royal throne of kingship on
its firm foundation, give him the sceptre to guide the Land, and the staff and
crook, and give him the righteous headdress and the crown which glorifies the
head!
From the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun, from the south to the north,
from the upper sea to the lower sea,
from where the haluppu tree grows to where the cedar grows, over all Sumer
and Akkad, grant him the staff and the crook!
“May he act as shepherd of the black-headed inhabitants;
may he, like a farmer, make the fields productive; may he make the sheepfolds
multiply, like a trustworthy shepherd.
(…)
The hymn continues with an endless list of all the good fate
determinations the goddess has in store for the king, mainly to do with
the uncertainty that haunted every farmer day and night, the result of the
harvest from the fields, orchards and fishing. The yield was largely
dependent on the water levels of the Euphrates and Tigris but apparently
the goddess in all her loveliness grants the king his wishes. Perhaps the
priests could read these predictions from the liver of the lambs they
offered or from the gaming boards, so with a favourable fate
determination the king could prove that he enjoys the patronage of
Inanna and his subjects would be convinced of his divinity. He receives
the sceptre, the ring and the staff of Inanna and he places the aga crown
and diadem on his head. The hymn is an urgent pleading to Inanna to
fulfil all the wishes of the king.
Marriage between god and goddess
The monarchs of the other Sumerian cities practiced some sort of
marriage rite as well, but they never themselves performed the role of
husband of the city goddess. Instead they let city god and city goddess
marry each other and they provided the god with wedding gifts for his
divine wife. We have an extensive report from Gudea of Lagaš (circa
2100 BC) in which he tells how he arranged the marriage rite between
the city god Ningirsu and the goddess Bau. On Statue D Gudea
describes how he built the Epa, the ziqqurat with seven levels for the god
Ningirsu and filled the temple with lavish wedding gifts for the goddess
Bau, presenting them on New Year’s Day, the day of the festival of Bau.
On Cilinder B we learn that Gudea ordered the bed in the temple of
Ningirsu to be strewn with girinna plants. Ningirsu enters his temple as an
eagle raising its eyes toward a wild bull, and Bau goes to her bedroom to
await the arrival of her divine husband, Ningirsu16:
Bau’s going to her women’s-quarters was a true woman´s taking her house in
hand.
Her entering her bedroom was the Tigris at high water.
When she sat down beside her husband,
she was the lady, the daughter of holy An, a green garden bearing fruit.
The daylight came out, the fate had been decided.
Bau entered her women’s-quarters, and there was abundance for the land of
Lagaš.
The day dawned. Utu of Lagaš lifted his head over the land.
(…)
Its throne, standing in the guena hall (the assembly of dead En-rulers), was An´s holy
seat which is sat upon joyfully.
Its bed, standing in the bedroom,
was a young cow kneeling down in its sleeping place.
On its quilt (?), strewn with fresh herbs,
mother Bau was resting comfortably with lord Ningirsu.17
Images of the Sacred Marriage
Fertility is an abstract concept so a seal cutter who needed to convey this
idea was faced with the question of how to depict this concept, without
using the written word. A solution was the use of symbols and a very old
symbol of fertility was the scorpion. These animals perform a love dance,
the so called ‘promenade à deux’ that can last for a couple of hours, in
which they grasp each other’s pedipalps. After the fertilization is
accomplished the female can produce more than one hundred offspring
that she carefully carries on her back.18 For people in ancient times the
scorpion was a powerful symbol of fertility and depicted on many seals,
even though they can be very dangerous and their venomous sting is
capable of killing a small child, this is seldom emphasised. On a seal
found in the cemetery of Ur, two scorpions are depicted executing a love
dance (figure 18.2) and between them a star with eight beams, possibly a
reference to Inanna in her heavenly manifestation as the star of Venus.

Figure 18.2. Cylinder seal from the cemetery of Ur. Two scorpions grap
each other during a love dance. Between them shines a star, possibly
Inanna’s symbol. (Legrain, Woolley, UE X, afb. 484)
When the gods acquired human features, the concept of fertility could be
conveyed by way of an embracing couple, with a god and a goddess or a
king and a goddess. On impressions of cylinder seals from unknown
provenance, presumably from the beginning of the second millennium
from Northern Mesopotamia (figure 18.3), pictures were made that seem
to express the same concept of a Sacred Marriage but using human
figures. The king with his turban and rolled brim embraces the goddess
and in between is a star with eight beams, as on the seal with the two
scorpions. The love embrace seems to occur under her approval and
brings abundance and luck with the hunt. On another seal we see a
woman without a divine horn crown sitting on the lap of a man, who is
certainly wearing a divine tiara. In the field are images that may be lucky
signs (figure 18.4).

Figure 18.3 and 18.4 Impressions of cylinder seals, conveying probably

the idea of fertility, symbolised as a sacred marriage. Old Assyrian.
Provenance unknown (Winter (Urs), 1983, fig. 370, 371)
The En priestess too saw herself as the marriage partner of a god.
Enheduanna refers to herself as wife (dam) of the moon god, and writes
that her thighs are fitted for the En ship but there are no known hymns
about a marriage night between a god and an En priestess. En
priestesses had a special relationship with the divine spouse of the god in
their temple and they were their human counterpart which was the
reason why Enheduanna lived in the gipar, where the temple of Ningal,
the wife of Nanna was also located.
That the moon god did not celebrate a marriage rite with the human
En priestess but with his heavenly consort in a Sacred Marriage rite is
perhaps made clear from a stele of Ur-Namma. If the reconstruction of
Jeanny Canby is right, the two small feet that are only just visible on the
lap of the moon god, belong to his heavenly spouse Ningal (figure
18.4).19 He has taken her on his lap in a loving union which results in
fresh water spouting abundantly from a vase, a guarantee of fertility and
welfare for the land.
The scene depicting a god with a goddess on his lap is also known from
other pictures. In Lagaš a door plaque was found depicting a goddess
sitting on the lap of a god (figure 18.6). Next to the goddess is an
engraved inscription dedicated to the goddess Bau and written by the city
ruler Gudea, whom we have met before. It is seems very likely that this
couple represent the goddess Bau together with her husband, the city
god Ningirsu.

Figure 18.5 Stele of Ur-Namma. (Gates, 2003, p. 59, fig. 3.6,

reconstruction of the upper register, University of Pennsylvania Museum
of Archaeology and Anthropology USA; after: Canby, 2001)

Figure 18.6. Terracotta door plaquettes from Lagaš, with an inscription of

Gudea (city ruler of Lagaš). 11,8 by 9,4 cm. (Ornan, 2010, afb. 7; Louvre,
AO 58; drawing: Winter (Urs), 1983, fig. 372)
On still another terracotta plaque of unknown provenance and probably
from the Ur III period, a god is depicted sitting on a throne while a
goddess sits on his lap (figure 18.7), her arm laid lovingly around his
neck. The god has a crescent on his crown, being the sign of the
moongod Nanna, so the goddess must be his spouse Ningal. In front of
them is a young calf that, according to Tally Ornan, must be a symbol of
fertility just as the vase with spouting water is a symbol of fertility, sexual
intercourse resulting in the reproduction of animals and plants in the
fields.

Figure 18.7 Terracotta plaque with the moon god and his spouse on his
lap. In front of them is a young animal. Provenance unknown. Israël
Museum. Photo: Gabi Laron, drawing: Pina Arad. (Ornan, 2011, fig. 1, 2)
According to Ornan sitting on the lap of a god is a metaphor for sexual
intercourse between the god and goddess, as is also described in texts.20
It is always the goddess who sits on the lap of the god whereas in the
songs about Dumuzi and Inanna, it is Dumuzi who sits on Inanna’s lap, or
‘crawls’ or ‘dances’. Inanna was a goddess higher in rank than the human
Dumuzi, but in the world of the gods, a god is always ranked higher than
his goddess.
In Mari a statue was found in the temple of Ištar which dates from the
beginning of the third millennium (figure 18.8, circa 2500 BC) as we have
seen in Chapter 5. This statue depicts a couple seated on a throne in a
close embrace and although both the man and the woman are dressed in
the sacred kaunakes mantle which would indicate a religious meaning, it
is not likely that the goddess Ištar is being depicted. Rather it could be
the king and his queen, and the embrace would seem to refer to the
fulfilment of marital happiness.
Figure 18.8 and 18.9 A man and a woman are sitting embracing on a
seat. Both wear the ritual kaunakes garment. Excavated in room 17.
Gypsum. Heigth: 0,126 m. (Parrot, 1956, pl. XLII (303) en p. 103, fig. 65;
National Museum of Aleppo, Syria, nr. 10104)
In the third millennium cylinder seals were made with depictions of a man
and woman facing each other while sitting at a banquet (figure 18.10 and
18.11). They hold up a cup with a long drinking tube, the end of which is
in a common beer vessel. In the temples archaeologists have sometimes
found similar tubes made of copper used in ritual banquets. Possibly the
couple were also meant to convey marital happiness, a metaphor for the
flowering abundance of nature.

