Gwendolyn Leick - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Gwendolyn Leick
Who's Who in the Ancient Near East by Gwendolyn Leick History
History, Who's Who in the Ancient Near East, Jan 31, 2002
The Babylonians: An Introduction
This survey shows the people of Babylon, from kings and merchants to women and slaves, and the so... more This survey shows the people of Babylon, from kings and merchants to women and slaves, and the social, historical, geographical and cultural context in which their extraordinary city flourished for so many millennia. It serves as an introduction to the Babylonians for both students and the interested general reader. The Bible saw Babylon with only negative connotations, and while classical writers admired the city's size and splendour, they deplored some of its more unusual customs. More than any other ancient society, Babylon remained a symbol expressing a mistrust of urbanization. Whatever the perspective taken, for much of the world, the city of Babylon was representative of the whole of Mesopotamian civilization for many centuries. In more recent times, the finds of archaeologists have allowed us to build a more balanced picture of who the Babylonians were, what they contributed to the process of civilization, and what were their intellectual and spiritual preoccupations. Af...
Borsippa
The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, 2012
The Articulation of Sexual Jealousy
Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature, 2013
The paper examines the state sponsored, often vast cemeteries built to bury or commemorate the fa... more The paper examines the state sponsored, often vast cemeteries built to bury or commemorate the fallen ‘martyrs’ during revolutionary or civil wars in two Communist countries, China and North Korea. The legitimization of governments has always been an important issue with such burial sites and recent renovations of existing, as well as new constructions, in both countries show the continuing relevance of the policy. Of interest is also the way in which architectural, sculptural and landscape symbolization were employed to construct imagery that sometimes defies intended ideological messages.
From Adolescence to Maturity: The Myth of Enlil and Ninlil
Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature
Mesopotamia : The Invention of the City
The invention of cities may well be the most enduring legacy of Mesopotamia. There was not just o... more The invention of cities may well be the most enduring legacy of Mesopotamia. There was not just one but dozens of cities, each controlling its own rural and pastoral territory and its own system of irrigation. Historians have tended to highlight the emergence of centralized states which exercised control over often extensive territories, but the most successful socio-political unit to emerge in Mesopotamia remained the city state. This book tells the stories of ten Mesopotamian cities in a way that will do justice to this urban paradigm. The individual stories are heterogeneous, reflecting the often contradictory thought and conclusions of the archaeologists who interpret the physical evidence of sites, of the epigraphists and Assyriologists who have copied and translated the cuneiform tablets, of the historians, geologists and anthropologists who have considered the findings. Most importantly, each city tells its own story through its discovery and a gradual understanding of its hi...
Love Magic and Potency Incantations
Too young – too old? Sex and age in Mesopotamian literature
Tombs of the Great Leaders. A Twentieth Century Guide
Since ancient times, tombs and mausolea have been built to ensure that exceptional individuals re... more Since ancient times, tombs and mausolea have been built to ensure that exceptional individuals remain in the collective memory. Memorializing those who have changed the course of history, such sites enable real deeds to become the stuff of legend and consolidate a leader’s repute; but these sites of memory also serve the political needs both of the time and of subsequent regimes. How is politics played out, and history commemorated, in these locations? Why do they become pilgrimage sites? How do these structures convey meaning, and can they safeguard a leader’s immortality, particularly in the context of changing political conditions? Tombs of the Great Leaders traces the development of the political tomb since the Bronze Age to today, focusing on 20th-century memorials housing communist leaders, from Lenin in Moscow to Mao Zedong in Beijing, to Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi, and Kim Il-Sung in Pyongyang. It also looks at the attempts by fascist rulers Franco and Mussolini to immortalize the...
