SEX IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA
terra cotta plaque from Mesopotamia, early 2nd millennium BC
Cuneiform tablets recorded erotic poetry. One part of the Gilgamesh story describes the main character’s father meeting his wife-to-be: he “could not resist kissing her on the eyes, could not resist kissing her on the mouth, and also taught her much about lovemaking.”
A Babylonian clay model dated to 1800 B.C. shows a nude couple on a couch engaged in sex and kissing. On the cuneiform for “love”, John Alan Halloran wrote in sumerian.org: “The compound word ki...ag2 means 'to love' and the compound word ki-ag2 means 'beloved', but it is very unusual to find evidence for a noun that means 'love'. I just find one instance of nam-ki-aga2, the abstract noun 'love'. [Source: John Alan Halloran, sumerian.org]
Claude Hermann and Walter Johns wrote in the Encyclopedia Britannica: Under the Hammurabi Code, “adultery was punished with the death of both parties by drowning, but if the husband was willing to pardon his wife, the king might intervene to pardon the paramour. For incest with his own mother, both were burned to death; with a stepmother, the man was disinherited; with a daughter, the man was exiled; with a daughter-in-law, he was drowned; with a son's betrothed, he was fined. A wife who for her lover's sake procured her husband's death was gibbeted. A betrothed girl, seduced by her prospective father-in-law, took her dowry and returned to her family, and was free to marry as she chose. [Source: Claude Hermann Walter Johns, Babylonian Law — The Code of Hammurabi. Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1910-1911 ]
Hammurabi's Code of Laws on Incest: 154. If a man be guilty of incest with his daughter, he shall be driven from the place (exiled). 155. If a man betroth a girl to his son, and his son have intercourse with her, but he (the father) afterward defile her, and be surprised, then he shall be bound and cast into the water (drowned). 156. If a man betroth a girl to his son, but his son has not known her, and if then he defile her, he shall pay her half a gold mina, and compensate her for all that she brought out of her father's house. She may marry the man of her heart. 157. If any one be guilty of incest with his mother after his father, both shall be burned. 158. If any one be surprised after his father with his chief wife, who has borne children, he shall be driven out of his father's house.
Eunuchs existed in Mesopotamia. A small 8th century B.C. ivory statue from Nimrud shows a woman rather suggestively holding up her breast. It was excavated from the woman’s quarters of the royal palace at Nimrud. One remarkable piece from third millennium B.C. depicts a double image of a woman and a woman’s body with the breasts becoming eyes and the mouth serving as her crotch.
Websites on Mesopotamia: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Mesopotamia sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; International Association for Assyriology iaassyriology.com ; Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, University of Chicago isac.uchicago.edu ; University of Chicago Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations nelc.uchicago.edu ; University of Pennsylvania Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations (NELC) nelc.sas.upenn.edu; Penn Museum Near East Section penn.museum; Ancient History Encyclopedia ancient.eu.com/Mesopotamia ; British Museum britishmuseum.org ; Louvre louvre.fr/en/explore ; Metropolitan Museum of Art metmuseum.org/toah ; Ancient Near Eastern Art Metropolitan Museum of Art metmuseum.org; Iraq Museum theiraqmuseum ABZU etana.org/abzubib; Archaeology Websites Archaeology News Report archaeologynewsreport.blogspot.com ; Anthropology.net anthropology.net : archaeologica.org archaeologica.org ; Archaeology in Europe archeurope.com ; Archaeology magazine archaeology.org ; HeritageDaily heritagedaily.com; Live Science livescience.com/
World’s First Recorded Romantic Kiss — 4,500 Years from Mesopotamia
In May 2023, researchers announced that they found evidence of the first known romantic kiss — from Mesopotamia, 4,500 years ago, 1,000 years earlier than what was previously regarded as the oldest kiss. In an article published in Science, researchers from the University of Copenhagen and the University of Oxford revealed their findings on the "ancient history of kissing" based drawings on clay tablets and other materials from early Mesopotamian societies. [Source: Isobel van Hagen, Business Insider, May 21, 2023]
According to Business Insider: It was previously believed the earliest evidence of romantic-sexual lip kissing in humans originated in South Asia 3,500 years ago. Then it spread to other regions, according to the University of Copenhagen. The new research challenges these theories and suggests kissing was common across many different regions and cultures, starting much earlier.