Figure 18.10 and 18.11 Cylinder seals from the Early dynastic period with
banquet scenes (Selz, 1983, fig. 144, 113, Tf x, FD II/IIIa)
The pictures of a goddess on the lap of a god as a metaphor for the
‘Sacred Marriage’ are restricted to a short period, but in the hymns the
image of a goddess who receives a king on ‘her lap’ remain much longer
in use.
The marriage between two gods was celebrated not in the gipar, but in
the giguna, the reed building on top of the ziqqurat resembling the old
reed hut, the earthly residence of the gods, as we saw in Chapter 4. In
his description of the ziqqurat of Babylon, Herodotos relates how in the
first millennium the god still visited this building regularly to meet his wife,
represented by a human woman21:
The temple is a square building, two furlongs each way, with bronze gates. (…)
On the summit of the topmost tower stands a great temple with a fine large
couch in it, richly covered, and a golden table beside it. The shrine contains no
image and no one spends the night there except, as the Chaldaeans who are the
priests of Bel say, one Assyrian woman, all alone, whoever it may be that the
god has chosen. The Chaldaeans also say - though I do not believe them - that
the god enters the temple in person and takes his rest upon the bed.
Harem ladies
Some love songs about Inanna and the king have the courtly allure of the
palace and they are written from the female perspective, the woman
praising her own body and inviting the king to ‘plough her field’. We know
women composed music as they are depicted playing musical
instruments on cylinder seals, and in the cemetery of Ur many such
instruments have been excavated. It is possible that a number of the love
lyrics about Dumuzi and Inanna were written by these harem ladies,
using the figurative language of the love game between Dumuzi and
Inanna, in which the king performed the role of Dumuzi and they played
the role of Inanna.
The women of the harem in the second millennium dedicated themselves
to playing music, dance and poetry, all of which we can see depicted on
Egyptian examples. According to Fox there were many love songs
composed in Egypt in the time of pharaoh Akhnaton, who introduced a
freer, more liberal style with a new interest in natural and intimate
emotions.25 These poems also took the form of dialogues between a
woman and a man, who called each other brother (sen) and sister
(senet). In Egyptian graves, paintings have been found which depict nude
girls dancing, playing the lyre, performing acrobatics and carrying a cone
on their head. These were ointment cones that gradually melted down
during the festivities, giving out a heavy fragrance, the equivalent of our
perfume. The songs were called The Great Entertainment. However
according to Fox, the writing of the word would also allow for the
translation The Great Entertainster, making it seem not unlikely in his
view, that some of the poems had been composed by women, although
the professional scribes of the manuscript were always men.
Figure 18.12 and 18.13 Women sitting in a banquet. They are holding
mandragoras, from the grave of Nakht (TT 52), middle fifteenth century
BC. Right: musicians during a banquet, grave of Nakht (TT 52). (Fox,
1985, fig. 1, 3; Source: www.touregypt.net)
The purpose of the rite of the marriage night was not so much sex, but
first and foremost the benign results that resulted from this rite for the
king and his subjects. The rite had perhaps the same symbolic meaning
as other fictions that the kings spread about themselves. A king would
maintain for instance, that he was the son of a city god or was born into a
divine family line with famous, legendary ancestors with whom he was on
confidential terms.
Derision of the Sacred Marriage by Gilgameš
After the time of the neo-Sumerian kings and the rise of the Hammurabi
dynasty, the Sacred Marriage rite between Inanna and the king
diminished in importance although there is a text of a Sacred Marriage
rite between Inanna and King Samšu’iluna (1749-1712 BC),26 the son
and successor of King Hammurabi of Babylon. The hymn seems to have
been inspired by the hymn of Inanna Dilbat and King Iddin-Dagan (see
Chapter 16). Inanna appears as Venus shining in the sky above the
mountain range. She is overflowing with love for King Samšu’iluna, full of
desire and delighted to see him. She approaches and embraces him, her
heart filled with tenderness and she determines that he will be victorious
in his fight against his enemies. However after the old Babylonian time
the kings no longer went to the temple of Inanna to spend the nuptial
night with her, and Dumuzi no longer received the offerings of the
reigning kings.27 The institution of the En priestess fell into decay, some
scholars believing this to be an indication that the En priestess fulfilled a
crucial role in the Sacred Marriage rite28 and with the disappearance of
this rite their function also disappeared.
Perhaps the king no longer thought it decent to have real sexual
intercourse with Inanna and at this time the last revision of the Gilgameš
epos appeared in which the institution of the Sacred Marriage seems to
be mocked. In tablet VI a curious episode occurs in which Inanna falls in
love with Gilgameš and asks him to marry her. The amazing thing is that
Gilgameš declines her request and what is more, he hurls a torrent of
abuse at her:29
Come Gilgameš, you shall be my bridegroom!
Give, oh give me of your lusciousness!
You shall be my husband and I shall be your wife.
I will ready for you a chariot of lapis and gold,
With golden wheels and fittings of gemstones,
You shall harness storm demons as if they were giant mules. Enter our house
amidst fragrance of cedar,
When you enter our house,
The splendid exotic doorsill shall do you homage,
Kings, nobles, and princes shall kneel before you,
They shall bring you gifts of mountain and lowland as tribute. Your goats shall
bear triplets, your ewes twins,
Your pack-laden donkey shall overtake the mule,
Your horses shall run proud before the wagon,
Your ox in the yoke shall have none to compare!
(Gilgameš however spurns Ištar’s proposal, heaping scorn upon her. He
enumerates her past lovers, all of whom she doomed to a cruel fate).
Gilgameš made ready to speak,
Saying to the princess Ištar
What shall I give you if I take you to wife?
Shall I give you a headdress for your person, or clothing? Shall I give you bread
or drink?
Shall I give you food, worthy of divinity?
Shall I give you drink, worthy of queenship?
Shall I bind […]?
Shall I heap up […]?
[…] for a garment.
What would I get if I marry you?
You are a brazier that goes out when it freezes,
A Flimsy door that keeps out neither wind not draught, A palace that crushes a
warrior,
A mouse that gnaws through its housing,
Tar that smears its bearer,
Waterskin that soaks its bearer,
Weak stone that undermines a wall,
Battering ram that destroys the wall for an enemy, Shoe that pinches its wearer!
Which of your lovers lasted forever?
Which of your heroes went up to heaven?
Come, I call you to account for your lovers:
(…)
These lines seem a hilarious persiflage on the Sacred Marriage with the
goddess asking the king to visit her in her temple that smells of cedar,
reminiscent of the reed hut with girinna plants. She holds out the
prospect of abundant yields from the fields, riches and personal glory, but
Gilgameš asks what it will cost him and reminds her of the fate of her
lovers, how they all met their death or were changed into a species of
animal. His scornful reaction is quite a shocking reversal of the story of
Inanna, but the author of the revision of the Gilgameš epos must have
been less than impressed by the unpleasant fate meted out to Inanna’s
lovers. Gilgameš mentions Dumuzi and Šukalletuda and some other
obscure examples about whom we know very little while the painful
image of Dumuzi being hunted down and killed by the Galla demons
must have been still fresh in the memory. By this time Inanna had also
acquired some other demonic features as demonstrated by the poem in
which she apparently has sex with one hundred and twenty men (see
Chapter 20), no longer the mighty goddess who supported the king on
the battlefield by chopping off the heads of the enemy, but a goddess
always searching for sexual pleasure.
Chest songs
When the hymns were no longer written in Sumerian, the poets continued
the Sumerian tradition of sensual love lyrics in the Akkadian language.
The role played by the king remained important and in the old Babylonian
literature so called ‘chest songs’ were written.30 These are songs that
were filed away in libraries under the heading ‘irtum’ (Akkadian: ‘chest’).
The performers of these songs were probably accompanied by a flute,
because the name ‘chest song’ returns in various expressions that
combine a flute or trachea and the chest: In his chest, that ‘sighes’ like a
flute. Flutes were made of reed, deriving from the domain of the shepherd
Dumuzi, and according to Dahlia Shehata, the sensual chest songs could
have derived from the genre of shepherd songs.31 Shehata also wonders
whether our idea of ‘chest voice’ (as distinct from ‘head voice’) might
have something to do with the Akkadian concept of ‘chest songs’
Unfortunately the texts of most of the chest songs have been lost but
a catalogue of hymns has been preserved in which the first sentence of
each of the songs is recorded, songs glowing with sensuality that must
have been very popular. They tell the tale of a woman in love and the
Sumerian tradition of holding a dialogue with alternating choral voices
lives on in these Akkadian love songs, the special meaning of New
Year’s Day being observed as well. We have a text of Rim-Sîn of Larsa,
the king who succeeded the Isin-dynasty in 1882 BC, but in this text the
consort of Rim-Sîn is no longer goddess Inanna, but a common woman
from Larsa, who Rim-Sîn has chosen from a host of candidates.32 The
choir exclaims33:
Yes, it is the month Nisan (New year’s Day, that announced the coming of spring) when we
always pray for him
and we wish to see him for so long.
Many days and eternal life!
This brings happiness in the heart of Rim-Sîn, our Sun-god.
Pour wine for the New Year, that scintillates to my right side.
In another of these chest songs the goddess Nanaya makes an
appearance in a song of praise for the Babylonian king Šamšuiluna
(1749-1712 BC). The goddess Nanaya is an alter ego of the goddess
Inanna in Uruk, and mainly personifies Inanna’s sexual allure. In another
irtum song the Babylonian king Ammiditana (1683-1647 BC) plays a role
as the lover of Inanna, who grants him eternal life, possibly written when
Ammiditana renewed Inanna’s temple in Kiš.34
In Kiš another love poem was found on a tablet in the vicinity of the
ziqqurat. Written in Akkadian, it probably dates from the first part of the
old Babylonian period, at a time before the Hammurabi dynasty35 and it is
difficult to assess whether it is a religious or profane text. It consists of a
monologue, in which a woman speaks of herself in the ‘we’ form, just like
Inanna used to do in her love poems but the woman does it only in
relation to her body parts.36 It is very well possible that this tablet was
part of the magician’s arsenal used to help people with their love
problems37:
[…]
the beating of your heart is joyful music
stir yourself and let me make love with you
in your soft lap
of morning slumber
your caresses are sweet
growing luxuriantly is your fruit
my bed of incense is ballukku-perfumed.
O by the crown of our head, the rings of our ears
the mountains of our shoulders, and the charms of our chest the bracelet with
date spadix charms of our wrists
the belt hung with lapis-lazuli frog charms of our waist reach forth with your left
hand and stroke our vulva
play with our breasts
enter, I have opened my thighs
Sacred Marriage rites in the first millennium
In the first millennium the marriage rite shifts from the royal to the divine
sphere and there is no longer any question of a wedding between the
king and the goddess. In Babylon people celebrated the marriage rite of
the divine couple in various places during the ceremony and the temple
servants fulfilled an important function, but priestesses had no role
whatsoever. From letters which date from the time of the Assyrian king
Assurbanipal (669-627 BC), we can infer that the temple possessed a
bedroom, bit erši, which was situated in the very inner part of the temple
complex. The priests made up the bed for an erotic rendez-vous between
the god Nabû and his fiancée Tašmetu.38
Tašmetu enters her bedroom gorgeously dressed . She closes the
door, takes a bath and then climbs up onto the bed and weeps, the tears
of the goddess dripping into a bowl of lapis lazuli.39 Enter her husband
Nabû, who wipes the tears from her cheek with a red woollen cloth. The
choir urges him to ask a question, ‘Ask, ask why, ask a question, ask a
question!’ Encouraged by the choir Nabû asks Tašmetu why she has
adorned herself so beautifully.40 She answers that she will go with him to
the garden and she sulks because her throne is not placed next to his
advisors. Of course Nabû promises that her throne will be set up as the
first among his advisors. Tašmetu then demands to know whether her
eyes may see the picking of his fruits and her ears may hear the
twittering of the birds and Nabû agrees to all her wishes.
The love lyrics of Nabû and his spouse Tašmetu resemble those of
Dumuzi and Inanna. According to Martti Nissinen these songs hark back
to Sumerian poetry known from the cuneiform texts, about divine or
human love and eroticism, and the verses about the Sacred Marriage
rites.41
In the songs of Nabû and Tašmetu, it is Tašmetu who expresses her
desire to see her beloved husband, who is absent. The cella of the
goddess, papahum, and the garden are symbols of paradise, a space
that knows nothing of suffering and death, only pure blessings and
pleasure.42 In the songs of Nabû and Tašmetu not only gardens and
fruits are mentioned, but the beneficent shades of fruit trees, cedars and
cypresses in the same way as King Šulgi was compared with the date
palm. All these songs appeal directly to the senses. The garden often
plays an important role in Mesopotamian erotic poetry as it was the
extension of the domain of essentially aristocratic women, who lived
mainly in an isolated situation.43 The scent of sweet fragrances are
everywhere, the twittering of the birds can be heard and the juice of ripe
fruits tasted, the place for erotic encounters and a metaphor for making
love and the female genitals.
In the first millennium nearly all the major gods celebrated the Sacred
Marriage rite. In the capital city Aššur the rite was performed between the
goddess Mulissu and the city god Aššur and carried out in the month of
Šebat (the 11th month) in the temple, between the 17th and the 22nd
day. During these days a ritual took place called the quršu rite. Quršu
comes from the verb garašu, ‘to have intercourse, to copulate’, a kind of
erotic rendez-vous or fertility rite.44 The Assyrian king was involved, but
not as husband of the goddess and together with other members of the
court he donated offerings to the temple. In Uruk the goddess Nanaya
took over the role of Inanna, the name of this goddess being a diminutive
of the name of Inanna, a term of endearment. She stayed in Uruk in the
temple E2-hi-li-an-na, ‘house of heavenly enchantment’ and there is
mention of a bedroom with green leaves and sweet smelling scents. In
Sippar the sun god Šamaš and his spouse Aya celebrated the wedding
rite45 and from the calendar of Sippar it is apparent that it was carried out
twice a month, the first and the 15th day, when the statues of both were
taken to the inner court of the temple of Ebabbar.
In Babylon a rite was performed that is often referred to as hašadu
(marriage), involving Marduk and Zarpanita and presumably the actual
statues of these gods played a role in this rite.46 The goddess has a very
important role as she must intercede for the king with her divine husband.
The king beseeches her to plead his case with the god and indeed in this
vein king Assurbanipal (668-627 BC) addressed a hymn to Tašmetu,
requesting her to entreat her divine consort during their sharing of her
‘sweet bed’, to allow the king to enjoy a long life. He hopes that Tašmetu,
while gratifying her beloved in the bed will intercede on the king’s behalf,
and through him the community of worshippers will benefit from this
divine gratification.
From all this evidence we can conclude that there was a lively tradition in
the first millennium of a marriage rite between the city god and goddess,
that must have been, in one way or another, some sort of continuation of
the age old celebration of the king with the goddess Inanna in her temple
in Uruk at the beginning of the second millennium. Traces of this rite
have even found their way in the Bible, for in the Old Testament there is
an allusion to the celebration of the ‘marriage’ of goddess Nanaya and
King Antiokhos IV in the city of Susa.47 In II Makkabees 1:13-17 it is
written that King Antiochus IV Epiphanes broke into the temple of Nanaya
in Persia in the year 164, with the intention of obtaining the considerable
riches of the temple treasure by marrying the goddess (synoikein). Then
he could lay his hand on the properties of the temple, or in other words
steal them. But he fell into the trap that was set for him in the temple and
was murdered48:
When King Antiochus arrived in Persia, his army seemed impossible to defeat,
but they were cut to pieces in the temple of the goddess Nanea by an act of
treachery on the part of her priests. King Antiochus had gone to the temple with
some of his most trusted advisers, so that he might marry the goddess and then
take away most of the temple treasures as a wedding gift. After the priests had
laid out the treasure, he and a few of his men went into the temple to collect it.
But the priests closed the doors behind him and stoned him and his men from
trap doors hidden in the ceiling. Then they cut up the bodies and threw the heads
to the people outside. Praise God for punishing those evil men! Praise him for
everything!
To what extent this story concurs with reality is very doubtful, as in fact
Antiochus was not killed in the temple, but died from a disease. However
this does not alter the fact that the idea of a marriage between a king and
a goddess in the temple had not been forgotten in the Seleucid Empire
(311-63 BC) in the first millennium.
Erotic poetry was a common heritage in the eastern part of the
Mediterranean but unfortunately only a very small part of that huge
cultural tradition has been preserved. Nissinen notes the great emphasis
on the welfare of the king must indicate that these songs were part of a
royal courtly tradition.49 So in the first millennium the king still performed
a kind of Sacred Marriage rite as part of a royal ideology, and the ancient
metaphor of a marriage was still used to express the legal bond between
the king and the divine world. The king was no longer the sexual partner
of the goddess, but the love relationship and the intercourse of the
goddess, now with her legal husband the city god, still conveyed
prosperity to the king and his kingdom. The erotic love songs of Inanna
and Dumuzi never ceased to exist and were passed on from one
generation to the next, further developing and changing over time. The
next chapter will show how they found their way into the Bible book Song
of Songs so that even in our time they are still being recited.
Endnotes Chapter 18
1 Frazer, 1922
2 Frazer, 1922, p. 183 ff.
3 ETCSL 4.08.25, Inanna/Dumuzi Y; Sefati, 1998, p. 267-280
4 Sefati, 1998
5 ETCSL 4.08.25, Inanna/Dumuzi Y; Sefati, 1998, p. 270, l. 32-33
6 ETCSL 4.08.25, Inanna/Dumuzi Y; Sefati, 1998, p. 268-269; 270-
271, l. 56-65
7 ETCSL 4.08.16, A balbale to Inana and Dumuzi (Dumuzi-Inana P), l.
28-30
8 ETCSL 4.07.7, A shir-namshub to Inana (Inana G), l. 70-77
9 Sjöberg, Temple Hymns, nr. 93
10 Westenholz (Joan Goodnick), 1989, p. 548
11 Michalowski, 1989, l. 441-443
12 Sefati, 1998, p. 43, DI P; Kramer, 1969, p. 59
13 ETCSL 4.08.04, Inanna/Dumuzi D1; Sefati, 1998, Inanna/Dumuzi D1,
l. 301-311
14 ETCSL, Inanna/Dumuzi D1 4.08.30; Sefati, 1998, Inanna/Dumuzi
D1,l. 13-17
15 ETCSL, 4.08.04, Inanna/Dumuzi D1, l. 18-70
16 ETCSL 2.1.7, r. 910-928; r2000-2012; Sefati, p. 34/35, Cil. B xvi 17 -
xvii 3
17 ETCSL 2.1.7, r. 910-928, Cil. B v. 10-19
18 Rudik and Stockhusen, 2012
19 Canby, 2001
20 Ornan, 2010
21 Herodotus, book 1, 181, 182; translation Aubrey de Sélincourt, 1996,
p. 71/72
25 Fox, 1985
26 Van Dijk, 2002
27 Kutscher, 1990
28 Frayne, 1985
29 Foster, 2004, Tablet VI, line 7-21, p. 46
30 Groneberg, 1999
31 Shahata, 2009, p. 330
32 Hecker, 2005, p. 171-172
33 Hecker, 2005, p. 172
34 Groneberg, 1999
35 Westenholz (Joan Goodnick), 1987, p. 417
36 Westenholz (Joan Goodnick), 1987, p. 417
37 Westenholz (Joan Goodnick), 1987, p. 423
38 Matsushima, 1987, p. 145 e.v.; Nissinen, 1998, 2001
39 Nissinen, 1998, p. 616
40 Nissinen, 1998, p. 590
41 Nissinen, 1998, p. 595
42 Nissinen, 1998, p. 99
43 Nissinen, 1998, p. 618
44 Nissinen, 2001
45 Nissinen, 2001, p. 106
46 Matsushima, 1987, p. 149
47 Nissinen, 2001, p. 103 e.v.
48 Bible translation available on the internet
49 Nissinen, 2001, p. 126
Chapter 19 The Song of Songs: traces of
Inanna in the Old Testament?
The most wonderful poetry from ancient times is to be found in the Old
Testament under the heading ‘Song of Songs’. These late Hebrew texts
are believed to have been put down in writing around 300 BC and they
celebrate the love between a young woman and her beloved. The origin
of these songs and why they were given a place in the Bible when it is
obvious they have no connection whatsoever with the other religious
books of the Old Testament, is not entirely clear. However a comparison
of the Song of Songs with lyrics from the ancient Middle East reveals
some interesting similarities and a number of themes with which we have
already become familiar in the preceding chapters, emerge again in this
magnificent poem.
The Song of Songs is divided into eight chapters, of which the following is
the first1:
She
O that you would kiss me with the kisses of your mouth!
For your love is better than wine,
your anointing oils are fragrant,
your name is oil poured out;
therefore the maidens love you.
Draw me after you, let us make haste.
The king has brought me into his chambers.
We will exult and rejoice in you;
we will extol your love more than wine;
rightly do they love you.
I am very dark, but comely,
O daughters of Jerusalem,
like the tents of Kedar,
like the curtains of Solomon.
Do not gaze at me because I am swarthy,
because the sun has scorched me.
My mother’s sons were angry with me,
they made me keeper of the vineyards; but, my own vineyard I have not kept!
Tell me, you whom my soul loves,
where you pasture your flock,
where you make it lie down at noon;
for why should I be like one who wanders
beside the flocks of your companions?
He
If you do not know,
O fairest among women,
follow in the tracks of the flock, and pasture your kids
beside the shepherds’ tents.
I compare you, my love,
to a mare of Pharaoh’s chariots.
Your cheeks are comely with ornaments,
your neck with strings of jewels.
We will make you ornaments of gold,
studded with silver.
She
While the king was on his couch,
my nard gave forth its fragrance.
My beloved is to me a bag of myrrh,
that lies between my breasts.
My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms
in the vineyards of Enge’di.
He
Behold, you are beautiful, my love;
behold, you are beautiful;
your eyes are doves.
She
Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly lovely.
Our couch is green;
the beams of our house are cedar,
our rafters are pine.
(1:2-17)
This is the first part of the Song of Songs. The girl is sick with desire for
her beloved. She has no proper name but is called Šhulammit, ‘a person
of Šulem’: Return, return, O Šulamite; return, return that we may look upon
thee (7:1). The eight small parts that form the Song of Songs consist of
monologues and dialogues, without any indication as to who is speaking
to whom or on what occasion. The captions ‘He’ and ‘She’ are added and
based primarily on the basis of the gender of the relevant Hebrew forms.
The ‘Šulammit’ speaks to her beloved and sometimes she addresses a
choir of ‘daughters of Jerusalem’ or ‘daughter of Zion’. The choir reacts to
the girl with exclamations of approval or questions and encouragement:
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
if you find my beloved,
that you tell him
I am sick with love.
(5:8)
The girl will only talk about how handsome her lover is, comparing him to
an apple tree; she will sit in his shade and taste with her tongue the
sweetness of his ripe fruits. (2:3). Then she hears her love coming from
afar. He calls her and announces to her that the winter is past:
She
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved,
The voice of my beloved!
Behold, he comes,
leaping upon the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
My beloved is like a gazelle,
or a young stag.
Behold, there he stands
behind our wall,
gazing in at the windows,
looking through the lattice.
My beloved speaks and says to me:
“Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away;
for lo, the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away.
(2:8-13)
The girl describes how she looked for her love in her sleep but could not
find him:
Upon my bed by night
I sought him whom my soul loves;
I sought him, but found him not;
I called him, but he gave no answer.
“I will rise now and go about the city,
in the streets and in the squares;
I will seek him whom my soul loves.”
I sought him, but found him not.
The watchmen found me,
as they went about in the city.
“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
Scarcely had I passed them,
when I found him whom my soul loves.
I held him, and would not let him go
until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that
conceived me.
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the hinds of the field,
that you stir not up nor awaken love until it please.
(3:1-5)
Nowhere in the Song of Songs is there mention of Yahweh or any other
god, nor are there prophets who draw moral lessons from these love
songs. The only well known name in the Song of Songs is that of King
Solomon and he is mentioned some five times. The choir describes the
chariot of King Solomon and the crown with which his mother crowned
him on the day of his wedding:
What is that coming up from the wilderness,
like a column of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
with all the fragrant powders of the merchant?
Behold, it is the litter of Solomon!
About it are sixty mighty men
of the mighty men of Israel,
all girt with swords
and expert in war,
each with his sword at his thigh,
against alarms by night.
King Solomon made himself a palanquin
from the wood of Lebanon.
He made its posts of silver,
its back of gold, its seat of purple;
it was lovingly wrought within
by the daughters of Jerusalem.
Go forth, O daughters of Zion,
and behold King Solomon,
with the crown with which his mother crowned him
on the day of his wedding,
on the day of the gladness of his heart.
(3:6-11)
Sacred Marriage?
How did it happen that these sensual erotic verses of the Song of Songs,
devoid of any religious, theological or miracle didactic content, found their
way into the Old Testament? The verses are indeed a departure from the
other books of the bible, consisting mainly of chronicles, prophecies and
religious poems, such as the psalms. How did these erotic songs escape
the sharp scrutiny of the austere, puritanical rabbis, to whom chastity,
virginity, and sexual purity were sacrosanct? 2 How could the frantic
languishing of a girl for her beloved or the passionate admiration of a boy
for a girl, have anything in common with the severe admonitions of the
prophets?
In the fifties of the last century, Theophile Meek propounded a theory
about the origin of the Song of Songs.3 According to him we should see
in these poems the relics of a Sacred Marriage rite. The Song of Songs
would have been a modified and conventionalized form of an ancient
Hebrew liturgy in which this fertility cult was celebrated. The nomadic
Hebrews had taken over this cult from their urbanized Canaanite
neighbours, who in turn had borrowed it from the Tammuz-Ištar cult of
the Akkadians, a modified form of the Inanna and Dumuzi cult of the
Sumerians. These songs contained the same dialogues and monologues
between a god and a goddess, interrupted by a choir of women and a
‘king’ that performed the part of Dumuzi. Meek discovered the same
motifs in the Song of Songs and it provided an explanation for the fact
that the lover in the Song of Songs is designated both shepherd and king,
the very epithets used to describe Tammuz-Dumuzi in the cuneiform
documents. The same metaphors are used such as gazelles, grapes,
raisins, myrrh, wine pomegranate, apple trees, olive trees, cypresses, the
dancing of the girls and the surnames that the lovers in the Song of
Songs give each other are the same as those used in the hymns of
Dumuzi and Inanna, where the beloved is designated as both bride and
sister.
Was the Song of Songs in fact a late offshoot of the love lyrics of Inanna
and Dumuzi, as Meek conjectured? In the Song of Songs the Šulammit
languishes for her beloved, just as Inanna languished for her shepherd
Dumuzi, lying on her bed with sweet smelling girinna plants, comparing
Dumuzi with a date palm. Šulammit uses the very same metaphors, an
apple tree and the green foliage that surrounds the bed to describe her
beloved. The lovers desire to go to the garden to lie in each other’s arms:
Your lips distil nectar, my bride;
honey and milk are under your tongue;
(4:11)
Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates
with all choicest fruits,
henna with nard,
(4:13)
In the Song of Songs a phrase is twice used that sounds almost the
same as in the lyrics of Inanna and Dumuzi.4 In the bal-bale that Sefati
has called The women’s oath the woman demands of her lover: Your right
hand on my nakedness should be placed, Your left on my head should be laid;
(see chapter 14, p. 287). These lines resemble a refrain that the
Šulammit sang when she was together with her friend in the wine house:
He brought me to the banqueting house,
and his banner over me was love.
Sustain me with raisins,
refresh me with apples;
for I am sick with love.
O that his left hand were under my head,
and that his right hand embraced me!
(2:4-6)
The Šulammit repeats:
O that his left hand were under my head,
and that his right hand embraced me!
(8:3)
But if these songs hark back to a Sacred Marriage rite, why did they end
up in the Old Testament when the rite sprang from a religion that was an
abomination in the eyes of the Lord? The prophets passionately
denounced the heathen cult of Dumuzi as can be read in Ezekiel 8:13-14:
Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD’s house which was
toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.
Kramer thinks that Meek’s interpretation is going in the right direction but
wrong in thinking that in the Song of Songs it was Yahweh himself who
performed the role of Dumuzi and married the goddess of love. He
comes to this conclusion for the simple reason that Yahweh is never
mentioned in the Song of Songs. Moreover, we know that originally
Dumuzi was not a god but a mortal king who was wed to Inanna,
primarily to ensure the well-being of his land and people. This being the
case, Kramer writes, for Hebrews it would have been the king, a Solomon
for example who was wed to Astarte, presumably for the same reasons.
King Solomon, just like the Sumerian En ruler and the kings of the Ur III
dynasty would have celebrated the New Year with the goddess, spending
the night in the nuptial bed in order to be the beneficiary of her fertility
gifts. In the case of King Solomon however, the goddess could not have
been Inanna but her Syrian counterpart, Ištar or Aštarte. Consequently,
Kramer’s thesis is that the girl in the Song of Songs is not of humble
origin, not just a girl from Šulem, but the goddess of love herself.
King Šulgi and King Iddin Dagan were famous lovers of the goddess
Inanna and Kramer compares Solomon with the Sumerian King Su-Sin
who was known to be a high favourite with the ladies in the harem. The
Song of Songs acquired the subtitle ‘The song of songs, which is
Solomon’s’, probably as a result of the king’s reputation as a lover. Just
as the rabbis believed that Moses was the author of the Torah and King
David author of the Psalms, Kramer explains that they were convinced
that the Song of Songs was written in its entirety by none other than King
Solomon. A book that was composed by so noble and revered a king as
Solomon had to have deep religious significance and profound spiritual
values, in spite of its superficial frivolity and sensuality. All that had to be
done was to disregard the ostensible, literal meaning of the text, to look
for the ‘meaning behind the meaning’ and thus discover the allegories
intended by the devout and inspired Solomon. The lover in the Song of
Songs was not a ruddy, flowing locked, dove eyed, sweet mouthed youth,
but none other than Yahweh himself. And the beloved was not a fair maid
with curly hair, scarlet lips, jewel like thighs and goblet round navel (5:11-
13), but the people of Israel, Yahweh’s bride and spouse. The old
tradition of the Sacred Marriage was given a new interpretation by the
rabbis. They interpreted the book as an allegory of a sacred marriage
between Yahweh and his people, the people of Israel.
The name of Solomon may explain why the Song of Songs has found a
place in the Old Testament but does not explain the origin of the songs.
According to Fox the opening verse may ascribe the book to Salomon but
this must be a later addition and in his opinion the title of the Song of
Songs as ‘Solomon’s Song of Songs’, must have been the first step in
making the book fit for religious purposes. Solomon was a logical
candidate for the authorship of this book because his name is mentioned
in it a few times and he was the archetypical monarch who had loved
many women and who had composed songs. Solomon himself never
speaks however, nor is he the subject at the heart of this poem, as Fox
points out, although his name is mentioned incidentally (3:7 ff.) in the role
of bridegroom. Nothing in the Song of Songs can be seen as an
indication that he himself wrote these verses. He is even the object of
derision in verses 8:11-12:
Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon;
he let out the vineyard unto keepers;
every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.
My vineyard, which is mine, is before me:
thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand,
and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.
(8:11-12)
Love makes the lovers noble and royal and even more important than the
king! The girl compares her bed, perfumed with sweet smelling leaves,
with the bed of the king and his many rooms, and likens her lover to King
Solomon. The boy too compares himself with Solomon and he vies with
the king, keeping his vineyard better than the king. His own ‘vineyard’ is
worth much more than Solomon’s proverbially rich vineyard in Baäl
Hamon and it belongs to him alone. The ‘king’ in this poem refers to the
boy, but not because ‘king’ is the surname of the groom, Fox advocates.
The name ‘king’ is only a term of endearment.
If Solomon is not the author of the Song of Songs, then who is? Were
they in fact the remains of an age old tradition of love poetry between the
king and a goddess, as Meek believes? Just as in the love songs of
Inanna and Dumuzi the verses of the Song of Songs seem directly
related to popular songs that women in the weaving workshops or the
fields sang in choirs and quite likely polyphonic. You can effectively hear
the voices of the girls singing about the chariot of King Solomon or his
vineyard in Baäl Hamon and the Šulammit also seems to give a solo
performance in combination with a choir of other girls. As with all folk
songs the composer is not known but the songs were commonly sung in
the Middle East during festivities, weddings parties and perhaps even
during funerals, as Melvin Pope believes.8 In ancient Israel and Judea
festivals were not only pious rituals but extravagant parties in which
people dined and drank and made merry.9 On the Day of Atonement
(Yom Kippur), the girls dressed in their smartest clothing and went to the
vineyards to dance in the fields, to flirt with the boys and talk about
love,10 even though these festivals were considered to be religious
occasions and therefore holy. Because they were part of religious
festivities, it was believed the songs could be safely incorporated into the
Old Testament and that they had nothing to do with a Sacred Marriage
rite. However, poetry from old Sumerian and Akkadian love songs must
have filtered through via these folk songs and become part of the general
cultural heritage
Ancient traditions and eastern lyric
The Song of Songs is probably an example of a long standing tradition of
composition of eastern love lyrics that reaches back to the ancient
Sumerian songs about Inanna and Dumuzi. These songs had a function
in the Sacred Marriage rite but probably sprang from a folklore tradition
when the songs were chanted during the various festivities attached to
the agricultural seasons. In later times they were written down in both the
Sumerian and Akkadian languages, but transmitted also via the oral
tradition and chanted during the many popular feasts in the villages. The
processions of the statues of the gods through the streets were public
feasts but the large banquets laid on for these occasions were not limited
to the temples. There are many Akkadian love songs that are related to
Sumerian prototypes and when the Sacred Marriage Rite disappeared,
these love songs lived on for years to become part of the folk tradition. In
turn they were perhaps picked up by the court poets, who in the first
millennium composed the marriage songs for the divine couple. It
appears that the tradition of the Sacred Marriage rite returned in the New
Babylonian period, as for example the songs about Nabû and Tašmetu,
Marduk and Zarpanitum and other divine couples. Nabû and Tašmetu
converse as two lovers who go to the bedroom to make love and many of
the characteristics of these songs are echoed in the Song of Songs and
must derive from the same period: the metaphor of the mountain (4:8),
the wall (4:4; 8:10), the shadow of the cedars and cypresses, the woman
who adorns herself with precious stones, the picking of fruits and the
twittering birds. The metaphorical language is remarkable similar and
shows continuity in the use of the same symbolic language through the
ages and different cultures.11
Traces of Inanna in the Song of Songs
The millennia old love lyrics of Inanna and Dumuzi glimmer through the
verses of the Song of Songs and there is even a verse that seems to
refer directly to the planet Venus:
Who is this that looks forth like the dawn,
fair as the moon, bright as the sun,
terrible as an army with banners?
(6:10)
The boy promises the girl to make a precious jewel: We will make you
ornaments12 of gold, studded with silver (1:11). Traditionally this ornament
was considered a suitable present to bring when visiting Inanna’s temple
(see chapter 21, figure 21.13). It was a female pudendum of lapis lazuli,
decorated with silver stars and it is mentioned in the many incantations
for Inanna and Dumuzi when Inanna’s help was implored to cure a sick
person (see chapter 23):
On the 28th day, the Day of the sheepfold, you offer Ištar a pudendum (ûra) from
lapis lazuli
with a little star of gold. You pronounce the name of the sick person……
The beloved of the girl was a shepherd, tending his flocks in the steppe
just like Dumuzi. The love between Inanna and Dumuzi resulted in the
blossoming of nature and in the Song of Songs, flowers also blossom
forth on the earth. The boy sings about the lips of his girl that drop honey
as the honeycomb, honey and milk are under thy tongue (4:11) while Inanna
compares Dumuzi to the Honeyman (chapter 14). The girl hears
someone knocking on her door. The lover asks if he may come in. The
girl answers that she is not dressed to receive him. I have put off my coat;
how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? (5:3).
This is reminiscent of Dumuzi, waiting before the door of Inanna’s house
while she rushes around to take a bath and dress in her most festive
attire before she can let him in. When the lover in the Song of Songs puts
his hand in the hole of the door, the girl rises to open the door for her
beloved. But he has withdrawn and is gone. She decides to seek him and
the second time she runs across the watchmen who is going about the
city. Then follows something quite enigmatic, they smote me, they wounded
me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me (5:7). Why was she
tortured by the watchmen and is this incident not faintly reminiscent of
what befell Geštin-ana, the sister of Dumuzi, when the Galla demons
were hunting Dumuzi and tried to force Geštin-ana to betray his hiding
place? The demons tortured her, tore open her face and poured boiling
tar in her womb.13 However Geštinana did not betray her brother (see
Chapter 15).
There must have been innumerable love songs and rituals in ancient
times which were spread abroad by various means, perhaps by travelling
singers or others who adapted them to their own needs. The love
goddess was not forgotten and although Inanna’s role as sexual partner
of the king had ceased to exist, the poetry of her love lyrics never
disappeared. The most beautiful verses were perhaps the most popular
and remained in existence from generation to generation, until in the end
they were picked up and given an unostentatious place between the
other books of the Old Testament. Obviously these love songs, that in
ancient times had been fertility songs, formed such an essential part of
the religious life of the people that they could not be left out of the Bible.
Endnotes Chapter 19
1 Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © National Council
of Churches of Christ in America, available on the internet.
2 Kramer, 1969, p. 85
3 Kramer, 1969, p. 89 e.v.
4 Kramer, 1969, p. 105, note 48
8 Pope, 1977
9 Fox, 1985, p. 407
10 Fox, 1985, p. 252
11 Nissinen, 2008, p. 210
12 The Revised Standard Version of the Bible translates ‘earrings’,
which certainly is wrong
13 Bottéro en Kramer, 1989, p. 298
Chapter 20 Temple prostitution?
One of Inanna’s epithets was nu-gig an-na and Assyriologists have
almost always translated this name as ‘hierodule’ or ‘prostitute’ of ‘An’ or
‘heaven’. Annette Zgoll examined the use of the Sumerian word nu-gig
and concluded that it is quite unjustified to translate the term in this way.1
She pointed out that the epithet was used with the intention of drawing
attention to Inanna’s elevated position as mistress of heaven, when she
not only asserted her influence in heaven but on earth and the
underworld as well.
Not only the title of nu-gig, but various other titles descriptive of
Inanna, such as kar-kid (Akkadian harimtu) of heaven from the Sumerian
texts, have always been translated as ‘prostitute’ or ‘temple prostitute’
and the various titles of priestesses known in Mesopotamia, such as
entu, naditu, lukur, ugbabtu, istaritu, qadištu, kulmašitu, batultum, šugitu
and kezertu were invariably translated as ‘prostitute’. When Dumuzi
gathers the šuba stones and brings them to Inanna, she says2:
Amaušumgalanna, the one who plows the šuba stones, for whom will he
‘’plough’?
The little ones of his šuba stones gleaming on our neck
The large ones of his šuba stones gleaming on our pure breast.
Amaušumgalanna answers the nu-gig:
‘She is a nu-gig, my wife is a nu-gig - for her he will plough.’
Yitschak Sefati translates nu-gig with ‘hierodule’ and gives the impression
that Dumuzi is referring to his future wife as a ‘temple whore’, as a
goddess of love, a goddess who praises her own body could according to
the current opinion be none other than a prostitute and being a goddess,
she could not be a simple whore, but a temple whore. Scholars give the
impression that Mesopotamia was teeming with temple whores and
common whores and the word for tavern, eš3-dam also the name of a
temple of Inanna was as a matter of course translated as ‘brothel’.
The first author who wrote about temple prostitution in ancient Babylon
was Herodotos. In Book I 196 The Histories he writes about his visit to
Babylon, a hilarious tale that is still used as a reference to prove the
existence of temple prostitution in ancient times. Herodotos begins with a
very curious story about the marriage market in Assyrian villages:3
In every village once in each year it was done as follows:—When the maidens
grew to the age for marriage, they gathered these all together and brought them
in a body to one place, and round them stood a company of men: and the crier
caused each one severally to stand up, and proceeded to sell them, first the most
comely of all, and afterwards, when she had been sold and had fetched a large
sum of money, he would put up another who was the most comely after her: and
they were sold for marriage. Now all the wealthy men of the Babylonians who
were ready to marry vied with one another in bidding for the most beautiful
maidens; those however of the common sort who were ready to marry did not
require a fine form, but they would accept money together with less comely
maidens. For when the crier had made an end of selling the most comely of the
maidens, then he would cause to stand up that one who was least shapely, or any
one of them who might be crippled in any way, and he would make proclamation
of her, asking who was willing for least gold to have her in marriage, until she
was assigned to him who was willing to accept least: and the gold would be got
from the sale of the comely maidens, and so those of beautiful form provided
dowries for those which were unshapely or crippled; but to give in marriage
one’s own daughter to whomsoever each man would, was not allowed, nor to
carry off the maiden after buying her without a surety; for it was necessary for
the man to provide sureties that he would marry her, before he took her away;
and if they did not agree well together, the law was laid down that he should pay
back the money. (..)
Herodotus continues his description of life in Babylonia by maintaining
that the Babylonians did not have practising physicians. The sick were
brought to the market place and any passer-by could come up to the sick
and give advice. That this is a fable is not a matter of dispute, as Babylon
was renowned for its doctors and many have left documents that testify
to their knowledge of medicine. But for some unknown reason the next
story (I, 199), in which Herodotus relates how every woman in Babylon
was obliged to prostitute herself once in her life before she married, is
accepted as true and taken for granted by most scholars.
Now the most shameful of the customs of the Babylonians is as follows: every
woman of the country must sit down in the precincts of Aphrodite once in her life
and have commerce with a man who is a stranger: and many women who do not
deign to mingle with the rest, because they are made arrogant by wealth, drive
to the temple with pairs of horses in covered carriages, and so take their place,
and a large number of attendants follow after them; but the greater number do
thus,—in the sacred enclosure of Aphrodite sit great numbers of women with a
wreath of cord about their heads; some come and others go; and there are
passages in straight lines going between the women in every direction, through
which the strangers pass by and make their choice. Here when a woman takes
her seat she does not depart again to her house until one of the strangers has
thrown a silver coin into her lap and has had commerce with her outside the
temple, and after throwing it he must say these words only: “I demand thee in
the name of the goddess Mylitta”: now Mylitta is the name given by the
Assyrians to Aphrodite: and the silver coin may be of any value; whatever it is
she will not refuse it, for that is not lawful for her, seeing that this coin is made
sacred by the act: and she follows the man who has first thrown and does not
reject any: and after that she departs to her house, having acquitted herself of
her duty to the goddess, nor will you be able thenceforth to give any gift so great
as to win her. So then as many as have attained to beauty and stature are
speedily released, but those of them who are unshapely remain there much time,
not being able to fulfil the law; for some of them remain even as much as three
or four years: and in some parts of Cyprus too there is a custom similar to this.
The bible prophets also contributed to endorsing this image of Babylon
as the centre of polytheism and a hotbed of all perversion. In the
Revelation of Saint John we read in verse 1-5 of chapter 17 that in
Babylon the great whore, the mother of harlots lived, who sat upon a
scarlet beast with seven heads and ten horns4:
And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked
with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the
great whore that sitteth upon many waters, With whom the kings of the earth
have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made
drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into
the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of
names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was
arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones
and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness
of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY,
BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS
OF THE EARTH.
Gernot Wilhelms view
Herodotus is the source material for antique authors’ information about
the pre-marital ‘once off’ incidents of women prostituting themselves in
Babylon, so Gernot Wilhelm resolved, on the basis of written documents,
to examine thoroughly the question of temple prostitution in ancient
Mesopotamia. In his article from 1990, he finds new facts have come to
light that ‘without any doubt’, prove that female prostitutes were working
for the temple and that this was not just tolerated but even organised by
the temple. His evidence for this derives from the cuneiform tablets from
the city of Kiš, which were published by Finkelstein. From these texts
Wilhelm concludes that the activities of kezertu women in Kiš were
profitable for the temple. How Wilhelm could be so certain that
prostitution was involved is strange, for this is nowhere indicated on the
tablets. Researcher Finkelstein makes it quite clear, as Wilhelm himself
acknowledges that there is no question of professional prostitution,
although he does not exclude the possibility that extramarital sexual
activities were involved. These kezertu women were supervised by an
UGULA, a steward of the temple, who apparently received payments for
some of the activities of the kezertu women but exactly what kind of work
is never specified. We will come back to this issue later on.
The temple of the goddess Ištar-Anunitum in the old Babylonian city of
Sippar seems to have organised similar activities. Belgian archaeologists
have explored the archives of Ur-Utu, a gala-mah, the head of the gala
priests of the goddess in Sippar5 and estimate the date of the archive
between 2000 and 1600 BC. From the tablets it can be inferred that the
men and women who were under the supervision of the high priest
carried out certain ritual operations, the nature of which however remains
entirely unknown. The women are sometimes married sometimes not or
their status goes unrecorded, and the rites are circumscribed in the texts
with the names harimutum and redutum. According to the Belgian
researchers, ‘Although the designations harimutum and redutum are
considered to refer to the ‘status of prostitute or prostitution’ there is not
the slightest evidence to indicate that these rites were of a sexual nature,
except of course for the fact that some are practised only by men, others
only by women’.6 It is interesting to note that although the harimutum
rites were performed exclusively by men, Wilhelm again adduces this
research as incontrovertible proof for the existence of temple prostitution.
He argues that the harimutum is some sort of supervisor over the
harimtum, the prostitutes and in any event he writes, ‘there cannot be any
doubt whatsoever’ that in the late Babylonian period certain temples in
Northern Babylon organised groups of women who were gainfully
employed as harimtum. In his view there is no reason to ascribe to this
circle of people, that in the old Babylonian period were also referred to
with the ‘wohl etablierte’ term for ‘prostitute’, any other significance.7 The
sophism is now complete, harimtum according to Wilhelm is a prostitute
so the word harimutum too must refer to prostitution.
Wilhelm goes on to produce further evidence which proves, again
‘without any doubt’, that in ancient times temple prostitution was a
common practice. He grounds his thesis on the information gleaned from
a number of tablets deriving from the city of Nuzi, recording adoption
contracts. These contracts were drawn up between two parties, usually a
single elderly lady who wished to adopt a daughter or sister of the other
party, stipulating precise conditions for the adoption procedure. As
Wilhelm does not hesitate to translate the word ‘harimtu’ with the ‘wohl
etablierte’ term for ‘prostitute’, the conclusions he draws from these
contracts are very surprising indeed. In one text an elderly widow adopts
her granddaughter, and this granddaughter lives according to Wilhelm as
a ‘prostitute’ (ana harimuti baltat), the granddaughter then being married
off by the grandmother for a bride price. ‘This text shows’,’ Wilhelm
writes, ‘that a young girl before her marriage and with the complicity of
her family and probably from sheer necessity could be forced into
prostitution and that afterwards, she was able to acquire with their
knowledge the status of married wife.’ In one text the brother delivers his
sister to a very distinguished lady, who is then entitled to marry the girl to
a slave or taluhlu (a person from the lower classes in Nuzi) or ana
harimuti baltat: ‘let her live in harimuti’ ‘The contract makes clear’,
Wilhelm writes, ‘that upper-class status confers on a lady the right to
deliver servants into prostitution for the purposes of gain, monetary or
otherwise.’ Wilhelm continues: ‘We have a palace decree from Nuzi from
which we may conclude that prostitution was not considered a disgrace.
It stipulates that the profession of prostitute (harimutu) or beggar was not
open to the daughter of a slave without the permission of the king.’
Obviously the king did not want to miss out on a profitable source of
income from prostitution, as Wilhelm remarks.
Wilhelm discusses a tablet from which he has deduced that a woman
states that her daughter is a prostitute and he concludes that she was
even able to follow her profession in her parental home. Wilhelm points
out that so far there is no proof of prostitution in the context of the temple
but that the tablet he has discovered and publishes for the first time in
this article shows ‘without any doubt’ the existence of prostitution within
the scope of the temple organisation. He translates the tablet as follows:
‘I have given Mutu-Utu-baltat, my daughter for prostitution (ana harimtu)
as a pledge to the goddess Ištar.’ Wilhelm concludes that in addition to
old Babylonian indications of the existence of temple prostitution he now
has provided incontrovertible proof that in the 15th or 14th centuries BC,
the same practice was known in an area that in later times became part
of the Assyrian empire. These adoption contracts, according to Wilhelm,
underpin earlier indications of the existence of prostitution in the service
of Ištar.
Wilfred Lamberts view
In his article, Prostitution dated 1992, Wilfred Lambert sets out to prove,
whether or not the adage that prostitution is ‘the world’s oldest
profession’, holds true for ancient Mesopotamia. He acknowledges that
the evidence is patchy but fortunately there is one word for ‘prostitute’
which is ‘not in doubt’, the Babylonian-Assyrian word harimtu, which
corresponds to the Sumerian kar-kid.8 Lambert argues that this is better
established by putting it in context, and the opening story of the
Babylonian Gilgameš epos provides an excellent example. Lambert
admits that this is only a literary work and not a historical account, and he
also concedes that this story originally had nothing to do with Gilgameš
but was a later addition from a different source. However that does not
detract from the fact that it perfectly illustrates the meaning of the word
harimtu .
Because Gilgameš behaved badly as ruler of Uruk, the gods decided
to create Enkidu, a savage man who lived together with the animals in
the woods, protecting them by sabotaging the hunter’s traps. Feeling very
disgruntled, a hunter went to Uruk to inform Gilgameš about a wild man
with long locks, his body entirely covered with hair, who roamed the
woods, lived with the animals and set off the traps. Gilgameš advised the
hunter to take with him the harimtu Šamhat, an Akkadian word always
translated as ‘prostitute’, ‘harlot’ or ‘hussy’.9
Gilgameš speaks to the hunter:
Go, hunter, take with you Šamhat, the harlot,
When the wild beasts draw near the waterhole,
Let her strip off her clothing, laying bare her charms.
When he (viz. Enkidu) sees her, he will approach her,
His beasts that grew up with him on the steppe will deny him
The hunter does as Gilgameš has told him and takes Šamhat to the
woods. They meet Enkidu together with the wild beasts at the drinking
place where Šamhat introduces Enkidu to the delights of human
civilization. They have sex for seven days and seven nights whereupon
she gives him clothes to wear and takes him back to the city of Uruk.
There he tests his strength with Gilgameš but although they fight each
other the struggle remains undecided and Gilgameš makes friends with
him. Next they join together in combat against the monster Humbaba and
the Bull of Heaven but the killing of Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven
incites the wrath of Ištar and the goddess decides to take revenge. She
goes up onto the wall of ramparted Uruk and calls the kezertu, šamhatu
and harimtu that Foster translates as ‘cult women, prostitutes, harlots’.10
Ištar has determined that Enkidu should die and from his death bed he
curses Šamhatu and blames her for his miserable fate. According to the
authors he curses her as a whore11:
Come, Šamhat, I will ordain you a destiny,
A destiny that will never end, forever and ever!
I will lay on you the greatest of all curses,
Swiftly, inexorably, may my curse come upon you.
May you never make a home that you can enjoy,
May you never caress a child of your own,
May you never be received among decent women.
May beer sludge impregnate you lap,
 May the drunkard bespatter your best clothes with vomit.
May you swain prefer beauties
May he pinch you like potter’s clay.
May you get no [ …] alabaster,
May no […] table to be proud of be set in your house.
May the nook you enjoy be a doorstep,
May the public crossroads be your dwelling,
May vacant lots be your sleeping place,
May the shade of a wall be your place of business.
May brambles and thorns flay your feet,
May toper and sober slap you cheek.
May riffraff of the street shove each other in your brothel (sic!)
May there be a brawl [there …]
When you stroll with your cronies, may they catcall after you,
May the builder not keep your roof in repair,
May the screech owl roost in the ruins of your home.
May a feast never be held where you live.
But the sun god Šamaš calls Enkidu to order and reminds him that
Šamhat has given him food and drink, clothed him in sparkling garments
and has acquainted him with Gilgameš. Immediately Enkidu reverses the
‘destiny’ for Šamhat, but he cannot undo his curses12:
When Enkidu heard the speech of the valiant Samaš
His raging heart was calmed,
[…] his fury was calmed:
Come, Šamhat, I will ordain you a destiny,
My mouth that curses you, let it bless you instead.
May governors and dignitaries fall in love with you,
May the man one double league away slap his thighs in excitement,
May the man two double leagues away let down his hair.
May the subordinate not hold back from you, but open his trousers,
May he give you obsidian, lapis, and gold.
May ear bangles be your gift.
To the man whose wealth is secure, whose granaries are full,
May Ištar […] of the gods, introduce you,
For your sake may the wife and mother of seven be abandoned.
In his own translation of this fragment of the Gilgameš epos Lambert
systematically translates the name of Šamhat as ‘prostitute’.13 In his view
there are two important factors, the legal status of women on the one
hand and prostitution in the cult of the major goddess Ištar on the other
hand. He concludes that unlike the Babylonian Gilgameš Epic, normal
prostitution appears to have been disapproved of in Babylon. He
illustrates this statement with an extract from a dialogue between two
quarrelling women, a literary satire of OId Babylonian date14:
Why did you insult the daughter of a citizen, your equal
and call her a prostitute (kar-kid)
so that her husband divorced her?
A second text that Lambert advances to strengthen his argument is a
paragraph from a collection of admonitions, probably Middle Babylonian
in origin (circa 1400-1000 BC):
Do not marry a prostitute (harimtu) whose husbands are legion,
A harlot (ištaritu), who is dedicated to a god,
A courtesan (kulmašitu) whose favours are many.
In your trouble she will not support you,
In your dispute she will mock you;
There is no reverence or submissiveness with her.
Should she dominate your house, get her out,
For she has directed her attention elsewhere.
Lambert bases his translation of the terms harimtu, just like Wilhelm, on
the adoption contracts from Nuzi. He quotes a tablet from Nippur (Middle
Babylonian period) that gives a clear example, according to him, of a
woman exploiting her adopted daughter as a prostitute to earn money for
her. In Lamberts translation the text runs as follows15:
(Ina-Uruk-Ištaršat) has adopted Etitum, daughter of Ninurtamušallim. She paid
five shekels of gold. She may either give her in marriage, or she (the adopted
girl) may work as a prostitute for her (the adopting lady), but she (the adopting
lady) may not make her (the adopted girl) her slave. Should she make her slave,
she (the adopted girl) may go back to her father’s house.
The interesting point is, Lambert writes, that the adopted daughter can be
exploited in two ways, she may be given in marriage, which would involve
maintenance by the husband of both mother and adopted daughter under
his roof, or she could be made to work as a prostitute and so generate
income for her adoptive mother. However, she may not be made a slave,
which would deprive her of her rights of inheritance.
Lambert presumes that there are religious texts in which Inanna is
addressed as a prostitute or speaks of herself as if she were a prostitute,
an indication that there were no moral restrictions concerning the
profession. It is ‘certain’, so Lambert writes that prostitution was regarded
as a sacrament of Inanna/Ištar,16 stressing that the priestess acted as if
she were Inanna herself and that prostitutes were in some sense
devotees of Inanna/Ištar. The evidence Lambert uses is the same
fragment in the Gilgameš epos that we have seen before, in which
Inanna assembles the kezertu, šamhatu and harimtu, terms which
Lambert also translates as ‘prostitute’ without any distinction. Lambert
even found another example in the myth of Erra, in which the war god,
Marduk speaks to Erra about the destruction of Uruk, the city that was
presided over by Ištar as city goddess:
Uruk, abode of Anu and Ištar, city of kezertus, šamhatus and harimtus whom
Ištar deprived of husbands, and handed over to you (Erra).
We may conclude, Lambert writes, that in some sense prostitutes were
devotees of Ištar, ‘quite probably temples of Ištar had such ladies on their
staff, and no doubt (sic.) they provided income for the temple.’17 Lambert
also uses Finkelstein’s research in Kiš to strengthen his case but goes a
step further than Finkelstein and concludes that it ‘is certain’ that these
women are prostitutes. According to Lambert the very names of two of
these ladies, Šamhatum and Kezertum, means ‘prostitute’.18
In the same way Lambert believes that the naditum women were
prostitutes. We have discussed the naditum women in Sippar (see
Chapter 11). They were unmarried ladies who did not have any children
and lived as a community, each in their own house in a cloister and they
were often very wealthy and could operate as merchant bankers. Rivka
Harris in her dissertation about these women in Sippar has pointed out
that they were bound by a vow of chastity and that there was no evidence
whatsoever that they had committed themselves to prostitution but
Lambert will have none of it and suggests that, ‘The lack of children could
be the result of contraception rather than chastity’. He continues, ‘Silence
in this case is an especially weak argument. The same situation occurs in
the modern world. A successful modern Western prostitute might open
interest bearing bank accounts, or invest money in stocks and shares, all
of which would be properly documented but the income from her clients
would be either totally undocumented, or at the best documented
informally, as in a personal note book’.19
Her hunches are shining, her hips are lapis lazuli
In the volume, Sex and gender in the ancient Near East, Mark Geller
gives a translation of a Sumerian magical tablet.20 It is an incantation to
help a man who is obviously love sick, the object of his love being a girl
that he met in the street but who does not respond to his love. She is
portrayed immediately afterwards, according to Geller, as a ‘prostitute of
Inanna’ (kar-kid dInanna), who loiters in the tavern. She is described as
an ‘abundant cow’ and she is likened to the storehouse of Enki and an
apple orchard. When she sits, she is a blossoming apple orchard, when she lies
down, a shadow is created in her joyous canal, she has hung her hair down
towards him, the hair causing arousal. She has stretched her hand out
towards him, the hand causing arousal and she has extended her foot
out towards him. Her haunches are shining, her hips are lapis lazuli, when her
backside descends from above, to spread feelings of love, to reduce inhibitions of
love, arousal extends from above like from a wall.
The arousal strikes the lad in the chest like a reed pen and in desperation
he calls on Father Enki’s, the god of magic who will have a cure. Enki
tells him what to do to win the girl. He must take the butter of a pure cow,
milk of a domestic cow, butter of a house cow and butter of a white cow
and pour it into a yellow stone vessel. This mixture should be applied to
the girl’s breasts and she must not lock him out of the open door, nor
must she comfort her crying child. The lad speaks out: ‘May she run after
me!’
The spell does not tell us how the man is to apply this particular
ointment onto the bare breasts of the girl, who thus far seems to be
insensitive to his advances. Nor does Geller explain why the man has to
take so much trouble to win her love when she is, in his view, a prostitute.
In that case one would expect him to present the girl with a few gifts,
rather than spending his silver on the costly advice of an ašipu. The
poem in fact would appear to be conclusive evidence that the kar-kid was
not a prostitute, as she certainly was not interested in the young man.
Ištar will not tire
With most present day Assyriologists and those who base their work on
them, the idea has taken root that Ancient Mesopotamia was crowded
with prostitutes of all shapes and sizes. They are fascinated by a society
in which free sex seemed to thrive to the extent that it was licensed and
moreover organised by the temple with the priests themselves
functioning as pimps. Ištar, as love goddess is seen to be a kind of super
prostitute and Bottéro enthusiastically paints a picture depicting the gods
of Mesopotamia as behaving in a very human way. To illustrate this
convincingly, he takes the goddess Ishtar as a colourful example21:
One of the best examples of this humanity (…) of the Divine is Ištar, who
is often presented to us as a model of those women who are ‘fond of their
body’ and completely dedicated to the “amour libre’’ that she patronises
and performs cheerfully. One should see Her, at the opening of section
VI of the Gilgameš Epos, where She is trying to seduce him and
impudently entices him into Her bed, while he, alarmed and distrustful,
throws her fickleness and deceitfulness right into Her face. From a
Babylonian hymn from the beginning of the second millennium we learn
that while praising the goddess, sixty times sixty men, one after the other
can enjoy Her sex. They are completely exhausted, but Ištar is not!
The hymn that Bottéro refers to is a song in praise of Ištar from the late
Babylonian period. The significance of this poem is ambiguous, but the
body of Ištar is enthusiastically praised and everybody can enjoy her
nakedness. In the recurrent refrain, the young men chant that the city is
built on pleasure.22 We will come back to this song later on.
The real significance of kar-kid/harimtu: Assante’s research
In 1998 Julia Assante wrote an article on the question of whether or not
the kar-kid/harimtu could have been a prostitute. She comes to a
conclusion about Mesopotamian society that is quite different to what had
generally been believed up to that time. According to her research the
term kar-kid/harimtu cannot be used simply to describe a certain
profession but appears to be a term for a legal category of women that
were not placed under the authority of a man. Sons that were not
connected to a patriarchal household because they were dispelled or
disinherited could also be referred to as harimtu and in various articles
Assante has elucidated on her findings (see bibliography at the end of
the book).
A woman in Mesopotamia had only two possibilities in life, Assante points
out, either she was subordinate to a man (her father, brother or husband)
or she was single and most women either married or remained under the
custody of a father or brother. Single women however were relegated to
a position outside the patriarchal system and were independent of a man.
In Sumerian they were called kar-kid, in Akkadian they were harimtu.
They could carry out a profession, such as the lukurkaskal, suhur-la
(qadištu) naditu, kezertu, šamhatu or one of the other functions that were
often connected with the temple. However the exact significance and
differences between the meanings of these terms is not always clear to
us.
In the ancient languages of Mesopotamia there was no known word to
indicate a prostitute and archaeologists have not found one shred of
evidence to prove the existence of temple prostitution. In the archives of
the Inanna temple in the holy city of Nippur two thousand cuneiform
tablets have come to light,23 mostly containing economic documents from
the Ur III period. If temple prostitution had generated any income at least
some traces of it should have been found in these texts, which is not the
case.
Some form of prostitution existed of course but in Mesopotamia this
was not considered a special profession, as is noted by Assante.24 The
female occupations and female cultic functions of which the texts give
evidence do not deal with sex, but with the legal status of unmarried
women. If a harimtu had sexual intercourse these were unavoidably
extra-marital and in contrast with married women, the harimtu was not
restricted by law to having sex with one man. In the literary imagination
this category of woman has been turned into an emblem of unrestrained
free sex, a woman ‘who knows the penis’, a woman who was not a virgin.
A harimtu had no status in the patriarchal system and she is often
called ‘the harimtu of the street’. Scholars translated ‘harimtu of the
street’ as ‘street harlot’, but according to Assante it was an indication of
the no man’s land outside what was seen as the legitimate household. It
was a legal terminology for a single woman who was not living in her
parental or conjugal dwelling. She had acquired this status because she
had left her parental home, either compelled to do so or of her own free
will. In the old legal texts there are records of any number of examples of
the different situations of a harimtu, such as repudiated and disinherited
sons.
When the poets call Ištar a harimtu they do not mean that Ištar is the
divine whore, but allude to her status as an unmarried woman. They
describe her situation as a nubile but not yet married woman, so Assante
explains.
Assante analyses a number of arrangements dealt with in the adoption
contracts in order to clarify the significance of the term harimtu.25 In Nuzi
a large number of similar contracts have been found that, as we have
already seen have been interpreted in a rather speculative way by
Wilhelm and Lambert. It is only because the harimtu had no status in the
patriarchal system that this term is used in the adoption contracts. In
contracts with an adoptive father the term harimtu is never used, simply
because the adopted child is placed again under the authority of a man. If
a father adopts a daughter she would not, by definition, be a harimtu but
the daughter of a man. If a mother adopts a daughter then the contracts
never specify a patriarchal status, as a mother cannot confer such a
status on her daughter, then the status of harimtu is the only option.
If a woman adopts a daughter, the contract between the adoptive
mother and the biological parent(s) states that the adoptive mother must
either give the adopted daughter in marriage or allow her harimtu status,
but she could not turn her into a slave. If the daughter was to marry, she
would become the ‘wife of a man’. For the adoptive mother it would have
been a better option to keep her daughter in harimtu rather than marrying
her off, Assante concludes. In most cases daughters were adopted to act
as a carer for when their adoptive parent became old and disabled. The
adoptive mother was often not eligible to receive the bride price either as
she could not provide a dowry or because the bride price customarily
went to male kin, and for this reason the adoption contracts stipulated
that she could keep her daughter ana harimtu, viz. unmarried and outside
the authority of a man.
Scholars consequently read these contracts as if the adoptive mother
was given the choice either to marry her daughter off or allow her to
commit herself to prostitution. Even in cases where the adoptive mother
was wealthy, it was blithely accepted that it would be quite usual for the
adoptive mother to take up the profession of a ‘madam’, living on the
earnings from prostitution of her adopted daughter. In another contract it
is clear that the biological father very specifically established that he had
no objections to his daughter marrying or alternatively living in the status
of harimtu but that he could not accept that the adoptive mother would
sell his daughter as a slave. According to the current interpretation,
Assante notes, we are supposed to believe that this father, who could not
tolerate the idea of his daughter being sold as a slave, had no qualms
about the idea of his daughter living out her entire life as a prostitute.
When a man had sex with the ‘daughter of a man’ or the ‘wife of a
man’, it was, according to ancient law, the father or the husband who was
the injured party and he was entitled to inflict a heavy punishment on the
perpetrator, but sex with a harimtu injured nobody and no penalties were
established in this case. Some prostitutes must have originated from the
harimtu class, but that does not mean then that every harimtu is a
prostitute! Assante points out that slaves and foreign captives made
much better candidates for that profession, especially in the case of
organised prostitution.
A father could turn his daughter into a harimtu by expelling her from
the parental home and the low status of the harimtu is the reason why
little trace of her existence is to be found in legal or economic texts.
Assante gives an entirely different interpretation of the palace decree
from Nuzi in which the servants are reminded that they could not let their
daughters leave the palace to go and live in a state of impoverishment
and in the state of harimutu (ana ekuti u ana harimuti) without the king’s
permission. In Assante’s view this decree implies that the king felt a
continued obligation towards females who had once lived under his
roof.26 He felt a responsibility to protect women against the status of
harimtu, in which they would live unprotected by the patriarchal
community.
The laws of king Lipit-Ištar (circa 1930 BC) included a regulation about
relations between an unmarried man and a kar-kid of the street. In some
cases the judge orders him not to go back to the kar-kid and if he
afterwards divorces his first ranking wife and gives his wife silver or a
divorce settlement, he will still not be allowed to marry the kar-kid.
Assante argues that this law is an attempt to secure the status of the
legal wife, but other scholars saw this article as an injunction against
prostitutes wishing to marry a man of their own choice or as a law
banning men from marrying prostitutes. Neither is the case, Assante
writes,27 as the provision includes a precedent in which a judge has
already ruled against a married man’s relation to a specific single woman.
That ruling is to stand even if the man properly divorces his legal wife.
Outside this provision there is nothing to indicate that a divorced man is
forbidden to marry a kar-kid.
In the laws of king Lipit-Ištar it is stipulated in paragraph 27 that if a
man’s wife does not bear her husband a child but a kar-kid from the
street does bear him a child, he shall provide, grain, oil and clothing
rations for the child and kar-kid and the child whom the kar-kid bore him
shall be his heir. But as long as his wife is alive, the kar-kid will not reside
in the house with his first ranking wife,28 provisions aimed at protecting
the legal status of the first ranking wife. Assante writes that scholars are
mistaken if they believe in this case that the kar-kid could be a prostitute,
as the affiliation of the child of a prostitute would be highly complicated.
An old Babylonian text records an incident in which a woman is
accused of insulting the ‘daughter of a man’ by calling her a kar-kid, as a
result of which insult her husband divorced her. According to Assante the
woman is not being denigrated because of her sexual behaviour but
because of her socio-legal status.29 The specific identification of the
maligned woman as a ‘daughter of a man’ indicates that the slander was
about her original status before marriage. The woman was accused of
being a kar-kid/harimtu and having lied about or misrepresented her
status to her husband prior to their marriage.
A kar-kid was perfectly entitled to enter into a legal marriage as can
be concluded from an old Babylonian tablet recording a marriage contract
in which a man marries a kar-kid/harimtu ‘from the street’. He let her
enter his house and in addition to his marriage gifts he gave her back her
tavern. So the woman owned a tavern before she married this man but
after the marriage all her possessions went automatically to her husband.
However, he specifically states that he will give it back to her, so she can
keep her own tavern.30
The independent position of the harimtu was the antithesis of the
controllable obedient housewife living under the authority of her husband.
The text translated by Lambert which formed part of the Counsel of
Wisdom from the middle Babylonian period is interpreted by Assante in a
completely new way. Do not marry a prostitue (harimtu) whose husbands are
legion, here the reputation of a harimtu as an unmarried woman that was
not bound to one man, is involved. Do not marry an ištaritu, who is
dedicated to a god, Most translators rendered ištaritu as temple harlot. But
she too is a woman who was independent of a man, because she was
dedicated to a god, and could therefore spare little attention for her own
husband. Do not marry a kulmašitu, whose close ones are many. A kulmašitu
in the eyes of the translators could only be but a prostitute, but she too
was offered to a god to pray for her family and so would be far too busy
to be able pay much attention to her husband. Assante notes that the
admonitions very remarkably align the harimtu with the husband, the
ištaritu with the god and the kulmašitu with her family members (i.e. close
ones) for whom she prays.31 In fact, what these women have in common
in this text and what makes them undesirable as wives, is their emotional
not their physical infidelity.
The Middle Assyrian Veiling Laws (circa 1200 BC) specify the legal
categories of married and unmarried women and ‘daughters of a man’ in
the public space. Married women and ‘daughters of a man’ shall be
veiled if they go out in public. If a concubine accompanies her mistress,
she too was allowed to be veiled but a harimtu was not, her head should
be kept bare.32 Whoever sees a veiled harimtu should seize her, secure
witnesses, and bring her to the palace entrance. The accuser takes
possession of her clothing, the woman is given 50 blows with rods and
hot pitch is poured over her head. If a man should see a veiled harimtu
and fails to bring her to the palace entrance but releases her instead, he
shall receive 50 blows with rods. The one who informs against him shall
take possession his clothing, pierce his ears and thread them on a cord
which is tied behind his back and he shall perform the king’s service for
one full month. Slave women too, whether married or not, should not be
veiled, and a man who sees a veiled slave woman should seize her,
bring her to the palace entrance and cut off her ears.
To what extent these Veiling Laws were an exact reflection of reality
cannot be ascertained, but Assante notes that it is clear that brutal
punishment was necessary to enforce the law and keep the ideal values
of a patriarchal community intact vis a vis the social reality. For the rest
no injunctions existed against the sexual life of kar-kid or harimtu. Sex
with a married woman was very risky because of the severe punishment
for adultery but it was relatively safe for a man to have sex with harimtu
women, moreover the law did not protect the harimtu women, if she was
raped for instance.
It is far from clear what the different categories of women exactly signified
and whether they were legal, professional or descriptive33. The Gilgameš
epos and the Erra epos lump kezertu, šamhatu and harimtu together but
the only thing that these women had in common was the fact that they
were unmarried and were thus forced to provide for themselves. Possibly
the kezertu’s were hair dressers, because the name means ‘curly hair’ or
fulfilled another function in which they distinguished themselves with their
special haircut and sometimes kezertu women were described as
musicians who worked for the temple or the king. Šamhatu means ‘to
grow thickly, abundantly, to flourish, to prosper or to attain extraordinary
beauty or stature’ and was sometimes used as a personal name which
undermines the possibility, so Assante concludes, of it signifying
prostitute. That all these single women sought the protection of Inanna
would make sense, as Inanna herself was sometimes called harimtu
because she was not subordinate to a male god.
Naditum women
Naditum women shared the same fate and authors automatically
described them as prostitutes, while the cloister of the temple where they
lived, the gagûm, was translated as ‘brothel’.34 In addition to the naditum,
other women could reside in the cloister, such as the sekretum, the
ugbabtum and the high priestess who was chosen by an omen. What
could a naditum do when her family no longer supported her? Some
naditum women who resided in the cloister were apparently able to earn
some income by spinning and weaving, others owned landed property
that they could farm out or they possessed slaves and hired them out for
silver. In the Codex of Hammurabi there is provision for a particularly
harsh injunction against those religious women who did not reside in a
cloister if they set foot in a tavern:
If a naditum or ugbabtum, one who does not reside within the cloister, should
open a tavern or enter a tavern for some beer, they shall burn that woman.
(paragraph 110 of the Codex of Hammurabi)35
Taking it for granted that a tavern was a brothel, scholars hastily
concluded that this article of the Codex of Hammurabi, which so directly
affected the naditum or ugbabtum women, was in fact a prohibition
against prostitution. However Martha Roth has analysed the underlying
meaning of this legal provision36 and in view of the fact that the law never
normally concerned itself with the moral trespassing of the naditum she
concludes that the injunction must have been directed at a different field
of activity. Certainly it could not have referred to the drinking of beer, as
in Mesopotamia everybody drank beer, both men and women. The
clause in Hammurabi’s law was only directed against a naditum who was
not living in a cloister, women who were not married, not placed under
the authority of their father or brother or the temple authorities and were
entirely independent. In contrast to the women in the cloister they had
charge of their own affairs.
The article punishes two offences, on the one hand the opening of a
tavern and on the other the entering into it. Taverns were mainly run by
women as it was one of the few occupations that allowed them to raise
their own income; however the local tavern was a place where people not
only drank beer but pursued their business interests. Roth argues that it
was to restrict the naditum women’s access to this aspect of tavern
activities that was the true aim of Hammurabi’s codes as these women
were sometimes possessed of substantial wealth inherited from their
family. One way of making a profit was lending out money 37 or selling
grain and other crops from their landed properties and the tavern was
one of the few locations where the naditum could do business. The
Codex of Hammurabi had put to end this possibility in one single article
as these women were considered a threat to a community dominated by
men. A temple women not living in a cloister was an oddity, she was not
under the control of a man, not married, had no children and carried on
business or lent out her money for silver. The punishment of the Codex
was very harsh indeed, being burnt alive.
Naditum women who lived within the cloister walls were almost
certainly under strict control. Researchers have the impression that it was
always one and the same naditum woman in the cloister of Sippar that
acted as a money lender and they suppose that she was subordinate to
the temple and bound by strict conditions when she lent grain or silver.38
However naditum women who did not live in the temple could trade in the
tavern where they were seen as competitors by the male merchants who
had come to do their business as well.
Jo-Ann Scurlock discusses an incantation text from Isin dating from the
old Babylonian period with the title Incantation of of Etirtum.39 Etirtum
was a woman identified by Wilcke as an entu priestess who made use of
the love incantation for her own private purpose, which was the seduction
of a man by way of magic rites. He even recognises one of Ertitum’s
lovers as a married man by the name of Erra bani and Wilcke surmises
that the text was aimed at overcoming his reluctance to have sex with
her. Wilcke combines these tablets with more tablets found in the same
place and which he believed formed part of the stock of a gala priest,
gala priests being responsible, so Wilcke suggests, for overseeing cultic
prostitution, harimutu. According to Wilkes interpretation of the source
material, the gala priest, supervisor of cultic prostitution had cooperated
with the entu priestess Etirtum in order to get the unwilling Erra bani into
her bed. However Wilcke’s conclusions are somewhat tested in this
article by Jo-Ann Scurlock in which she points out that entu priestesses
were bound by a vow of chastity and it was strictly forbidden for them to
have sex a fact which does not sit comfortably with Wilcke’s view of her
as an sexually insatiable prostitute. The texts Wilcke discusses contain
some obscure magic incantations with allusions to certain actions that we
are no longer able to understand, however Scurlock demonstrates that
the said incantation in fact deals with a love spell for a man who had
been rejected by a woman.
Another text was found in the archives of this gala priest which goes
as follows:
Entu priestesses love burning and married women hate their husbands; cut off
for me her high-held nose and put her nose for me under my foot! Just as her
love has become higher than me, so may my love become higher than her love.
Scurlock concludes that if the rather enigmatic first line about the entu
priestesses does indeed refer to their alleged sexual rapacity, then
translated into modern colloquial language, these lines would seem to
mean something like, ‘Entu-priestesses who cannot get married want sex
all the time and wives who are already married are interested in sex with
anybody but their own husbands, so why does this girl stick her nose in
the air when I want to sleep with her? In other words, a version of the
timeworn masculine complaint: ‘We all know that women are sexually
insatiable, so what right do they have to reject me?’ This incantation has
little to do with the activities of entu priestesses and even less with their
cultic duties, Scurlock writes, and nobody could conclude from such
evidence that all Mesopotamian wives hated their husbands, or that it
was part of a wife’s function to be a husband hater.
In Mesopotamia women performed various activities unrelated to
prostitution. They were business women, incantation priestesses,
interpreters of dreams, tavern keepers, cooks, wet nurses or midwives,
chanters, dancers or musicians and so forth. Some were rich, others
possessed nearly nothing and at the very bottom of the community
resided the unmarried women who had been driven into a very
vulnerable position.40 Restrictions against women during the second
millennium made it more and more difficult for them to start an
independent enterprise. By the end of the old Babylonian period there
were no female scribes, tavern keepers, doctors, cooks, barbers, bakers,
wig makers or weavers 41 and the naditum women had also ceased to
exist as this institute appeared to be viable only during the Hammurabi
dynasty. The great variety of temple women had disappeared and among
the names of the tablet scribes not one can be identified as a woman,
although Rivka Harris discovered that there were still quite a number of
female tablet scribes in the archives of Sippar at the beginning of the
second millennium42 The restrictions severely narrowed the sphere of
women’s lives, reduced their choices in later periods and pushed
marriage to the fore. Poverty, prostitution and dependence on men
married to other women may have become more common under the
circumstances, and inevitably women were reduced to practising
prostitution. 43 From the tablets we learn that the children of harimtu
women were taken care of by members of her family as an uncle might
adopt the son of a harimtu woman and the boy would be assigned to
serve the king and the Lady of Uruk, Ištar, while other children were
given to the temple of Ninurta. According to Assante these are all
indications that the temple to some degree took care of these children,
just as they cared for widows and women without patrimony.
In the later version of the Gilgameš epos, Gilgameš rejects Ištars
proposal as we have seen (Chapter 18) and while possibly in the late
period it was meant as a satirical version of the Sacred Marriage, Ištar
was not depicted as a whore. Gilgamesh also describes the fate of all her
lovers who ended up in the underworld but that, too, could be a
caricature of the mortuary cult, customary among the followers of Ištar.
Enkidu is seduced by Šamhat but as Assante remarks, nowhere in the
Gilgameš epos is this woman described as a whore.44 She stresses that
many ancient curses have sexual overtones and when Enkidu curses
Šamhat he pictures her as a woman at the lower end of the social scale.
After the sun god has called him to order and he wishes to bless her, he
cannot withdraw his words, he cannot bestow on her the blessings of
being a decent wife with a husband and children. However he had not
cursed her desirability and Assante notes45 it is ironic that in his
blessings Enkidu makes her dependent on the admiration of men and the
gifts they bestow on her in exchange for her services. It is not Enkidu’s
curse that condemns Šamhat to a life as a whore, but his blessings.
In the overwhelming abundance of legal and administrative texts only one
song can be found, a bal-bale, in which the goddess Inanna appears as
her alter ego, the goddess Nanaya and in which there might be an
allusion to prostitution46:
He
‘My royal sister (NIN), the flour is the sweetest,
On your navel let me […]
Nanaya […]
Being brought out, my sister, being brought out,
Being brought out of the entrance of the bedroom (or: cella: KA; papahum).
When you converse with a man it is womanly,
When you look at a man it is womanly,
When you are standing by the wall, your full heart is lovely
When bowing down your hips are lovely’
She:
‘When I am standing by the wall, it is one lamb
When I am bowing down, it is one and a half shekels.
Do not dig a canal, let me be your canal!
Do not plough a field, let me be your field!
Farmer, do not search for a wet place, let me be your wet place!’
There is a second version of this poem in which the two sentences in
which the woman mentions the money are omitted, an indication Assante
argues, that they must have been inserted in later times. Possibly this
poem is a parody of the Inanna/Dumuzi songs but in any case, it is not an
earthly woman that is spoken of, but the goddess Nanaya, a bifurcation
of Inanna.
A curious poem has been deciphered on a tablet from the old Babylonian
period, written in the twentieth year of king Hammurabi’s reign (1772 BC).
It is a scurrilous song that could be seen as descriptive of the feelings of
adolescents in any age. The refrain goes that the city is built on
pleasure47 and the boys approach Ištar, the greatest sex bomb they
know, to ask her bluntly if they may have sex with her. The goddess
agrees happily and summons them to collect all the guys and go with her
to the city wall. There are sixty times sixty young men and Ištar has sex
seven times frontal and seven times anal with them all, amounting to
having sex 1680 times,48 leaving the young boys completely fagged out.
However Ištar does not tire and calls for more, to which outrageous
request the exhausted boys feel forced to accede humbly, as they are of
course no match to the insatiable appetite for sex of the goddess of
divine fertility. For Bottéro this poem is evidence that Ištar was the great
whore of ancient times and under Her supervision temples dedicated to
Her were engaged in large scale prostitution. Although this poem was
written solely from the perspective of the male and perhaps resembles a
porn film like Deep Throat, Hurowitz believes that the author of this
antique verse must be applauded as one of the first feminists in the
world.49
Temples of Ištar are brothels and priests are pimps
The polemic is interminable. In 2006 Morris Silver published an article in
which he attacks Assante’s theory and endeavours to rehabilitate the old
story of temple prostitution in ancient times. In his view temples
dedicated to Inanna made a great deal of their income from prostitution
organised on extensive scale. If no records of such transactions have
been found among the thousands and thousands of economic tablets it
is, according to Silver, due to the fact that these transactions were paid in
cash, so the priest had no need to record them on the tablets.50 Silver
states that priests composed sexually explicit hymns, myths and rituals
that sanctified and praised the sexual activities of cultic prostitutes and
aimed at seduction in order to enlarge the number of clients, a good
example of which he believes is the poem just mentioned above. Silver
also avers that taverns were no less than temple brothels, that the
harimtu woman was a professional whore with cultic connections, that
women were adopted to be exploited as prostitutes in the temple and
there was always the opportunity for women to choose to follow the
profession of prostitution of their own free will.
Marten Stol in his recent work about the women of Babylon discusses the
role of the temple prostitute.51 Once again terms are translated and the
interpretation of evidence is slanted in a way that encourages us to
believe that the harimtu, the šamhatu and the kezertu were in fact temple
prostitutes. According to Stol the eš-dam is the temple brothel of Inanna
and because he systematically translates harimtu as ‘whore’ he has
difficulty when confronted with a legal handbook of brokers in which a
case is recorded of a man who marries a ‘prostitute of the street’ (kar-
kid), has her enter his home and even returns her tavern to her, as we
have seen above. He writes that it is almost ‘an idyllic example of the
cosy family circle, where the woman is taken away from the street where
she works as a ‘consecrated’ (a kind of prostitute?) by a divorced man
who has fallen in love’.52 ‘Such a thing will not happen too often’, Stol
further remarks. ‘Is this a romantic fairy tale invented as a school writing
exercise?’53 Silver’s response to the same material is not so circumspect.
According to him this man simply took the woman into his home and
gave her back her tavern, so as to enable her to continue to work as a
prostitute. Silver does not explain why the man went to the trouble of
marrying this woman, when he could never be certain that he was the
biological father of her children if she continued to work as a prostitute.
The adoption contracts from Nuzi are also cited by Stol and again
used to substantiate his thesis about temple prostitution. He speaks of
‘trade in women under the cover of adoption.54 In one case the evidence
goes too far even for Stol.55 In Karkemiš a man makes out his last will
and testament for the king, in which he appoints his daughter D, ‘whore’
(harimtu) as ‘the father and mother of his house’, inheriting his clothes,
jewellery and two female slaves. The man nominates his two other
daughters as ‘sons’, who were under the obligation to acknowledge his
daughter D as ‘father and mother’. He thus made clear a construction
that gave his daughter the legal position of a man. Everything seemed to
show that the father was attempting to secure his inheritance for his three
daughters, something which would not have been possible without a
testament, because he had no sons. But Stol believes the text is
‘surprising’. The status of the women is high, he writes, and also to judge
by the gifts, wealthy. He wonders whether in this case the translation of
‘prostitute’ is correct, but adds that in any event this occurred in Syria, far
away from Babylon and Assyria.
The Sumerian incantation we have seen above in which a man tried
to win a woman by way of a magic spell seems strange to Stol.56 ‘That it
is performed like this and not in a more simple way seems odd and the
rite is curious: fatty substances from cows are thrown in a bowl and
subsequently applied on the thorax of the female’. Morris Silver, however
sees no real problem at all because if the young man succeeds in
winning the prostitute by magic, she would be his entirely and he need no
longer have to pay for her.57 It is far cheaper to control an attractive
(expensive) prostitute’s services by means of prayer or enchantment than
to pay the market price, he writes.
It is remarkable that all these so called whores continuously appear on
lists of food deliveries at the expense of the palace. Even in the old
Sumerian period the palace in Suruppak issued rations to the nu-gig and
the kar-kid women. According to Glassner they were a group of singers
and musicians58, but according to Stol it is further evidence that as early
as the third millennium women were on the pay-roll of the palace in their
capacity as harlots.59 If this was true it would be quite odd, as we earlier
learned that it was the harlots who were supposed to pay the institutes
from the profits they earned ‘through fornication’. Also we come across
the kezertu women on lists of oil deliveries from the palace of Mari and
from this list we learn that forty four kezertu women were incorporated
into the harem of the king, supervised by the chapel master. So we are
supposed to believe that prostitutes who were living on the outskirts of
the town were allowed to enter the palace of the king and his harem
where they were provided for by the king. One of these women even bore
king Zimri-Lim a child. We may thus conclude that kezertu women could
have been women of the harem or concubines of the king, but that they
were prostitutes is utterly unlikely.60
Kezertu women
Some of the texts excavated in the temple districts of Sippar and Kiš give
the impression that women were supposed to deliver an amount of silver
to a gala mah of the temple or to a supervisor of kezertu women61 and
they were indebted to this amount on account of a certain rite they had
performed. The texts date from the beginning of the second millennium
and the majority of women involved appear to be married and are
exempted from payment because a third party will pay the sum. The
significance of these tablets is very unclear. In one contract no less than
eight kezertu women are assigned to one women, who is referred to as
‘bride’, ‘daughter’ or ‘husband’ of a man with a high ranking position. One
kezertu was assigned to three women at the time.
The nature of the employment is nowhere specified. In Sippar these
women are to perform a rite outside the town alongside the water and the
researchers of the tablets remark that there is not the slightest evidence
pointing to these rites being of a sexual nature, a remark which leaves
Silver puzzled.62 The name of some of those rites is again harimutum
and redûtum, terms that Silver relates to prostitution however the
harimutum rite that the text mentions is performed exclusively by men,
not women. Nevertheless, according to Silver it is fair to accept as a
working hypothesis that the income must have originated from the
prostitution industry and by the same token Stol sees in these rites
evidence for temple prostitution. He draws the following conclusions: ‘It
appears that the spouses of important citizens in Kiš were responsible for
the ‘rites’ that these women had to perform; an amount of silver was
owed (…) I have the impression that these women in Sippar and the
kezertu’s in Kiš committed the sacred prostitution and that the wealthy
ladies and lords were proprietors of these temple services as a kind of
temple income (‘prebende’).’63
It is difficult to imagine these practices in a land where trespassing on
the conjugal fidelity of a woman was in most cases punished by death.
Did the husbands of Kiš (the women were almost always married) happily
make available their spouses at the request of the gala mah to perform
their prostitution skills outside the city along the water, perhaps in some
sort of red light district? Some of these women were even assigned to
work to provide wealthy ladies in the city with a source of income and
were then forced to deliver what remained of the profit from their work to
the temple. In this way not only the gala mah and the wealthy ladies from
the town but the temple also got a share from the prostitution money that
the kezertu women earned. According to Lambert this was acceptable as
it was sacred prostitution and it was all to serve the higher purpose of the
temple and the mighty goddess of love. It was always agreed upon in
these contracts that in case the women earned nothing by their labour, a
third party was willing to pay the temple out of their own pocket, however
there is a problem here. In the texts from the Kish and Sippar archives
not a word is said about the sexual nature of the activities these women
were expected to perform. In fact from the description of the activities of
the kezertu women it is clear that their actual profession is that of singers
or dancers.64 In a short Sumerian tale we learn that a man marries a
freed female slave and that he spends in six months all the money the
woman had been given when she was set free. His daughter paints the
town red and behaves according to the text like a kezertu, singing sweet
songs and indulging in dancing. But the translators immediately make the
kezertu into a ‘courtesan’ and give the impression that this daughter, who
had suddenly become rich thanks to her step mother’s money,
immediately surrenders herself to prostitution just for fun.65
Ada Taggar-Cohen recently published a Hittite text according to which
kar-kid women performed a ritual that sheds some more light on the
nature of their activities.66 This text details the prescribed ritual of a
festival to be performed by a young crown prince with the participation of
twelve women, described with the Sumerian cuneiform signs of KAR.
KID. The text relates how the prince makes his way to the Arzana house
and sets ready food and beer while the twelve kar-kid women sit in front
of him. Because the scholars in the Hittite language translate KAR.KID in
imitation of Assyriologists as ‘prostitute’, these ritual performances in the
Hittite text are explained as a form of sacred prostitution. Some even
suppose that the twelve prostitutes of the crown prince were assigned the
task of initiating the prince into the secrets of sexuality, as in historic
times in Anatolia boys were taken by their father to a brothel to be
initiated. Taggar-Cohen however, presents an entirely different
interpretation of this rite. According to her the crown prince went to the
Arzana house to have a meeting with the goddess (Kattah) as contact
with the gods was of immense importance for the royal house, including
the political propaganda surrounding it. In the Arzana house the crown
prince makes ready, assisted by the kar-kid women, the food and drink to
entice the god to his place. The prerequisite for communication with the
goddess was ritual purification which meant sexual relations with twelve
prostitutes would be out of the question. The twelve kezertu women had
to withdraw after a while, so as to enable the crown prince to have his
meeting with the goddess alone, but perhaps they performed some
dances and chants to soothe the goddess. A similar rite was said to have
been performed in the middle Assyrian period (end of the second
millennium) at the court of king Tukulti-Ninurta I. In a text it is said that
twelve female singers sang for the king and each received as ‘gift’ twenty
nine litres of barley.67 Stol sees these women as harlots from a brothel,
lavishly provided for by the king. In another text there is mention of an
offering that this king presents to goddess Šarrat-nipha in the ‘house of
the crown princes’ for the temple priests and the kezretu women.68
Prostitution and the Bible
In the Old Testament certain groups of religious women, the qdš or
qadištu are sometimes mentioned, the literal meaning being ‘sacred’ or
‘holy’. The Old Testament is very negative about these qadištu, referred
to as ‘harlots’, and it was common knowledge that these women were
temple prostitutes. The Hebrew word zônah was used for a common
whore and qadištu for a temple whore, or so it was believed. In her
dissertation, Christine Stark has investigated the sources to find out
whether these qadištu in the Old Testament truly were temple
prostitutes.71 The scarce references to the qadištu in the Old Testament
do not give any information about the specific religious function of these
women but Stark discovered that the word qadištu was used to indicate
defection from the Jewish people and the worshipping of foreign gods.
Any time there is question of behaviour that is considered to be
unacceptable in the eyes of the Lord, the term fornication is used,
apparently a metaphorical form of expression. In the Old Testament to
abandon the true religion was equated with adultery and unfaithfulness in
a sexual relationship and the term fornication is used as figurative
language for apostasy. The book of Hosea begins with the following
words: And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredom and
children of whoredom: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing
from the Lord. 72 The prophet Hosea speaks about the relationship
between God and Israel as if it was a love affair, and he compares the
adulterous Israel with a woman who is unfaithful to her husband (God).
When we consult other sources we learn that the qadištu performed
certain religious or magic acts, Stark notes and in the texts of Ugarit, an
old Syrian city on the shores of the Mediterranean, the qdš are groups of
men who have a function in the temple, bringing offerings to the gods.73
In new Babylonian texts the qadištu were also known, appearing to work
as midwives and on account of the great risks attaching to childbirth for
both mother and child, they employed magic rituals in their profession to
avert these dangers. Sometimes they were attached to the temple of
Inanna and were usually single but married qadištu-women also
existed.74 Their job was considered to be of inferior status, together with
other women of ill repute and most probably they were considered
impure, on account of their contact with women in labour. Assyriologists
translated the term qadištu as prostitute and so the same translation
appeared in the Old Testament. But the word can also be be an invective
which the prophets used to indicate people who worshipped foreign gods
and the qadištu of course, worshipped the ‘Great Goddess’ of the Middle
East. Worshipping of gods other than Yahweh in the eyes of the prophets
was a breach of the bond with God and they stamped it as adultery,
fornication and marital unfaithfulness.
Stark goes on to further discuss a problematic injunction in
Deuteronomy 23:18-19:
Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore (qedeša) or the price of a dog (qedešim)
keleb (a euphemism for the catamite), into the house of the Lord thy God for any vow:
for even both these are abominations unto the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not lend
upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of anything
that is lent upon usury.75
Stark believes that this verse was inserted here at a later date as there is
a stylistic breach and this passage is not connected with the preceding or
following verses.76 The text only gives brief information about the
rejection of qedeša, whose function remains uncertain anyhow. Verse 10
focuses immediate attention on tainted money that should not be used to
pay a monetary obligation to the temple after the fulfilment of a vow. Van
der Toorn believes that the injunction of Deuteronomy 23:19 concerning
a vow, has to do with women who had committed themselves to a vow of
payment when a wish was granted by the god.77 Because women were
financially dependent and had no proper means of support, occasional
prostitution seemed to be the only way for them to earn some money.
The injunction was not directed against temple prostitution, but against
the custom of paying off vows by means of prostitution. This money is
harlot’s money and according to Deuteronomy it does not belong to the
temple of the Lord, as this way of earning money is an abomination to the
Lord, concludes Van der Toorn.
Places where qedeša are mentioned always seem to be special cult
meetings, the bamôt. These are local shrines, that from of old existed
and that according to Deuteronomy were against the cult of the Lord and
outside the official state religion of Jerusalem.78 Both bamôt and qedeša
were religious practices that from Deuteronomy’s point of view should be
strongly condemned, being places of worship of foreign gods. They were
a breach of faith with the true religion which is why they were described
with the epithets ‘prostitution’ and ‘fornication’.79 The prophets Jesaja and
Jeremia also compared worshippers frequenting these places to
adulterous women.
Stark thinks the qedeša were connected with the cult of Ašera, an old
Semitic mother goddess,80 and the practice of the qdš was contrary to
the cult of Yahweh. Nowhere in the text is there any indication that it was
a form of cultic prostitution and in the book of Kings, moreover, only male
qdš are mentioned.
So we have various authors in antiquity who report about temple
prostitution. In addition to the famous story of Herodotos we have the
communications of Strabo and Lucianus, the reliability of which have
been tested by Stephanie Budin81 and dismissed out of hand as stories
copied from other suspect sources of which not one contemporary source
is known. The rest, so Budin writes, is based on a number of quotations
from classical authors who tell how in the past the Babylonians, the
Egyptians, the Lydians, the Phoenicians and the old Corinthians
committed sacred prostitution. The early church fathers gladly made use
of these stories as propaganda against pagans and denounced them as
prostitutes. It was part and parcel of a propaganda drive that was not
meant to understand other religions, but to denounce them.
Endnotes Chapter 20
1 Zgoll, 1987
2 Sefati, 1998, p. 198
3 Herodotos, The Histories, translated by G.C. Macaulay, available on
the internet by Gutenburg.org.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2707/2707-h/2707h.htm
4 Translation from internet: Bible Books, King James Version
5 Tanret en Van Lerberghe, 1993, p. 441 e.v.
6 Tanret en Van Lerberghe, 1993, p. 441
7 Wilhelm, 1990, p. 516
8 Lambert, 1992
9 Tablet I, l.160-165; Foster, 2001, p. 8
10 Tablet VI, l. 151-159; Foster, 2001, p. 50
11 Tablet VII, l. 67-91; Foster 2001, p 55-56
12 Tablet VII, l. 112-125, Foster 2001, p. 56-57
13 Lambert, 1992, p. 129-131
14 Lambert, 1992, p. 133
15 Lambert, 1992, p. 134
16 Lambert, 1992, p. 135
17 Lambert, 1992, p. 136
18 Lambert, 1992, p. 137
19 Lambert 1992, p. 137/138
20 Geller, 2002
21 Bottéro, 1998, p. 143
22 Von Soden, 1991; Foster, 2005, p. 678
23 Zettler, 1986; Assante, 2003
24 Assante, 2003
25 Assante, 1998
26 Assante, 1998, p. 25
27 Assante, 2007, p. 127-128
28 Assante, 2007, p. 128
29 Assante, 1998, p. 31
30 Assante, 2007, p. 127
31 Assante, 1998, p. 54
32 Assante, 1998, p. 32
33 Assante, 1998, p. 39
34 Harris, 1964, p. 106
35 Roth, 1989, p. 445
36 Roth, 1989, p. 445 e.v.
37 Roth, 1989
38 Lahtinen, 2011, p. 99
39 Scurlock, 1989, 1990
40 Glassner, 2002
41 Assante, 1998, p. 63
42 Harris, 1975
43 Assante, 1998, p. 63
44 Assante, 1998, p. 57
45 Assante, 1998
46 Assante, 1998, p. 86; ETCSL 40.07.8
47 Foster, 2005, p. 678, ‘Ishtar will not tire’
48 Hurowitz, 1995
49 Hurowitz, 1995, p. 558
50 Silver, 2010, p. 636
51 Stol, 2012
52 Stol, 2012, p. 59
53 Stol, 2012, p. 259
54 Stol, 2012, p. 201
55 Stol, 2012, p. 257
56 Stol, 2012, p. 253
57 Silver, 2006, p. 644
58 Glassner, 2001, p. 154, 157
59 Stol, 2012, 254
60 Glassner, 2001
61 Gallery, 1980; Spaey 1990; Tanret/Van Lerberghe 1993; Yoffee
1998
62 Silver, 2006, p. 655
63 Stol, 2012, p. 266
64 About kezertu-women of Sippar and Kiš see also: Shehata, 2009, p.
196 e.v. and p. 221 e.v. Yoffee (2005) devotes a whole chapter to
the kezertu women of Kiš and Sippar, who perform a ceremony that
according to him ‘involved sexual acts in celebration of the goddess
 Annunitum’ p. 126. For Yoffee this perception is corroborated by the
figurines of nude females and terracotta plaques with women
engaged in sexual scenes or on beds. Yoffee labels the conclusions
from his chapter ‘a contribution to feminist history - at least I hope
they are …’, p. 130.
65 For instance in the story of ‘the slave and the scoundrel’, Alster,
1992
66 Taggar-Cohen, 2010
67 Stol, 2012, p. 256
68 Henshaw, 1994, p. 199
71 Stark, 2006
72 Translation from internet: Bible Books, King James Version
73 Stark, 2006, p. 72 e.v.
74 Stark, 2006, p. 73
75 Translation from internet: Bible Books, King James Version
76 Stark, 2005, p. 152
77 Van der Toorn, 1994
78 Stark, 2006, p. 135
79 Stark, 2006, p. 136
80 Stark, 2006, p. 139, 146
81 Budin, 2006
Chapter 21 The magic of eroticism
As some scholars think that the love songs of Inanna and Dumuzi were
not sung by prostitutes, the question of how they should be interpreted,
what their function was and what place they occupied in Sumerian
society remains unanswered. Some verses may have been composed for
the occasion of the Sacred Marriage rite, when the king spent the night
with the goddess Inanna, in her temple. The poems have all the features
associated with the work of well trained professional scribes, so the hymn
of Išme-Dagan or of Šu-Sîn and certainly the many songs of Šulgi may
be have been composed by scribes in the service of the palace and
tablet schools which these kings had founded all over the country. But
the love lyrics of Inanna and Dumuzi, in which Inanna acts as a young
innocent maiden who is about to marry her fiancé Dumuzi, are very much
like the age old folk songs that were chanted during the many festivals in
the villages.
The love songs of Inanna and Dumuzi display quite a few
characteristics that can be ascribed to an oral provenance, very short
verses with repetitive refrains typical of songs that were chanted in
polyphonic choirs. The wedding songs describe incidents which occur
during Inanna’s preparation for her wedding with Dumuzi, the groom
chosen by her brother Utu, and Dumuzi’s sister is the ‘go between’ for the
loving couple. Dumuzi, overloaded with wedding gifts, strides to Inanna’s
house, where she is running about in a state of excitement as she cannot
meet her fiancé before she has bathed and dressed herself in her best
clothes. This is all about the most important moments in the life of an
ordinary person, and has nothing whatsoever to do with the mighty
goddess of heaven, celebrated by the kings in her temple.
The names of the personages in the song derive from the pantheon and
the lovers tenderly call each other king and goddess, terms of
endearment that the peasants in the villages gave to each other. Almost
all hymns are bal-bale songs in which Inanna’s voice is heard in Emesal
and they are mostly written from the point of view of the female.
When Inanna gets ready for the wedding night she first takes a bath.
She washes herself with soap and then perfumes her body with sweet
smelling oil. The bed is prepared with fragrant girinna plants, dripping
with honey and covered with clean linen blankets. The songs are teeming
with the double meanings of which the Sumerians were so fond. In the
following song the Sumerian word š a means ‘heart’, but could mean
‘inside’, or even ‘penis’1:
When they erect my lustrous bed for him
May they spread it for me with my wet lapis lazuli grass
May they make the man enter my heart (ša2: literally: my interior)
May they make enter for me there my Ama-ušumgal-ana
May they place his hand in my hand for me!
May they place his heart with my heart for me!
The songs seem to have been taken from everyday life and the wedding
presents Dumuzi brings to Inanna are the products resulting from
agriculture and sheep breeding. His beloved Inanna in these poems is
not the mighty goddess of heaven, but a peasant girl worried about her
material welfare. She squabbles with Dumuzi about the low station of his
family and Dumuzi mutters that his family is as good as hers. Dumuzi
promises Inanna that she will not have to take care of the household or
share a table with his family.
The songs are not always compatible with each other. Inanna and
Dumuzi have different parents, Inanna prepares differently each time
Dumuzi is expected, Dumuzi’s wedding gifts for Inanna vary etc. These
are characteristics of folk songs that were sung in various disparate
regions.2
We can assume that the Dumuzi/Inanna songs were not love poems
composed by the temple scribes or the palace, but simple folk ditties in
origin. How they came to be written down and who commissioned them is
not known for certain, as common folk lore seldom filters through into the
written sources.
Perhaps these songs were preserved simply because they were
dealing with the theme always at the centre of Sumerian life, the fertility
of the land. For the Sumerians, the strong emphasis on the sexual union
of Inanna and Dumuzi through the use of magic could mean a powerful
impetus for an abundant harvest and no farmer could afford to neglect
these mysterious influences. The king also believed in the magical power
of the sexual gifts of the love goddess and he was keen to participate in
this benevolent source.
Much of the figurative language in the love lyrics of Inanna and Dumuzi
come from the world of agriculture and cattle breeding and they have
obvious sexual overtones3 Inanna compares Dumuzi with a date tree and
with a blossoming garden full of apple trees4 while she compares herself
with various images that have to do with the fertility of the land, her hair
grows like vegetables and she herself is a shaggy tuft of hair of
germinating barley.5 She compares her naked body with a parcel of
uncultivated land that needs to be ploughed. In many songs it is Dumuzi
who makes the milk and butter abundant for Inanna as the fecundity of
the sheep and cows seem to be his share. But not without Inanna, for in
the bal-bale songs the churn goes singing and the healthy ewes will
spread out their wool for Inanna only, as she enters the cattle pen.6
These folk songs must have had a ritual meaning and everybody,
both farmers and kings wanted to take advantage of it. The majority of
the tablets on which these songs were written down date from the time of
the Ur III dynasty and the succeeding Isin- and Larsa period. Many
tablets have been found in the scribal schools, the edubba, situated in
private living quarters. The teachers taught their pupils the Sumerian
cuneiform writing in their own homes, through the rote copying of existing
Sumerian texts. According to Julia Assante these texts were not new, but
were chosen from the familiar folksongs that everybody knew by heart
and that they used to sing at home.7 When the Ur III dynasty collapsed
and all the institutes had fallen into decay, the scribal schools preserved
that tradition, copying the age old fertility songs, and saving them from
oblivion.
Terracotta reliefs
In order to assess the place of these love songs in the community of
Mesopotamia, Assante searched for other aspects of Sumerian culture
which might reflect the same ideas as these songs. She discovered that
during the period when the majority of the love songs had been written
down, a large number of erotic plaques were also made from which
emanated the same candid eroticism as in the hymns of Inanna and
Dumuzi. These terracotta reliefs were immensely popular and showed
not only erotic scenes but all sorts of religious images. The terracotta
plaques had been made from a mould, which permitted them to be
copied many times and spread abroad. These plaques did not belong in
the temple or the palace but had a special place in the home. Most
families could afford to purchase a cheap terracotta relief and they
probably found a place in the domestic shrine or were hung above the
doorway. In this way all plaques had a function within the unofficial
system of the private cult.
The representations on the plaques are different from the pictures on
cylinder seals in that on the seals the anthropomorphic figures have a
mutual relationship but on the terracotta reliefs we usually see only one
god or goddess without any context. These reliefs portray timeless
images, a musician who plays the harp (figure 21.1), goddess Inanna
with the lion’s sceptre (figure 21.2) or a kusarikku (bull man, figure 21.3).
People displayed the terracotta’s for their religious rather than their
aesthetic value, believing in the benevolent influence that radiated from
them. The kusarikku was a protective god who guarded the entrance of
the house against evil intruders, the musician had the power to pacify the
house gods and the goddess Inanna with her lion’s sceptre was a
guarantee of fertility and other blessings on the household. The plaques
protected the house against dangerous outsiders or they stimulated the
well-being of their inhabitants. The more often a plaque had been
pressed from the mould, the stronger its magical power was supposed to
be.