‘Words of Seduction’: Courtly Love Poetry
Choice Reviews Online
Conventions ix Chronology xiii complicated for a straightforward chronology, but the periods are ... more Conventions ix Chronology xiii complicated for a straightforward chronology, but the periods are located in the chronology and the rulers in Appendix I. The bibliography is very helpful in suggesting in some detail where further readings can be found. Writing this book, with its myriad periods and aspects, was no easy task. But it was certainly easier for someone, Gwendolyn Leick, who has already written several books on the ancient Near East, its architecture, literature, and mythology, as well as a "who's who" and an introduction to the Babylonians. Dr. Leick has spent nearly three decades studying, lecturing on, and writing about Mesopotamia. She has also taught at the universities of Glamorgan, Cardiff, Reading, and in London City, and is a fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute. This long and varied experience is the basis for the latest volume in the steadily growing series of Historical Dictionaries of Ancient Civilizations and Historical Eras. very useful in dealing with such sources, and in the years to come, the seemingly mundane content of economic archives will become important analytical tools for the interpretation and understanding of Mesopotamian history. Dating in ancient history remains uncertain and conjectural. It rests on a system of relative chronologies that take into consideration the stratigraphic sequence of archaeological sites, written sources appearing in such contexts, references to astronomical events, and links with later, established chronologies of Greece or Rome. Dates for the first millennium are more reliable because of the regular astronomical observations recorded by Babylonian scholars and because of the Assyrian eponym lists that can be correlated to regnal years of Assyrian kings. All earlier dates are less secure. In fact, there are three different systems that are based on the interpretation of a group of astronomical texts known as the "Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa," which list first and last visibilities of the planet Venus during the reign of King Ammisaduqa of Babylon. Three dates are possible for his accession to the throne: 1702, 1646, and 1583 B.C. This gives a "high," "middle," and "low" chronology. Although many scholars prefer the high chronology, the middle chronology is used in most of the general historical works, as in the present volume. There is also a fourth chronology that on the basis of pottery evidence dates Ammisaduqa to 1550. Dates for the third millennium are even less clearly established. (reigned 911-891 B.C.). King of Assyria, son and successor of Ashur-dan II. The Synchronistic History reports that he defeated the Babylonian king Shamash-mudammiq. Hostilities between the two states ceased when a peace agreement was drawn up between Nabu-shuma-ukin I, the new Babylonian king, and Adad-nirari in 891. They also took each others daughters in marriage. The good relations between Assyria and Babylonia that this alliance initiated were to last some 80 years. ADAD-NIRARI III (reigned 810-783 B.C.). King of Assyria, son and successor of Shamshi-Adad V. A noteworthy feature of his reign is the fact that during his early years on the throne, military campaigns were conducted by his generals, perhaps due to the young age of the king. The first expedition led by Adad-nirari himself (in 805) was directed against Syria, where he collected tribute from local rulers. The second took him to Babylonia, where he attacked Der, although he seems also to have made efforts to restore peace and order by bringing back Babylonian deportees and statues of gods kept in Assyria. Although he maintained the borders of the empire as they had been under Shalmaneser III, toward the end of his reign Assyria began a period of decline. ADAD-SHUM-IDDINA (reigned c. 1222-1217 B.C.). Kassite king of Babylon during the time of Assyrian domination. ADDA-GUPPI ' (fl. c. 649-547 B.C.). Mother of the Babylonian king Nabonidus. According to a commemorative stele that her son erected after her death, she was born in the 20th year of Ashurbanipal (649) and subsequently rose to a position of influence at the court of Babylon, particularly under the kings Nabopolassar, Nebuchadrezzar II, and Neriglissar. Nabonidus stresses the fact that she was much devoted to the moon god, Sin of Harran. This does not prove, however, as often assumed, that she was a priestess of this deity. She lived to a ripe old age of at least 102 years and died in the ninth year of her son's reign. ADMINISTRATION. The necessity of keeping reliable and durable records of complex economic transactions was the primary motive for the development of writing in Mesopotamia. The wide network of exchange relations and central control that characterized the economy of the Uruk period (mid-fourth millennium B.C.) led to the formation of bureaucratic structures and systems of bookkeeping. This assigned responsibility of ADMINISTRATION • 3
Who’s Who in the Ancient Near East
Page 1. WHO'S WHO THE NClENT NEAR EAST GWENDOLYN LEICK Page 2. Page 3. Who's Wh... more Page 1. WHO'S WHO THE NClENT NEAR EAST GWENDOLYN LEICK Page 2. Page 3. Who's Who in the Ancient Near East This One F4Y7-07E-XLDR Page 4. THE ROUTLEDGE WHO'S WHO SERIES Accessible, authoritative ...