In examining the clay tablets written in cuneiform script in the research, the scientists noted that in the Akkadian language, kissing is divided into two groups: "friendly and familial affection" and "erotic action." "Many thousands of these clay tablets have survived to this day, and they contain clear examples that kissing was considered a part of romantic intimacy in ancient times, just as kissing could be part of friendships and family members' relations," Troels Pank Arbøll, an expert on the history of medicine in Mesopotamia and co-author of the article, said in a statement. "Therefore, kissing should not be regarded as a custom that originated exclusively in any single region and spread from there but appears to have been practiced in multiple ancient cultures over several millennia."
While the exact origins of romantic kissing remain uncertain, the study said, there is some possible evidence that it may have occurred even before the advent of writing. "In fact, research into bonobos and chimpanzees, the closest living relatives to humans, has shown that both species engage in kissing, which may suggest that the practice of kissing is a fundamental behavior in humans, explaining why it can be found across cultures," Sophie Lund Rasmussen, co-author of the study, said.
The researchers also examined sexually-transmitted diseases in early kissing and its "unintentional role" in the transmission of herpes simplex virus 1 — also known as cold sores. Arbøll noted a "substantial corpus of medical texts from Mesopotamia" that mentioned symptoms reminiscent of the virus.While this cannot be taken entirely "at face value" due to the influence of certain religious and cultural overtones, he said, "it is nevertheless interesting to note some similarities between the disease known as buʾshanu in ancient medical texts."
Examples of Kissing in Ancient Mesopotamia
Arbøll said around 2600 B.C. — perhaps even earlier — people began recording stories about their gods. “In one of these myths, we get this description that these gods had intercourse and then kissed,” he said. “That’s clear evidence of sexual romantic kissing.” Within a few centuries, writing had become more widespread across Mesopotamia. With that came more records of daily life, with mentions of kisses traded by married couples and by unmarried people as an expression of desire. [Source: Mindy Weisberger, CNN, February 14, 2024]
According to CNN: Some examples cautioned about the perils of kissing; to kiss a priestess sworn to a form of celibacy “was believed to deprive the kisser of the ability to speak,” according to the study. Another prohibition addressed the impropriety of kissing in the street; that this warning had to be made at all, hinted that kissing was “a very everyday sort of action,” albeit one that was preferably practiced in private, Arbøll said.
Previously, the oldest recorded evidence of kissing was attributed to the Vedas, a group of Indian scriptural texts that date back to around 1500 B.C. and are foundational to the Hindu religion. One of the volumes, the Rig Veda, describes people touching their lips together. Erotic kissing was also featured in great detail in another ancient Indian text: the Kama Sutra, a guide to sexual pleasure dating to the third century AD. Modern scholars therefore concluded that romantic kisses likely originated in India.
But kissing isn’t all sociability, fun and pleasure. One less enjoyable side effect of kissing in humans is the spread of infectious disease. Another study, authored in July 2022 by more than two dozen researchers from institutions in Europe, the UK and Russia, stated that the rapid rise of a lineage of the herpes simplex virus HSV-1 in Europe about 5,000 years ago, was “potentially linked to the introduction of new cultural practices such as the advent of sexual-romantic kissing,” following waves of migration into Europe from the Eurasian grasslands.
But Arbøll and Rasmussen suspected that romantic kissing became accepted in Bronze Age Europe, and not because of migration alone. It’s more likely, they wrote, that the practice of kissing was already at least passingly familiar to people in Europe because it was common in Mesopotamia — and possibly in other parts of the ancient world — and wasn’t just restricted to India.
Animals as Symbols of Fertility and Sex in Mesopotamian Art
Mari baking mold According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Animal imagery was used to express the importance of reproduction and the fertility of the natural world. Animals are shown either nursing their young or feeding from vigorously sprouting plants. Pairs of male and female animals allude to fertility through sexual reproduction. Depictions of particular animals appearing to infinitely repeat on bowls or cylinder seals may have been meant to evoke the desire for abundance and agricultural productivity.” [Source: Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. "Animals in Ancient Near Eastern Art", Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2014, metmuseum.org \^/]
Robert Graves and Raphael Pitai wrote in “Hebrew Myths”: “The tradition that man's first sexual intercourse was with animals, not women, may be due to the widely spread practice of bestiality among the herdsmen of the Middle East, which is still condoned by custom, although figuring three times in the Pentateuch as a capital crime. In the Akkadian Gilgamesh Epic, Enkidu is said to have lived with gazelles and jostled other wild beasts at the watering place, “
Prostitution and Propriety in Babylonia
According to Herodotus, a gigantic system of public prostitution prevailed in Babylonia. Every unmarried woman was compelled to remain in the sacred enclosure of Mylitta — by which Ishtar is apparently meant — until some stranger had submitted to her embraces, while the sums derived from the sale of their personal charms by the handsome and good-looking provided portions for the ugly. [Source: “Babylonians And Assyrians: Life And Customs”, Rev. A. H. Sayce, Professor of Assyriology at Oxford, 1900]
Of all this there is not a trace in the mass of native documents which we now possess. There were the devotees of Ishtar, certainly — the ukhâtu and kharimâtu — as well as public prostitutes, who were under the protection of the law; but they formed a class apart, and had nothing to do with the respectable women of the country.