Figure 21.1.Terracotta relief of a man who plays a string instrument.

(Barrelet, 1968, afb. 776)
Figure 21.2. Terracotta relif with Inanna and a lions sceptre, her left foot
is placed on a lion. 119 cm bij 66 cm. (Barrelet, 1968, pl. LXXVII, fig. 790;
Louvre, AO 12456)

Figure 21.3. Terracotta plaque of a kusarikku (bull man) protective god

who guards the doorway against evil intruders. Old-Babylonian period.
Length: 12,9 cm, width: 7 cm. (British Museum, BM 103225; © The
Trustees of the British Museum)
According to Assante8 these plaques had a function mainly in the
magical practices of ancient folk lore and together with the other requisite
tools of ancient folk lore, became part of the household. These private
practices became more and more important for the people after the
collapse of the central state, in the aftermath of the demise of the Neo-
Sumerian kingdoms and when the institution of divine kingship and the
official authority of the temple had fallen into disuse. Sumerian as a
spoken language died out, and a time of lawlessness and warfare
followed in which foreign peoples penetrated the land and the old gods
lost their prominent position. Periods of drought and famine were a
regular phenomenon and people found themselves in the paralyzing grip
of plummeting prices of real estate and foodstuffs. These calamities led
to an increasing abandonment of the cities as a part of the population of
Uruk migrated to the north, taking with them their own household cult and
the terracotta reliefs that were part of it, thereby spreading them over
large areas. Cylinder seals had a personal function as they served to
identify their owner, but the creators of the plaques chose their own path,
depicting timeless images sufficiently lifted from the narrative to allow the
full operation of magical powers. Plaque figures were expected to utilize
their powers on behalf of those who owned them, and they seemed to
evoke the cosmic world of the ME that was made visible in the plaques.
Erotic plaques
The erotic representations depicted on many terracotta reliefs must have
had a special significance and recently Assyriologists such as Silver and
Stol have proposed the idea that these were pictures of harlots, and
interpreted the reliefs as signboards for advertising brothels. However
this limited interpretation ignores the possibility that eroticism at that time
may have had an entirely different meaning than in our own time. The
erotic images are a special category among the terracotta reliefs and
must have originated from the same source of inspiration as the erotic
songs of Inanna and Dumuzi. As nearly all facets of life in ancient times
had religious overtones, their origin was most probably of a religious
nature and they must have been hung inside the house, visible to all the
members of the household. It is very unlikely that these images were
depictions of the real world, as on the plaques a man and a woman
engage in sexual relations in the same outspoken way as in the love
lyrics of Inanna and Dumuzi, and presumably they were expected to have
the same magical effect. Just like the rites and pictures of the Sacred
Marriage, the depiction of the sexual union of ordinary people may have
been a metaphor for the fertility or well-being that each family urgently
needed.
According to Julia Assante it is possible to distinguish two different types
of erotic images.9 One type depicts a man and a woman on a bed,
embracing and looking each other intensely in the eyes. The other type of
relief depicts coitus a tergo, in which the woman bends over and drinks
with a cane from a large beer vessel while the man stands behind her.
Sometimes the woman holds his penis. Assante stresses that Sumerian
love songs echo both these types of encounter, Inanna as a young bride
to be who prepares for the wedding night with Dumuzi, and Inanna as a
harimtu woman, who is the showpiece of sexual commerce that was part
of life in the tavern.
Some plaques depict pictures of a wedding bed and these seem to evoke
the same atmosphere as the love songs of Inanna and Dumuzi, where
the preparations for a wedding included the use of metaphors for
agriculture and cattle breeding. Fertility was the target around which the
agricultural enterprise was centred and the goddess Inanna played an
important role in this context. However she was not only the goddess of
sexual procreation, she also guarded domestic family life and there is a
Hittite hymn to Ištar that explains how the goddess sends her good
helpers when she loves a household. 10 These helpers joyfully attend to
the needs of the household while the young couple live in harmony, the
woman does the weaving and the sons of the house happily plough the
field. But if a household is hated by Ištar, she sends demons to disrupt it.
In that case young brides become confused and stop weaving cloth,
brothers, formerly on a friendly footing, become enemies, no longer
ploughing the fields but get entangled in quarrels. In this hymn a passage
occurs, reminiscent of Nin-me-šara, in which Enheduanna stated that the
relationship between a man and a woman in marriage is one of the ME of
Inanna. A man and his wive who love each other and carry their love to
fulfillment: that has been decreed by you, Ištar. The opposite is also within
Ishtar’s sphere of influence, and hate roused between married couples is
due to her interference, leading the man to commit adultery. The hymn,
which lists all the spouses of Istar and lingers on the bad fate that awaits
them, resembles the Gilgameš epos, where Gilgameš charges her with
the killing of all her lovers.
There is also a love song that evokes the same idea as was conveyed on
the erotic terracotta reliefs. According to Assante it is a description of the
physical experience of an orgasm11. We have met this poem before
(chapter 14, p. 294), now in the translation of Assante:
The brother brought me into his house
He lay me on the bed dripping with honey.
One by one, making tongues, one by one!
My brother of the beautiful eyes, it is fifty times he made it!
Like a weak person, I was hardly able to stand there with him!
Trembling from the ground up. I fell silent for him there!
My brother, I stretch my hand out to his hips
My precious sweet, I passed the day with him.
The Sumerian words dili-dili-ta eme-ak dili-dili ta means literally: ‘doing
one by one the tongue’.