Sippar
The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, 2012
Shuruppak
The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, 2012
Philosophy East and West, 1993
A Dictionary of Ancient near Eastern Architecture
The Classical World, 1991
... ILLUSTRATIONS Cornice above temple doorway, Kom Ombo (Graeco-Roman period) 55 Courtyard in a ... more ... ILLUSTRATIONS Cornice above temple doorway, Kom Ombo (Graeco-Roman period) 55 Courtyard in a fellah's house, Luxor (Egypt) 56 Cult temple of Isis, Philae (Graeco-Roman period) 57 Cyclopean masonry, Boghazköy (Anatolia) 58 Deir-el-Bahari, Western Thebes ...
Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature, 1994
It was found in the Ištar temple at Assur. First millennium. Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin. 2 ... more It was found in the Ištar temple at Assur. First millennium. Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin. 2 Stylized vulva made of frit from the Ištar temple at Assur. First millennium. Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin. 3 Copper pin head in the shape of a house sheltering a couple. S.W.Iran, second half of the third millennium. Louvre. 4 Alabaster plaque from Susa. First half of the second millennium. Louvre. 5 Examples of mass-produced terracotta figurines of nude women. Early second millennium. Louvre. 6 Terracotta moulded relief of coitus a tergo, with the woman drinking beer through a long hollow tube. Tello, early second millennium. Louvre. 7 Terracotta moulded relief, probably showing a lascivious dance rather than an act of copulation. From Larsa, early second millennium. Louvre. 8 Fragmentary terracotta moulded relief depicting a couple embracing on a bed. From Kiš, first half of the second millennium. Louvre. 9 Model bed made of white clay with a nude couple making love. First half of the second millennium. Louvre. 10 Terracotta moulded relief of embracing couple on a bed. From Susa, first half of the second millennium. Louvre. 11 Engraved shell, often thought to depict the love-goddess Ištar. From Mari, first half of the third millennium. Louvre. x PREFACE xi naïve or primitive. Not all of them are poetry, some are myths, rituals, or incantations. Formally, this book is a collection of essays that focus on particular aspects of erotic love that are common to or characteristic of certain genres of Mesopotamian literature. I have approached the compositions from various angles, in order to offer different perspectives, but without feeling committed to a particular mode of interpretation, whether exclusively feminist, structuralist, psychoanalytical, or deconstructionist. I have sometimes used crosscultural comparisons, based on anthropological data from very different cultures, in order to widen the customary conceptual constraint of Ancient Near Eastern scholarship. My comments on the text sometimes differ considerably from those of their editors, but such deviations are acknowledged in the notes. These refer the reader to the original sources, and also sometimes tackle linguistic matters for the attention of my colleagues. My use of the term 'literature' is not meant to convey the notion of fiction or poetry as an aesthetic category as in the German Belletristik, but as a general corpus of written material that is not bureaucratic, documentary, or used for direct communication like letters, receipts, etc. By the word 'text' I mean the original written work or document without any deconstructionist or exegetic dimension. It is not possible to write about sexuality in the Ancient Near East. We know very little about people's private lives. But literature can tell us about cultural aspirations, general norms of thinking, and articulates emotion and desire. This book is only an attempt to do some justice to the complexity, ambiguity and subtlety of Mesopotamian literature on love and I hope that it will stimulate the debate within the field, and deepen the interest of the general reader. xii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To each of the following for the permission to reproduce photographs as indicated: the Musée de Louvre (nos 3, 4-11) and the Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin (nos 1-2). My thanks go to my anthropologist colleague and friend, Teri Brewer, for her suggestions and comments; to Jeremy Black for his critical reading of the manuscript, to Bendt Alster for letting me see drafts of some forthcoming articles and for his encouragement; to Professor W.G.Lambert and Tzvi Abusch for bibliographical assistance; to Tan Pearson for drawing the map; and to my friends Freya and Franz Krummel for their support and inspiration. Cardiff, 1993 xiii Due to the fact that German scholars composed the first lexical works on Akkadian and Sumerian, their principles of transliteration were influenced by German phonetics. The question of the actual pronunciation of both languages is of course, unanswerable, especially in the case of Sumerian, which is not related to any other linguistic group. Assyriologists meanwhile read transliterations, by convention, as if they were written in German. Hence the vowel 'a' is as in English 'far'; 'e' as