On the contrary, in the age of Khammurabi it was customary to state in the marriage contracts that no stain whatever rested on the bride. Thus we read in one of them: “Ana-Â-uzni is the daughter of Salimat. Salimat has given her a dowry, and has offered her in marriage to Bel-sunu, the son of the artisan. Ana-Â-uzni is pure; no one has anything against her.” The dowry, as we have seen, was paid by the near relations of the wife, and where there was none, as in the case of the singing-woman married by Nebo-akhi-iddin, there was no dowry at all. The dowries provided for the ugly by the prostitution of the rich must be an invention of the Greeks.
Herodotus on Babylon’s Most Shameful Custom — Sex in the Ishtar Temple
Ben Gazur wrote in Listverse: According to the Greek historian Herodotus, at least once in her life, every Babylonian woman had to go to the temple of Ishtar and serve as a holy prostitute. No matter who offered them a coin, they had to accept his advances. Some researchers dispute that this happened, but there seems to be widespread agreement that service to God was the same as servicing men for money for some women. [Source Ben Gazur, Listverse, January 7, 2017]
Herodotus wrote in 430 B.C.: “The Babylonians have one most shameful custom. Every woman born in the country must once in her life go and sit down in the precinct of Venus [Ishtar], and there consort with a stranger. Many of the wealthier sort, who are too proud to mix with the others, drive in covered carriages to the precinct, followed by a goodly train of attendants, and there take their station. But the larger number seat themselves within the holy enclosure with wreaths of string about their heads — and here there is always a great crowd, some coming and others going; lines of cord mark out paths in all directions the women, and the strangers pass along them to make their choice. [Source: Herodotus, “The History”, translated by George Rawlinson, (New York: Dutton & Co., 1862]
“A woman who has once taken her seat is not allowed to return home till one of the strangers throws a silver coin into her lap, and takes her with him beyond the holy ground. When he throws the coin he says these words: "The goddess Mylitta prosper you" (Venus is called Mylitta by the Assyrians.) The silver coin may be of any size; it cannot be refused, for that is forbidden by the law, since once thrown it is sacred. The woman goes with the first man who throws her money, and rejects no one. When she has gone with him, and so satisfied the goddess, she returns home, and from that time forth no gift however great will prevail with her. Such of the women as are tall and beautiful are soon released, but others who are ugly have to stay a long time before they can fulfil the law. Some have waited three or four years in the precinct. A custom very much like this is found also in certain parts of the island of Cyprus. I.200:
Explaining why such a custom exists, Morris Jastrow said: “Ishtar, as the mother of mankind, is also she who awakens passion. She is attended by maidens who appear to be her priestesses; these may well be the prototypes of the Houris with whom Mohammed peopled the paradise reserved for true believers. Ishtar, herself, is called by a term, kadishtu , that acquires the sense of “sacred prostitute”; and while the famous passage in Herodotus, wherein is described the “shameful custom” of the enforced yet willing defilement of every woman in Babylon in the temple, before being eligible for marriage, rests in part on an exaggeration, in part on a misunderstanding of a religious rite, yet it has a basis of truth in the aforesaid religious custom in connection with the worship of Ishtar, which became an outward expression of the spiritual idea of the goddess as the mother of parturition, and as an instigator of the passion underlying the sexual mystery.” [Source: Morris Jastrow, Lectures more than ten years after publishing his book “Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria” 1911]
Edwin Long's Babylon Marriage Market
Hammurabi's Code of Laws: 127-136: Slander and Adultery
The Babylonian king Hammurabi (1792-1750 B.C.) is credited with producing the Code of Hammurabi, the oldest surviving set of laws. Recognized for putting eye for an eye justice into writing and remarkable for its depth and judiciousness, it consists of 282 case laws with legal procedures and penalties. Many of the laws had been around before the code was etched in the eight-foot-highin black diorite stone that bears them. Hammurabi codified them into a fixed and standardized set of laws. [Source: Translated by L. W. King]
If any one "point the finger" (slander) at a sister of a god or the wife of any one, and can not prove it, this man shall be taken before the judges and his brow shall be marked. (by cutting the skin, or perhaps hair.)