Figure 21.4 Bed scene. Terracotta relief from Bismaya. (Courtesy:

Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago OI A 361; Photo: Julia
Assante)

Figure 21.5 Man and women lie on a bed, embracing each other.
Terracotta reliëf from Nippur (Courtesy: Oriental Institute of the University
of Chicago, Assante 2003, fig. 4)

Figure 21.6. Bedscene. Terracotta relief. Provenance unknown (Barrelet,

1968, pl. LXXI, afb. 744; Louvre, AO 8662)
Figure 21.7. Sex and music. Terracotta relief from Larsa. (Barrelet, 1968,
pl., 591; Louvre, AO 16924)

Figure 21.8. Sex and beer. Terracotta relief from Larsa (Barrelet, 1968,
Tello pl. L, fig. 527; Louvre, AO 16681)

Figure 21.9.Sex and beer. Terracotta relief from Khafajeh. (Courtesy:

Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago; Assante, 2003, fig. 1, 3, 1)

Figure 21.10 Terracotta plaque with coitus a tergo from Uruk, Old-
Babylonian period. Heigth 7,2 cm. (Courtesy: Vorderasiatisches Museum,
VA Bab 6214; © bpk - Bildagentur für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte,
Berlin)
In the second millennium the love songs and terracotta reliefs are on a
different plane. Is seems as if eroticism is being used more as a magical
tool, fertility no longer the intention, but the magical potency that was
ascribed to sexual intercourse. The erotic plaques made in this period
seem to validate this idea with images of coitus a tergo while the woman
is drinking beer from a vessel with a tube.
The same development is apparent in the love songs of Inanna and in
various songs Inanna is dressed as a kar-kid who goes to the tavern in
search of sex, great emphasis being placed on her sexual potency. The
song in which Ištar has sex with all the young men of the city (Chapter
20) may also have been composed at this time, a metaphor for the fact
that her erotic exploits will never lessen, her supernatural power being
inexhaustible.
The Tavern
The tavern was called eš-dam, the name of the temple of Inanna, and
although many authors simply translate it as ‘brothel’, the term literally
means ‘house/temple of the spouse’, perhaps the temple where the
Sacred Marriage Rite was celebrated between the king and Inanna. In
the hymns about Inanna and Dumuzi there is often mention of a bed
covered with fragrant girinna plants, on which the king, dressed in a white
linen garment, lies down to spend the nuptial night with the goddess. For
the common people eš-dam by contrast was the tavern, the place that
was magically charged with the presence of the goddess and the muzzy
influence of alcohol. This atmosphere was considered to have a benign
effect, as we can infer from the magical rituals that had to be performed
to turn away all sorts of evil powers and which always ended with a visit
to the tavern. Stefan Maul has collected eight so called Namburbi rituals
(deliverance rituals), in which it was prescribed to go to the tavern
afterwards.12 The rituals are aimed at all sorts of evil, like lunar eclipses,
the mischief emanating from a dog that is grumbling and whining in the
house, against the portent of a snake or wild cat, against the evil that
arises when mould attacks the walls and so on. These are all bad omens,
harbingers of a danger that could be averted by executing these
Namburbi rituals, some of which took no less than a couple of hours. The
aim was to avert divine anger and afterwards the persons concerned had
to perform extensive purification rituals, having been contaminated during
the performance of the ritual actions. It was necessary to bath and dress
in clean clothes and leave the place where the rituals had been carried
out. When returning, a different route should be taken for fear of
recontamination by treading in the un-purified footsteps. In these eight
Namburbi rituals the victim must go afterwards to ‘the house of the
brewer’. The ritual does not say precisely why this is necessary, but
according to Maul it is sensible advice for one who has been threatened
by the prospect of a blighted future. Visiting the tavern and drinking a few
beers in relaxing company could indeed restore a sense of calm and
comfort, a happy end to a complicated Namburbi ritual13:
He may not look back. The street that he went into, he may now not retrace his
steps
Enter a beer house
Speak there with those who are there talking
Touch the standard (with the collection vat) and fermenting vat
He must say: ‘Siris and Ningizzida will redeem me’
The portent will then be averted.
Touching the collection and fermentation vat was a rite that was needed
to get rid of the magical impurity still clinging to the victim. The
fermentation vat stood in the middle of the tavern. It was a pot-bellied tub
into which the mixture of grains, spices and water was poured, and left to
ferment. There were holes at the bottom of the barrel which allowed the
liquid to drip into a containment vessel, while a residue of the ingredients
remained behind in the fermenting vat. It was believed that the impurity
that still contaminated the visitor to the tavern would disappear into the
fermenting vat and not affect the other customers. In order to remove all
hazardous pollutants some more rituals were required in one of which an
apotropaic mixture was smeared on the doorpost of the inn and offered to
Ištar, patron goddess of the tavern.14 In an incantation she is asked to
place her hand on the fermentation vat and containment vessel, by this
gesture neutralising the impurity caused by the visitor. Thus the goddess
would restore the condition of a flourishing tavern and protect the other
customers.
There is an old Sumerian song about the beer goddess Ninkasi
(literally: ‘Lady who fills the mouth’).15 It was probably sung, because
there are many repetitions and the male and female brewers may have
sung it during the preparation of the beer or the inauguration of the eš-
dam. The entire process of brewing beer is expounded upon and all the
ingredients and the various vats and barrels which were used in the
process are mentioned. Ninkasi is praised, also the birth goddess
Ninhursag and the song ends with a dedication to Inanna. It should be
noted that these were all goddesses, no mention of gods and that the
taverns too were mostly run by women.

Figure 21.11. Ground plan of a tavern in Susa. Beginning second

millennium. Paving stones are indicated, the black dots indicate the beer
vats, the white dots are the large cauldrons in which beer was brewn in
the brewery next to the tavern; room 26 was a lavatory or washing room.
(Gasche in: Trümpelmann, 1981, fig.. 1)
In Susa in Elam, archaeologists excavated a tavern or inn from the
beginning of the second millennium.16 The structure was unusual in that
it was built with its four walls facing the four points of the compass. Seven
large barrels were found that had been buried in the ground and in the
paving stones a hole had been drilled above the opening of the vats.
These must have been beer vats, stored in the ground to keep the liquid
cool. The barrels were dispersed over the various rooms and next to the
structure a brewery had been set up in which were found large holes in
the ground in preparation for the cauldrons in which the beer was
brewed.
Figure 21.12. Beer vessel in the reception room of the tavern and pulls
that lay near the beer vessels (Gasche in: Trümpelmann, 1981, afb. 1)
It was self-evident that Inanna as love goddess should to be the patron
goddess of the tavern. In the Ninegala hymn Inanna as a kar-kid
occupies the eš-dam and causes the gidim spirit to crawl inside (line 105-
106), although exactly what this means is not clear. The hymn was
composed at the time of King Šulgi, presumably on the occasion of the
inauguration of Inanna’s new temple in Nippur. The heavenly Inanna is
inaugurated under her name Ninegala (literally, lady of the palace) in all
her earthly dwellings.17 A few lines further on, it is repeated that Inanna
takes possession as a kar-kid of the tavern18:
When the servants let the flocks loose,
and when cattle and sheep are returned to cow-pen and sheepfold, then, my lady,
like the nameless poor, you wear only a single garment (literally: as someone
who has no penis, or someone who has no name)
The pearls of a kar-kid (ETCSL translates: prostitute) are placed around your
neck,
and you are likely to snatch a man from the tavern.
As you hasten to the embrace of your spouse Dumuzi,
Inanna, then the seven paranymphs share the bedchamber with you.
Paranymphs, nimgir-si (literally, those who blows the horn), accompanied
the bride on her wedding night, often carrying a sword, to protect her
against natural and supernatural enemies.19 It might appear as though
Inanna behaves like a human kar-kid who chases sex in the tavern, but
according to Assante there is a double meaning to these verses. The
strange succession of events which lead to the goddess having sexual
intercourse with her groom is not a description of reality. Rather, this text
is set in a magical frame, a liminal frame, of nightfall at the tavern. The
woman is not a flesh and blood woman having intercourse with all these
men, but an enchanting essence of sexual arousal that touches the male
clientele.20 It is the sexual presence of Inanna which causes sexual
desire and Assante asserts that when the Mesopotamian clientele of the
tavern felt the miraculous and intoxicating effects of sexual arousal and
alcohol, he or she assumed that the harimtu goddess was at work. The
very same images are visible on the terracotta reliefs which people
placed in their homes to undergo the benevolent influence of these erotic
scenes in order to augment their own wellbeing and that of their
enterprises.
There is an Akkadian namburbi, in which the inn keeper invokes the
presence of Inanna in his tavern to make his enterprise flourish. In order
to obtain a thriving business he must collect the dust from under the
thresholds of houses and lay it on the altar, together with sweets and
incense to soothe the goddess. Subsequently the inn keeper climbs onto
the roof of his house and invokes Inanna, asking her to make his
business flourish, flattering her who confers on all kings the sceptre, the
throne and the staff. Maybe he is alluding to the sexual encounter
between king and goddess, guaranteeing a long and blessed life for the
king. Another (Akkadian) incantation invites Ištar to enter the tavern:21
Incantation
Mistress Ištar-of the lands, most heroic of goddesses,
This is your priestly residence: exult and rejoice!
Come, enter our house!
With you may your sweet bedfellow enter,
Your lover and your cult-actor,
May my word (literally: lips) be honey,
My ritual gestures (literally hands) be charm!
May the rim of my kurkuratu vessel be honey sweet
With these words the suppliant calls on Ištar to enter his tavern, as if it
were her gipar and Assante believes her supernatural presence is further
sexualized by the invocation of her male entourage (kulu’u-artiest) with
whom she is most intimate. Together with the expansive effects of
alcohol they produce the intoxicating, lustful atmosphere of the intimately
bound and the innkeeper hopes that his words will be pleasing to Ištar
and that his ritual actions and the smell of honey sweet beer will be
irresistible to her, so that she will come to his tavern and bring to it the
spell of her presence.
Assante’s line of reasoning is that these magical incantations had the
same function as the erotic plaques. They were meant to attract the
goddess of sexuality to the house or inn where her presence would
radiate a benevolent atmosphere from which all would benefit.
In a magical charm from the city of Isin at the time of Išme-Dagan (1933-
1935 BC) a woman pronounces a magical spell. She hopes that her
beloved, who obviously no longer has any interest in her, will again
desire her 22:
With the slaver of the dog, thirst, hunger.
With the slap of the face, with the rolling of the eyes.
I have hit you on the head. I have deranged your reason.
Set your will to my will.
Set your decision to my decision. I hold you fast as Ištar held Dumuzi.
As Zeras (the beer goddess Siraš) binds her drinker.
I have bound you with my mouth full of breath.
With my vagina full of wetness (literally: urine-emitting).
With my mouth full of saliva.
With my vagina full of wetness.
No female rival shall go near you!
The same combination of Ištar and beer are combined in these verses,
just as is to be seen on the erotic plaques. Beer was consumed as an
aphrodisiac and in Sumerian literature drinking beer was frequently a
prelude to sex.23 But beer had many other non-sexual properties as is
attested in Mesopotamian magical texts, used as a component in potions
and medicines and poured as a libation offering to the gods. According to
Assante, the tavern also functioned as the neighbourhood magical
medical dispenser of pharmaceuticals and its pot stands and fermenting
vats were used as ritual objects in the practices of non-official religion.
The magical properties of beer were all important and many hymns sing
about the sweet syrup of beer, while the barmaid of Šu-Sîn praised her
own saliva and genital secretions, as we have seen in Chapter 16:
My[ ……], the barmaid’s beer is sweet.
Like her beer her genitals are sweet, her beer is sweet.
Like her mouth her genitals are sweet, her beer is sweet
Her diluted beer, her beer is sweet --
Potent incantations to Ištar
Because Ištar was an expert in the field of love, people invoked her by
preference when they had love problems. Ištar was also expected to help
a man win a woman’s love, in the same way as women sought her
influence to make a man’s former love return. In an Akkadian text from
the time of King Sargon (circa 2300 BC) the ašipu (exorcist) attempts to
help a young man who apparently has been rejected by a girl.24 The
ašipu invokes the help of Ištar in order to overcome the resistance of the
girl and he instructs the young male to recite all sorts of magical texts25:
I have seized your mouth, so far away,
I have seized your dazzling eyes,
I have seized your vulva, stinking from urine
The last sentence comes as a shock, but apparently it was necessary in
order to enhance the magical effect of the words. These sorts of texts
have been found everywhere in ancient times, not only in Mesopotamia,
but in Egypt and Anatolia also.
Ištar remained the ultimate authority on sexual disorders. Dating from the
seventh century BC, copies have been found of potency incantations,
ša3-zi-ga, which literally means ‘rising of the heart’, although in this
context it should be understood as the ability of men to have an erection.
Men with potency disorders resorted to the love goddess in the hope that
she would offer them some relief, and although other goddesses were
invoked, such as Išhara and Nanaya, it was above all Ištar who was
expected to give solace as belet ru’ame, ‘mistress of the love play’ and
belet râmi, ‘mistress of love’.
Robert Biggs has translated and published a large number of ša3-zi-
ga-incantations26 and they look like spells intended to bring about the
much wished for results. In various incantations the prescription is that
the ašipu, the exorcist, is to tie an ass at the head or foot of the bed, as
these animals were expected to have a positive influence in the
resuscitation of potency. The spell invokes these animals to stimulate the
patient to copulate like a ram, ten to twelve times. According to the
command of Ištar, ‘goddess of feminine charms’ (belet ru’amu) and Nanaya,
goddes of sexual attractiveness (belet hi-li) these animals were urged to
copulate and by their example they would help the patient to regain his
potency.27
We give an example of an incantation that is directed to ‘the beautiful
Inanna’, who is asked to awaken the potency of a man28:
Incantation
The beautiful woman has brought forth love (a g 2)
Inanna who loves apples and pomegranates
Has brought forth potency
Rise! Fall! Love-stone (n a4 - a g2), prove effective for me! Rise!
[ … ]Inanna [ … ]
She has presided over love.
------------------------------------------------------------
Incantation.
If a woman looks upon the penis of a man
-----------------------------------------------------------
Its ritual: either to an apple or to a pomegranate
you recite the incantation three times.
You give (the fruit) to the woman (and) have her suck their juices.
That woman will come to you; you can make love to her.
(…)
A more drastic procedure is prescribed in the following incantation29:
Incantation
Wild ass who had an erection for mating,
Who has dampened your ardour?
Violent stallion whose sexual excitement
is a devastating flood,
who has bound your limbs?
Who has slackened your muscles?
Mankind has […] your […]
Your goddess has turned to you. May Asalluhi, god of magic
absolve you by means of the plants of the mountain and the
plants of the deep and
May he make your limbs attractive through the charms of Ištar!
Incantation.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Incantation for potency. Its ritual: you crush magnetic iron ore, put it into oil;
he should rub his penis, his chest, his waist and then he will recover.
Votive offerings
Many spells must have been performed in the vicinity of Ištar’s temples,
as archaeologists find all sorts of objects that could have been offered as
a votive gift to Ištar. In the Ištar temple of Aššur many articles from the
third millennium BC came to light, such as fragments of nude female
figurines made of alabaster and ivory, animal figurines of rams or bulls,
jewellery and pearls made of enamel. But other gifts could also have
been given to Ištar as a votive offering, such as vessels, needles,
weapons, snail shells and mussel shells etc.30 Most objects did not have
an inscription, so it is not known who left them there.

Figure 21.13. Votive plaque excavated in the Ištar-temple of Aššur.

Round disc with pubic triangle. Diameter: 9,2 cm. (Meinhold, 2009, fig..
23, ass. 196241, from: Bär ÄIT Tf 56, p. 247)
But two objects made from tin did in fact have a votive inscription. They
were made in the shape of a pubic triangle and belonged probably to the
inventory of the Ištar temple.31 On the obverse side of the pudendum is a
large button, around which nine small rings were soldered. On the
reverse side an inscription has been engraved with the following text: To
Ištar of Aššur, her mistress, has given Hi-x-ta-ki-i5l (her name cannot be read
properly) for her own life and for the life of Šu-ili (this disc in the temple).32
The text must have derived from an ordinary person, who had nothing to
do with the official cult of the temple or palace. The second object is in
the shape of a pubic triangle and all three corners were drilled through to
enable it to hang, perhaps to the plinth or a statue. On one side three
bands with a plaited motif have been soldered, concentrically applied to
the tin and following the edges of the triangle. On the reverse side the
following inscription was written:
In the time of Sargon (of Akkad), city ruler of Aššur, Hattitum, the wife of
Ennade, has made for Ištar of Aššur a votive offering: for the life of her
husband, for her own life and for the life of her child/children she has brought it
to the temple

Figure 21.14. Votif plaque from the Ištar-temple in Aššur with inscription
of Hattitum. Height: 17,5 cm,width: 11 cm. (Meinhold, 2009, p. 248, fig..
24)
The votive offering may have been brought to the temple at the time of
Sargon I of Akkad (circa 2300 BC). In the inscription Hattitum says that
she has presented the pudendum to Ištar of Aššur (Ištar assuritum) for
the life of her husband, for herself and for their children. The woman who
offered the first inscription had asked the same for herself and her
husband Šu-ili, both women turning to Ištar to plead for marital
happiness. Perhaps the pudendum is an indication of sexual happiness
or a fertile marriage, but a pudendum could also have been a fitting
present for the love goddess, a symbol conveying in a concrete object
her abstract power in the field of sexuality and fertility.
Three pudenda were excavated in the temple of Ištar of Aššur (figure
21.15), that resemble the above mentioned old Assyrian pudendum of
Hattitum,33 but dating from a much later period, Tukulti-Ninurta I (1245-
1196 BC). They too were meant to be hung, as we may conclude from
the three holes, but they are much smaller, were made from enamel, a
much cheaper material and they are without an inscription. As is noted in
Chapter 23, in some incantations to Inanna and Dumuzi seeking
protection against diseases, it was necessary to make an offering of a
pudendum of lapis lazuli with a star of gold, to Ištar. The stars of gold or
silver of course referred to her mighty position in the sky as the planet
Venus, but only wealthy people could afford these votive gifts, poor
people made the pudenda from blue enamel.
Figure 21.15. Pubic triangles made of enamel from the Ištar-tempel of
Aššur in the time of Tukulti-Ninurta I. Heigth: between 5 and 9 cm.
(Meinhold, 2009, p. 255, fig. 27; after: Andrae, JIT, Tf 36 x, w, z)

Figure 21.16. Phallus of enamel from the Ištar-temple of Aššur in the time
of Tukulti-Ninurta I. (Meinhold, 2009, p. 256)
Other sources confirm that a pubic triangle was considered a fitting
offering to Ištar. An old Babylonian text lists clothing and jewellery from
the temple of Lagaba, a small town not yet localized, meant for the
temple statue of Ištar.34 The text mentions the 27th day of the month of
Dumuzi in the year of Šamšu-iluna (1749-1712 BC), the ‘year when he
built a shrine (bara2) for goddess Ningal’. The list enumerates rings of
gold, beads of gold, a breast piece of gold, earrings of silver, cylinder
seals, clothing (kaunakes), woollen and line ribbons, bronze bowls and
copper lamps. Among the objects on the list was a pudendum (ûru) of
gold and eight pudenda of silver, articles evidently part of the regular
offerings and attaching to Inanna’s holy statue.
In the Ištar temple of Aššur some 28 phalluses were excavated, made
from enamel, glass, bone, ivory, stone or burned clay, also dating from
the time of Tukulti-Ninurta I (figure 21.16), however as they have also
been found in other parts of the city, it is obvious their use was not
restricted to the temple of Ištar. The majority of them are from 4.5 to 7.3
centimetres long, and have a ring at the base. A penis model was a very
strong fertility symbol, worn as an amulet which could bring luck if hung
around the neck and even worn by babies to ward off evil threats.35
Archaeologists are inclined to interpret them as remnants of
prostitution36, but many representations of copulation or ithyphallic
images could have had a role in fertility rites. In her book from 1982
Catherine Johns carried already a crusade against all those Victorian
observers who were shocked by the view of these representations and
could not but interpret them as obscene symbols to arouse abhorrent
sexual feelings.37

Figure 21.17 Red figure cup: the scene of a hetairai dancing round a
model phallus is connected with a religious festival, Athens, 5th century
BC (Johns, 1982, figure 27, p. 43)
The ašipu
Magical operations written on tablets to cure sexual disorders were the
standard work tool of every ašipu, a kind of doctor, an expert in the magic
arts. He often used incidents from mythological tales, elaborating on
them and including them in his own rituals to cure patients. A troubled in
love life was the field of the goddess Ištar, but in the course of time she
acquired more and more demonic aspects. People invoked the ašipu for
instance to take vengeance on their sexual rivals and the ašipu employed
the magical operation of the coitus to realize his witchcraft. On a seal
from Latakia in Cyprus (purchased on the antique market) we can see a
man and a woman lying down on a bed, while a third person stands
beside the bed, laying his hand on the head of the man. He is probably a
magician (figure 21.16) and he is dressed in a lion’s skin, as was worn by
some priests in Egypt at that time. In his left hand he is holding what
looks like the ankh cross, the bringer of good luck and under the bed a
scorpion is depicted, the old fertility symbol. By contrast to the images of
scorpions from the past, this example does have a huge sting, as if to
show the dangerous aspects of this animal. In the background a gazelle
and a fish are recognizable. This tablet resembles other magic tablets
from the period, (second half of the second millennium BC).

Figure 21.18. Impression of a cylinder seal from Cyprus (antique market).