in English 'hence', 'i' as in 'is', and 'u' as in 'full'. The letter 'š' stands for 'sh', 'h' is pronounced as in Scottish 'loch'. The grave and acute accents on certain syllables in transliterations, as well as subscripted numbers, indicate to the cuneiformist which sign, out of a group of homophones, is written in the text. It does not refer to pronunciation. Length-marks and circumflexes in Akkadian transliterations indicate either vowel-length or contractions. In the translations, square brackets [ ] indicate gaps in the text, due to some damage of the tablet; text within square brackets is restored from other versions. Round brackets ( ) contain words not in the actual text, inserted to facilitate the understanding of the sentence in English. Dots…mean that the translator does not attempt to render a word or passage. A question mark following a word denotes that the chosen English equivalent is considered doubtful by the translator. When a word is written in capital letters this means that the phonetic value is uncertain. All dates are BC unless otherwise stated. xiv ABBREVIATIONS AHw W.von Soden, Akkadisches Handwörterbuch CAD Chicago Assyrian Dictionary CH Code of Hammurabi CT Cuneiform Texts from the British Museum MSL Materialien zum Sumerischen Lexikon RA James Frazer's Golden Bough had an enormous impact on the interpretation of these works. Every love-song, every hymn that mentioned Inanna and Dumuzi, as well as all the archaeological artefacts with sexual scenes, were automatically classified as being pertinent to a 'Sacred Marriage' ritual, with the aim of perpetuating 'fertility'. The notion is still current among contemporary and eminent Assyriologists. But this simplifies the complexity of the subject far too much. The texts themselves did not form a coherent genre, say 'romantic fiction', 'courtly love poetry', or even 'pornography'. An Akkadian catalogue of songs did group together those whose titles suggest a primarily erotic content, but this is an exception. The majority of these compositions have divine protagonists. We hear of the courtship of the goddess Inanna and her young lover, the shepherd Dumuzi, of sensuous Enki, gentle Lugalbanda, and the jealousy of ?arpanîtu, the wife of Marduk. We have intimate poetic dialogues between gods and their spouses which ritually evoke their conjugal sex-life. Some may not have been intended for any ritual use at all, while others, which appear quite secular to our understanding, may have been used in initiations to cultic functions. The scholars affiliated to the famous 'Tablet Houses', the scribal training centres of the Old Babylonian period, collected texts from previous times, and no doubt composed new works, which in turn became literary classics. There is also the influence of the oral medium of song, proverb and narrative, which contributed to the development of cuneiform literature. The distinctions between a religious content (supplied by the presence of divine names) and a secular intention (e.g. entertainment at court) is not always clear. Our conceptual categories do not fit the material, and we find little enlightenment in the native librarian system (what exactly is a 'tigi' or a 'bal-bal-e'?). For this book I have tried to group together texts with some internal coherence of subject-matter and context. I have also ordered the sources, very broadly, according to the date of their composition. 5 The reason for this division is the fact that many Sumerian compositions were only transmitted until the first centuries of the second millennium, but did not become assimilated into the traditional canon of Mesopotamian literature, for which the library of Ashurbanipal is our main source. A number of those that were not passed on have a strong erotic component. I also believe that there is a certain ideological coherence in the earlier Sumero-Akkadian tradition, which is different from the later, primarily
Who's Who in the Ancient Near East by Gwendolyn Leick History
History, Who's Who in the Ancient Near East, Jan 31, 2002
The Babylonians: An Introduction
This survey shows the people of Babylon, from kings and merchants to women and slaves, and the so... more This survey shows the people of Babylon, from kings and merchants to women and slaves, and the social, historical, geographical and cultural context in which their extraordinary city flourished for so many millennia. It serves as an introduction to the Babylonians for both students and the interested general reader. The Bible saw Babylon with only negative connotations, and while classical writers admired the city's size and splendour, they deplored some of its more unusual customs. More than any other ancient society, Babylon remained a symbol expressing a mistrust of urbanization. Whatever the perspective taken, for much of the world, the city of Babylon was representative of the whole of Mesopotamian civilization for many centuries. In more recent times, the finds of archaeologists have allowed us to build a more balanced picture of who the Babylonians were, what they contributed to the process of civilization, and what were their intellectual and spiritual preoccupations. Af...
Borsippa
The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, 2012
The Articulation of Sexual Jealousy
Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature, 2013
The paper examines the state sponsored, often vast cemeteries built to bury or commemorate the fa... more The paper examines the state sponsored, often vast cemeteries built to bury or commemorate the fallen ‘martyrs’ during revolutionary or civil wars in two Communist countries, China and North Korea. The legitimization of governments has always been an important issue with such burial sites and recent renovations of existing, as well as new constructions, in both countries show the continuing relevance of the policy. Of interest is also the way in which architectural, sculptural and landscape symbolization were employed to construct imagery that sometimes defies intended ideological messages.
From Adolescence to Maturity: The Myth of Enlil and Ninlil
Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature
Mesopotamia : The Invention of the City
The invention of cities may well be the most enduring legacy of Mesopotamia. There was not just o... more The invention of cities may well be the most enduring legacy of Mesopotamia. There was not just one but dozens of cities, each controlling its own rural and pastoral territory and its own system of irrigation. Historians have tended to highlight the emergence of centralized states which exercised control over often extensive territories, but the most successful socio-political unit to emerge in Mesopotamia remained the city state. This book tells the stories of ten Mesopotamian cities in a way that will do justice to this urban paradigm. The individual stories are heterogeneous, reflecting the often contradictory thought and conclusions of the archaeologists who interpret the physical evidence of sites, of the epigraphists and Assyriologists who have copied and translated the cuneiform tablets, of the historians, geologists and anthropologists who have considered the findings. Most importantly, each city tells its own story through its discovery and a gradual understanding of its hi...
Love Magic and Potency Incantations
Too young – too old? Sex and age in Mesopotamian literature
Tombs of the Great Leaders. A Twentieth Century Guide
Since ancient times, tombs and mausolea have been built to ensure that exceptional individuals re... more Since ancient times, tombs and mausolea have been built to ensure that exceptional individuals remain in the collective memory. Memorializing those who have changed the course of history, such sites enable real deeds to become the stuff of legend and consolidate a leader’s repute; but these sites of memory also serve the political needs both of the time and of subsequent regimes. How is politics played out, and history commemorated, in these locations? Why do they become pilgrimage sites? How do these structures convey meaning, and can they safeguard a leader’s immortality, particularly in the context of changing political conditions? Tombs of the Great Leaders traces the development of the political tomb since the Bronze Age to today, focusing on 20th-century memorials housing communist leaders, from Lenin in Moscow to Mao Zedong in Beijing, to Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi, and Kim Il-Sung in Pyongyang. It also looks at the attempts by fascist rulers Franco and Mussolini to immortalize the...