On a bed a man and a woman lie in coitus posture. Behind the bed
stands the magician , dressed in a lions’ skin. He touches with his hand
the head of the man. Under the bed lies the scorpion with sting. In the
field a gazelle and a fish. (Seyrich, 1955, pl. IV, 3)
The assistance of the ašipu was requested in cases of unrequited love,
but more especially in cases where a wife felt her married life was
threatened. Her greatest fear was that she would be infertile or that her
husband would be unfaithful to her. On some tablets prescriptions were
given to render the rival harmless.
A tablet from the first millennium contains a ritual text that is
presumably a dramatised incantation performance against adultery. This
Akkadian text was found in the library of Niniveh and describes in great
detail a rite that had to be executed in the temple of Ištar38 In the text the
assinnu and kurgarra are mentioned, of whom more in Chapter 24. The
main gods in this rite are Marduk, his wife Sarpanitu and Ištar of Babylon.
Marduk was a new god in the pantheon who had been elevated to
national god by King Hammurabi and from the text we may infer that
Sarpanitu is sitting all alone in her cella (pahhum), while Marduk stays on
top of the ziqqurat. Sarpanitum is sleeping in the cella, while Bel (i.e. Marduk) is
on the roof? Apparently Sarpanitu is very depressed as she has a rival to
whom Marduk gives preference over her. She shouts upwards39:
You, whoever you are, whatever your name is,
who always go to the dwelling of my lord,
You are the mother, Ištar of Babylon.
The beautiful one, the queen of the Babylonians.
You are the mother, a palm of carnelian,
The beautiful one, who is beautiful to a superlative degree,
Whose figure is red to a superlative degree, is beautiful to a superlative degree?
The rite is certainly aimed at helping jealous or cheated spouses.
Weeping, Sarpanitu goes outside and asks the gardener whether he can
give her a plant, perhaps an aphrodisiac or a poisonous plant with which
to eliminate her rival. On the fourth day she performs a rite in the morning
and in the evening, in the street of the Eturkalamma, the temple of
Inanna in Babylon. It is a very complicated and largely obscure rite, in
which the jealous spouse gives air to all her frustrations.40 Then
Sarpanitu directs her words to her rival41:
Into your genitals in which you trust I will make a dog enter and will tie shut the
door.
Into your genitals in which you trust , like your precious stone (?) before you.
‘genitals of my girl-friend, why do you constantly so do?’
Genitals of my girl-friend, the district of Babylon is seeking a rag
Genitals with two fingers, why do you constantly provoke quarrels?
She/He will depart from the city gate and facing Hursagkalamma (temple of Inanna
at the east of Kiš)the kurgarru-priest will kneel on his knees and will
recite prayers and utter his chants. He will arise and sing,
‘Let me see great Kish, let me look on lofty Babylon”.
Hursagkalamma, city of beauty”
The ritual operations are too difficult to follow, but according to Edzard we
have here an alternation of the complaint of Sarpanitu and the mululati
‘the games’ of Marduk or as Edzard translates it, ‘licentious pleasure’.
The exorcist has probably made a doll, tied with ropes and there follow
extremely emotional and resentful lines apparently recited by the jealous
spouse42:
You, whoever you are, whatever your name is,
who always go to the dwelling of my lord,
Come and do as I tell you!
Fall from the roof on to a dagger,
Get an iron spike in your side
Get sharp arrows
(..)
More incomprehensible rituals follow, with again an emotional outburst on
the last tablet43:
Genitals of my girl-friend, the district of Babylon is seeking a rag,
To wipe your vulva, to wipe your vagina
Now let him/her say to the women of Babylon, ‘the women will not give her a
rag
To wipe her vulva, to wipe her vagina
Into your genitals in which you trust, like your precious stones before you,
Set your [..] before you, sniff the smell of cattle
Like something not mended by the tailor, like something not soaked by the
laundrymen.
Into your genitals in which you trust I will make a dog enter and will tie shut the
door;
I will make a dog enter and will tie shut the door; I will make a hahhuru-bird
enter and it will nest.
Whenever I leave or enter
I will give orders to my hahhuru-birds,
‘Please, my dear hahhuru-bird,
Do not approach the mushrooms’
Ditto. The smell of the armpits.
The incantation on this tablet is accompanied by a complicated ritual that
lasts for several days, its tone vehement and emotional, with gross verbal
abuse of the rival looking like a last effort to get control of the situation by
magical means. It is possible that adultery could imply a life threatening
situation for the wife which would explain the raw fear which resounds
throughout the entire text.
Endnotes Chapter 21
1 Assante, 2000, p. 225
2 Assante, 2000
3 Sefati, 1998, p. 89 ff.
4 ETCSL 4.08.02, Dumuzi/Inanna B, l. 28-29
5 ETCSL 4.08.18, Dumuzi/Inanna R, l. 7-8
6 ETCSL 4.08.a, A balbale to Inanna and Dumuzi
7 Assante, 2000, p. 220
8 Assante, 2000, p 14. ff
9 Assante, 2000
10 Güterbock, 1983
11 Assante, 2000, p. 227; ECTSL 4.08.04, Inanna-Dumuzi D, l. 10-18;
Sefati, 1998, p. 151-164, The bed of love
12 Maul, 1992, p. 390 ff.
13 Maul, 1992, p. 392
14 Maul, 1992, p. 395
15 Civil, 1964
16 Trümpelmann, 1981
17 Behrens, 1998, p. 23
18 Behrens, 1998, Die Ninegalla-Hymne; ETCSL 4.07.4, line 109-115
19 Stol, 2012, p. 61
20 Assante, 1998, p. 77
21 Assante, 1998, p. 80
22 Assante, 2000, p. 238; Wilcke, 1985, p. 198-199
23 Assante, 2000, p. 239
24 Westenholz (Joan en Aage), 1977
25 Idem, p. 203, line. 12-16
26 Biggs, 1967
27 Biggs, 1967, p. 30-31
28 Biggs, 1967, p. 70-71, Text KAR 61:1-25
29 Biggs, 1967, p. 17
30 Meinhold, 2009, p. 245 e.v.
31 Meinhold, 2009
32 Meinhold, 2008, p. 247
33 Meinhold, 2009, p. 255
34 Leemans, 1952
35 Budge, 1970, p. 15; Catherine Johns 1982 p. 42 ff. emphasizes time
and again that the use of the male sex organ alone as a symbol has
a specific meaning connected not with any individual deity, but with
the apotropaic power of the phallus itself, that is, its power to avert
and overcome evil influences. Models of a phallus, often of
impressive size, played a part in numerous religious rites, especially
those connected with the worship of Dionysos.
36 Wiggerman, 2010, p 50 shows a picture of penis models found in a
border region in Syria (Sabi Abyat), that was strung by the
excavators unto a bracelet that according to the archaeologists was
once worn by prostitutes to convey the message that they were
available for men.
37 Johns, 1980, p 43 ff.
38 Lambert, 1975, with comments of: Edzard, 1987
39 Edzard, 1987, tablet IV, r. 18-22, p. 62; Lambert 1975, line 26-29, p.
119
40 Leick, 1994, p. 242
41 Lambert, 1975, p. 105, r. 1-14
42 Lambert, 1975, tablet V, kolom B, r. 26-30, p. 118-119
43 Lambert, 1975, tablet LKA 92, r. 4-17, p. 122-123
Chapter 22 Inanna’s descent to the
underworld (I)
The most famous myth about Inanna tells of her journey to the
underworld, and almost all libraries in Mesopotamia would have had a
Sumerian or an Akkadian version of this story on their shelves. Why
Inanna decided to travel to ‘the land of no return’, the myth does not say
and as is always the case with myths, the motivation of the gods is not
explained either. A myth is not a historical narrative but the testimony of a
certain truth which, at such a distance from the past is often difficult to
retrieve, leading to the kind of speculation which in the present case, is
inevitable. Here we do not encounter the mighty Inanna who smites the
enemy on the battlefield, the goddess with whom we have become
familiar from the hymns of Enheduanna. Instead she is bowed down,
humiliated and even sentenced to death, giving substance to the idea
that the myth was written at a later period in the second millennium, when
new gods were trying to undermine Inanna’s position of power.
From the great heaven Inanna had set her mind on the great below. The
underworld was the domain of Inanna’s sister, the goddess Ereškigal, the
queen (ereš) of the underworld (ki-gal). Enlil, the new head of the
pantheon in Sumer, had given her the underworld as a gift when he
himself had taken the earth1. Inanna was given nothing at all and
furthermore, the underworld had originally been part of her domain as
she had daily descended there as the planet Venus. In this myth Inanna’s
power is seen to be seriously curtailed, which was perhaps the intended
message, and in the end it was not within the power of Inanna, once
mistress of Heaven and Earth, to change the subdivision of the cosmos
as determined by Enlil. He had given heaven to An, the earth to himself
and the underworld to Ereškigal. Ereškigal remained queen of the land of
the dead.
The oldest version of this very complicated Sumerian myth dates from
the second millennium, the Ur III period or the Isin-Larsa reign and
possibly there are even older versions of the story which have not as yet
been found. Various Akkadian cuneiform texts with a version of this myth
date from later times, but they are much shorter than the Sumerian text
and deviate from it in some details. The original Sumerian version has
412 lines while the Akkadian version is not even 140 lines.
We follow the Sumerian version of Inanna’s descent to the Underworld
published on the internet by ETCSL 1.4.1. Inanna, so the myth begins,
from the great heaven (an-gal) had set her heart on possession of the
underworld (ki-gal). She abandoned heaven, she abandoned earth and
she descended to the underworld, but first she had to lay down the office
of the En and the office of the lagar priest. It is not entirely clear but the
text could be interpreted as meaning that Inanna had to resign her
competence to nominate the En and the Lagar priest because of her visit
to the land of death. Inanna leaves her seven earthly dwellings in Sumer,
the temples in which she was worshipped, in Uruk she leaves the Eanna,
in Badtaibira the E-muškalamma, in Zabalam the Gi-guna, in Adab the E-
šara, in Nibru the Bara-durgara, in Kiš the Hursağ-kalama and in Akkad
the E-ulmaš, then collecting her seven ME and grasping them in her
hand, Inanna departs in full state. What these ME looked like is not
explained and according to other myths Inanna possessed many more
ME, but apparently these seven ME were absorbed into the seven jewels
that Inanna wore for her journey. On her head she put a turban, the
headdress usually worn on the steppe (túgšu-gur-ra, literally, ‘cloth twisted
with the hand ‘). She took a wig for her forehead and she hung small
lapis lazuli beads around her neck. She placed twin egg shaped beads
on her breast and covered her body with a pala dress, the garment of
ladyship (nam-nin-a). On her eyes she placed mascara which is called
‘Let a man come, let him come’, pulled the pectoral which is called
‘Come, man, come’, over her breast and she placed a golden ring on her
hand. Thus adorned and with the lapis lazuli measuring rod and
measuring line in her hand, Inanna could begin her journey to the
underworld, the ‘land of no return’.
But before her actual departure, Inanna gives instructions to her faithful
servant Ninšubur, in case she fails to return from the underworld. Her
minister should make a lament for her on the ruined mounds of her
temples, she must beat the drum for her in the sanctuary and make the
rounds of the houses of the gods. She should lacerate her eyes for
Inanna, lacerate her nose for her, lacerate her ears for her and lacerate
her buttocks on the ‘spot which people do not mention in public’ (ki-mu.
lu.da-nu.di). She should clothe herself like a pauper in a single garment
and then Ninšubur should lament before Enlil and call for help. If Enlil
does not help then Ninšubur should lament before Nanna the moon god
in Ur and if he does not help she should go to Enki in Eridu and lament
before him. Enki, being in possession of the life giving plant and the life
giving water, would certainly help Inanna. Go now, my Ninšubur, Inanna
says again, and pay attention. Do not neglect the instructions I gave you!’
Now Inanna is ready to go to the Egal-Ganzer, literally: ‘palace of the
underworld’.
When Inanna arrived at the palace Ganzer,
she pushed aggressively on the door of the underworld.
She shouted aggressively at the gate of the underworld:
“Open up, doorman, open up. Open up, Neti, open up.
I am all alone and I want to come in.”
It is unlikely that Neti, the doorkeeper of the underworld frequently had to
do with one so eagerly wishing to descend into the Realm of the Dead
but he decides not to be put off by Inanna’s eccentric behaviour and asks
her politely who she might be. Inanna answers that she has come from
the east where the sun rises and has journeyed to the west, the entrance
to the underworld where the sun will descend and travel underground to
rise at the gates of heaven in the east. But Neti asks her suspiciously
why she has set her heart on a journey from which no traveller ever
returns.
Inanna answers that she plans to attend the funeral rites (ki-si3-ga,
Akkadian: kispum) of the husband of her elder sister, holy Ereškigal.
Whether this is the true reason is doubtful as the funeral rites of
Gudgalana (literally, ‘great bull of heaven’) are not mentioned again in the
myth and in the Akkadian version Inanna gives no reason at all for her
desire to enter the underworld.
Holy Inana answered him: “Because lord Gud-gal-ana, the husband of my elder
sister holy Ereš -ki-gala, has died; in order to have his funeral rites observed,
she offers generous libations at his wake -- that is the reason.”
But Neti is very suspicious and asks Inanna to wait and he hurries off to
his mistress Ereškigal, the queen of the underworld, with the worrying
news that Inanna desires to be admitted:
It is Inana, your sister, and she has arrived at the palace Ganzer.
She pushed aggressively on the door of the underworld.
She shouted aggressively at the gate of the underworld.
She has abandoned E-ana and has descended to the underworld.
Ereškigal is immediately alarmed and slaps the side of her thigh and
bites her lip. In the Akkadian version Ereškigal’s fear is very protracted as
she asks herself uneasily what Ištar might have in mind. Ereškigal is
afraid that she herself, queen of the underworld, is going to have to
undergo the same fate as her subjects,2 and she ponders anxiously on
the idea of having to drink water instead of beer, or eat mud instead of
bread.
Should I weep for the young men who left their wives?
Should I weep for the young women snatched from their lovers’ embrace?
And for the tender baby should I weep who was sent away before its time?’3
From the Akkadian version we can infer that Ereškigal saw Inanna as a
threat, as in this text Ištar had menaced to break down the door, to break
the lock and the doorframe, tear out the doors and bring the dead up to
the world of the living where they would devour everybody and
outnumber the living.4 Ištar’s threat would have left the audience
shuddering with fear, as the return of the dead would mean immediate
famine. Among the dead were unhappy souls that had died in an
unfortunate manner and others that had never been given a proper
funeral, 5 as a result of which they kept searching for new victims whom
they could devour.
Ereškigal decides to face up to the menace and she orders the
gatekeeper to open the seven doors of the Egal-Ganzer to let Inanna
enter, however she does take precautionary measures. The seven doors
should be opened separately, and each time Inanna made an entrance,
Neti was to remove a piece of her clothing and carry it away. The
doorkeeper carried out Ereškigal’s order conscientiously. He opened the
gates separately and each time Inanna entered he snatched a piece of
clothing from her body. When Inanna asked what all this was about, he
answered that the divine ME of the underworld had to be fulfilled and that
Inanna must not open her mouth against the rites of the underworld. In
this way Inanna loses, one after the other, her turban, her lapis lazuli
beads, her egg shaped beads, her pectoral ‘Come, man, come’, the
golden ring, the lapis lazuli measuring rod and measuring line and the
pala dress. The mascara with the name ‘Let a man come, let him come!’
is missing from this list but the various versions of the myth use different
sequences and sometimes omit a piece of clothing which do not always
number seven pieces.6
In the end Inanna stands stark naked before Ereškigal, utterly bereft of
her divine powers, the ME. She has been deceived by Ereškigal and
lured into a trap because as Dina Katz points out, the regulations of the
underworld did not make it obligatory to take off all ones clothes.7 The
dead in Mesopotamia were buried in their clothes together with some
personal belongings, such as is apparent from the graves of Pu-abi in the
cemetery of Ur. It had been a trick to disarm Inanna and deprive her of all
her divine ME.
In the Sumerian version it is unclear what happened next in the
confrontation between Ereškigal and Inanna:
After she had crouched down and had her clothes removed,
they were carried away.
Then she made her sister Ereškigal rise from her throne,
and instead she sat on her throne.
This is a strange passage. Maybe part of the text has been lost. The
Akkadian version is much more obvious:8
She (Inanna) raised her sister from her throne,
and took a seat on her (Ereškigal’s) throne.
From the Akkadian version it is apparent that Inanna intended to push
Ereškigal off the throne, because to sit on a throne in ancient times was a
sign of authority. Inanna’s purpose on entering the underworld seems to
have been the seizure of power over the land of the dead and it was this
usurpation of power rather than her descent to the underworld which
justified her death sentence9. The Anuna gods, the seven judges from
the underworld handed down their judgement against her.
They looked at her - it was the look of death.
They spoke to her - it was the speech of anger.
They shouted at her - it was the shout of heavy guilt.
The afflicted woman was turned into a corpse.
And the corpse was hung on a hook.
In the Akkadian version Ereshkigal casts a spell causing sixty mortal
diseases to afflict Ištar and changes her into a waterskin.
Ninšubur goes and searches for help
In the world above, Inanna’s faithful servant Ninšubur waited in vain for
her mistress’s return and after three days and three nights, she did as
Inanna had instructed. She made a lament for her on the mounds of her
ruined temples. She beat the drum for her in the sanctuaries. She
lacerated her eyes, she lacerated her nose and she lacerated her
buttocks the place not spoken of with men. She clothed herself in a single
garment and all alone she set her foot in the E-kur, the house of Enlil to
appeal for his indulgence and his help for Inanna10:
“Father Enlil, don’t let anyone kill your daughter in the underworld.
Don’t let your precious metal be alloyed there with the dirt of the underworld.
Don’t let your precious lapis lazuli be split there with the mason’s stone.
Don’t let your boxwood be chopped up there with the carpenter’s wood.
Don’t let young lady Inanna be killed in the underworld.”
Enlil however was not moved by the bitter tears of Ninšubur and refused
to help Inanna:11
“My daughter craved the great heaven and she craved the great below as well.
Inana craved the great heaven and she craved the great below as well.
The ME of the underworld are divine powers which should not be craved,
for whoever gets them must remain in the underworld.
Who, having got to that place, could then expect to come up again?”
Enlil’s answer also indicates that he believes Inanna’s intention was to
seize power over the realm of the dead. After Enlil had refused to listen to
the supplications of Ninšubur, the faithful servant went to Ur, to the E-
kisnugal of the moon god Nanna. She lamented before the moon god
and implored him not to let his precious metal be contaminated with the
dirt of the underworld and not to let his precious lapis lazuli be split there
with the mason’s stone, and not to let his boxwood be chopped up there.
But it was of no avail and Nanna too remained adamant in the face of her
tears and for the same reasons as Enlil, refused to help Ninšubur. Then
Ninšubur went to Enki, as Inanna had instructed her. Here Ninšubur got a
positive response, as Enki’s reaction was one of real apprehension and
he decided to help Inanna at once. He removed some dirt from under his
fingernail and created two beings, a kurgarra and a galatura. To the
kurgara he gave the life giving plant, to the galatura he gave the life
giving water.
In the Akkadian version, the god Ea, the Akkadian alter ego of the
Sumerian god Enki, fabricates another creature, Aşûšu-namir, an
assinnu, the literal translation of his name being, ‘his resurgence is
shining’. Just as with the kurgarra and the galatura, the sex of an assinnu
is ambiguous and he is considered to be a homosexual, a transvestite or
a eunuch. Apparently the kurgarra, the galatura and the assinnu were
creatures that could enter unhindered the caverns of the underworld.
Enki gave them instructions as to how they should act when they met
Ereškigal. They will find her in labour and Enki charges them to
sympathise with her:
Go and direct your steps to the underworld.
Flit past the door like flies. Slip through the door pivots like phantoms.
The mother who gave birth, Ereškigal, on account of her children, is lying there.
Her holy shoulders are not covered by a linen cloth.
Her breasts are not full like a šagan vessel.
Her nails are like a pickaxe upon her.
The hair on her head is bunched up as if it were leeks.
When she says “Oh my heart”, you are to say “You are troubled, our mistress,
oh your heart”.
When she says “Oh my liver”, you are to say “You are troubled, our mistress,
oh your liver”.
Enki assures them that Ereškigal will be moved by their expressions of
sympathy. They must make use of this exceptional state of mind of the
goddess, and have her swear an oath that she will gratify any wish they
may express. Ereškigal will offer water and a field of grain, Enki
continues, but they must not accept it, instead they should ask for the
corpse that is hanging on the hook and because Ereškigal has sworn an
oath she cannot deny them. Then they should sprinkle the corpse with
the life giving plant and the life giving water, and Inanna will rise from the
dead.
The two creatures do as Enki has instructed them and like flies they
slip through the doors of the underworld where they find Ereškigal. Her
breasts are not full like a šagan vessel, her nails are like a pickaxe upon
her and she is in labour, overwhelmed by her sorrows. Evidently the
children she has already borne have all died. When she groaned ‘Oh my
heart”, they said to her “You are troubled, our mistress, oh your heart”. When
she said “Oh my liver”, they said to her “You are troubled, our mistress, oh
your liver”.
Their expressions of compassion were well received and Ereškigal
was so pleasantly surprised to meet someone who understands her and
feels for her that she spontaneously promises to grant them a wish:
Then she asked: “Who are you?
I tell you from my heart to your heart, from my body to your body –
if you are gods, I will talk with you;
if you are mortals, may a destiny be decreed for you.
This was exactly what the kurgarra and the galatura had been waiting for,
so they made her swear an oath and just as Enki had predicted,
Ereškigal offered a river with its water and a field with its grain, which
they refused. They said: “Give us the corpse hanging on the hook.”
Ereškigal was shocked, she was furious, she felt betrayed but she could
not break her oath. In the the Akkadian version the assinnu choose a
different approach. This time Ereškigal is not in labour and Aşušunamir,
as this demon envoy was called, does not share in the pain with her, but
instead the assinu cheers her up, putting her in the right sort of mood to
take an oath. Oppenheim presumes that the assinnu had amused
Ereškigal with his appearance or with certain, perhaps obscene gestures
to make her laugh. 12 In gratitude Ereškigal allows him to make a wish. In
the Akkadian version Ereškigal is also outraged when she hears the wish
of Aşušunamir and she curses the assinnu, saying he will be doomed to
eat from the gutter, he will live in the shade of the city walls and be
beaten by drunkards. (More will be heard of the followers of Inanna, the
kurgarra, galatura and the curse of the assinnu in Chapter 24).
The corpse is taken from the hook and given to the demons. They
sprinkle it with the life giving plant, the life giving water and bring Inanna
back to life, but when they prepare to leave the underworld the Anunna
judges take hold of Inanna. According to the rules of the underworld, if
Inanna leaves she has to provide a substitute who will remain in the land
of no return. This is a widespread motif in folklore13 as it was a deeply
embedded belief that between the world of the living and the world of the
dead there should be a balance that was not to be disturbed. The dead
should not attain predominance over the living and the living could not
outnumber the dead. If the dead should all return to earth without others
entering the underworld in their place, the equilibrium would be lost and
the immediate result would be a serious shortage of food, a fear that
haunted a population always dependent on the vagaries of the natural
world. The produce of agriculture was always very uncertain and large
areas being damaged by over planting, while other parts lay fallow. In this
myth there is an allusion to the danger that the dead could return to the
world of the living and exterminate the people like locusts.
Inanna had no choice but to find a substitute who could take her place in
the underworld and she was released from her subterranean dwelling,
bound by that condition. However she did not leave alone but was
accompanied by a crowd of demons who, together with the kurgarra and
galatura, searched for a substitute that could be sent to the land of the
dead in Inanna’s place.
So when Inanna left the underworld,
the one in front of her,
though not a minister, held a sceptre in his hand;
the one behind her, though not an escort, carried a mace at his hip,
while the small demons, like a reed enclosure,
and the big demons, like the reeds of a fence,
restrained her on all sides.
Those who accompanied her, those who accompanied Inanna, know no food,
know no drink, eat no flour offering and drink no libation.
They accept no pleasant gifts.
They never enjoy the pleasures of the marital embrace, never have any sweet
children to kiss.
They tear away the wife from a man’s embrace.
They snatch the son from a man’s knee.
They take the wife away from a man’s embrace.
They take away the child hanging on a wet-nurse’s breasts.
They crush no bitter garlic.
They eat no fish, they eat no leeks.
They, it was, who accompanied Inanna.
As soon as they had reached the world above, the demons attempted to
seize a victim to send to the underworld in place of Inanna. The first
person they came across was Ninšubur. She was dressed in a filthy
garment and she threw herself at Inanna’s feet at the door of the Ganzer.
The demons tried to catch her, but Inanna stopped them as she did not
want to sacrifice her faithful servant who had followed all her instructions,
was dressed in funeral garments like a pauper, had lacerated her eyes
and nose for her and had lacerated her buttocks, the place not spoken of
in public.
The next person they met was Šara in the town of Umma. Šara was a
local god who was called Inanna’s son in an inscription dating from the Ur
III period. He also threw himself at the feet of Inanna, was covered with
dust and was wearing a filthy funeral garment, so Inanna refused to let
him go to the underworld. They continued on their way and the next
person they met was Lu-lal (an unknown figure) who appeared to be from
the temple in Badtibira, but he too saved his life by throwing himself at
the feet of Inanna and by being dressed in proper funeral garments.
After that they went to the plain of Kulab, the old city quarter of Uruk,
where they encountered Dumuzi. He, however, showed not the slightest
sign of sorrow at the death of Inanna but on the contrary, he was clothed
in a beautiful garment and seated on a magnificent throne under a great
apple tree! The demons seized him and this time Inanna did not stop
them. She looked at him with the gaze of death and she spoke to him
with the speech of anger: “Take him away.” Holy Inanna gave Dumuzi the
shepherd into their hands.
Dumuzi let out a wail and wept. He raised his hands to heaven, to Utu
to implore his help. These lines are almost identical to the verses in the
myth, Dumuzi’s Dream in Chapter 15:
Utu, you are my brother-in-law.
I am your relation by marriage.
I brought butter to your mother’s house.
I brought milk to Ningal’s house.
Turn my hands into snake’s hands and turn my feet into snake’s feet,
so I can escape my demons, let them not keep hold of me.”
Utu was moved by his tears and transformed him into a lizard. Then
follows a lacuna of about twenty lines and when the text is legible again it
describes how Inanna is determining the fate of a fly:
A fly spoke to holy Inanna:
“If I show you where your man is, what will be my reward?”
Holy Inanna answered the fly:
“If you show me where my man is, I will give you this gift: I will cover [……].”
The fly helped holy Inanna. The young lady Inanna decreed the destiny of the
fly:
“In the beer-house and the tavern, may there [……] for you.
You will live like the sons of the wise.”
We do not know exactly how this fly became part of the story but
presumably it had betrayed the hiding place of Dumuzi and for this it is
rewarded. In other fragments of text the role of the fly is put into a more
comprehensible context and in a lamentation of the lyre (eršemma), we
read that Inanna and Dumuzi’s sister Geštin-ana are searching for
Dumuzi,14 when a fly offers its services, so perhaps this part of the story
is a play on an old folklore theme. The fly first asks Inanna what reward
she would give if it revealed the hiding place of Dumuzi. Inanna says she
will give the fly permission to reside in the tavern and in the ‘house of the
fruits’. Thereupon the fly asks Geštin-ana what she would give and
Geštin-ana repeats what Inanna has said, but adds the cow shed as an
extra place for flies to buzz around. In other words, this story provides an
explanation for the existence of flies in the tavern, the ‘house of the fruits’
and in the cow shed. Because the fly finds Geštin-ana’s offer more
attractive, it reveals Dumuzi’s whereabouts, not to Inanna but to Geštin-
ana. It appears as if Inanna and Dumuzi’s sister are competing with each
other to bribe the fly, rather than cooperating to find Dumuzi, and as it
turns out each had a different motive. 15 Geštin-ana was trying to help
her brother but Inanna may have wished to betray his hiding place to the
demons so that he would be sent to the underworld in her place. Geštin-
ana runs to the place the fly had revealed, the steppe of Arali, bringing
with her plants, linen, milk and cream to strengthen his heart. These
actions are portents of Dumuzi’s death, as Arali is also the underworld,
while linen is an offering for the dead and milk a libation that was poured
for the dead.
Some text fragments were found that may help to complete the damaged
end of Inanna’s descent to the underworld.16 In these verses Inanna
would appear to have a more sympathetic role, because in the end she
cries bitterly at the tragic fate of her husband and mourns him together
with lamentation women. The fly asks again what will be his reward if he
betrays Dumuzi’s hiding place and Inanna determines that his fate will be
to live in the beer house and the wine house. Whereupon she also
decides to alleviate Dumuzi’s fate by stipulating that Geštin-ana may take
Dumuzi’s place for half of the year. Dumuzi and his sister will take turns,
each spending a half year in the underworld, so now Inanna has two
substitutes to take her place:
You for half the year and your sister for half the year:
when you are demanded, on that day you will stay,
when your sister is demanded, on that day you will be released.”
Thus holy Inanna gave Dumuzi as a substitute …….
Astrale explanation for the myth
Inanna’s decent to the underworld begs more questions than it answers,
providing no logical explanation for Inanna’s journey to the underworld,
why basically her sister Ereškigal’s desired to humiliate Inanna so badly
and change her into a corpse and why Inanna sent her beloved fiancé, of
all people, to the underworld as her substitute.
Most scholars take it that Inanna’s decent to the underworld, just like
some other old Sumerian myths, has to do with the cycle of the planet
Venus and while the Akkadian version of this myth accentuates the
inauspicious consequences for nature when Inanna leaves for the
underworld, the older Sumerian version deals with an astronomical
event.17 In Chapter 13 it was noted, that Venus has a cycle of nineteen
months during which time the planet twice disappears below the horizon
and becomes invisible because it is too close to the sun. The Sumerian
version of Inanna’s decent to the underworld, probably alludes to Venus’s
path across the sky, which would explain why Inanna first visited all her
temples before descending to the land of no return, where she remained
for three days.
But there are some indications that the myth alludes to the astral aspect
of the Dumuzi myth as well, as he also has his place in the sky. In
MUL.APIN, a star list from around 1000 BC, Dumuzi is referred to as
lu2HUN .GA (literally, hireling), also known as the constellation of Aries
2 3
and as Foxvog makes clear, the name Aries is a Greek translation of the
Sumerian name for this constellation.18 The sign LU2 means ‘man’ and is
used in cuneiform script as a determinative for persons, but the sign
could also be read as UDU, a Sumerogram for ‘sheep/ram’, therefore in
Greek astrology the constellation takes the form of a ram. lu2HUN2. GA3
is positioned in the sky close to the star of Ištar-Anunitum, the most
eastern star in the constellation of Pisces, lu2HUN2.GA3 and the
constellation of Anunitum being the first and the last constellations of the
zodiac. When the sun rises in lu2HUN2.GA3 it is spring time but it is
Anunitum who announces lu2HUN2.GA3. Foxfog notes that in one hymn it
is said that Inanna has brought out her beloved king Dumuzi, Mistress (in-
nin), You have given him Your might, the king, You have made Amaušumgalanna
come forth before you in radiant splendor. Inanna, You have given him your
might, the king, You have made Amaušumgalanna come forth before you in
radiant splendor.19 In the third millennium the first appearance of Inanna
and Dumuzi in the sky was interpreted as the arrival of spring and the
renewal of life.20
In 2000 BC lu2HUN2.GA3 was the first constellation of the zodiac.21 When
the sun rises in the constellation it announces the New Year, the
constellation having been invisible below the horizon for six months.
Dumuzi dies in the month of Tašritu (the seventh month according to the
Babylonian calendar) and his constellation lu2HUN2.GA3 gradually sinks
below the horizon.22 After the winter equinox, when the sun is at its most
southern position, this constellation slowly rises above the horizon and it
was believed that Dumuzi had returned after having been half a year in
the underworld, his sister Geštin-ana, taking her turn for the other half of
the year. The opposite constellation is Libra, and Geštin-ana was the
goddess of the wine the vintage taking place in September, but whether
Geštin-ana can be related to Libra is not known.
When Inanna, as the planet Venus, enters the underworld she must part
with all her glittering jewels and Werner Papke23 compares this with the
phases of Venus. During her circulation around the sun Venus’ distance
from the earth changes considerably, with the result that the apparent
size of the planet changes substantially also. When Venus comes near
the earth her size increases six times as compared to her most distant
position from the earth, when the intensity of her light decreases and
Papke notes, it seems as though she has lost all her jewellery. However
as Venus comes back close to the earth the intensity of her light
increases and according to the Akkadian version, this is because at each
gate she gets back, one by one, a glittering ornament.

Figure 22.1. The planet Venus is six times as large when she is close to
the earth as when she is at the farthermost point from the earth (Papke,
1989, p. 182, fig. 35)
Inanna was related to the planet Venus as love goddess but because
Venus descended regularly into the underworld, she was a goddess also
connected with the land of the dead. The myth of Šukaletuda and the
myth about Inanna and Enki can also be interpreted in the light of the
movements of Venus, as seen in Chapter 13. By her regular coming and
going between the upper and lower world, Inanna was in possession of
knowledge about death and life and she had at her command the
capacity to resurrect the dead, a quality which particularly in later times,
becomes more and more important, as we will see in the next chapter.
Endnotes Chapter 22
1 In the myth of the Huluppu tree, see Chapter 3, p. 78
2 Reiner, 1985, p. 38
3 Reiner, 1985, p. 38 , line 31-36 from the Akkadian version
4 Reiner, 1985, p. 36
5 Lapinkivi, 2010, r. 14-24
6 Sladek, 1974, p. 70 e.v.
7 Katz, 1995
8 Katz, 2003, p. 261
9 Katz, 2003, p. 262
10 Vanstiphout, 1998, r. 185-189
11 Vanstiphout, 1998
12 Oppenheim, 1963
13 Afanasieva, 1981
14 Cohen, 1981, nr. 165, p. 87-89
15 Cohen, 1981, nr. 165, p. 87-89
16 Alster, 1996
17 Katz, 2003, p. 258
18 Foxvog, 1993
19 Foxvog, 1993, line (6), p. 104
20 Romano, 2010
21 Foxvog, 1993
22 Papke, 1989, p. 177
23 Papke, 1989, p. 182
Chapter 23 Inanna’s Descent to the
Underworld (II): Funeral rites
The story of Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld concludes in an
unexpected and very puzzling way. Why would Inanna send her lover to
the underworld while at the same time singing of her love for him in
numerous songs? Why of all people was Dumuzi chosen to be her
substitute in the underworld. What is this myth trying to tell to us? Did the
bond between Inanna and Dumuzi extend to include their connection with
the underworld?
Myths about the death of Dumuzi
The story of Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld is only one of many
myths in circulation which relate how Dumuzi was captured and taken to
the underworld. The pursuit and death of Dumuzi was the central theme
of Dumuzi’s Dream, as we have seen in Chapter 15, the myth in which
Dumuzi is forced to flee the demons of the underworld but is finally
caught, beaten to death and dragged to the land of Ereškigal. Inanna
does not figure in this myth, but in Inanna and Bilulu, the myth in which
Dumuzi is killed in the steppe by Girgire, the son of the old woman Bilulu,
Inanna cries bitter tears at the loss of her husband and takes revenge on
the murderer. She further decides that travellers in the steppe shall
always remember Dumuzi with libations of water and flour. These stories
about the death of Dumuzi are presumably much older than the story of
Inanna’s journey to the underworld and might already have been well
known in the third millennium, whereas Inanna’s Descent to the
Underworld was written down only in the second millennium. What could
be the meaning of all these various stories about the death of Dumuzi?
Why was he dragged to the underworld when he had done no harm to
anybody? A myth is not the place most likely to offer a logical answer to
such questions and it seems that Dumuzi had been the victim of an
inevitable fate. Dumuzi does not defend himself against his persecutors
as would befit a hero in a heroic poem and although he tries to escape
his enemies, it is to no avail. Obviously Dumuzi had committed so serious
an offence that his punishment had to be death and it is only in later
versions of Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld that an explanation is
offered: he had not mourned when Inanna was locked up in the
underworld. However it is likely that this motive for Dumuzi’s death had
been invented by later recorders of the myth, as for them too it would
appear to be incomprehensible why Dumuzi, an apparently innocent
victim should be killed. Obviously it was generally known that Dumuzi
was doomed to die but the reason was veiled in secrecy.
This mythic example of the tragic death of Dumuzi however, is not
alone. The theme occurs in many more Sumerian myths with various
protagonists, as for example a young god pursued by demons and
without much further ado dragged off to the land of the dead as a
helpless victim. The theme of Dumuzi’s death in fact formed part of an
age old tradition.
Mothers lamenting the deaths of their young sons
In Sumer various lamentations were performed in which women cry
heartbreakingly about the death of a young god and they have no other
wish but follow him into the underworld. One of these cultic laments is
called In the Desert with the Early Grass: Edina-Usangake.1 It is a long
lamentation for a dying god called Damu in some places and in others,
Dumuzi. Demons take the son away to the land of the dead and the
mother follows them to the edge of the underworld in great despair2:
If wished, let me walk with you, you lad, the road of no return’
“Oh lad, lad, my Damu”.
She goes, she goes toward the edge of the mountain (KUR = netherworld)
The day is ebbing; the day is ebbing, toward the frightening mountain.
To the umun (Emesal En = lord) who lies cast in water and blood,
To him who knows no purification and healing water.
To the road that finishes the one who walks it.
To the […] of the surrounded lord,
To the residence of the anointed ones.
Her son answers his mother, but she does not hear him. He is turned into
a spirit and taken by the wind to the land of the dead. He calls to his
mother that she should not follow him but his words do not reach her.
She walks along the canebrake near the water and cries that she will give
anything to the one who can bring back her son to her. She hears voices
that come nearer and nearer and she thinks these voices are coming
from her son. She says that these voices frighten her and she stretches
her hands out to bless them.3
Meanwhile the son has arrived in the underworld and meets the dead to
whom he wishes to give a message for his mother, not realizing that they
are dead and cannot help him. In the meantime the mother is preparing a
meal for him and brews beer. When the son becomes aware of this he
wishes to come back to her, but then he understands that he is dead4:
‘For my mother who calls for me in the steppe,
For her who shouts for me in the steppe,
I am not answering. I shall never be able to answer her.
I am not grass. I shall never sprout for her,
I am not water. I shall never rise up for her.
I am not grass, sprouting up in the steppe.
I am not new grass, sprouting in the steppe’
Finally the mother decides to retrieve her son from the land of dead and
on her way through the steppe she perceives a man standing on the side
of the road, a gudu priest (a purification priest). The mother sees this as a
bad omen and gets anxious, wondering if it is a sign that somebody has
fallen ill or even died. The rest of the text is broken, but by the end of the
poem it becomes apparent that in the meantime Damu’s sister has also
died and that she has followed her brother into the land of no return. He
welcomes her with tears in his eyes, while his sister addresses him full of
love5:
Oh my brother
with the lumlum eyes,
with the lamlam eyes,
Who is your sister?
I am your sister;
Who is your mother?
I am your mother.
The sun that rises for you rises also for me
The sun that gazes upon you,
gazes also upon me.
Many young gods seem to have been carried along to the underworld in
a similar fashion but such stories are told with variations which depend
on the narrator. In Ningišzida’s Journey to the Underworld, his sister,
Amasilama, laments the death of her brother.6 Her wailing resembles the
song In the Desert with the early Grass and the Galla demons carry away
the captive Ningišzida just as they had done with Dumuzi. Ningišzida is
transported in a barge to the underworld, while his sister is wailing and
crying to Ningišzida, begging him to let her sail thereon with him. The
lament uses various names for Ningišzida, such as Damu and Istaran.
His sister weeps and wails declaring it to be her only wish to accompany
her brother but he shouts back that he is not alone on the boat, his
persecutors are with him on board, including the man who had hurled
things at him. Ningišzida shouts, The man who has bound my hands sails with
me. Why should you sail? The man who has tied my arms sails with me. Why
should you sail? Ningišzida calls to his sister7:
The river of the nether world produces no water,
no water is drunk from it.
The fields of the nether world produce
no grain, no flour is eaten from it.
The sheep of the nether world produce no wool,
no cloth is woven from it.
As for me, even if my mother digs as if for a canal,
I shall not be able to drink the water meant for me.
The waters of springtime will not be poured for me as they are for the tamarisks;
I shall not sit in the shade intended for me.
The dates I should bear like a date palm
will not reveal their beauty (h i - l i) for me.
I am a field threshed by my demon
-- you (viz..his sister)would scream at it.
He has put manacles on my hands
-- you would scream at it.
He has put a neck-stock on my neck
-- you would scream at it.”
Then the sister tries to bribe the Galla demons to set free her brother.
She offers them the lapis lazuli beads from her hips but the demons
make haste and proceed on their journey. The great demon in their midst
shouts to the man at the boat’s bow and to the man at the boat’s stern
that he should not let the mooring stake be pulled out so that the sister
may come on board to her brother.
In the next passage it looks as if the sister is on board and a cry
approached the heavens, a cry approached the earth, a cry that the chief
constable set up before him on the river, calling up to Ur to lock the
houses. There then follows an obscure passage and when the text is
readable again, Ningišzida is in Ereškigal’s palace in the land of the
dead. The fowler and the fisherman and the mother are requested to
utter a lament for him.
A similar kind of lament (eršemma), about the birth goddess, Ninhursaga,
is known8, in which she laments her young dying son, who has been
carried off by the water. She follows her son through the marshes
towards the kur. In the end her son calls her, saying that the officials, the
ensi and the lord of the KA, will not allow him to go to her and he asks
her to join him. The kur here signifies both ‘mountain’ and ‘underworld’.9
There is another lament about the fate of Ningišzida, written in Akkadian
and presumably from the time of Rim-Sîn I of Larsa (1822-1763 BC), in
which again he is taken with the flood to the underworld.10 The ‘merciless
Destroyer’ has brought him to the place where no one is spared. The Anuna
gods have sentenced him and an evil spirit escorts him into the presence
of Ereškigal. This time it is not his sister but his mother who tries to bribe
the demons. She wept for him and was bellowing like a cow. She addresses
the demon and offers him enough silver to make an image of his body.
The text is then obscure. According to some translations the mother
succeeds in releasing her son from the land of dead but according to
another translation the mother negotiates in vain and loses her son for
good to Ereškigal.11
 Figure 23.1. The lamenting women in Mesopotamia are part of a
worldwide motif that in the Christian religion has taken the shape of
the lamenting Maria at the foot of the cross on which her son Jesus is
crucified (Titian, Mater Dolorosa, 1555. Source: WikiGallery)
The Grain God
What is the meaning of all these many laments in which mothers and
sisters cry about the death of a young god? The victim has none of the
qualities of a mighty divinity but is a defenceless and innocent creature,
chased over the steppe by cruel demons and finally killed. Why?
Possibly these laments were the logical complement of the fertility
rituals that for many ages farmers had performed in the hope of magically
stimulating the growth of crops and cattle. They encouraged the plants
with ceremonial actions and erotic love songs, hoping that as a result of
all their efforts, the plants would be encouraged to flourish. But at the end
of the summer the crops had to face a harsh fate when the farmers
brought home the harvest. Then the farmers expressed their deep
compassion for the ripe corn stalks that were so cruelly reaped with their
sickles and milled to flour. The religious convictions of the population
included the belief that nature was animated by mischievous and
interfering creatures with human features and that their survival was
totally dependent on these villains and their unpredictable behaviour. It
must have been mainly women that were involved in carrying out these
rituals, as from of old, women were concerned with funeral rites and
weeping and wailing for the dead. In the same way as in funeral songs
the farmers sang about the dying away of the grain stalks in heart-
breaking laments. Agriculture was for the main part dependent on factors
over which the peasant farmer had no control whatsoever: destructive
climatic conditions, the uncertain water supply of the Euphrates and
Tigris, extreme fungus, bacteria and other vermin, salinization,
devastation by foreign armies or legal claims by mighty neighbours, to
name but a few. The farmers tried to defend themselves against such
unforeseen mishaps by using the instruments magic seemed to offer
them. All over the world magic is practiced in a number of ways but the
basic principle is everywhere the same: mankind tries to gain control over
nature merely by means of words and pure ritual behaviour. Through the
use of magic they hoped to enter into contact with the invisible demons
that were active in nature, to placate them and to deploy them for their
own purposes. The fertility rituals were in essence a dramatised
expression of the natural processes the people wished to see come
about. The idea was that by mimetic actions each desired effect could be
realized by making it conform to certain strict rules.12 Possibly the
purpose of the lamentations about the withering away of nature was to
appease the dying god of the grain or the divine lord of the field with
funeral offerings, so as to persuade him to guarantee the fertility of the
buried seeds and cause them to grow abundantly in the next season.
The goddess Inanna guilty of the death of Dumuzi
There is reason to presume that the Sumerian En and Nin were
traditionally involved in these fertility rites. Possibly the goddess Inanna
had not only taken over the fertility songs of the Nin but also the
lamentations and death rituals that were performed at the end of the
season. When Inanna cries in various lamentations about the death of
her beloved husband she looks very much like the lamenting women,
weeping and wailing over the death of their sons. Dumuzi is usually
introduced as a herder who wanders about the steppe with his cattle but
with time he acquires many of the features of a vegetation god, involved
with the yearly vegetation and agricultural crops. He is being identified
with the vegetation god Damu, who dies after the summer season.
Maybe the farmer hoped to sooth his guilty conscience because it was he
himself who had cut the ripe grain stalks to pieces and ground the seeds
to powder and on the same principle Inanna is accused of being the
cause of Dumuzi’s death. In later myth this is explained with a tale at the
end of Inanna’s descent to the underworld, in which she was said to have
handed Dumuzi over to the nasty Galla demons to take her place in the
underworld. On her orders the Galla pursued Dumuzi and murdered him
and dragged him along to the land of dead, the kur. Inanna too feels
guilty about this verdict and in some lamentations she tries to cover up
her part in the death of Dumuzi. That at least is what can be deduced
from a balağ in which Inanna is blamed for the killing of Dumuzi 13:
You had a spouse, you cast him into a hostile place
You had a son, you cast him into a waterless place.
You laid waste to the stall, you dispersed the cows
You destroyed the fold, you dispersed the sheep
Your heart struck down as enemies the sons of the righteous child-bearing
mothers.
But further on in the same poem Inanna obviously remains uneasy about
this and feels compelled to plead her innocence, pleading it was not she
who delivered Dumuzi to the underworld saying, I circled about for him, I
did not give him over to him (line 333). Apparently however, this was still
not sufficient to assuage her guilty feelings and so in the 20th couplet she
bluntly states that her father Enlil was the one with a guilty conscience:
He (viz. Enlil) has kept cutting down the grain,
he has made the sparrows fly away
My father has made me eat that which is bitter
The Great Mountain Enlil had done this!
In a lamentation of the goddess Lisin (who is identified with Inanna) the
guilt of the goddess is remembered and again she demonstrates her
innocence by accusing ‘the Father’, who had unleashed a storm on her
which left her helpless and so unable to prevent the terrible tragedy, she
had dropped her own son in the water and caused his death.14
The myth of the young dying god
But Inanna was not innocent of the death of her beloved Dumuzi even
though she tried her best to prove the opposite. The harsh verdict that
Inanna pronounced on her beloved was rather a consequence of their
short lived love affair that had resulted in the blossoming fertility of all
nature. After the flowering time however nature dies inevitably and new
seeds are buried in the open furrows and hoed under the ground to come
to life only in the next season. Was this the same ritual relationship that
had once been performed by the En and the Nin and was the rape of
Šukaletuda not the same kind of story, the verdict of Inanna being
implacable after the scandalous act (see Chapter 13)? The sexual
relationship between Inanna and Dumuzi was obviously a metaphor for
the fertilization of nature resulting inevitably in his passing away. Their
love affair was only ever intended to produce a benign effect which would
increase the yield of the crops and animals and not to produce the
children which should have been the inevitable result of their sexual
relationship. The fertility of nature inevitable leads to its withering away
and then it was said that Dumuzi had descended to the land of the dead.
Dumuzi obviously had acquired the features of a grain god and was
playing the principal role in a ritual in which from time immemorial the
grain god at the end of the harvest was actually chased over the raped
fields and beaten to death by his assailants. Around 1900 CE, James
Frazer published a voluminous study entitled The Golden Bow, a
collection of myths about the grain god which he had gathered from all
over the world. The grain god, together with the seeds had to disappear
into the earth in order to realize the mysterious power of his fertility, his
spilt blood seeping into the earth to magically charm the seeds and bring
them back to life. In Mesopotamia the peasants harrowed and ploughed
the fallow fields in May and June, sowing the seeds for the next crop.
Then began the fierce summer heat that reached its zenith in July and
August, the land parched under the merciless sun while the seeds of the
future grain crop hid underground. This was the time for women to bewail
the death of the young god, as only on his return in the next season could
the crops begin to flourish and the women could again sing about the
love of the En and the Nin, or Inanna and Dumuzi.
The myth of the pursuit of Dumuzi over the steppe and his premature
death could have been one of the many variations about the fate of the
vegetation god. According to Frazer the escape over the fields is an
essential part of these ceremonies, which go back possibly to the time
when a real animal was chased over the plots and killed.1 In Dumuzi’s
Dream the shepherd implores during his pursuit the songod to change
him into a gazelle, which again reminds of the time the peasants chased
an animal over the fields. There is a dirge about Dumuzi is which he is
not carried along by galla demons, but by a bison.2 Inanna searches for
her husband and asks the hills and the valleys and the hills of the bison
where the young man, her husband is, who no longer is served food and
no longer is given drink! When she hears that the bison has taken her
husband away to the netherworld, she beseeches him not to make an
end of his lovely look, not have him open his lovely mouth with quaver of
fear! Maybe these words are reminiscent of a rite in which the farmers
had driven away an animal and even a human being in the fields to offer
his blood to fertilise the ground. To the umun who is fallen down in water and
blood,* calls the mother in despair in the hymn In the Desert with the Early
Grass. In another fragment in In the Desert with the Early Grass there is
mention of blood that has been spoiled on the ground and from which the
mother and sister will brew beer that the dead can drink to come to life
again.
The Sumerian hymns contain explicit allusions to the seasonal dying
back of the vegetation. The young god is often conveyed to the
underworld by means of water, apparently the last remnants of water
from the irrigation canals. In the beginning of the lamentation In the
Desert with the Early Grass, the son screams in desperation to his
mother that his tamarisk drinks not water in the orchard bed, that his
crown is without green leaves in the desert, that the poplar drinks no
water with its roots and that his vine stands dry and is torn out.3 The
deceased god calls to his mother that he will not return to her for he is not
like grass; he cannot grow in the steppe. At the end of another Sumerian
lament 4 a girl representing Inanna compares the dead Dumuzi with a
tamarisk that did not drink water in the garden, with trees that did not
become green in the desert, with a forest that has for many days been
dried up and parched for need of water.
In a fragment of a hymn about Inanna and Dumuzi, the hard fate that
Inanna had determined for her husband is somewhat mitigated as
together with lamenting women she grievously mourns his death. Inanna
decides that after half a year Dumuzi may be relieved by his sister
Geštinana and return to the world of the living, so that in spring when
nature comes to life again, the grain god also revives. In the same way
Inanna assuages the fate of Šukaletuda, who had raped her and was
destined to die. In the underworld he would continue to live and exercise
his fertilizing influence. In some fragments of cult lamentations there are
allusions to the resurrection of the young deceased god as the new grass
in the steppe. In a hymn about the death of the god Ningišzida his mother
laments his death and between them a messenger is commuting who
takes the words mother and son address to each other. There is a
section that resembles a passage that we cited above from the lament In
the Desert with the Early Grass. In that section the young deceased god
shouts that he is not like grass that breaks through the earth in the
steppe. But the god somehow continues to live under the earth for the
dead god Ningišzida says to the messenger that his green fingers have
made like boxwood stakes openings in the ground in order to breathe.5
So the young god had not been death for ever, he was able to continue
to live in the afterworld.
Gala singers
Lamentation songs were sung in ‘Emesal’, the women’s language. It is
plausible therefore to presume that originally they were dirges primarily
sung by women. All over the world and in all cultures, it was mainly
women who wept and wailed during funerals and made lamentation with
their songs. The same is held for wedding feasts as both the fertility
songs and the dirges were considered to be old women’s affairs. Just as
the love lyrics of Inanna and Dumuzi had presumably originated in the
folksongs that were chanted by women, the lamentations about the death
of Dumuzi or any other young god was wept about and bewailed by
women performers.6 Special women’s choirs were formed on these
occasions but later men also participated and they too sang in Emesal,
presumably castrati so they were able to reach the high pitch that was
required for funeral songs. Thanks to the discovery of a statuette of the
gala singer Ur-Nanše of Mari (see Chapter 5, p. 126) we have some idea
how theses gala singers looked and the statue depicts a somewhat
chubby figure but with a man’s name. The gala singers were professional
lamentation singers and they played the balağ instrument, a large drum.
Until the first millennium the balağ compositions were confined to the
repertoire of the gala singers and in the library of the neo-Assyrian king
Assurbanipal (668-627 BC) a catalogue identifying the individual works
constituting the liturgy of the gala priests was compiled. These consisted
of thirty-nine balağ lamentations of the god Enlil, followed by eighteen
balağ lamentations of the goddess Inanna.7 Many songs deal with the
death of young gods but another category laments the destruction of a
city. These last compositions are very similar to common funeral songs
and they show traces of their specifically female origins, as when
disasters struck cities or temples it was always the goddesses who
expressed their sorrow and horror with lamentations. In the lives of
people these lamentations must have played an important role because
for centuries they have been copied and preserved in the libraries of
palace and temples and were still used in the first millennium, when the
Sumerian tongue and Emesal had long disappeared. But by then the
singers were no longer female but male gala priests, although they were
much concerned to dress and equip themselves like women and
preserve the tradition of these lamentation compositions by continuing to
sing in the Sumerian or Emesal language. The dirges were sung by gala
priests on fixed days in the month when they were engaged in soothing
the gods who had gotten angry when their rights had been encroached
upon or in cases when it was urgently required to avert threatening
calamities.8
Figure 23.2. Ur-Nanše, gala singer. Found in the temple of Inanna-za.za
in Mari, third millennium. (Parrot, 1967, pl. XLVI, nr. 2416)
Funeral rites for Dumuzi
The myth, Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld is most probably the end
result of a long period during which the myth was developed. Inanna as a
love goddess was involved in the fertilization and propagation of crops,
and female farmers sang love lyrics about the goddess and her consort
Dumuzi, but Inanna was also the inconsolable widow who lamented the
death of her young husband. The myth of Inanna’s descent is again a
further development in that this myth should be placed in the context of
the commemoration of the death of Dumuzi at the end of the month that
is named after him, Du’uzu, which is our month of July. It was the hottest
time of the year, and the withering away of vegetation was seen as a sign
that Dumuzi had been carried off to the land of the dead. In Inanna’s
Decent to the Underworld, Inanna decides that Dumuzi must stay half a
year in the world below the earth, being relieved by his sister Geštin-ana.
In later times however Dumuzi’s death is more prolonged, the shepherd
remaining the whole year in the land of dead, only once a year being
allowed return to the world of the living. He is released from the land of
dead in order to attend his funeral rites but allowed no more than three
days and his sister Geštin-ana had to descend to the underworld to take
his place. People could make a performance of this myth themselves in
order to help a patient recover from an illness, at least this is what we
may conclude from an Assyrian text dating from the first millennium.9
From this text we learn that at the end of the month of Du’uzu, the month
in which Dumuzi returns for three days from his stay in the land of dead,
the palace is busy preparing for his arrival, with drinks and victuals being
prepared and offerings made to Inanna and dead ancestors. On day
twenty-seven of this month Dumuzi is ‘released from the underworld’, and
he joins all the other dead ancestors to celebrate and commemorate the
dead. The family set out precious offerings for them, ornaments made
from gold and silver and they prepare a bed for Dumuzi. The rituals were
performed under the guidance of the goddess Inanna and one of the
‘daughters’ of the palace had to take the place of Dumuzi in the land of
dead. The ‘women of the palace’ ‘bound’ her and ‘buried’ her symbolically
for the duration of Dumuzi’s visit. We learn that the prince, perhaps the
crown prince and heir to the King is in bed in the palace, very ill and that
the funeral rites are actually being performed in order to help him
recover. After three days, on day twenty-nine when Dumuzi must return
to his place among the dead, he is to take along with him all the gifts the
family have offered to the dead. The family make a river of barley and
flour and roasted corn and construct a boat from wheaten bread, the boat
obviously meant to transport the gifts that Dumuzi will take back with him
to the underworld. The gifts would have been ‘sealed’ by the blood from
the patient’s nose and in this way the family hoped that along with his
blood, the demons that had assailed the prince with illness and all sorts
of ailments would be taken by Dumuzi to the grave and bring relief to the
prince, making him healthy again.
Figure 23.3. Fragment (not fitting together) of a limestone stele, ca. 2000
BC. Found in the Abu-temple of Ešnunna. On a bed with oxen legs a
person is lying down, perhaps dead. Next sits a person, executed on a
much larger scale, presumably a goddess on a throne, in front of another
much smaller person, possibly the goddess Inanna during the
commemoration of the dead. Height: ca. 15 cm. (Frankfort, 1934, p. 45,
afb. 40)
Because according to myth, both Inanna and Dumuzi had been to the
land of the dead, people tried to draw them into their funeral rites. They
made use of the details of the myth to find a solution to their own
problems, believing that diseases were caused by demons from the
underworld taking possession of the body of the patient and it was the
task of the ašipu, the exorcist to drive them out. The ritual of the
commemoration of the dead seemed an apt moment for this but the help
of Inanna would be urgently needed and to put her in a benevolent mood
people offered her attractive gifts. A fitting present for Inanna was a
model of the female pudendum with a little golden star, and such gifts
have been excavated by archaeologists as we have seen in Chapter 21
(figure 21.13-21.15). In the text of numerous incantations it is written that
the supplicant must give this as a precious gift to Inanna and on day
twenty-eight in the sheepfold, a pudendum was made from lapis lazuli
with a golden star, fitting the chosen divinity. 10