‘Words of Seduction’: Courtly Love Poetry
Choice Reviews Online
Conventions ix Chronology xiii complicated for a straightforward chronology, but the periods are ... more Conventions ix Chronology xiii complicated for a straightforward chronology, but the periods are located in the chronology and the rulers in Appendix I. The bibliography is very helpful in suggesting in some detail where further readings can be found. Writing this book, with its myriad periods and aspects, was no easy task. But it was certainly easier for someone, Gwendolyn Leick, who has already written several books on the ancient Near East, its architecture, literature, and mythology, as well as a "who's who" and an introduction to the Babylonians. Dr. Leick has spent nearly three decades studying, lecturing on, and writing about Mesopotamia. She has also taught at the universities of Glamorgan, Cardiff, Reading, and in London City, and is a fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute. This long and varied experience is the basis for the latest volume in the steadily growing series of Historical Dictionaries of Ancient Civilizations and Historical Eras. very useful in dealing with such sources, and in the years to come, the seemingly mundane content of economic archives will become important analytical tools for the interpretation and understanding of Mesopotamian history. Dating in ancient history remains uncertain and conjectural. It rests on a system of relative chronologies that take into consideration the stratigraphic sequence of archaeological sites, written sources appearing in such contexts, references to astronomical events, and links with later, established chronologies of Greece or Rome. Dates for the first millennium are more reliable because of the regular astronomical observations recorded by Babylonian scholars and because of the Assyrian eponym lists that can be correlated to regnal years of Assyrian kings. All earlier dates are less secure. In fact, there are three different systems that are based on the interpretation of a group of astronomical texts known as the "Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa," which list first and last visibilities of the planet Venus during the reign of King Ammisaduqa of Babylon. Three dates are possible for his accession to the throne: 1702, 1646, and 1583 B.C. This gives a "high," "middle," and "low" chronology. Although many scholars prefer the high chronology, the middle chronology is used in most of the general historical works, as in the present volume. There is also a fourth chronology that on the basis of pottery evidence dates Ammisaduqa to 1550. Dates for the third millennium are even less clearly established. (reigned 911-891 B.C.). King of Assyria, son and successor of Ashur-dan II. The Synchronistic History reports that he defeated the Babylonian king Shamash-mudammiq. Hostilities between the two states ceased when a peace agreement was drawn up between Nabu-shuma-ukin I, the new Babylonian king, and Adad-nirari in 891. They also took each others daughters in marriage. The good relations between Assyria and Babylonia that this alliance initiated were to last some 80 years. ADAD-NIRARI III (reigned 810-783 B.C.). King of Assyria, son and successor of Shamshi-Adad V. A noteworthy feature of his reign is the fact that during his early years on the throne, military campaigns were conducted by his generals, perhaps due to the young age of the king. The first expedition led by Adad-nirari himself (in 805) was directed against Syria, where he collected tribute from local rulers. The second took him to Babylonia, where he attacked Der, although he seems also to have made efforts to restore peace and order by bringing back Babylonian deportees and statues of gods kept in Assyria. Although he maintained the borders of the empire as they had been under Shalmaneser III, toward the end of his reign Assyria began a period of decline. ADAD-SHUM-IDDINA (reigned c. 1222-1217 B.C.). Kassite king of Babylon during the time of Assyrian domination. ADDA-GUPPI ' (fl. c. 649-547 B.C.). Mother of the Babylonian king Nabonidus. According to a commemorative stele that her son erected after her death, she was born in the 20th year of Ashurbanipal (649) and subsequently rose to a position of influence at the court of Babylon, particularly under the kings Nabopolassar, Nebuchadrezzar II, and Neriglissar. Nabonidus stresses the fact that she was much devoted to the moon god, Sin of Harran. This does not prove, however, as often assumed, that she was a priestess of this deity. She lived to a ripe old age of at least 102 years and died in the ninth year of her son's reign. ADMINISTRATION. The necessity of keeping reliable and durable records of complex economic transactions was the primary motive for the development of writing in Mesopotamia. The wide network of exchange relations and central control that characterized the economy of the Uruk period (mid-fourth millennium B.C.) led to the formation of bureaucratic structures and systems of bookkeeping. This assigned responsibility of ADMINISTRATION • 3
Who’s Who in the Ancient Near East
Page 1. WHO'S WHO THE NClENT NEAR EAST GWENDOLYN LEICK Page 2. Page 3. Who's Wh... more Page 1. WHO'S WHO THE NClENT NEAR EAST GWENDOLYN LEICK Page 2. Page 3. Who's Who in the Ancient Near East This One F4Y7-07E-XLDR Page 4. THE ROUTLEDGE WHO'S WHO SERIES Accessible, authoritative ...
Sippar
The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, 2012
Shuruppak
The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, 2012
Philosophy East and West, 1993
A Dictionary of Ancient near Eastern Architecture
The Classical World, 1991
... ILLUSTRATIONS Cornice above temple doorway, Kom Ombo (Graeco-Roman period) 55 Courtyard in a ... more ... ILLUSTRATIONS Cornice above temple doorway, Kom Ombo (Graeco-Roman period) 55 Courtyard in a fellah's house, Luxor (Egypt) 56 Cult temple of Isis, Philae (Graeco-Roman period) 57 Cyclopean masonry, Boghazköy (Anatolia) 58 Deir-el-Bahari, Western Thebes ...
Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature, 1994
It was found in the Ištar temple at Assur. First millennium. Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin. 2 ... more It was found in the Ištar temple at Assur. First millennium. Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin. 2 Stylized vulva made of frit from the Ištar temple at Assur. First millennium. Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin. 3 Copper pin head in the shape of a house sheltering a couple. S.W.Iran, second half of the third millennium. Louvre. 4 Alabaster plaque from Susa. First half of the second millennium. Louvre. 5 Examples of mass-produced terracotta figurines of nude women. Early second millennium. Louvre. 6 Terracotta moulded relief of coitus a tergo, with the woman drinking beer through a long hollow tube. Tello, early second millennium. Louvre. 7 Terracotta moulded relief, probably showing a lascivious dance rather than an act of copulation. From Larsa, early second millennium. Louvre. 8 Fragmentary terracotta moulded relief depicting a couple embracing on a bed. From Kiš, first half of the second millennium. Louvre. 9 Model bed made of white clay with a nude couple making love. First half of the second millennium. Louvre. 10 Terracotta moulded relief of embracing couple on a bed. From Susa, first half of the second millennium. Louvre. 11 Engraved shell, often thought to depict the love-goddess Ištar. From Mari, first half of the third millennium. Louvre. x PREFACE xi naïve or primitive. Not all of them are poetry, some are myths, rituals, or incantations. Formally, this book is a collection of essays that focus on particular aspects of erotic love that are common to or characteristic of certain genres of Mesopotamian literature. I have approached the compositions from various angles, in order to offer different perspectives, but without feeling committed to a particular mode of interpretation, whether exclusively feminist, structuralist, psychoanalytical, or deconstructionist. I have sometimes used crosscultural comparisons, based on anthropological data from very different cultures, in order to widen the customary conceptual constraint of Ancient Near Eastern scholarship. My comments on the text sometimes differ considerably from those of their editors, but such deviations are acknowledged in the notes. These refer the reader to the original sources, and also sometimes tackle linguistic matters for the attention of my colleagues. My use of the term 'literature' is not meant to convey the notion of fiction or poetry as an aesthetic category as in the German Belletristik, but as a general corpus of written material that is not bureaucratic, documentary, or used for direct communication like letters, receipts, etc. By the word 'text' I mean the original written work or document without any deconstructionist or exegetic dimension. It is not possible to write about sexuality in the Ancient Near East. We know very little about people's private lives. But literature can tell us about cultural aspirations, general norms of thinking, and articulates emotion and desire. This book is only an attempt to do some justice to the complexity, ambiguity and subtlety of Mesopotamian literature on love and I hope that it will stimulate the debate within the field, and deepen the interest of the general reader. xii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To each of the following for the permission to reproduce photographs as indicated: the Musée de Louvre (nos 3, 4-11) and the Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin (nos 1-2). My thanks go to my anthropologist colleague and friend, Teri Brewer, for her suggestions and comments; to Jeremy Black for his critical reading of the manuscript, to Bendt Alster for letting me see drafts of some forthcoming articles and for his encouragement; to Professor W.G.Lambert and Tzvi Abusch for bibliographical assistance; to