Incantation to Inanna and Dumuzi 11

If a person is being seized by a bad spirit (utukku), or if a sughulhaze-demon has
seized him or one of the other malevolence has seized him and is constantly
pursuing him …
The ritual against this: in the month Dumuzi, when Ištar causes
the people of the land
to weep for Dumuzi - her husband ,
and the family of the people have gathered on that particular place,
then Ištar will come forward and cares for the affairs of the people,
she takes away illness, she causes (on the other hand) illnesses.
On the 28th day, the Day of the sheepfold, you offer Ištar a pudendum (ûra) from
lapis lazuli
with a little star of gold. You pronounce the name of the sick person
‘Save the sick person’ you call out.
Twelve breads and mihhu-beer you take with you to the temple of Ištar and you
offer to Ištar-reşu’a (Ištar- helper), the shepherd of Dumuzi, a paint bowl and a
cord. ‘Ištar-reşu’a, plead with Dumuzi for NN, the sick person!’ you say. This is
being performed on the Day of the Sheepfold in the Ištar-tempel.
In many rituals people offered Inanna their incantations and votive gifts at
the end of the month of Du’uzu, to persuade her to chase away the
demons and send them along with Dumuzi on his journey back to the
underworld. In some incantations they even ask her, if necessary, to
transfer the diseases to another person who has not worshipped her
enough, believing that for every sick person Inanna cured, another must
go in their place to the underworld. The myth of Inanna’s Descent to the
Underworld served as frame to which these magic spells could be
attached.
Dumuzi and the commemoration of the dead
On closer analysis Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld appears to deal
primarily with the prescribed funeral rites. It was Leo Oppenheim who first
suggested this as the basic storyline in the Inanna myth.12 When Inanna
returns from the underworld she is not alone but accompanied by a host
of spirits of the dead, as we have seen before on page 446/44713:
Those who accompanied her, those who accompanied Inanna, know no food,
know no drink, eat no flour offering and drink no libation.
They accept no pleasant gifts.
They never enjoy the pleasures of the marital embrace,
never have any sweet children to kiss.
They tear away the wife from a man’s embrace.
They snatch the son from a man’s knee.
They take the wife away from a man’s embrace.
They take away the child hanging on a wet-nurse’s breasts).
They crush no bitter garlic.
They eat no fish, they eat no leeks.
They, it was, who accompanied Inanna.
Inanna would perhaps have gone along with this crowd to all her temples
in Sumer and although the end of the story is lost we may presume that
these spirits found no rest until they had all reached Inanna’s temple in
Uruk.14 According to Oppenheim, the saving of ‘lost’ souls and bringing
them to her own temple had been the aim of the descent to the
underworld. These were the souls of the dead who on earth had had no
next of kin to see to their funeral rites or those who could not find rest in
the afterlife because they had passed away as a result of violence so
they still had connections with the world of the living. Inanna, the goddess
pre-eminently linked with the underworld, was where they were most
likely to find help for their fate.
In the Akkadian version of the myth, Oppenheim again found traces of
this funeral rite. Ištar, the Akkadian alter ego of the Sumerian Inanna,
threatens the doorkeeper of the land of no return, that she will break all
the gates of the underworld and release all the dead spirits if he refuses
to let her enter the land of Ereškigal. Ištar would then take the dead
spirits into her own care, so Ereškigal therefore had reason to fear the
arrival of Ištar as she aimed to redeem all the dead from her
subterranean domain.
It appears that in the Akkadian version of Inanna’s Descent to the
Underworld the emphasis is placed on the death of Dumuzi, who is
allowed to return to the world of the living only once a year during the
month of Du’uzu, when families commemorate their dead ancestors at
the time when the moon disappears from the sky. This may be concluded
from the text at the end of the Akkadian version of Ištar’s Descent to the
Underworld, which is different from the Sumerian version and which
takes an unsuspected turn. Ereškigal gives permission to Ištar to leave
the land of the dead, but gives orders to the gatekeeper to bring back the
goddess if she does not succeed in finding a substitute for herself in the
underworld. Ištar walks on via the seven gates that separate her from the
world of the living and she manages to get back all her jewellery, bit by
bit. But then abruptly the text shifts scene and actors and the tone
changes15. The text gives instructions to the sister of Tammuz (who is
called in the Akkadian text ‘Belili’) on precisely how she should lay out his
corpse16:
As for Dumuzi, the lover of your childhood,
Bathe him in pure water, anoint him with perfume,
Clothe him in a splendid garment, play for him a lapis lazuli flute
Let the šamhatu* sing to gladden his heart.
(…)
On the day when Dumuzi comes up to me, with him will come up
the lapis lazuli flute, the carnelian bracelet,
With him will come up the wailers male and female,
Let the dead come up and smell the incense
So the death of Dumuzi brings peace and obviously the fact that he had
been beaten to death by the Galla demons is significant, as perhaps the
verses are aimed at all those injured souls who have not had a decent
funeral for the lack of next of kin to perform the rites. From every crevice
and cave on the earth the dead rise to participate in the yearly
commemoration of the dead, with music, lamentations, incense and when
the moon disappears from the sky Dumuzi also ascends from the
underworld to attend the ceremonies and take part in the rites and death
offerings. The commemoration of the dead is still celebrated in the
Roman Catholic tradition on the second day of November as All Souls’
Day.
Bendt Alster also believes that the myth of Inanna’s descent to the
Underworld has to do with funeral rites.17 He notices that nearly all the
characters in this story are involved in funeral rites, one way or another.
When Inanna tells the gate keeper she wishes to enter the underworld,
she advances as the reason her desire to assist in the kispum, ((funeral
offerings) of Gugalanna, the deceased husband of Ereškigal. In the
Akkadian version Ištar explains to the door keeper that she descends in
order to drink water with the Anuna gods and mourn over those who have
passed away.18 Ereškigal too behaves as if she is mourning. The
galatura and the kurgarra, the demons who had been fabricated by the
god Enki from the dirt below his fingernails, meet the queen of the land of
death while she is wailing about the death of her children, mourning with
her and showing their sympathy, as Enki had instructed them. Ninšubur,
Inanna’s faithful minister, seeking help from the gods to rescue her
mistress from the land of dead also performs the funeral rituals. She
wails, plays a musical instrument and scratches her skin in a way that
resembles mourning behaviour19:
She set up a ‘lament by the ruins’,
She beat the drum in the throne room, and walked around among the temples of
the god.
She scratched her eyes, she scratched her nose,
she scratched her buttocks, the place not spoken of with men,
she dressed like a poor man in a single garment
It was thus that Geštin-ana had clawed at herself in the myth of Dumuzi’s
Dream when she lamented desperately the ominous fate of her brother,
who was going to die soon. Alster’s opinion also echoes the idea that
lamenting behaviour is the main theme of the whole composition of
Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld. The text makes it clear that it is
taken as an offense when one does not participate in the mourning rites,
so Dumuzi signs his own death sentence when instead of mourning
Inanna who resided in the underworld, he sits enthroned in all his glory
under the apple tree. Other figures however (Ninšubur, Šara and Lu-lal)
save their lives by an open display of sorrow about the sad fate of
Inanna.
Mourning behaviour is always accompanied by the same gestures:
tearing at clothes, scratching at the face, dressing in black, dreary
clothes, cutting of hair and beard, sitting rocking on the ground or rolling
over in the dust, plastering ashes or dust over the head, taking off
footwear and refraining from the use of body oil or ointments. These
gestures of mourning were ritually performed in public and are also
familiar to us from reading the Old Testament. During the period of
embalming of the dead body, the mourners ate very simple food, they
refrained from drinking alcohol and clothes were deliberately torn and
dirty.20 They made a ritual of neglecting to attend to their normal physical
needs as if they themselves were dead and in this way imitated the
condition of the deceased.
Images of Dumuzi
The sexual relationship between Inanna and Dumuzi can be interpreted
as a metaphor for the natural cycle of plant life. In spring nature vibrates
with colour and scent, encouraging the process of fertilization, however
by the end of the cycle the crops are dead, the fields are bare and the
seeds for the next harvest are buried in the soil. The death of Dumuzi
was seen as the inevitable fate that awaited him and resistance would be
of no avail. His presence in the land of dead was considered to be of
importance, as during his subterranean sojourn he was in a position to
make contact with the deceased and also those gods who resided in the
underworld. Through these contacts he could assist the living world and
help serve them in many useful ways.
The Sumerians worshipped Dumuzi and although it is known that
temples were dedicated to him, we have very few images of him. Frans
Wiggermann21 recognizes Dumuzi as the man with the whip who figures
on some cylinder seals. This figure is surrounded by cattle or sheep and
goats and very often a rampant sheep or ram stands in front of him. He
looks like a shepherd, his horn-crown an indication of divine status which
would fit with the description we have of Dumuzi who, according to the
story was deified after his death. Wiggermann believes that the figure on
a seal of Ili-Ištar (figure 23.4) is an image of Dumuzi. The figure has the
skin of a lion around his shoulders and he holds a club in his right hand.
He is wearing a conical cap that in the third millennium was often worn by
lower gods and he is accompanied by a rampant ram. His clothing is
typically that of a shepherd who roams the steppe with his cattle and the
cylinder seal seeming to depict the moment, when after half a year,
Dumuzi returns to the steppe from the underworld. Perhaps he is being
welcomed by his sister Geštin-ana, with flourishing vegetation growing
out of her shoulders, as nature again returns to life as soon as Dumuzi
returns from the land of the dead. Two worshippers approach shyly,
holding a kid and a vessel with two flowing streams. Inanna is also
depicted on the seal, taking a central position, looking as always right en
face and in this way dominating the picture.
Cylinder seals with images of DumuziI

Figure 23.4. Dumuzi. Inscription: Ili-ešdar, dub-sar. (Boehmer, 1965,

381
Figure 23.5 (Moortgat, Tammuz, p. 86, fig.. 46; Ward Seal Cylinders,
1910, nr. 199)

Figure 23.6 and 23.7 Cylinder seal with ‘Dumuzi’. (Boehmer, 1996, nr.
561; drawing: Wiggerman, 2010)

Figure 23.8 Cylinder seal with ‘Dumuzi’’, Akkadian period. (Boehmer,

1996, nr. 622)

Figure 23.9 and 23.10 Cylinder seal with ‘Dumuzi’’. Akkadian III: in
front of the god is a rampant goat that is being feeding by Dumuzi from
a cup. (Boehmer, 1996, fig. 703a; drawing: Wiggermann, 2010)

Figure 23.11 Cylinder seal with ‘Dumuzi’’. (Boehmer, 1965, nr. 623
Dumuzi Akkadian period)
 Figure 23.12 Cylinder seal with ‘Dumuzi’. (British Museum, BM
134849; © Trustees of the British Museum)
The graves from the cemetery of Ur
The rampant goat that is so often depicted near the shepherd Dumuzi is
very reminiscent of the ‘Ram in a thicket’, which Woolley had excavated
in the cemetery of Ur. The object was presumably a component of an
offering table. We have seen in Chapter 6 that many ornaments and
representations on cylinder seals and jewels, musical instruments, board
games, cosmetics and other objects in the graves of Ur referred to
Inanna. We had the impression that next to the cemetery a temple had
been erected, perhaps dedicated to Inanna. Now that we are more
familiar with the mythology of Inanna and Dumuzi it is easier to recognise
aspects of Inanna and Dumuzi in the symbolism of the graves. In one
grave, the rampant goat eats rosettes which grow on a tree and some
researchers see in this combination an image of sexual intercourse
between Inanna and Dumuzi, with the rampant ram standing in a mating
position.22
.
Figure 23.13 and 23.14 Two figures of a rampant ram, Woolley’s ‘Ram in
a thicket’. (Woolley, 1954, grave PG 1237; Woolley, p. 121, 264, pl. 87,
89; © The Trustees of the British Museum, BM 122200)
It is likely that the dead were surrounded with the figurative language of
Inanna and Dumuzi during their journey to the underworld. This
mythological couple was closely connected to the land of the dead and
was also the symbol above all others, of the yearly return of fertility and
the abundance of nature. It must have been a comfort for the dead to
have close to them, these icons of the trusted mythology of Inanna and
Dumuzi.

Figure 23.15 and 23.16 Golden and silver comb from the headdress of a
dead person in the ‘great death pit’. Left: PG 1237 (U 12423) Height 28
cm. Right: gold, silver, shell and lapis lazuli. Heigth: 21 cm. PG 1237 (U
12420). (courtesy: © Penn Museum, Pennsylvania, USA, nr. 152129,
152130)
The evidence so far available to us would indicate that the Sumerians
had a sombre image of the land of no return. It was a dreary, dusty place
and if the dead were not taken care of by their next to kin they withered
away in an atrocious fashion. But by contrast, Caitlín Barrett23 entertains
the idea that the dead in the graves of Ur were much more optimistic
about conditions in the afterlife than we might have assumed from
Sumerian literature. In her view it is not impossible that the Sumerians
expected that the dead awaited a rather comfortable life. Why else they
had taken along all those precious objects? According to Barrett, all
those sombre ideas that we glean from Sumerian literature do not accord
with the reality archaeologists have encountered in the graves. The dead
were surrounded with the symbols of Inanna because this goddess had
achieved what they themselves were also hoping to achieve, an escape
from a dark and dreary condition after their death. The goddess after all,
had regained her life after three days and returned to the world of the
living. For ordinary people a similar resurrection might be too much to
expect, but the next best thing would be to be taken care of in the afterlife
as they had been taken care of during their lifetime. With Inanna and
Dumuzi, symbols of resurrection and fertility close by, they may have
hoped to realize this option, so Barrett writes. However to judge from the
information gleaned from their cuneiform texts about the afterlife, there is
another possible explanation for these precious grave objects, symbols of
the abundance of nature, that is more in accord with the worldview of the
Sumerians. In songs and rituals they praise Inanna and Dumuzi whose
marital relationship stimulates the growth of the crops and multiplies the
cattle in the sheds. This was the kind of help that the surviving relatives
expected from their dead kin in the underworld, their much needed help
for posterity. The dead were still part of the family, their continuing
support urgently needed and this is why the living buried precious gifts
with their deceased family members and why they commemorated their
ancestors every month when the moon disappeared from the sky. They
trusted in the idea that the dead would employ their influence to give their
family relief from the daily worries of their existence. It is possible that
many of the dead in the cemetery of Ur were connected with a temple
and it was the job of the En priestess to take care of the fertility of the
land after her death, just as she had been responsible for it during her
lifetime, thus continuing to encourage the blossoming of nature. The
Sumerians made few allusions to life after death, they were much more
interested and anxious about whether nature would come to life again the
next year and bring about an abundant harvest and plenty of healthy
stock. All help was welcome, from the dead and living alike.
The Sumerians entertained few illusions about the afterlife, as may be
concluded by the unforgettable lines in the Gilgameš epic where
Utnapištim speaks to Gilgameš in the tenth tablet24:
When the gods created mankind,
 They determined Death as his fate
You strive ceaselessly, what do you gain?
When you wear out your strength in ceaseless striving
When you torture your limbs with pain,
You hasten the distant end of your days.
Mankind, whose descendants are snapped off like reeds in a
canebrake,
The handsome young man, the lovely young woman
Fall in love in a flash, but Death snatches them away
No one sees death
No one sees the face of death,
No one hears the voice of death,
But cruel death cuts off mankind.
Do we build a house forever?
Do we seal contracts forever?
Do brothers divide an inheritance forever?
Do disputes prevail in the land forever?
Do river rise in flood forever?
Dragonflies drift downstream on a river,
Their faces staring at the sun,
Then, suddenly, there is nothing.
The sleeper and the dead, how alike they are!
They limn not death’s image,
No one dead has ever greeted a human in this world.
The Anunaki gods, the great gods, being convened,
Mammetum (mothergoddess from the Kassite period), she who creates destinies,
ordaining destinies with them:
They established death and life,
They did not reveal the time of death.
Diffusion of the myth
We have various small and fragmented pieces of information about the
way in which the lamentation rites for Dumuzi were celebrated in
Mesopotamia and there is evidence pointing to a tradition of wailing
about Dumuzi’s death in the city of Mari during the reign of king Zimri-Lim
(1773-1759 BC). An administrative document was excavated in which
there is mention of ‘female wailers’ in the fourth month of Abu, which
corresponds with the month of Du’uzu in the standard Babylonian
calendar.25 The document is a letter from a king, and he addresses the
king of Mari about the sad fate of Dumuzi. He sees similarities between
his own fate and that of Dumuzi: Why am I not like Dumuzi? They kill him at
the end of the counting of the year. In spring he always comes back to the temple
of goddess Anunitum.26 In the Sumerian town of Umma there must have
been a festival at the end of the third millennium in the last winter month,
when the return of Dumuzi is expected and presages the arrival of the
new spring 27 and certainly similar rites were performed by farmers in
other parts of the ancient world. In Northern Mesopotamia peasants
honoured the god Damu, whom we have met before. He was a real grain
god, closely identified with Dumuzi and his death mourned in exactly the
same way as that of Dumuzi.
A neo-Assyrian text is testimony to the fact that other rites were
connected with the death of Dumuzi and again these rites were
celebrated at the end of the month of Du’uzu which corresponds to our
own month of July.28 The story goes that a certain Ta’uz had been killed
by his master, Ta’uz being an abbreviation of the name of Tammuz, the
Syrian name for Dumuzi. Erich Ebeling, who translated and published the
text, tells of Arabic scholars from the tenth century CE who reported that
Tammuz (July) festivals were still being celebrated in the city of Harran at
that time. In the middle in the month Tammuz (July) people celebrated
the feast of el-Bûgat, the ‘Feast of the Weeping Women’. Women wailed
and wept during this feast over the fate of Tammuz who had been so
cruelly beaten by his master that he died, his bones subsequently ground
up in a mill and spread over the land in all four directions of the compass.
In mourning, the women absolutely refused to eat anything which had
been ground up by a mill.29 It would appear that the myth of the homicide
of Tammuz was imitated in a rite that expressed the various stages of the
processing of the grain.
There is evidence that in the second century BC Dumuzi was still
worshipped in Syria. A tessera, which is a badge made from baked clay
and dating from the second century BC, was found in the Syrian town of
Palmyra and shows on the obverse side a picture of a person who is
lying down on a bed, presumably a dead person.30 Below the bed some
letters are engraved: T M W Z, which means ‘Tammuz’. On the reverse
side of the tessera a lamenting woman is depicted, pressing her breasts
as a gesture of mourning. According to Seyrig who published the
information, the badge was used to gain access to a banquet which was
given during the commemoration of the death of Dumuzi. A second
tessera has the name of Tammuz written on one side and on the other
side the letters B L T Y, Bêlti, ‘mistress’, as the partner of Dumuzi in Syria
was known. On a third tessera the text reads, ‘Stretch out on the
banquet, Bêl and Bêlti.’

Figure 23.17 Tessera from Palmyra. 15 by 19 mm. (Seyrig, 1950, p. 234, fig.
3, Cabinet des Médailles)
The cult of Dumuzi was also familiar to the authors of the Old Testament,
as is clear from the Book of Ezekiel where Dumuzi is mentioned under
his Syrian name Tammuz. The prophet rants against the religious
practices of the population, practices that in his view were an
abomination to the Lord:
Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord,
and I saw women sitting there, mourning the god Tammuz. He said to me, “Do
you see this, son of man? You will see things that are even more detestable than
this.”
(Ezekiel, 8:13-15)
It is clear that in the first millennium people still periodically wailed and
wept over Tammuz and it is also remarkable that the mourning practice is
still primarily confined to the women.
Adonis
The cult of Dumuzi spread from Mesopotamia to Greece or became
mingled with the older traditions of the local farming population. Here too
the farmers lamented the death of nature, this time personified in Adonis,
a young man who displayed many of the characteristics we associate
with Dumuzi. The funeral rites of Adonis took place during the so called
‘dog days’, the hottest days of the summer when the sun rises in the
constellation of Dog Star. The brightest star Sirius rises at the same time
as the sun and is therefore invisible during a period of four weeks, made
dim by the strong light of the sun.31 This moment occurs around the 20th
of July, during the same period in which the death of Dumuzi was
lamented in Mesopotamia. The Greek poet Theocritus (third century BC)
describes in one of his Idylls how women in the city of Alexandria during
the Hellenistic period, celebrated the Adonia in the palace of Queen
Arsinoe.32 Two wellto-do Alexandrian ladies hurry to the palace of the
queen where a big crowd already throngs the hall and stretch their necks
to catch a glimpse of the performance that it seems is being given on a
stage. Adonis is lying on a bed in the arms of Aphrodite, the bed having
been placed in a bower decked with luxuriant branches and fruit bearing
trees. The women knead dough made from white wheat flour, in
preparation for cooking delicacies with honey and sweet olive oil. But the
next day the lovers will have to take leave of each other and the dead
Adonis will be carried by the women to the beach, where they will place
him in the water and beat their breasts for sorrow over the passing away
of the young man.
In Greece the death of Adonis was commemorated mainly by women.
They climbed onto the roofs of the houses shrieking ‘Ajai Adonis!’, while
they beat their breasts with their fists.33 During the Adonia people wept
for three days over the death of Adonis and then they carried him to his
grave. However on the third day he came back to life and his resurrection
was a cause of great joy.34 The Greek exclamation Ajai Adonis has the
same meaning as that expressed by the citizens of Byblos when they
cried out, hôy ‘adôn, ‘Alas, Lord’ and three days later ‘My lord lives’,
‘Adonî hay.35 Here follows the delicate words of the Greek poetess
Sappho, in which she laments the death of Adonis36:
Cytherea (= name for Aphrodite), thy dainty Adonis is dying!
Ah, what shall we do?
O Nymphs, let it echo, the voice of your crying,
The greenwood through!
O Forest maidens, smite on the breast,
Rend ye the delicate woven vest!
Let the wail ring wild and high:
“Ah for Adonis!” cry.
O Sappho, how canst thou chant the bliss
Of Kypris (= another name for Aphrodite)— after such day as this?
“Oh Adonis, thou leavest me — woe for my lot!
And Eros, my servant, availeth me not!”
So wails Cytherea, grief-distraught.
“Who shall console me for thee? There is none —
Not Ares my god-lover, passionate one
Who sware in his jealousy forth to hale
Hephaestus my spouse from his palace, if he
Dared but to lift his eyes unto me.
Not he can console me, Adonis, for thee!”
Wail for Adonis, wail!
The myth relates how Adonis was loved by Aphrodite, how she hid him in
a chest and gave him to the goddess Persephone, the queen of the
underworld, verily a strange place to hide your beloved. When
Persephone opened the chest and observed the beauty of the child she
refused to give him back, whereupon Aphrodite descended to the
underworld to claim back her beloved but was sternly rejected. The
quarrel was settled by Zeus who decided that Adonis was allowed to stay
half a year with Persephone in the underworld and the other half with
Aphrodite in the world of the living. According to Ovid the beautiful young
lad was finally killed during the hunt by a wild boar. Aphrodite wept
heartbreakingly for the loss of her beloved37When, from the heights, she saw
the lifeless body, lying in its own blood, she leapt down, tearing her clothes, and
tearing at her hair, as well, and beat at her breasts with fierce hands,
complaining to the fates. The fight between Aphrodite and Persephone for
the love of Adonis seems to be a counterpart to the fight between Inanna
and Ereškigal in the land of the dead. The decision of Zeus to allow
Adonis to remain in the underworld for half a year and in the land of the
living for the other half of the year is a Greek version of the yearly
disappearance and return of Dumuzi.38

Figure 23.18 Fresco from the Casa di Adone, Pompeii, First century CE.
Adonis dies in the arms of Aphrodite while little Cupid’s are taking care of
his wound inflicted by the boar. (Gow, 1950, Pl. XI, Photo: Alinari, Museo
Nazionale, Napels)
The Greek myth dealing with the abduction of Persephone makes a
kindred story. Just like the Sumerian Ereškigal, Persephone was queen
of the underworld, although she had not always been so. In the Greek
narrative Hades, the god of the land of the dead, kidnaps her when she is
picking flowers in a meadow and takes her with him to his subterranean
domain. Her mother Demeter is desperate and searches for her daughter
all over the earth. In her despair she implores the help of the sun god
Helios who has pity on her and tells her the whereabouts of her daughter.
Demeter is inconsolable and her sorrow causes nature to wither away.
Hunger looms for the people and the chief god Zeus gets worried about
it. He decrees that Persephone has to stay one third of the year with
Hades as queen of the domain of the dead during which period the whole
earth would mourn and the vegetation would die but in spring Hades is
obliged to bring her back to her mother when earth would flourish again
and bear fruit. In the hymn of Homer to Demeter we meet phrases that in
a way remind us of the lamentation In the Desert with the early Grass.
Just like the mother of Damu, the mother of Persephone hears her
daughter screaming when she is kidnapped by Hades: The peaks of
mountains resounded, as did the depths of the ocean, with her immortal voice.
And the Lady Mother [Demeter] heard her.39
When Zeus decides that her daughter may return to her mother Demeter,
the bringer of seasons [horai] nature comes to life again and begins to
prosper in all her splendour:
But, at this time, it was no longer life-bringing, but it stood idle
and completely without green growth. The bright grain of wheat
had stayed hidden underneath,
through the mental power of Demeter, the one with the beautiful
ankles. But, from this point on,
it began straightaway to flourish with long ears of grain
as the springtime was increasing its power. On the field, the fertile furrows
began to be overflow with cut-down ears of grain lying on the ground, while the
rest of what was cut down was already bound into sheaves.
Persephone was mainly worshipped in the Greek colonies of Sicily. On a
relief from Locris we can see her sitting on the throne beside her
husband in the underworld. She holds a bundle of ripe corn stalks in her
hand and Hades holds a flourishing branch of grapes. Next to her throne
is a cock, the symbol of Demeter.

Figure 23.19 Pinax from Locris. Hades and Persephone as the rulers of
the netherworld. The gods hold the attributes that allude to fertility,
terracotta votive offering. Lokri, Museo Nazionale di Reggio Calabria 490-
450 B.C. Height: 27.6 cm. (source: Wikimedia)
Graingod
In his book The Golden Bough Frazer has interpreted the character of
Adonis of ancient times as personifying vegetation, viz the grain, buried
as it is for half a year underground, while during the other half it rises up
above the ground. The lamenting of the death of Adonis was in fact a
harvest ritual, Frazer writes, aimed at placating the grain god, who was
being ‘killed’ under the sickles of the reaper or crushed under the hoofs of
the oxen on the threshing floor. While the men ‘killed’ him, the women
stayed at home weeping crocodile tears over his sad fate. This exhibition
of mourning by the women was an attempt at propitiating the imagined
indignation of the grain god at his ill treatment. After all, the death of
Adonis was not the consequence of a natural dying of vegetation by the
summer heat or winter cold but indeed by the violent destruction of the
ripe corn stalks by humans, who reaped the stalks, stamped on them on
the threshing floor and then pulverised them under the mill stones.40
The Greek Adonis and Dumuzi were thus rather alike in many ways.
He too was a mortal youth who was loved by a goddess and he too met a
premature death and resided in the underworld. The death of Adonis
coincided with the harvest of the grain and his resurrection with the
announcement of the first ripe grapes, greeted with joyous songs and
dancing festivities.

Figure 23.20. Pietà, Michelangelo, Sint-Pieterscathedral, Florence. (Bron:

Wikipedia)
But whether Adonis had always been the spirit of the grain is doubtful,
according to Frazer. For the cattle breeder of an earlier time he may have
been the patron of the lush grass that shoots up in the steppe after the
rains in spring and offers rich food to the emaciated and hungry cattle. In
even more ancient times he may have been the spirit of the nuts and
berries that the autumn woods offered to the hunter and his wife. Just as
the farmer had to soothe the spirit of the grain, the cattle breeder was
obliged to keep friendly with the leaves on which his livestock chewed for
nourishment and the hunter the roots he dug up and ate. In all these
situations the propitiation of the offended and incensed sprits implied that
one had to apologize explicitly. This was combined with loud laments
each time the spirit, as a result of a sad accident or regrettable necessity,
was killed or deprived of his possessions. It was not yet an abstract
image of ‘vegetation in general’, so Frazer writes, but Adonis was ‘Lord’
of each individual plant or tree and not the personification of the
vegetable world. There existed as a result as many Adonis’ as there were
trees and bushes and each of them was entitled to satisfaction for all the
damage that had been inflicted on his person or to his property.
Frazer saw a direct line to Christianity in all this. When we realize, he
wrote, how often and how capably the church has succeeded in grafting
the new faith upon the old stem of paganism, then we may presume that
the celebration of the death and resurrection of Christ at Easter was
grafted upon a similar celebration of the death and resurrection of Adonis
in Syria, occurring at exactly the same time of year. The Greek creation
of the prototype of the weeping goddess with her beloved dying in her
arms perhaps served as a model for the pieta in Christian art, the virgin
with the dead body of her divine son in her arms.41
The Passion of Jesus Christ
According to the New Testament, the tomb in which Jesus was interred
after his death on the cross was discovered to be empty after three days
and it was believed that he had risen from the dead.42 This was recorded
by the apostle Paul as a phenomenal event, unknown until then. But in
Syria, during the early centuries of the period under discussion, various
myths were in circulation about gods who had died and after a time rose
from the dead, such as the gods Baal, Osiris, Melqart and others.43 It
would seem that these myths were woven into the description of the
martyrdom of Jesus Christ by the four evangelists. A number of
similarities can be found between the tale of the death of Dumuzi and the
accounts of Jesus’ death by Mark, Matthew, Luke and John. Both
Dumuzi and Jesus have premonitions of being betrayed. Dumuzi was
betrayed by ‘a friend’, who in exchange for a ditch of water and a field of
grain revealed the hiding place of Dumuzi to his persecutors. Jesus was
betrayed by Judas, who for thirty pieces of silver kissed Jesus ‘as a
friend’ and by this gesture made him known to the soldiers who had been
sent by the chief priests to arrest him. Both the ‘friend’ of Dumuzi and the
apostle Peter had shortly beforehand vowed solemnly that they would
never betray him. But Jesus predicted that Peter would deny knowledge
of him, This very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three
times, and Peter indeed denied three times that he had knowledge of
Jesus. In the same way Geštin-ana and the Old Woman Belili tried to
deny that they had knowledge of Dumuzi but in doing this they put the
Galla demons on the right track. Dumuzi fled to the dwelling of the Old
Woman Belili and asked her to pour water on the ground so that he could
drink and sprinkle flour so that he could eat. In Mesopotamia these were
offerings that were given to the dead. Dumuzi had implored his sister also
to celebrate mourning rites so as to deceive his persecutors and in the
gospels it was a woman who came to Jesus with an alabaster jar of very
precious ointment and poured it on his head and feet. Jesus said to his
disciples: When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me
for burial. (Matthew 26:12) or in Mark 14:8: She poured perfume on my body
beforehand to prepare for my burial. Just like Dumuzi, Jesus was flogged
although he was completely innocent. Dumuzi was designated both
shepherd and king (lugal), when the Galla demons chased after him;
these were the titles of the En who was the human lover of Inanna. Jesus
too is referred to as the King. Pilatus asks Jesus, ‘Are you the king of the
Jews?’ It is puzzling why this would be such a heavy accusation at the
address of an unarmed, unpropertied person, which is generally
interpreted as if Jesus was treated as a presumed agitator against the
Roman domination. But when we continue to read in the gospel we learn
that the soldiers braided a crown from thorns, put it on Jesus’ head, threw
a purple robe over him, put a reed in his hand, kneeled before him, took
the reed and struck him on the head. This behavior is conspicuously
similar to the treatment of a scapegoat in prehistory that was offered by
the community in times of crisis. The victim was supposed to take the
sins of the people with him. He was dressed up with branches of young
fig trees and beaten with the same branches and chased from the town.
There is reason to believe that in olden times a human being actually was
killed and the myth of Dumuzi is possibly another example of this cruel
practice. It would also explain why neither Dumuzi nor Jesus took pains
to defend themselves although they both make an appeal, Dumuzi to the
sun god and Jesus to his Father, to be spared their fate. Dumuzi was
dragged by his pursuers to the ‘kur’, which in Sumerian means both
‘mount’ and ‘underworld’. Jesus carried his cross to Golgotha, ‘the Skull
Place’, a location never identified but whose name evokes the
underworld as well. Another name is Mount Calvary, after the Latin word
calva ‘skull’, which reminds of the double meaning of the Sumerian word
kur, as for the Sumerians the underworld was located in the mountains.
Jesus’death, too, was interpreted as a human sacrifice; he is the Savior,
who died for the sins of the people. ‘I have sinned by betraying innocent
blood,’ Judas exclaims repentant, when he returns the thirty silver coins
to the temple. The priests used them to buy a field as a place to bury
foreigners, which was called from then on ‘Field of Blood’. When Pilatus
decided to have Jesus flogged and crucified, all the people shouted, “His
blood be on us and on our children!” For ages these words have been
interpreted as proof of the guilt of the Jewish people of the death of
Jesus, and many anti-Semitic conclusions were subsequently drawn from
it. But in fact it could be an expression for the age-old tradition of bringing
a human sacrifice to offer for the well-being of the community. And while
according to myth the shepherd Dumuzi was to return from the
underworld in springtime, Jesus, according to the Gospel, was to
resurrect from his grave three days after his crucifixion, an event that is
still being celebrated during the Easter feast that, just like the Jewish
Passover, is celebrated in spring. From all these details it appears that
the age-old fertility rites in which goddess Inanna and her mortal lover
acted as the main protagonists was never forgotten and is still being
commemorated till our own days.
* Umun = Emesal for ‘lord’
* Šamhatu is a female follower of Inanna. Reiner 1985 translates
šamhatu in the Akkadian version with ‘courtesan’; Oppenheim 1964
with ‘hiërodulen’; Kramer with ‘filles de joie’, (Bottéro/Kramer, 1989, p.
324); Lapinkivi 2010 with ‘prostitutes’.
Endnotes Chapter 23
1 Frazer, 2002, p. 561 e.v.
2 Jacobsen, 1987, p. 46 e.v., (The wild bull who has lain down)
3 Jacobsen 1987, p 61
4 Alster, 1986, ‘The messenger and the girl’
5 Black, 2004, p. 225
6 Cooper, 2007, p. 44
7 Cohen, 1988, p. 16
8 Cohen, 1988, p. 43-44
9 Scurlock, 1992, p. 53-67; Von Soden, 1939, p. 42-61; Dhorme, 1941,
p. 57-66
10 See Faber 1977, for many examples
11 Ebeling, 1931, p. 49 ff.; Faber, 1977, p. 140 e.v.
12 Oppenheim, 1963
13 ETCSL 1.4.1., line 295-303
14 Oppenheim, 1963, p. 140
15 Reiner, 1985, p 46 e.v.
16 line 127-130, translation Reiner, 1985, p. 46
17 Alster, 1983
18 Alster, 1983, p. 1-16
19 Line 176-181, Alster, 1983, p. 10
20 Podella, 1989
21 Wiggermann, 2010
22 Barret, 2012, p. 32
23 Barret, 2012
24 Tablet X, line 397-320, Translation Foster, p. 82/83; Vastiphout,
2001, p. 134-135
25 Kutscher, 1990, p. 40, 44
26 Fritz, 2003, p. 167
27 Cohen, 1993, p. 186-188
28 Mettinger, p. 200
29 Ebeling, 1931, p. 45
30 Seyrig, 1950
31 Mettinger, 2001, p. 116
32 Gow, 1950, Theocritus, Idylle XV, p. 108 e.v.
33 Lipinski, 1995, p. 90-92; Mettinger, 2001, p. 116
34 Lipinski, 1995, p. 90
35 Lipinski, 1995, p. 90
36 Translated by Arthur S. Way, available on the internet
37 Translated by A.S. Kline, available on the internet
38 Frazer, 2002, p. 416-417
39 Translated by Gregory Nagy, 2000, available on the internet
40 Frazer, 2002, p. 428 e.v.
41 Frazer, 2002, p. 439
42 Mettinger, 2001, p. 211
43 Mettinger, 2001, p. 211
Chapter 24 Kurgarra, galatura and assinnu
The followers of Inanna also included certain strange beings, people who
are explicitly mentioned in the texts but whose actual status and function
is hard to define. Best known are the gala singers who acted as wailers in
the temple and at the royal court, and while it is not certain whether all
gala singers belonged to the suite of Inanna, at least some of them felt a
strong bond with her.
In the third millennium some gala singers were female but in later texts
female gala singers have disappeared completely 1 and in the
administrative texts the male and female gala singers were classified
together, just as with the assinnu and the kurgarra.2 The gender of the
gala singer remains ambivalent.
The word ‘gala’ is written with two cuneiform signs: giš and dur. The sign
giš is a penis. The sign dur3 are two buttocks. Both signs may as well be
read as ‘gal’(= uš + ku). The signs clearly refer to the gender of the gala.