Tan Pearson for drawing the map; and to my friends Freya and Franz Krummel for their support and inspiration. Cardiff, 1993 xiii Due to the fact that German scholars composed the first lexical works on Akkadian and Sumerian, their principles of transliteration were influenced by German phonetics. The question of the actual pronunciation of both languages is of course, unanswerable, especially in the case of Sumerian, which is not related to any other linguistic group. Assyriologists meanwhile read transliterations, by convention, as if they were written in German. Hence the vowel 'a' is as in English 'far'; 'e' as in English 'hence', 'i' as in 'is', and 'u' as in 'full'. The letter 'š' stands for 'sh', 'h' is pronounced as in Scottish 'loch'. The grave and acute accents on certain syllables in transliterations, as well as subscripted numbers, indicate to the cuneiformist which sign, out of a group of homophones, is written in the text. It does not refer to pronunciation. Length-marks and circumflexes in Akkadian transliterations indicate either vowel-length or contractions. In the translations, square brackets [ ] indicate gaps in the text, due to some damage of the tablet; text within square brackets is restored from other versions. Round brackets ( ) contain words not in the actual text, inserted to facilitate the understanding of the sentence in English. Dots…mean that the translator does not attempt to render a word or passage. A question mark following a word denotes that the chosen English equivalent is considered doubtful by the translator. When a word is written in capital letters this means that the phonetic value is uncertain. All dates are BC unless otherwise stated. xiv ABBREVIATIONS AHw W.von Soden, Akkadisches Handwörterbuch CAD Chicago Assyrian Dictionary CH Code of Hammurabi CT Cuneiform Texts from the British Museum MSL Materialien zum Sumerischen Lexikon RA James Frazer's Golden Bough had an enormous impact on the interpretation of these works. Every love-song, every hymn that mentioned Inanna and Dumuzi, as well as all the archaeological artefacts with sexual scenes, were automatically classified as being pertinent to a 'Sacred Marriage' ritual, with the aim of perpetuating 'fertility'. The notion is still current among contemporary and eminent Assyriologists. But this simplifies the complexity of the subject far too much. The texts themselves did not form a coherent genre, say 'romantic fiction', 'courtly love poetry', or even 'pornography'. An Akkadian catalogue of songs did group together those whose titles suggest a primarily erotic content, but this is an exception. The majority of these compositions have divine protagonists. We hear of the courtship of the goddess Inanna and her young lover, the shepherd Dumuzi, of sensuous Enki, gentle Lugalbanda, and the jealousy of ?arpanîtu, the wife of Marduk. We have intimate poetic dialogues between gods and their spouses which ritually evoke their conjugal sex-life. Some may not have been intended for any ritual use at all, while others, which appear quite secular to our understanding, may have been used in initiations to cultic functions. The scholars affiliated to the famous 'Tablet Houses', the scribal training centres of the Old Babylonian period, collected texts from previous times, and no doubt composed new works, which in turn became literary classics. There is also the influence of the oral medium of song, proverb and narrative, which contributed to the development of cuneiform literature. The distinctions between a religious content (supplied by the presence of divine names) and a secular intention (e.g. entertainment at court) is not always clear. Our conceptual categories do not fit the material, and we find little enlightenment in the native librarian system (what exactly is a 'tigi' or a 'bal-bal-e'?). For this book I have tried to group together texts with some internal coherence of subject-matter and context. I have also ordered the sources, very broadly, according to the date of their composition. 5 The reason for this division is the fact that many Sumerian compositions were only transmitted until the first centuries of the second millennium, but did not become assimilated into the traditional canon of Mesopotamian literature, for which the library of Ashurbanipal is our main source. A number of those that were not passed on have a strong erotic component. I also believe that there is a certain ideological coherence in the earlier Sumero-Akkadian tradition, which is different from the later, primarily