We know what a gala singer looked like and as was noted in Chapter 5, a
statuette of a gala singer was excavated in the temple of Inanna-za-za in
Mari. He must have reached a high position as he could afford to
dedicate not one, but two statuettes to Inanna-za-za, a goddess with
whom he felt obviously a close relationship. His name was Ur-Nanše
(literally: ‘hero of the goddess Nanše’, or ‘dog of Nanše’). This is a male
name, but the statuette looks very much like a female figure without a
beard and his hair is hanging loose on his back. He has fat female type
buttocks and traces of small female breasts and he is wearing short
trunks, tight fitting round the middle. In the inscription on his back he calls
himself NAR-MAH, ‘Nar’ meaning singer or musician, ‘mah’ meaning
‘great’, so his job was ‘great musician’. The nar-mah seems to have been
responsible for the general direction of the choir and orchestra of the
palace singers, while the gala-mah in the first place was some kind of
priest.
The gala-mah mediated in religious questions and he could interact
with the gods,3 which is why the name of a gala can quite often be found
among the names of those involved in making a contract, as he was able
to take the oaths of the contracting parties.

Figure 24.1. The gala-singer Ur-Nanše. Figurine from Mari in the third
millennium (Parrot 1976, pl. XLV, nr. 2416; National Museum Damascus,
Syria, 2071)
Maybe the gala was a castrate. His appearance was rather feminine, but
there are other reasons which make this conclusion quite plausible. 4 The
gala sang in Emesal, the presumably high pitched female voice of the
lamentation songs and he had free access to the women’s quarters of the
palace. Gala singers could be married and some of them even had
children, although these were probably not their own. We have more
information about a gala-mah called Ur-Utu, who lived in Sippar and was
responsible for the rituals of the kezertu women from Sippar (see Chapter
20, p. 408). The father of Ur-Utu seems to have been a gala singer also,
while his mother was a qadištum priestess. A qadištum was a priestess
who was allowed to marry but was not permitted to have children which
raises the question of how these parents could possibly have produced a
son. The solution may be that Ur-Utu was not the biological son of his
parents, but an adopted child.
The feminine appearance of the gala had a direct bearing on his
function as singer of lamentation songs during funerals. The gala was
regularly in touch with death, entering houses where the recently
deceased lay in state and singing the lamentations to mourn the dead, so
it was important that he protect himself against the deleterious effects of
these situations. His appearance and his clothing shielded him against
such dangerous threats because as the gala was neither a complete
man, nor a complete women he fell outside the usual scope of humanity
and this made it difficult for the evil demons from the underworld to catch
him. The lamentation women (ama-ir2) who are often mentioned along
with the gala were protected in the very same way. They were elderly
women, whose fertility could not be threatened by the close proximity of
death and the appearance and behaviour of gala singers were very
similar to these lamentation women, who wore their hair loose on the
shoulders, wore dusty clothes and sang in the high pitch tones of the
Emesal tongue.
Maybe Ninšubur, the faithful minister of Inanna was a gala singer as
well.5 The gender of this servant is not unambiguous, sometimes being
addressed as a male, sometimes female. In the myth of Inanna’s descent
to the underworld she performs funeral rites in the temple of the gods,
hoping to play on their feelings and to persuade them to rescue Inanna
from the underworld. She weeps and scratches her body all over, even
on the place that is not spoken of with men. Just like the gala priest,
Ninšubur mediates with the gods on behalf of an applicant and presents
their wishes for the benign approval of the gods. The very same
behaviour was performed by the galatura and kurgarra who were sent by
Enki to rescue Inanna. When they were in the presence of Ereškigal they
joined her in her grief, showing sympathy and flattering her, making her
heart melt. Obviously this method, used also by the gala priests was
found to be the most effective when engaged in soothing the wrath of the
gods.
Contact with the dead was a risky affair, people were anxious about it
and it is probably the reason people treated the gala singers with
suspicion and contempt. They feared them like they feared death. The
choice of penis and bottom as a cuneiform sign indicates perhaps a lack
of respect that had nothing to do with their supposed sexual disposition,
but had everything to do with fear of their job as lamentation singers and
their regular contact with the dead. However the gala singer sometimes
had a high ranking function as director of the palace choir and as
personal confidante of the king, so jealousy and envy among other
musicians may have been a reason for these ambivalent feelings and the
resultant gossip and slander6. The contempt of the gala is reflected in
some proverbs which allude to the queer behaviour of the gala, his
exaggerated self importance and their seemingly unshakeable
confidence in their own social security. Although the lamentation priest’s
grain boat was sinking, he was walking on dry land.7 The gala clearly did not
need to worry about famine. For a gala the field lies close to his house. The
gala held more than enough fields in fee from the king to cover his daily
needs.8 Another proverb runs as follows: A lamentation priest wiped his
anus and said: “I must not stir up that which belongs to the Queen of Heaven,
my lady’’’9 This vulgar pun was possibly an allusion to the low status of
the gala or his putative homosexuality. Another proverb tells how the gala
had fled from a lion in the steppe A lamentation priest, after he had met a
lion in the desert, said, ‘Let him come! In the town […] at Inanna’s gate, oh dog,
chased away with potsherds, what is your brother doing in the desert?10 The
terrified gala had run away from the lion but at the gate of Inanna he tried
to cover up his cowardice by bullying a dog, shouting at him to go and get
his big brother from the steppe.11
The assinnu, the Akkadian counterpart of the demonic creatures that
the god Ea (Enki) had made from the dirt under his fingernails also
features in proverbs that perhaps can be connected to their putative
homosexual nature. A popular saying was: “When a sinnišanu entered the
tavern he raised his hands and said: ‘My hire goes to the promoter (asinnu). You
are wealth (mešrû), I am half (mešlu)”12 The interpretation of this proverb is
again rather difficult. A sinnišanu is literally someone who looks like a
woman. He raised his hands in prayer, presumably directed to Inanna,
the mistress of the tavern (eš-dam). He himself was her follower, a
sinnišanu, a half man, Inanna being the goddess who could change a
man into a woman as we will see below. An assinnu was also a votary of
Inanna and possibly he too was a half man so maybe they
complemented each other, and this was the reward that entailed wealth.
 In some omen series, an assinnu having sex with men was spoken of
as being the cause of certain predictions, as in the omen series šumma
alu: When a man copulates with an assinnu then …13 there then follows a
negative prognostication.
Also according to myth the gala was of low social lineage as he had been
made from the dirt below Enki’s fingernails. In Inanna’s decent to the
underworld he is called galatura, literally ‘small gala’, perhaps again an
allusion to his low social station. 14 In a hymn to Inanna in one of the Old
Babylonian texts in Sumerian it is repeated that it was the god Enki who
created the gala as a present for Inanna 15 She is in one of her rages and
Enki’s idea is that this creature could calm and sooth her heart with his
mourning behaviour and laments. This balağ composition does not reveal
how Enki made the gala but in the text we learn that Enki gave him the
ub and lilis musical instruments, which play the ahulap (literally, ‘it is
enough!’) complaints of ‘ohh! ahh!’ : 16
Queen of Ibgal (name of Inanna’s temple in Lagaš), what has your heart wrought!
How heaven and earth are troubled!
What has your raging heart wrought!
What has your flood-like raging heat wrought!
Enki heard these words, took counsel with himself in the kigal (literally: big place).
He (i.e. Enki) fashioned for her the gala, him of the heart-soothing laments […]
He arranged his mournful laments of supplication for her (i.e. Inanna)
He placed the ahulap-uttering ub and lilis in his hand.
Enki sent him who [… ] to holy Inanna
“Oh […] queen, may your heart be soothed, seat yourself on your throne,
The gala has made available to you the ahulap-uttering laments of
supplication, a night of supplication
(…)
It was the gala’s duty to calm the angry mood of the gods with the high
and sweet tones of his voice. Divine wrath was the cause of the
destruction of temples and cities and great harm was inflicted upon
people as a consequence. The gala tried to focus the attention of the
gods on the human suffering caused by their tantrums and to plead for
compassion so that hopefully the gods would be soothed and less
destructive. 17
The gala’s played the balağ instrument and scholars have searched long
and hard to identify exactly which instrument it could have been. It is now
reasonably certain that it was a percussion instrument 18 in a text from
the first millennium this word is described with the sign for ‘animal hide’,
19 so the balağ was a drum which was strung with an animal skin,

presumably an oxen hide. We have texts that tell of rituals that were
performed when an ox was killed and its skin was used for the covering
of the drum.20 Various drums were played by the gala singer and they
each had a different name, the ub drum, the lilis drum (kettledrum) and
the šem drum. Special dirges were performed with the eršemma drum
and these mourning rites were accompanied by the beating of the great
drum, although the gala or the lamentation women could also accompany
their mourning with raffles of their fists on their breasts.

Figure 24.2. Representation of a large drum. At the very left the back side
of the En priestess is still visible, with loose hair and diadem. Stone
vessel with relief. Height: 12 cm. (Suter, fig. 15; Louvre)
The help of the gala priest or priestess was also needed when singing
the eršahunga, ‘the lamentation that calms the heart’. This was a
personal appeal to a god to give up his wrath, which the gala singer
would perform on behalf of a client.21 When the property of a god was
damaged there was always the risk that the god would be vexed about it
so the gala tried his very best to calm down the god and gain his
indulgence with soft dirges. There is an eršemma on a fragment of text
from the first millennium in which these ritual actions of the gala singer
are minutely described and during his lamentation he beats his fists on
his chest, as if it were a drum22:
If a divine statue falls into a critical state of disrepair, and the god has the desire
to be renovated, following the oracular instructions of Šamaš, Adad and
Marduk, you enter into the presence of this god in a favourable month, on a
propitious day, at night, when there is no one around, and cover him with a
cloth. You leave again, and light a pile of wood. You perform a taqribtu-rite. You
make this god get up from his pedestal, and the gala-priest uncovers his head.
He beats his breast and says: “Woe!” He sings ‘Uru’a-šerra’. He takes him (the
god) by the hand. Until he (the god) enters the workshop and takes his seat, he
(the gala) must not cease singing. In the courtyard of the workshop, where this
god is supposed to sit, a wood pile should be burning brightly for Ea and
Marduk. You make an offering for Ea and Marduk, (etc.)”
The kurgarra and the sağursağ
The gala was not the only votary of Inanna and various other followers
could be found among her adherents, a number of whom we have
already met, such as the kurgarra, the galatura and the Akkadian
assinnu. In Inanna’s decent to the underworld they are demonic figures,
who like the gala were created from the dirt under Enki’s fingernails and
were dispatched with the plant of life and the water of life to the
underworld to rescue Inanna. These strange figures however not only
played a role in myth but they appear to have existed in reality as well.
They performed certain hymns to Inanna, such as the hymn of Inanna
Dilbat, which describes the Sacred Marriage rite with King Iddin-Dagan
(Chapter 16), in which a colourful crowd parades along with Inanna,
dressed in strange clothing and adorned with specially cut, dyed hair.
They carried specific objects, danced, cracked the skipping rope of
Inanna and made chirping noises. In the hymn of Iddin-Dagan the
kurgarra pages parade alongside Inanna, but also the sağursağ and
šugitu girls walked in procession before the goddess. The sağursağ tied
up their hair in a bun and with the spotted skipping rope (ešemen) they
competed (adamin) for the entertainment of Inanna. The sağursağ played
the ‘game of Inanna’, the competition and the ‘causing the enemy to
dance’, all features of the warrior Ištar.23 The sağursağ defeat the enemy
symbolically and accompany their performance with whispering and
chirping sounds which may indicate ecstasy.24 On their right side they
wore men’s clothes and on their left side they wore women’s clothes and
dressed in this fashion the sağursağ honoured Inanna, who possessed
typical female properties as love goddess, as well as typical male
features as a war goddess. Inanna had the power to change men into
women and this was used as a weapon against the adversary, as Inanna
could transform the soldiers of the opposing army into women, making
them unfit for battle. A fragment of text describes25:
She (= Inanna)may change the right side into the left side,
she may dress them in a […]-clothing of a woman,
she may place the speech of a woman in their mouth
and give them a spindle and a hair clasp
But the focus of the kurgarra was broader than their clothing alone and in
the hymn of Iddin-Dagan they grasp daggers in their hands, their swords
are covered with blood and they sprinkle blood over the podium although
it is not known whether this was a form of self-mutilation and possibly
castration. The sağursağ (literally: head dog (or hero) head) often appear
in the texts together with the pi-li-pi-li (Akkadian, assinnu) and the
kurgarra. In the hymn of Inanna and Ebih Inanna tells how she has
changed the headgear of the pilipili, that she has given a dagger and
prod to the kurgarra and that she has given the gala singers the ub and
lilis drums. These lines are written at the end of the hymn of Ebih
(Chapter 9), and seem to be an explanation for their inauguration as
votaries of Inanna. In Enheduanna’s hymn, Mistress of the largest heart
(innin šà gur-ra) they are mentioned again. In line 88 Inanna is said to
have given the pilipili a weapon and that she has transformed them. Both
the kurgarra and sağursağ perform exhausting funeral laments and the
texts sometime mention the ritual dances of the assinnu, while shouting a
yarrutu.26 Obviously the kurgarra, sağursağ and the pilipili were
considered to be sexual deviants, just like the gala27 and they fell outside
the established norms of society. But they were also regular visitors to
the battlefield, probably because they were experts in death and they
were assigned to perform lamentations for the dead on the field of
combat.
Edzard28 believed that the words ‘kurgarra’ and ‘pilipili’ originated from
infancy. The literal meaning of kurgarra is ‘set down a mountain’, which
might be understood as ‘make a poop’, and pilipili could mean ‘to do a
wee-wee’. This idea occurred to him on account of a tablet on which an
Akkadian ritual of a kurgarra was described. In the old translation of
Lambert it goes as follows29:
She/He will depart from the city gate and facing Hursagkalamma
(city at the east of Kiš where lay the temple of Inanna) the kurgarra-priest will
kneel on his knees and will
recite prayers and utter his chants. He will arise and sing:
‘Let me see great Kish, let me look on lofty Babylon”.
Hursagkalamma, city of beauty”
However Edzard has made an entirely different translation of these lines:
The kurgarra will kneel on his knees in front of Hursagkalama.
He will break wind, he will do ‘ahhhhh’ .
Then he will arise again and sing:
Let me see great Kish,
let me look on high rise Babylon.’
Edzard’s translation in turn is rejected by Stephan Maul30 and in order to
better understand the function of the kurgarra or assinnu, we should turn
to the mythic narrative in which they feature. The kurgarra, the galatura
and the Akkadian assinnu were involved in the cult of Inanna. In Inanna’s
descent to the underworld they were demons just like other demons, who
had no father and mother and were not considered to be real human
beings. As such they were not definable and fell outside the laws of the
land of the dead just like all other demons, at liberty to go unimpeded, in
and out of the underworld. It was, according to Maul, this very
characteristic that typified them in everyday life and that can explain their
curious behaviour. People were afraid of them, because they were on the
lookout for victims they could to drag to the underworld and indeed Kur is
a general description of the underworld, which makes explicable the word
kurgarra as ‘the one who is placed in the underworld’. This was a feature
of the kurgarra in the myth Enki and Inanna, in which Inanna steals the
ME from Enki. These ME are divided into several groups and we learn
that the kurgarra and the sağursağ were involved in the following ME31:
Kur-e11 - de3 going down to the kur
Kur-ed11 - da coming up from the kur
kur-gar-ra the kurgarra
gir2 ba-da-ra sword and club
sag-ur-sag the sağursağ
tug2-GI6 black garment
tug2-gun3- a the colourful garment
gu2 - bar the hair-style in the neck
gu2- X the hair-style […]
The myth says that the ME of the ‘going down to the kur’ and the ME of
the ‘coming up from the kur’ belong to the kurgarra and sağursağ, the
same as their instruments, sword, club, colourful garments and their hair
style. Therefore these creatures served the interests of the underworld
rather like recruitment gangs, appointed to find victims for the land of
death.
Maul compares the kurgarra and sağursağ with shamans, exorcists
known mainly in Siberia and Central Asia. Shamanism was widespread in
the ancient world and its roots lie concealed, deep in the hunter and
gatherer period at a time long before the invention of agriculture. They
travelled to the underworld by putting themselves in a trance, as the
kurgarra may have done. Walter Burkert presumes that the kurgarra and
the sağursağ were shamans because of their ambivalent sexual status,
their musical instruments and their lamentation in the presence of
Ereškigal in the underworld.32 Their visit to the queen of the underworld
resembles the journey an Eskimo shaman makes to visit Sedna, the
mistress of the seals, who also requests a substitute for everyone who
wants to leave the underworld. Among the tools of the shaman is a cloth
on which are stitched little bells and tinkling metal tags, they use a small
drum and put themselves into an ecstatic trance with drugs in order to
make contact with the world of the spirits. According to Burkert the myth
of Inanna shows traces of a much older culture, at a time when the
shaman was an important mediator. However in later times, Burkert
notes, the kurgarra and galatura fell into decay and turned into
buffoons.33
Figure 24.3 Left: one of the oldest photo’s of a traditional shaman in
Mongolia. (Photo: Sakari Pälsi, The National Museum of Finland,
Helsinki); right: photo available on the internet (without reference)
In the case where the shaman is a man, he dresses quite often in
women’s garments, his cultic gender change is an important aspect of his
being and he is considered to have chosen this position as his vocation.
These shamans are mediators between two cosmological layers, earth
and heaven, and they combine in their own personality the female
element (earth) and the male element (heaven). They cure the sick, turn
away danger and they perform magical rites in which they take upon
themselves the evil or a symbol of evil and carry it away to the
underworld.
In fact gala priests too were sometimes forced to reside in the underworld
for a while, a conclusion which can be drawn from a number of letters
from the archive of the gala singer Ur-Utu in Sippar. 34 The gala singer is
said to have been ‘bound’ (e’iltum) which might imply that gala singers
were tied with ropes and confined to the underworld until the patient had
recovered their health again or perhaps he was expected to deliver to the
underworld the demons that he had taken over from the patient. This
raised the question as to when the gala singer himself could expect to be
released and from the letters in the archives of the gala-mah Ur-Utu it is
apparent that he needed the help of the high priests of Samaš and
Marduk as only they were able to predict when Ut-Utu was allowed to
leave his subterranean prison. This was only achieved by performing
certain rites which for Ut-Utu might have rather worrying as he could not
always be sure of a fortuitous outcome.
According to Brigitte Groneberg Inanna could also be regarded as a
shaman35 as she too travelled to the underworld and overcame death,
and that basically it was because of her function as shaman that her
position as a woman in antiquity has remained so strong. But it is not
certain that Inanna really was a shaman. There are no known songs or
myths in which Inanna descends to the underworld in order to converse
with gods about the wellbeing of the people and neither were shamans
gods, but Inanna was of the utmost importance as a goddess who had
travelled to the underworld and come back alive. Evidence for this was
found in Lagaš, on a lentil shaped tablet dating from around 2000 BC,
inscribed with elegant cuneiform signs and dealing with a person who
invokes Inanna in order to be admitted in the palace of the underworld,
the E2-Ganzer.36 Niek Veldhuis suggests that the tablet, an object
designed to fit easily in the hand, was given to the deceased person in
the grave to be recited on his or her last journey. It could help the dead to
gain access to the palace of Ereškigal and it was not strange that
Inanna’s help was invoked during this journey, because of her own
experience in the underworld and as she had been successful in
persuading the gate keeper to let her enter the palace of the netherworld.
Just like the gala singer the kurgarra used a typical make-up, so typical
that the stone from which it was prepared was called kurgarranu.37 In the
Sumerian myth Lugale, it is said that a state of ecstasy could be achieved
with this make-up and just as the gala singer tried to avert the dangers of
death by wearing women’s clothes and using the high pitched voice of
the Emesal, the kurgarra apparently used female attributes and chirping
noises.
So the Mesopotamians did not despise the kurgarra on account of their
sexual inclinations but because of the power these people possessed
and their ability to go beyond boundaries set by social convention People
needed the kurgarra as healers but they feared them also because if they
took away illness on the one hand, on the other hand they threatened the
lives of others by doing so. For every patient cured by Inanna she was
obliged to send another person as a substitute to the underworld, which
explains, Maul writes, why people felt so conflicted about these demons.
The fear of them is given voice in the Akkadian version of Inanna’s
descent to the underworld, when Ereškigal, who felt betrayed by the
action of the assinnu Aşûšunamir, curses them38 bitterly:
Come Aşûšunamir, I shall curse you with a mighty curse
I shall determine your future status, never to be changed
Food gathered from wall gutters of the town shall be your fare,
The content of the sewer-pipes of the town your drink
The shadow of the wall shall be your home,
The threshold of its gate your seat!
The drunken as well as the sober shall slap your face!’
(line 103-108)
This curse of Ereškigal probably describes the very real social isolation in
which the kurgarra and assinnu normally lived, pushed to the outskirts of
the town, isolated and shunned by the people.
The rite of the Great Weeping
The kurgarra, galatura and assinu played an important role in the so
called rite of Great Weeping. We have some texts in the Akkadian
language in which we learn more about how this particular rite was
executed. Ištar and her queer votaries again performed a central part in
this rite which alludes to Ištar’s ability to change men into women and
women into men39. The text makes it evident that their dresses and
attributes were involved in this switching of genders, with men wearing
combs in their hair in the fashion of women, with hairpins and ribbons,
their garments spotted with vivid colours and they carry a small lyre.
Women are dressed up in men’s attire, they hold a bow and quiver in
their hands and carry a catapult and sling-stones with them. The whole
retinue goes in procession to the outskirts of the town, while the women
inflate their virile clothes, probably imitating an erection, and the men
utter shrill, chirping noises. The assinnu walk along with a distaff in their
hands, the ornament of the standard of Ištar (erimmatu) is erected for the
admiration of the people, everybody is joyful and during the whole night
the drinking tubes stand ready in the vessels. In front of the temple, the
gods assemble for deliberation, the cheering resounds everywhere. It is
up to Ištar to decide about the offering and ‘the work’. At the command of
the goddess there is an abundance of grain and bread then the rite of the
Great Weeping (bikitummi rabitu) gets started. The followers of Ištar
probably go into trance and the goddess determines fate as she had
done in the hymn of Iddin-Dagan, guaranteeing an abundant harvest.
Allusions are made to her appearance as the planet Venus in the sky,
perhaps accompanied by the Pleiades. The text is sometimes enigmatic,
partly because it has not survived intact, but it is clear that the festive
procession with transvestites and with the participation of the special cult
servants of Inanna, was a recurrent happening in which the whole
population was involved.
The rite of the Great Weeping was performed during the night.
Possibly the participants invoked the Venus planet, or waited till morning
when Venus made her the first appearance.40 According to Groneberg
the transvestite was imitating the goddess Venus, whose gender
changed from a male morning star into a female evening star, an
ambivalence expressed by the type of dress worn by her followers in the
procession.
Amanamtagga
In the balağ song Amanamtagga, the procession of the Great Weeping is
again being performed by the followers of Ištar. This lamentation dates
from the Old Babylonian time and is called a balağ song, which probably
means that is was to be performed by a gala singer.
This balağ is named after the female slave Amanamtagga, who had
transgressed a prohibition and was therefore sentenced to death by
Inanna. In this lamentation the queer followers of Ištar appear again and
they participate as before in the procession of the Great Weeping with
everybody deploring the sad fate of the goddess who is afflicted by so
much suffering.
Amanamtagga is known from a large number of very fragmentary
tablets, written both in Sumerian and Akkadian.41 The interpretation of
the text is very difficult, but the story of Amanamtagga is part of a larger
ritual that in the older texts is referred to as uru2-am2-ma-irra-bi. Uru-
amirabi means, according to Konrad Volk, ‘That city which has been
pillaged’,42 therefore the text must be understood as belonging to the
tradition of lamentations about the destruction of a city. The text is partly
panegyric, but tablet 19 deals solely with the story of Amanamtagga,
whose name some scholars translate as ‘mother of sin’, but which Volk
believes would be better translated as ‘guilt’.
Thorkild Jacobsen believed that the female slave had gone to bed
with Dumuzi, a sin for which she was being severely punished. Volk
however rejects this interpretation of Jacobsen on the basis that the
passage dealing with the sin of the girl does not mention the name of
Dumuzi.43 According to the text the sin of Amanamtagga consisted of
three things, the girl had seated herself on the holy throne, she had lain
down in the bed and she had ‘gained knowledge of the penis of a man’
(she had intercourse with a man), but nowhere in the text is her partner
named. The first line of the tablet starts with the phrase: She goes wild,
Ecstasy! She goes wild! Ecstasy! She has intercourse44 and according to Volk
this first line was only added to this balağ by later scribes because they
thought this was in accordance with the content of the poem. A variation
on the first line in the Akkadian tongue goes: While she was lamenting she
drifted into a trance. While she was lamenting she drifted into a trance in front
of him who had copulated with her, she was confused towards the man [ ….].45
Volk suggests that taken literally, the Sumerian text is: ‘A ….. AK’, which
perhaps could indicate that she had received seed (A).
The text records how Amanamtagga had done the forbidden deed
and that now a dire fate was in store for her because her offense had
been reported to Inanna, who was at that moment in the city of Zabalam.
When Inanna learns what has been going on in Kallab during her
absence, she goes into a frenzy of rage and she tells her servant
Ninšubur that Amanamtagga had done the forbidden thing, she had sat
on the holy throne, lain down on the holy bed and experienced
intercourse! (literally: ‘to do with the penis, ğiš3-du11). Inanna was not
willing to tolerate these transgressions and ordered Ninšubur to convene
the people for the execution of the woman. The text then breaks off.
Presumably to be continued by tablet 19, line 43-89. The text narrates
how Inanna is on her way to Kullab, to the brickwork of Uruk, mentioning
different places along the way in which were temples dedicated to
Inanna.
Amanamtagga throws herself at the feet of Inanna, conscious of her guilt
but Inanna looks at her with death in her eyes and feeling the pain in her
heart, screams loudly. She grabs the slave by her forelocks and throws
the girl over the citywall, where people now make ready to kill her with
their weapons, the shepherd with his staff, the gala priest with his drum,
the potter with his pitcher and the kurgarra priest with his dagger and
knife. As these are strange instruments with which to kill someone they
must have had a ceremonial significance. Then there follows the
extensive rite of weeping and wailing, with endless refrains and endless
repetitions46:
A word! What has happened? Woe and alas!
If only the princess’ heart would stop moaning!
Heart of the ‘lady (gašan) of heaven’, what has happened?
If only the princess’ heart would stop moaning!
What has happened? What hasn’t happened?
What it has brought her during the day!
How it has caused her to spend her night!
Since at night […] continues for her,
Whatever her heart […]
Whatever is running through her mind?
What is she thinking of?
Alas! Oh her heart! Oh her liver! (elalu/ahulap (‘it is enough!’).
Elalu! Alas! Oh her anger! Oh her troubles!
Mistress! Cries in the night! Her sighs and cries in the night!
Mistressss! Her heart is distressed with tears.
With tears and sighs she is distressed.
She is distressed because of her husband
She is distressed because of her cella (maštaku, women’s chamber)
She is distressed because of her treasure house.
She is distressed because of her shepherd.
Etc.
The text is concluded by a line, then below this line it continues with the
news that after the above events Inanna intends to go to her house in the
steppe but changes her mind and instead goes with the gala priests to
her temple in Uruk. There they sit with Inanna and play the ala drums, the
sağursağ and the gala priests with their weapons ‘that lops off heads’,
arrow and quiver they have brought with them, boomerang and weapons
they carry with them, seers with sword and clubs and the kurgarra priests
with knife and dagger.
Then the servant of the goddess requests her politely to come to the
sheepfold and afterwards we learn that this request had come from
Dumuzi, so the goddess of heaven bathes and washes herself with soap
and makes herself ready to go to the sheepfold. She anoints herself and
puts on her pala garment of the reign of heaven; she applies mascara to
her eyes and hangs her MUŠ3 ornament around her neck. Then she
goes to the place of eating, the holy house, where bread is only touched
by the purest hands, to the house where the righteous man (lu-zi) is
worshipped, blessed by the gods of man. But then there is an
unexpected ending as Inanna says suddenly to the servant that she must
tell Dumuzi that Inanna will not come to the holy sheepfold, she must tell
Ama-ušumgal-ana (Dumuzi) that Inanna will not go where he does not
live anymore, where her brother and husband do not live, where the lord of
Arali (the steppe or underworld) does not live. The text poses a problem as it
would appear that Inanna is sending a messenger to Dumuzi telling him
that she will not come to the sheep fold, but at the same time the wording
of the message clearly implies that the recipient is no longer among the
living.
Konrad Volk remarks that the way in which Inanna punishes
Amanamtagga is similar to the way in which she punished Dumuzi in the
myth of her descent to the underworld. The difference is that Inanna
herself grabs Amanamtagga by her hair, while she had delivered Dumuzi
to the gala demons. Both Dumuzi and Amanamtagga have behaved
unbecomingly during the absence of Inanna as in both cases they were
seated on a holy throne. Perhaps, so Volks argues, the end of Inanna’s
descent to the underworld is a shortened version and Dumuzi not only
sat on a holy throne under the apple tree, but he had lain in the holy bed
also, just like Amanamtagga47 and both infringements were perpetrated
in Kullab. But perhaps the differences are too substantial and it might be
better understood, Volk believes, as an adaptation rather than as an
existing ritual. The myth of Amanamtagga is incorporated into the text
uru2-am2-ma-ir-ra-bi (‘that city which has been pillaged’) and if this balag
was recited at the beginning of every month, it would be a reminder to the
temple women of what they could expect if the rules were disregarded
during Inanna’s absence. According to Gwendolyn Leick the balağ of
Amanamtagga is about a series of transgressions.48 The sacred throne
and holy bed were Inanna’s furniture, cult objects, charged with magic
power. No doubt very strict instructions were issued pertaining to the
removal of this furniture, in case it might enrage the goddess, and special
liturgies had been put into practice to avoid the wrath of a god if repairs
were needed. The infringement of the sphere of the divinity was
considered a terrible sin, as for example, eating from the portion of the
god. The rite written down in the main text was probably meant as
propitiation, a precautionary measure against each unintentional violation
of the instructions regarding the furniture of Inanna. Sexual intercourse
could also be seen as a sin, according to Leick, and the balağ about
Amanamtagga shows what could happen when the temple women did
not respect the rules.
The galloi of goddess Kybele
The weird retinue of the goddess with their strange habits seems to have
been adopted by other religions as well. Traces of the galla have been
found in later times, as the devotees of the great goddess of Asia Minor,
Kybele or Kubaba, shared many characteristics with the curious company
of followers of Inanna. In Greek they are called galloi, and scholars have
long presumed that they must have been in one way or the other related
to the gala singers of Mesopotamia. During the rites the galloi went into
an ecstatic trance and castrated themselves in order to imitate the
mythological example of the young mortal shepherd Attis and attain a
spiritual union with the goddess. The goddess Kybele was in love with
Attis but when Attis fell in love with a mortal princess, Kybele enraged
with jealousy, made Attis insane and in a maniacal frenzy Attis
emasculated himself and died. Three days later Kybele, torn from grief
and sorrow over her action, tried in vain to bring him back to life. The
disciples of Kybele walked in processions during which they beat the
cymbals and went into raptures. They castigated themselves and let their
blood flow, they sang lamentations, dressed in women’s clothes and
used make-up. They had long painted hair and made obscene gestures.
49
Various classical authors have written about the galloi and narrated
anecdotes about them. There is the famous tale attributed to Simonides,
in which he tells how a gallos, taking shelter from a wintry fall of snow
entered a desolate cave. There he met a cattle-devouring lion but the
gallos with outspread hand beat the big tympanon and the whole cave
echoed with the sound, whereupon the lion rushed swiftly up the tree
covered hill, in fear of the half woman servant of the goddess. 50 Taylor
remarks that this tale has faint echoes of a Sumerian proverb about the
gala who met a lion in the steppe and later said bravely to a dog, ‘Let him
come!’ Both Kybele and Inanna fell in love with a mortal shepherd and for
both, Attis and Dumuzi, the issue was fatal. The death of these mortal
lovers of the goddess was commemorated each year and in both cases
the ecstatic adherents of the goddess played a major role.
Endnotes Chapter 24
1 Henshaw, 1994, p. 88-89
2 Bachvarova, 2007, p. 20
3 Shehata, 2009, p. 377
4 Ziegler, 2008, p. 298
5 Shehata, 2009, p. 85
6 Ziegler, 2008, p. 299
7 ETCSL 6.1.02, line 174-176; Shehata, 2009, p. 78
8 Shehata, 2009, p 79
9 ETCSL 6.1.02; line 165-166; Shehata, 2009, p. 81; translation from
Taylor 2004, p. 174. He explains the pun as follows: The quoted
speech contains the emesal forms EM3 for NIĞ ‘thing, and GAŠAN
for NIN, ‘Lady’. The low humor of this proverb recalls the origin of the
sign GALA, Taylor remarks
10 Taylor, 2004, p. 174
11 Shehata, 2009, p. 81
12 Henshaw, 1994, p. 316
13 Groneberg, 1986
14 Taylor, 2004, p. 174
15 Kramer, 1981
16 Kramer, 1981, line 17-26
17 Bachvarova, 2007
18 Bachvarova, 2007; most authors translate balağ with ‘drum’,
although the cuneiform sign looks more like a lyre than a percussion
insturment. Moreover in Ebla the balağ was translated with the
Semitic kinarum (lyre): Cooper, 2006, p. 42, note 6
19 Shehata, 2009, p. 247
20 Selz, 1997
21 Bachvarova, 2007, p. 21
22 Farber, 2003
23 Groneberg, 1987, p. 39
24 Groneberg, 1987
25 Sjöberg, 1975, p. 224
26 Henshaw, 1994, p. 285
27 Sladek, 1974, p. 94
28 Edzard, 1987
29 Lambert, 1975
30 Maul, 1992
31 Farber-Flugge, 1973, Tf. I v, line 23-25, p. 28; ETCSL 1.3.1. line 23-
25
32 Burkert, 1982, p. 68
33 Burkert, 1982, p. 68
34 Tanret, 2008, p. 283-284
35 Groneberg, 1997
36 Hallo, 1985; Veldhuis, 2003
37 Maul, 1992
38 Oppenheim, 1963, p. 138
39 Groneberg, 1997
40 Groneberg, 1997
41 Jacobson, 1987, p. 24-27; Volk, 1989; Leick, 1994, p. 213 ff.;
Groneberg, 1997, p. 148 ff.
42 Volk, 1989, p. 12-13
43 Volk, 1989, p. 50, note 29
44 Translation: Cohen, 1988, p. 592
45 Volk, 1989, p. 60, note 3
46 Translation after Cohen 1988, p. 594
47 Volk, 1989, p. 53-54
48 Leick, 1994, p. 215 ff.
49 Taylor, 2004, p. 173
50 Taylor, 2004, p. 174
Chapter 25 Who is the goddess on the
Burney relief?

25.1. Terracotta. Burney relief. Height: 49.5 cm, width: 37 cm, thickness:
4.8 cm. (Opitz, 1936/37; Collon, 2007, p. 44; © The Trustees of the
British Museum)
On the 13th of July the Illustrated London News published a picture of a
terracotta relief belonging to the art collector Sidney Burney1. It was a
large relief measuring 49.5 cm high and 36.9 cm wide, depicting the front
view of a female nude. She wore a headdress of a horned crown in four
layers, a mark of divinity, and in each raised hand she held a ring and
staff while around her neck she wore a layered collar. The goddess had
feathered wings hanging from her shoulders and her legs ended in the
talons of a bird of prey, resting on the backs of two lions reclining back to
back, with their heads turned towards the front. The lion to the left had a
rosette shaped ornament on its shoulder and next to the lions, to the left
and to the right, two large owls stood on the ridges of mountains, their
feathers looking remarkably like those on the goddess. Originally the
lions were painted white and their manes were painted a black color
while the goddess must have been painted entirely red, as traces of red
ochre were found. The background was painted black also.2
Some Assyriologists have doubts about the authenticity of the relief
as it was not found during a regular archaeological excavation, but
bought by an art collector from London in 1924, in a market in the south
of Iraq.3 From the archives of the British Museum it is known that in 1935
the object was placed on deposit in the museum, but the museum had no
intention of purchasing it and it was subsequently bought by a certain
Sidney Burney, a specialist in modern art who in turn, sold it on to an
antique collector. When this last person died, his widow put it up for
auction at Sotheby’s in 1975 and a Japanese antiquities dealer
purchased it for £31,000, however when he wished to export the piece,
he was denied a license because it had been in England for so long. He
tried to sell it again but failed, the price meanwhile rising to £70,000. In
2002 the British Museum decided to make the relief, which was known as
the Burney relief, the principal acquisition for its 250th anniversary. The
museum now had to pay an amount of £1.500.000.
The history of the relief is an example of the drama that characterizes all
objects that have been dug up illegally and negotiated on the art market.
The provenance of these objects is always unknown and will never be
made known either, because that would put an end to what is a goldmine
for treasure hunters. Precious information was contaminated so it is
impossible to discover whether the Burney relief was hanging in a
temple, a common dwelling, a grave or the palace of a king. The date of
the relief is not known either, nor the country from which it was stolen,
thus the authenticity is always in doubt because the market is spoiled by
countless forgeries. This trade in antique objects is growing as the prices
paid for antiques make it a highly lucrative business, which means every
museum is faced with the same impossible dilemma. If museums boycott
the market these objects would disappear forever from the public view
and if museums do decide to buy unique pieces of priceless value they
only stimulate the theft of antiquities which inflates the prices on the
international markets.
Most scholars today do not doubt the authenticity of the Burney relief,
although some uncertainty remains. Pauline Albenda for example
questions the painting of the relief. The softly modelled pubic area with
black paint for pubic hair she finds unlikely, and believes it does not plead
for the authenticity of the relief.4 The British Museum has thoroughly
investigated the plaque and dates it from between 1900 and 1750 BC,
the time of the Babylonian Hammurabi dynasty.5 However the
significance of the relief still remains an enigma and various suggestions
have been proposed over the course of time.
One of the first to discuss the relief was Henri Frankfort.6 Even before
World War II he wrote an article about it and he saw no reason to doubt
the genuineness of this piece, which he dates to the end of the third
millennium, a product of Akkadian art. The bird talons and wings point in
the direction of demons, Frankfort writes, and from the texts we know that
these were inhabitants of the land of the dead, often described as bird
like, wearing a feather garment. Frankfort suggests that the woman on
the relief could have been the winged woman Lilith, a female demon from
the underworld and although texts about her appearance are sparse, she
is described as a ‘beautiful maiden’. The ring and staff, i.e. the measuring
rod and line Frankfort interprets as symbols of justice, and they would be
consonant with the demonic character of the figure since the visitations of
demons were considered a punishment for sins, even though the victim
might be ignorant of the nature of his guilt. While most of the other
demons combine a variety of zoomorphic features, Lilith must be human
in essentials. The crown of divinity which she wears does not vitiate the
identification, so Frankfort writes, but is a well-chosen attribute for her
epithet as ‘Bright Queen of heaven’.
In the old cuneiform texts Lilith is known as a demoness who,
together with the male demon Lilitu and the young girl Ardat Lilî, formed a
group of storm demons that usually threatened people at night. They
were the wandering spirits of people who had died too early and as a
result were denied the possibility of fulfilling their normal destination in
life. For women that destination meant finding a husband, being
deflowered, bearing children and raising them, and those who died
before they had experienced this knowledge of life were roving revenging
spirits who crept in through the window, looking for new victims. These
ghosts were much feared and many tablets have been found with
magical texts used to avert these dangerous creatures.
But other interpretations are possible. In 1980 Edith Porada suggested
that the demonic figure depicted on the Burney relief could be identified
with the female ruler of the dead, Ereškigal.7 Her bird wings which point
downwards (a criterion of demons) and the bird claws were indications in
that direction. The rod and ring, emblems of universal power in Babylon,
were the attributes with which Ereškigal determined the last fate of
humans, and this interpretation was one to which Elisabeth von der
Osten-Sacken felt she could give her full support. The nude figure on the
Burney relief could be no one but Ereškigal8, as she not only holds her
own ring and rod, but the ring and rod which Ereškigal had stolen from
Inanna when she was imprisoned in the underworld. When Inanna had
set off for the underworld we are told that she held the lapis lazuli
measuring rod and measuring line in her hand (line 25-26).
Dominique Collon in an article from 2007 endorses the view that the
goddess on the Burney relief is Ereškigal.9 From an analysis of the paint
traces on the relief is has been determined that the background had been
black, the colour of the underworld, while the owls, the anaemic lions that
are white apart from their manes and the goddess’s pendant wings point
to the sphere of the land of dead. The red ochre that covered the body of
the goddess on the relief could hint at the underworld too, as from the
earliest time in man’s history, red ochre has been strewn over the bodies
of the dead.
However it is not certain that the goddess on the Burney relief is
Ereškigal. The iconography of Ereškigal is not known and it seems rather
odd that a relief made from mere terracotta would be dedicated to the
much feared goddess of the underworld. A ring and staff in the hands of
Ereškigal seems preposterous as these attributes were handed out to
living kings, not to the dead and it was not Ereškigal who gave these
attributes to the king. On the Ur-Namma-stele we see how the moon god
gives the ring and staff to Ur-Namma (figure 25.2) and on the stele of
Hammurabi it is the sun god Šamaš who passed on these symbols of
justice. On the relief of Anu-banini (see Chapter 8, figure 8.12) it is
Inanna who hands over the ring and staff to the king and here the staff
symbolizes the scepter of kingship and the ring seems to be the nose
rope with which the goddess holds tight the enemies of the king, the tool
of the farmer, the ring being inserted through the nose of his cattle. The
large fresco of the palace of Mari shows that again it is Ištar who hands
over the ring and staff to the king of Mari, presumably King Zimri-Lim
(figure 25.3).
Thorkild Jacobsen sees the ring and staff as symbols of peace.10 On the
Stele of Urnamma we can clearly see that the ring is no ring at all, but a
coil of rope apparently a ‘measuring cord’ used for measuring long
distances, while the accompanying ‘rod’ is a yardstick for details. On the
stele of Ur-Namma, Jacobsen argues, the moon god hands over the
symbols of peace, depicting the king as a builder. Building was the work
of peace rather than war, as the manpower needed for building was
provided by the army, and the army would be needed for fighting in times
of war. The same idea would, according to Jacobsen, be conveyed on
the Burney relief so the nude woman according to him can be no one
else but Inanna, who as goddess of war would almost certainly be in
charge in times of peace.

Figure 25.2. Stele of Ur-Namma, detail from the backside. Ur. (Courtesy:
© Penn Museum, Pennsylvania, United States)
Figure 25.3. Fresco in Mari. Ištar hands over the ring and rod to the king
of Mari, presumably Zimri-Lim. Ištar has placed one foot on the back of a
lion. Ca. 1800 v.C. (Keel, 1992, fig. 119)
Other scholars also think that the goddess of the Burney relief
represented Inanna. Marie-Thérèse Barrelet11 believes that the relief
represents Inanna at the moment she stands in front of Ereškigal in the
myth of Inanna’s descent and is asked to relinquish all her attire. The
owls on the relief could be the dead, who were living like birds in the
underworld.
But this theory is not satisfactory as it is not easy to understand why
the mighty Inanna would be depicted just at the moment when she was at
her most defeated and humiliated by Ereškigal. On the Burney relief the
goddess is depicted with the attributes of power and in all her glory,
triumphantly standing on two lions.
As early as 1936, Elisabeth Douglas van Buren suggested that the
goddess on the Burney relief was Inanna,12 after she had compared the
plaque with other pieces of Sumerian art. A nude winged goddess in the
very same pose as the Burney relief is to be found in the Louvre,
standing on two ibexes rather than lions, but her crown resembles the
horn crown of the goddess on the Burney relief. Her raised hands are
open and although she does not hold a ring and rod, her legs end in
bird’s talons with feathered tufts springing from her knees, and she has
claws instead of feet. In some myths Inanna seems to fly like a bird and
in the hymn of Ebih (Chapter 9) she floats in the air above the mountains.
According to Douglas van Buren the owls on the Burney relief are a
reference to this.
Figure 25.4. Nude goddess with a four tiered horn crown and wings,
standing on two ibexes. (Douglas van Buren, 1936, p. 355, afb. 3;
Louvre, AO 6501; Barrelet, 1968, pl. LXXVIII, 793)
The very same nude, horned female figure is engraved on a vase from
Larsa (figure 25.5).), excavated from a grave dating from the second
millennium. It is decorated with a frieze of birds, below which is depicted
a bull, a turtle and two fishes around pictures of nude goddesses. The
goddess is standing in the same pose as the goddess from the Burney
relief but she is not standing on two ibexes or lions, but on two simple
curved lines and she has no bird’s talons.

Figure 25.5. Vase from Larsa, Isin-Larsa-period, with five pictures of a

nude winged goddess. (Bron: Wikimedia.org)
Thorkild Jacobsen13 tried to find a source for the iconography of the
wings and bird’s claws of the figure on the Burney relief. The Akkadian
word for owl, eššebu, agrees with the Sumerian ninna, ‘uil’, and with dnin-
ninna, ‘Divine lady owl’. This owl goddess Nin-ninna however is none
other than Ištar, Jacobsen argues, as in the old lexical lists she is put on
a par with Ištar. These ancient lists give Nin-ninna not only the Akkadian
name of eššebu, but of kilili also, which according to Jacobsen is another
name for Inanna. Subsequently however, Jacobsen continues with the
familiar and favoured image of Inanna as a harlot, noting that the name
Kilili makes it clear that the owl aspect of Inanna stands for a harlot who,
just like an owl comes out at dusk. Kilili is the Akkadian counterpart of the
Sumerian Abašušu, with the literal meaning, ‘the one who leans out of
the window’, so according to Jacobsen, this cannot but be a harlot
leaning out of the window of the bordello soliciting custom from the men
in the street below. Kar-kid is translated by Jacobsen as ‘harlot’, and the
bracelet worn by the woman on the Burney relief also identifies her,
according to Jacobsen as a harlot. The complete state of nudity is no
enigma either and Jacobsen concludes that the woman depicted on the
Burney relief is Inanna the goddess of the harlots, which relief must
originally have been hung in a bordello to entice clients.
Lions

Figure 25.6. Spouted vessel from the Sammelfund of Uruk, with lions and
the standard of Inanna Ca. 3000 BC. (Heinrich, 1936, tafel 22/23a)
Figure 25.7. impression of a cylinder seal with a lion with construction on
his back and standard of Inanna in the field (art market). (Ascher-Greve,
1985, fig. 197)
The nude goddess on the Burney relief stands on two lions and the lion
from of old has played a prominent role in Sumerian iconography. It was
frequently depicted on cylinder seals attacking domesticated animals
while an armed hero takes it on himself to fight the lion in order to protect
the cattle. The king readily appropriated the symbol of the lion to enhance
his own prestige and on a large stele from Uruk the man in the net skirt is
twice shown aiming at a lion with a bow and arrow or spearing the animal
with a weapon (Chapter 3, figure 3.19). The lion is connected with some
gods, but from very early times it was an animal closely connected with
the goddess Inanna. On the Eanna complex archaeologists excavated a
ritual spouted vessel which they dated from around 3000 BC and on
which the symbols of Inanna are depicted between four lions (figure
25.6), but even before the Akkad dynasty Inanna is referred to in a text
as ‘mistress Lion’ (nin-pirig).14 In Enheduanna’s hymn Inin šà gurra
(Chapter 9), Inanna is said to stand on seven large beasts (ur-gal-gal)
when she descends from heaven (line 105), and in the Ninegala hymn
Inanna is addressed as lioness of heaven as she sits on a throne
depicting a lion and a leopard forming the seat (line 2 and 29).15
Pictures of lions were part of the usual equipment of Inanna. Large
lions were placed around her throne as a form of intimidation, to ward off
evil spirits or to discourage hostile attacks from enemies. The kings
decorated their clubs with lions, presumably to show that the goddess
Inanna was supporting them and on a club from Chafaje from the third
millennium, Frankfort recognized an inscription in which the name of
Inanna is mentioned.16 Both lions on the club could have been dedicated
to Inanna and the star on the club can be clearly seen, resembling the
starry shoulder emblem on the lion of the Burney relief (to be further
discussed in this chapter). We have a text of a king from Larsa, Sumû-el
(1894-1866 BC), in which he named his third year of government with the
creation of two copper lions for the large Inanna gate in Larsa.17 A
succeeding king of Larsa named a year of government with the donation
to the Inanna temple in Zabalam, of a golden armchair and two copper
lions.18
Figure 25.8. Sceptre of Mesilim. Early Dynastic period, beginning third
millennium. Inscription: ‘Mesilim, king of Kiš, builder of the temple of
Ningirsu, erected this for Ningirsu. Lugal-šag-engur was ensi of Lagaš.’
(Frankfort, 1935, p. 116, fig. 12; Postgate, 1992, p. 31, fig. 2.7; AO 2349
A; pfoto: Louvre/AO, Paris)

Figure 25.9. sceptre with four lion’s heads Tell Agreb. Grey stone Height:
ca. 7 cm. (Courtesy: © Deutsches Archeologisches Institut, section
Bagdad)

Figure 25.10. Sceptre from Chafaje, beginning of the third millennium.

(Frankfort, 1935, p. 118, fig. 15; Oriental Institute Communications, nr.
17, fig. 69)
In the course of the third millennium the lion became the icon of the
warrior goddess Inanna, and on a relief Ištar is shown holding a lion’s
club, a sceptre with two arms that end in a lion’s head.

Figure 25.11. Terracotta relief with Inanna and the lion’s scptre and with
her left foot on a reclining lion; 119 cm by 66 cm. (Barrelet, 1968, pl.
LXXVII, fig. 790; Louvre, AO12456; drawing: Seidl, RLA 3, 1957-1971, p.
488)
The two lions on the Burney relief lie back-to-back in the same way as on
the double lion’s club of Inanna, while on cylinder seals Ištar is frequently
depicted standing on two lions instead of one, the lions reclining backto-
back in the same manner. However Ištar is not depicted nude in these
pictures and she has no bird wings, as has the woman on the Burney
relief.

Figure 25.12. Inanna with a lion’s club and a lion below her heel and
scimitar in her left hand. In front of her stands the figure of a king.
Inscription with the names of the gods Išum and Ninmug. Periode IV c.
Soapstone. 2,4 by 1,2 cm. (Collon, 1987, nr. 772)
Figure 25.13. Inanna with a lion’s club and lion under her heel and
scimitar in her left hand. Left of her the figure of the king approaches and
behind him the protective goddess Lama. Hematiet. 2,7 by 1,4-1,5 cm. (©
The Trustees of the British Museum, BM 130694)

Figure 25.14 and 25.15. Pictures in teracotta reliëf of Inanna with her foot
on a lion. (Barrelet, 1968, pl. LIX: 623, 625 bis)
In the town of Ebla in Syria, in the holy temple of Ištar, archaeologists
excavated a building without any entrance19 which Paolo Matthiae
suggests might have been the lion’s den that belonged to the temple of
Inanna and a cylinder seal was found on this site on which the lion’s den
may possibly have been depicted. On the seal a rectangular construction
is engraved next to the lions and on another seal, in the upper register is
depicted two lions tearing to pieces a naked man lying between them,
from which Matthiae deducts that prisoners were offered to Inanna. In the
lower segment there are two registers, the upper one with lion figures
and the lower one with male heads, perhaps symbolizing the people that
were offered to the goddess.
Figure 25.16 and 25.17. Cylinder seals with lions and perhaps a pciture
of the lion’s den (Delaporte, Louvre, Catalogue des cylindres, cachets et
pierres gravées the style oriental, II acquisitions; Paris, 1920-1923, n A
939 (AO 6188), p. 196-197, pl. 97; Matthiae, 1994, fig. 6; Brett Chicago,
1936, 92, p. 14, pl. IX; p. 38, fig. 8; Matthiae, 1994)
Shoulder ornament
The left lion on the Burney relief has a shoulder ornament, a sign that
was quite often applied to images of lions and was wide spread in the
ancient Near East. The oldest pictures are from Egypt and in the tomb of
Queen Neit from the third millennium, tame lions were depicted with
ribbons tied around their bodies and a shoulder ornament in the shape of
a rosette. In the second millennium there are variations on the rosettes
and those from the grave of Queen Neit are signified by concentric
circles.

Figure 25.18. Egyptian pictures of lions with a shoulder ornament (Keel,

1992, pl. II A, IIB, IV F; Keel, 1992, pl. IV C, fig. 209)
The question of the original meaning of the shoulder ornament and from
where they came was posed by Helene Kantor in an article dating from
194720, in which she also considers a number of interpretations.
According to the Egyptologist Gustave Jéquier it was a special sign to
indicate a tame lion or perhaps they were worn or only painted on the
pictures of lions and once the lions were equipped with these signs they
became part of a traditional canon of Egyptian reliefs.
Machteld Mellink however has a different theory about the shoulder
signs on lions. She shows that the rosettes of the lions of Queen Neit
were not necessarily simply derived from Egyptian iconography but could
have been the result of a Mesopotamian influence. In Egypt there was no
known association between a rosette and a goddess connected to lions,
but in Mesopotamia such a connection definitely existed and was indeed
the very symbol of the goddess Inanna, as noted in Chapter 2. In that
case the shoulder ornament would indicate that these animals were holy
to Inanna and as was pointed out in Chapter 6, many images of rosettes
were found in the graves of the cemetery in Ur and the rosette was also
the recurrent motif on the gaming boards, very likely to be a lucky sign.

Figure 25.19. Pictures on cylinder seals with the rosette symbol (Douglas
van Buren, 1939, p. 100, fig. 1, 2, 3)
In Susa a fragment of an enthroned female figure was found, the throne
decorated with lions (figure 15.20) sporting rosettes on their shoulders.
However in Elam it was not the goddess Inanna that was worshipped but
the Elamite goddess Narunte.
Figure 25.20. Statuette of an enthroned goddess with inscription of
Puzur-Šušinak from Susa. Limestone. The feet are resting on a podium
with in the middle a rosette and on both sides a lion. Height: 85 cm
(Barrelet, 1955, p. 254, fig. 20; Louvre)
From the second millennium onwards the shoulder ornament was
widespread over the whole of the Near East and the Far East, as far as
Russia and Afghanistan and the Scythes in their turn brought it in the first
millennium to Greece. According to Kantor by that time the shoulder
symbol had already lost its original significance and was no more than a
decoration.
The magic power of the terracotta relief
Not one of the theories which resulted from discussions about the Burney
relief succeeded in completely explaining all the puzzling aspects of this
relief, so the goddess with bird’s talons remains an enigmatic figure. As
Julia Assante has shown, at this time many terracotta reliefs were made
with magically charged designs (Chapter 21), and other terracotta reliefs
featuring a goddess with bird’s wings and talons are known to have been
made at this time. Erotic plaques were a sub category of terracotta reliefs
and perhaps the Burney relief belonged to the same sphere of magical
practice and had the same kind of apotropaic function in the private
religious circle.
Erotic plaques became extremely popular during the Ur III dynasty
and Isin-Larsa period. There were many in circulation depicting a nude
goddess with bird wings and bird talons and this date fits the estimated
date of the Burney relief very well. The images were very popular and
were perhaps used as an apotropaic device.
Figure 25.21. Old clay mould with modern impression. Ca. 1859-1750
B.C. Height: 12,5 cm. (© The Trustees of the British Museum, BM
103226)
Possibly the Burney relief had the same protective function as the
common terracotta plaque but it is so much bigger in size then the normal
domestic objects that it would not be unreasonable to speculate that
perhaps the Burney relief had hung on the wall of the eš-dam, a tavern.
The goddess on the relief could in that case have been Inanna, the
mighty Evening Inanna, the mistress of the eš-dam, the owls a reference
to the evening as well. Many terracotta reliefs have been excavated
depicting Inanna dressed in her war regalia, which would suggest that
people hung them in their dwellings to enjoy the protective effects of the
goddess.
The woman on the Burney relief has a number of characteristics that
point to Inanna, the lions with rosettes and the ring and staff while the
collar is very typical of the neck ornament associated with the goddess.
However, the figure depicted on the Burney relief has demonic features
we do not necessarily associate with Inanna. The tail of the lion is
equipped with the poisonous sting of the scorpion and the scorpion was
the symbol of the goddess Išhara. But then this goddess is closely
related to Ištar and scorpions from very early on were depicted on stamp
seals in the fourth millennium, presumably considered as a fertility
symbol. As was shown in Chapter 21, the scorpion with its poisonous
sting could have a magical or demonic meaning and the goddess on the
Burney relief is standing on a scaled mountainous landscape which could
point to the underworld, so possibly it is indeed the goddess Inanna
depicted on the Burney relief, ascending victoriously from the land of the
dead.

Figure 25.22. Terracotta reliefs with Inanna on a lion. ((Douglas van

Buren, Clay figurines, fig. 130, pl. XXVII; Barrelet, 1968, pl. LXXVIII: 791,
792)
But this explanation is still not totally convincing. Inanna had a fixed
iconography and she always wore the kaunakes garment, with weapons
on her back. It is not likely that the great goddess would be shown nude,
as even the goddess Nanaya, who was an alter ego of Inanna and who
mainly represented her erotic aspects, was never depicted nude.
According to Brigitte Groneberg21 the woman on the Burney reliëf is a
Lilû demon (storm demon), as Frankfort has already suggested. There
are no known pictures of these storm demons but the Burney relief could
be a proper candidate and the storm demon would be Ardat Lilî
according to Groneberg, a manifestation of Ištar, as especially in the late
Babylonian period, Ištar acquired increasingly demonic features. In that
case, Ardat LIlî would represent the dark side of the goddess, a bearer of
bad news.
Wiggermann22 however believes that the figure on the Burney relief is
not Ardat Lilî but a cult object and it seems unlikely that a woman on such
a cult object would be a demoness, as demons were certainly not
worshipped. Wiggermann supports Jacobsen’s idea that the female on
the Burney relief may represent Kilili, a female spirit, who was named
after a bird, presumably an owl.23 In Sumerian she was called dab-bašu-
šu, ‘She who creeps outside through the window’ and she had the status
of a goddess, as may be inferred from the divine determinative. The texts
relate that she had her own cult in Aššur and in some other cities in the
Assyrian period. Abbašušu/Kilili was closely related to another female
storm demon, Abtagigi, literally, ‘she who creeps inside through the
window’. Both spirits belonged to the retinue of Ištar and as a messenger
of Ištar this demon would be interested in sexual matters. Wiggermann24
remarks in a footnote, that the ‘window’ in her name has nothing to do
with prostitution, as Jacobsen had suggested, moreover Kilili did not
creep out of the window, as Jacobsen noted, but on the contrary went
inside through the window.
There were many demons that crept through window openings into
the houses to spread illness and misfortune. Kilili was related to Ištar and
is sometimes identified with her, and Wiggermann believes that Stephan
Maul was right when he noted that Ištar/Kilili is the aspect of Ištar who
ascends to the upper world in search of a substitute to deliver to the
demons who accompanied her. Wiggermann even goes one step further
and suggests that Abbašušu was the planet of Venus, which again
became visible for the first time in the evening sky, resulting in a
stimulation of human fertility. Her opponent Abtagigi is the last waning
sight of Ištar/Venus in the morning with the subsequent diminution of
fertility.
The Burney relief makes us realize how difficult it is to interpret an image
from antiquity when we have no texts to help us. We can imagine what
Inanna and other gods and demons looked like, but they do not
correspond to the pictures that have been preserved until our time. Again
and again we encounter the problem of making the images correspond
with the texts but both means of expression seem to remain at a distance
from each other. The Burney relief probably represents a mythological or
magical background, a true understanding of which is now out of our
grasp, but remains a challenge to our knowledge of the Sumerian gods.
The woman has a horn crown with four layers so she must have been a
very prominent goddess, but her nudity seems to contradict this. The
original colours of the relief were red and black and point to the
underworld, but Ereškigal does not exactly fit into this picture. So far,
Wiggermann’s proposal seems to be the most plausible and the nude
figure of the Burney relief could be Kilili. She stands close to Ištar, which
may explain the horns, the ring and staff and the collar around her neck.
The lions too can be fitted into this picture and the owls on both sides of
the goddess. But is it true that this relief was a cult object? Why should
people make a cult object of a goddess that was defeated in the
underworld in front of Ereškigal? Or is the goddess on the Burney relief
Inanna’s triumphal return from the underworld? Why then was she nude,
as according to her myth all her clothes were returned when she
departed from the land of dead? And why should she be worshipped as
this goddess was seeking a victim that could be sent to the underworld
as her substitute? We simply do not have enough information at our
disposal to piece together the story of the relief and its significance and
are thus unfortunately at a loss to satisfy our curiosity.
Endnotes Chapter 25
1 Collon 2005, p. 5 ff.
2 Collon, 2005, p. 8
3 Collon, 2005, p. 7 ff.
4 Albenda, 2005, p. 175
5 Collon, 2007
6 Frankfort 1937-1939; Collon, 2007
7 Porada, 1980
8 Von der Osten-Sacken, 2002
9 Collon, 2007
10 Jacobsen, 1987
11 Barrelet, 1952, p. 293
12 Douglas van Buren, 1936
13 Jacobsen, 1987
14 Groneberg, 2000, p. 305 Van Binsbergen sees a very ancient history
of the leopard / lion going back to Neolithic and perhaps even older
Palaeolithic times. Texts available on the internet:
www.shikanda.net/…/deleuze_leopard_www.html
15 Behrens, 1998, l. 2, 29.
16 Frankfort, 1935
17 Richter, 2004, p. 363
18 Richter, 2004, p. 365
19 Matthiae, 1994
20 Kantor, 1947
21 Groneberg, 1997, 125-131
22 Wiggermann, 2007
23 RLA, Kilili
24 Wiggermann, 2007, p. 112
Chapter 26 The taming of the shrew
Inanna was a mighty goddess, full of splendor and power with an
irascible temper and to be feared, holding the power of life and death
over the Black Heads. However she was complicated because although
having at her disposal an abundance of much sought after gifts, she
always seemed to be out of step, not the wife of a husband and thus very
difficult to domesticate. In the course of time new gods came to power
such as the god Marduk of Babylon and the god Aššur of the city of
Aššur but Inanna was not that easily pushed aside and she remained
powerful enough to command serious attention from people and kings
alike. However it may be that courtly poets were given the task of
changing her character somewhat, relaxing her grip on power and
reducing the impact of her idiosyncratic character.
In the three hymns that will be dealt with in this last chapter it
becomes obvious that an attempt is being made to tame Inanna. In two
hymns about Inanna and the god Enki, Enki is depicted as playing the
part of the fatherly divinity and Inanna by contrast is depicted as a
rebellious child. In Balağ number 21 Inanna is still a mighty goddess who
conquers enemies on the battlefield but the poet subjects her very
definitely to the authority of the prime god, Enlil.
Enki and the world order
In the myth How Enki ordered the world it becomes clear that Inanna has
fallen outside the normal framework of the divine world. This hymn was
probably written during the late Ur III or Isin/Larsa periods and concerns
Enki, the god who distributes the ME, determining the fate of many
places and gods including Inanna, who has obviously been left out.
Infuriated and not willing to tolerate this new development she hurries to
Enki and insists on an explanation. “But why did you treat me, the woman, in
an exceptional manner? I am holy Inana -- where are my functions?” she
shouts enraged. Inanna then enumerates the names of other goddesses
who have been given certain competences by Enki, from which we learn
that many female goddesses were still active during this period. Enki tries
to assuage her anger by telling her that she already has enough power to
make her voice heard and that she controls the disruptive elements in the
community, war and lamentations for the dead. However Enki does not
mention Inanna’s authority in matters of sexual relations, an aspect of her
authority which seems to have been pushed to the margins and partly
given to other goddesses, such as Nanaya.
Enki answered his daughter, holy Inanna:
“How have I disparaged you? Goddess, how have I disparaged you?
How can I enhance you?
Maiden Inana, how have I disparaged you?
How can I enhance you? I made you speak as a woman with pleasant voice.
I made you go forth ……. I covered …… with a garment.
I made you exchange its right side and its left side.
I clothed you in garments of women’s power.
I put women’s speech in your mouth.
I placed in your hands the spindle and the hairpin.
I …… to you women’s adornment.
I settled on you the staff and the crook, with the shepherd’s stick beside them.”
“Maiden Inanna, how have I disparaged you?
How can I enhance you?
Amongst the ominous occurrences in the hurly-burly of battle,
I shall make you speak vivifying words; and in its midst,
although you are not an arabu bird (a bird of ill omen),
I shall make you speak ill-omened words also.
I made you tangle straight threads; maiden Inanna,
I made you straighten out tangled threads.
I made you put on garments, I made you dress in linen.
I made you pick out the tow from the fibers,
I made you spin with the spindle.
I made you colour tufted (?) cloth with coloured threads.”
Inanna, you heap up human heads like piles of dust, you sow heads like seed.
Inana, you destroy what should not be destroyed; you create what should not be
created.
You remove the cover from the šem drum of lamentations,
Maiden Inanna, while shutting up the tigi and adab instruments in their homes.
You never grow weary with admirers looking at you.
Maiden Inanna, you know nothing of tying the ropes on deep wells.”
But now, the heart has overflowed, the Land is restored; Enlil’s heart has
overflowed, the Land is restored. In his overflowing heart of mankind,”
4 lines unclear
“…… lapis-lazuli headdress …… is your prerogative, …… is your prerogative,
……; is your prerogative, …… is your prerogative.”
10 lines unclear
(The rest, nearly twenty lines is almost entirely lost.)
(Line 421-472)1
Balağ 21
In the Ur III period Inanna was forced to share her prominent position
with the god Enlil in Nippur, the head of the Sumerian pantheon, a ploy
that was only partly successful as in the hymns and myths the powerful
goddess of Venus still appears in full regalia. However the poets have
cleverly implied a subtle link to Enlil, as we can deduct from reading the
Old Babylonian Balag no. 21, in which the goddess is still depicted as the
mistress of the battle field but definitely acting under the supervision of
god Enlil of Nippur. Inanna first pays a visit to her ‘father’ Enlil, whom she
addresses tenderly as ‘Mullil’, the Akkadian honorific title for a priest. We
learn that Inanna has been assigned by Enlil to go to war, but the action
is taken only on behalf of her father, in spite of Inanna continuing to extol
herself and sing her praises as a powerful war goddess, second to
nobody. Again we are informed in a subtle fashion, that Inanna has first
visited the temple of Enlil and that she speaks in his name. There can be
no misunderstanding about the fact that Enlil occupies the first place in
the pantheon, Inanna speaking of herself as the righteous principal cow
of Enlil, figurative language that was common in Mesopotamia. The poem
is one long paean of praise by Inanna to herself. The last couplets go as
follows in Balağ 212:
I rage against the mountains as if on a threshing floor. I pile them into heaps.
I overthrow all the lands together.
Its youngsters as if on a threshing floor [….] I pile its adults in heaps.
I smash its mighty ones like plants.
I stand before my father with warlike prowess.
For Enlil I […] in war and battle.
In battle I can sew thread and spin with the spindle.
I cause skulls to roll about like thick pukku-trees.
I cause the Mesopotamian-trees to twist like multicolored thread.
I stand in heavens. Rain falls.
I stand on the earth. Vegetation sprouts.
Who can rival me?
Who can compare to me?
My first name is ‘Inanna’
My second one is ‘Lady of all the lands’.
My third one is ‘Princess who causes the heavens to tremble, the earth to shake’.
My fourth one is ‘Battle torch’.
My fifth one is ‘Standing in triumph’.
My sixth one is ‘the unique warrior.’
My seventh one is ‘Lady of the E2- ulmaš’ (name of Inanna’s temple in Akkad).
My name causes the singers to stop touching the strings
My name causes the scribes to stop writing.
My choice name (mu-suh) prevents the gala-priests from calling out in song.
The anzu-bird seeks rest in my house.
The collegium of gala and abru-priests stand before me with the harp.
Who can rival me?
Who can compare to me?
The divine (mu-gib =nu-gig/ištaritum) is me
I tear out and replace again.
The poem of Agušaya
But Inanna’s elevated position was being eclipsed. New dynasties had
come to power and brought with them their own male war gods and in the
Gilgameš epos Inanna is humiliated in a blatant way (see Chapter 18)
making it obvious that the mighty goddess will have to rein in her
expectations. In the poem Agušaya, a mythical story probably written in
the late old Babylonian period and not in the Sumerian language but in
Akkadian, the great goddess Innana is referred to as Istar, her Akkadian
namesake and according to the colophon this poem would have been
written during the time of the Babylonian king Ammişaduqa (circa 1646-
1626 BC). The text is heavily damaged and the provenance is unknown
but in the verses we no longer encounter a powerful goddess who
inaugurates kings with ring and staff and who govern through the love of
the goddess. Instead Istar has degenerated into a second class goddess
who is pushed to the sidelines, no longer the love goddess who is visited
by kings to celebrate the Sacred Marriage rite, but a goddess that is
quarrelsome and a troublemaker.
The caption of the text reads uttâr MÙŠ: ‘the snake has returned’ and
according to Groneberg this may be an indication that the Agušaya text
had an apotropaic function. 3 In the poem the god of magic Ea (the
Akkadian Enki) decides to haul Ištar over the coals and addresses her as
Agušaya.
Before the story actually starts a number of ritual actions were required.
Ištar as war goddess performed a dance (gâšum) for the gods and kings,
a ritual probably connected to her name Agušaya, the word Agušaya
deriving from the verb gâšum, ‘to dance, to swirl’. To dance was an
aspect of Inanna and warfare was the ‘dance of Inanna’. The text starts
with a panegyric of Ištar, a belligerent character whom the narrator of the
myth says is always waging war: ‘She dances (igaš) around gods and kings.’
‘Her festival is combat, battles make her dance with glee, nor in them does she
hold back the battle cry, sweeping aside her assailants.4 Maybe this text was
sung during the festival mentioned at the end of this myth. The panegyric
of Ištar continues, with her holding the parşi (the Akkadian word for the
ME) in her hand and distributing it as she pleases, keeping the control of
the people in her power. There is then a purification ritual for the men and
the musicians. The feast is the struggle of Ištar, fighters going wild with
the love of combat that is the feast of Ištar. The sceptre of kingship, the
throne and the crown are assigned to her, as her obstinacy in battle
makes her as strong as a man and her cult servants, the kurgarra and
assinnu also participate in these whirling dances.
In his subterranean dwelling Enki was very nervous when Inanna started
to rage against him, trembling with fear and getting angry with Inanna.
However Enki/Ea invented a ploy to deal with Ištar, convening the
assembly of the gods, submitting his opinion that Istar’s behavior can no
longer be tolerated and suggesting that he will create a suitable opponent
to teach her a lesson. He then proceeds to create a figurine in the same
way as he created the kurgarra and assinu, taking some dirt from under
his fingernails and mixing it with his saliva. In this way he creates Şaltu,
the alter ego of Ištar and destined to fight her. Ea makes her so strong
and powerful that nobody could oppose her, battle is incorporated in her
flesh and hair, her screaming is like a storm tide and her appearance is
frightening. As she stands thumping in his dwelling, Ea orders her to
search for Ištar and humiliate her.
Ea lets his creation curse and rage, slander and insult her enemy, then
he orders Şaltu to hurry to the abode of Išta, saying that she must not
reveal that is was Ea who had sent her and if Ištar inquires about it, Şaltu
must keep her mouth shut. Subsequently he praises the great and mighty
goddess Ištar in the hope that it will make Şaltu jealous and increase her
raging desire to fight, a ploy which is immediately successful as Şaltu
runs off to measure her strength against Ištar
The next part of the text is lost and when the text is again readable we
learn that Ištar has ordered her faithful minister Ninšubur to find out who
this Şaltu may be, of whom she has apparently heard so much. Ninšubur
goes out and catches sight of Şaltu and is struck dumb with fear. She
returns to Ištar and stammers out a description of Şaltu5:
She is b-bizarre in her actions
She b-behaves unreasoningly
In her form she is m-mighty
She makes many c-cries for battle.
She is adorned in a-awesomeness.
I came away from her to save myself.
She is murderous, bullying, vicious.
Has the young man and the maid […]
Inanna reacts furiously but unfortunately the tablets that tell of the
confrontation between both goddesses are lost and when the text is
again legible Ea is conversing with Ištar, who is now called Agušaya.
Obviously Ištar has been brought to her senses and asks Ea to liquidate
Şaltu a request with which Ea is eager to comply. Şaltu was probably
designed to be the alter ego of Inanna, the half of her personality
containing all her worst traits and the sight of it struck so much terror into
the heart of the goddess that she decided to give up her aggressive
behaviour there and then.
Then Ea determined that once a year in the streets a whirling dance
festival (guštu) will be organised during which people can get ecstatic,
drop their normal inhibitions and commemorate with wild dancing the
warrior aspects of Ištar.
Halfway through the second millennium the cult of Inanna became less
and less important. The kings of the Assyrian empire had their own male
gods to protect their state, Marduk and Aššur. Obiously they no longer
needed the love of Inanna however Inanna did not completely disappear
from stage. The Assyrian kings addressed long hymns to her Akkadian
namesake Ištar, and the eunuchs at the court of these Assyrian kings
wore bracelets with rosettes, probably as a token that they had placed
themselves under the protection of the goddess Ištar, who after all had
power over gender and could change a male into a female. On cylinder
seals the goddess is depicted, in full state, with weapons on her back and
often with a star with eight beams in the sky. The lion is her regular
escort and for the Assyrian and Babylonian kings Ištar is still a mighty
goddess that can help them on the battlefield. Nor is she forgotten by the
common people, who honour her in rituals and magical incantations, but
there had come into power new goddesses that had adopted many
aspects of the cult of Inanna, and these goddesses we will follow in our
next book.

Figure 26.1.First millennium, new-Babylonian. Green pomegranate. 4,3

by 1,8 cm. (BM 129543; Collon, 1987, nr. 773)
Endnotes Chapter 26
1 Vanstiphout, 1998, p. 200-201, line. 421-472;
2 Volk, 1989, Balağ 21, p. 193-253; Cohen 1988, p. 593/594
3 Groneberg, 1997, p. 59
4 A iii 7 ff, translation Foster, 1977, p. 80, note 13
5 Foster, 1977, p. 83; Groneberg, 1997, p. 84
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AfO Archivev für Orientforschung
AoF Altorientalische Forschungen
BagM Baghdader Mitteilungen
CAD Chicago Assyrian Dictionary
CRRAI Compte rendu Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale
FAOS Freiburger Altorientalische Studien
JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society
JCS Journal of Cuneiform Studies
JESHO Journal of Economica and Social History of the Orient
JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies
JEOL Jaarbericht ‘Ex Oriente Lux’
KBN De Kêmi à Birît Nâri, Revue Internationale de l’Orient Ancien (Paris)
MARI Mari annales de Recherches Interdisciplinaires
N.A.B.U. Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires
OrNS Orientalia
Or Suec Orientalia Suecana
RA Revue d’Assyriology et d’Archéologie Orientale
RLA Reallexikon der Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archäologie
SAOC Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilizations
UF Ugarit Forschungen
WdO Welt des Orients
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Further Reading
Mentioned below are books that may be read as a first acquaintance with
the history of the Ancient Near East
Charvát Pëtr, Mesopotamia Before History, 2002
Collon Dominique, First Impressions. Cylinder Seals in the ancient Near
East, 1987
Crawford Harriet, Sumer and the Sumerians, 2e edition, 2004
Foster, Benjamin (ed.), the Epic of Gilgamesh, 2001
Fox Michael V.,The Song of Songs and the Ancient Egyptian Love
Songs, 1985
Frankfort H., Art and Architecture in the Ancient Near East, 1954
Haas Volkert, Babylonische Liebesgarten. Erotik und Sexualität im Alten
Orient, 1999
Jacobsen Thorkild, Toward the Image of Tammuz and Other Essays on
Mesopotamian History and Culture, edited by Moran William L., 1970
Jacobsen Thorkild, The Treasures of Darkness. A History of
Mesopotamian Religion, 1976
Kramer Samuel Noah, History Begins at Sumer. Thirty-nine First in
Recorded History, 1956
Leick Gwendolyn, Mesopotamia. The Invention of the City, 2001
Leick Gwendolyn, Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature, 1994
Lion Brigitte, Michel Cécile (eds), Les écritures cunéiformes et leur
déchiffrement, 2009
Meador, Betty De Shong, Inanna, lady of largest heart: poems of the
Sumerian high priestess Enheduanna, 2000
Nissinen Martti, Uro Risto, (eds.), Sacred marriages: the divine-human
sexual metaphor from Sumer to early Christianity, 2008
Oppenheim A. Leo, Ancient Mesopotamia. Portrait of a Dead Civilization,
1977 (1963)
Parpola S, Whiting R.R., (eds.), Sex and Gender in the ancient Near
East, 47e CRRAI, 2002
Radner Karen, Robson Eleanor (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of
Cuneiform Culture, 2011
Rhea Nemet-Nejat, Karen, Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia, 2002
Roaf Michael, The cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near
East, 1990
Sandars Nancy, Poems of Heaven and Hell from Ancient Mesopotamia,
1971
Sasson Jack M., (ed.), Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, 1995 (two
parts)
Schmandt-Besserat Denise, How writing came about, 1996
Schmandt-Besserat Denise, When Writing met Art. From Symbol to
Story, 2005
Sefati Yitschak, Love Songs in Sumerian Literature. Critical Edition of the
Dumuzi-Inanna Songs, 1998
Shehata Dahia, Musiker und ihr vokales Repertoire. Untersuchungen zu
Inhalt und Organisation von Musikerberufen und Liedgattungen in
altbabylonischer Zeit, 2009.
Stol Marten, Zwangerschap en geboorte bij de Babyloniers en in de
Bijbel, 1983
Stol Marten, Vrouwen van Babylon. Prinsessen, priesteressen,
prostituees in de bakermat van de cultuur, 2012
Strommenger Eva, Ur. Aufnahmen von Max Hirmer, 1964
Van de Mieroop Marc, Society and Enterprise in Old Babylonian Ur, 1992
Van de Mieroop Marc, A History of the Ancient Near East, ca. 3000-323
BC, 2004
Van der Toorn Karel, From Her cradle to her Grave. The Role of Religion
in the Life of the Israelite and Babylonian Women, 1994
Wolkstein, Diana, Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and
Hymns from Sumer, 1983