If a man take a woman to wife, but have no intercourse with her, this woman is no wife to him.
If a man's wife be surprised (in flagrante delicto) with another man, both shall be tied and thrown into the water, but the husband may pardon his wife and the king his slaves.
If a man violate the wife (betrothed or child-wife) of another man, who has never known a man, and still lives in her father's house, and sleep with her and be surprised, this man shall be put to death, but the wife is blameless.
If a man bring a charge against one's wife, but she is not surprised with another man, she must take an oath and then may return to her house.
If the "finger is pointed" at a man's wife about another man, but she is not caught sleeping with the other man, she shall jump into the river for her husband.
Code of the Assyrians (c. 1075 B.C.) on Rape and Adultery
from the Iraq Museum
I.12. If the wife of a man be walking on the highway, and a man seize her, say to her "I will surely have intercourse with you," if she be not willing and defend herself, and he seize her by force and rape her, whether they catch him upon the wife of a man, or whether at the word of the woman whom he has raped, the elders shall prosecute him, they shall put him to death. There is no punishment for the woman. [Source: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook]
I.13. If the wife of a man go out from her house and visit a man where he lives, and he have intercourse with her, knowing that she is a man's wife, the man and also the woman they shall put to death.
I.14. If a man have intercourse with the wife of a man either in an inn or on the highway, knowing that she is a man's wife, according as the man, whose wife she is, orders to be done, they shall do to the adulterer. If not knowing that she is a man's wife he rapes her, the adulterer goes free. The man shall prosecute his wife, doing to her as he likes.
I.15. If a man catch a man with his wife, both of them shall they put to death. If the husband of the woman put his wife to death, he shall also put the man to death. If he cut off the nose of his wife, he shall turn the man into a eunuch, and they shall disfigure the whole of his face.
I.16. If a man have relations with the wife of a man at her wish, there is no penalty for that man. The man shall lay upon the woman, his wife, the penalty he wishes.
I.18. If a man say to his companion, "They have had intercourse with they wife; I will prove it," and he be not able to prove it, and do not prove it, on that man they shall inflict forty blows, a month of days he shall perform the king's work, they shall mutilate him, and one talent of lead he shall pay.
I.20. If a man have intercourse with his brother-in-arms, they shall turn him into a eunuch.
I.57. In the case of every crime for which there is the penalty of the cutting-off of ear or nose or ruining or reputation or condition, as it is written it shall be carried out.
Endiku Makes Love to the Harlot Shamhat
A passage from the “Epic of Gilgamesh” about the taming of Gilgamesh’s friend Enkidu goes:
“The hunter went; he led forth the harlot Shamhat with him,
And they took the road, they made the journey.
In three days they reached the appointed place.
Hunter and harlot sat down in their hiding place.
For one day, then a second, they sat at the watering place.
Then cattle arrived at the watering place; they drank.
Then wild beasts arrived at the water; they satisfied their need.
[Source: S. Dalley, Myths from Mesopotamia (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), pp. 52-56, 138-39, piney.com]
“And he, Enkidu, whose origin is the mountain,
Who eats vegetation with gazelles,
Drinks at the watering place with cattle,
Satisfied his need for water with wild beasts.
Shamhat looked at the primitive man,
The murderous youth from the depths of open country.
“"Here he is, Shamhat, bare your bosom,
Open your legs and let him take in your attractions!
Do not pull away, take wind of him!
He will see you and come close to you.
Spread open your garments, and let him lie upon you,
Do for him, the primitive man, as women do.
Then his cattle, who have grown up in open country with him,
will become alien to him.
His love-making he will lavish upon you!"
“Shamhat loosened her undergarments, opened her legs and he took in her attractions.
She did not pull away. She took wind of him,
Spread open her garments, and he lay upon her.
She did for him, the primitive man, as women do.
His love-making he lavished upon her.
For six days and seven nights Enkidu was aroused and poured himself into Shamhat.
Who Will Go to Bed with Me?
Ishtar (Inanna)
Part of The Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi (Ishtar and Tammuz) goes:
"Brother, after you've brought my bridal sheet to me,
Who will go to bed with me?
Utu, who will go to bed with me?
"Sister, your bridegroom will go to bed with you.
He who was born from a fertile womb,
He who was conceived on the scared marriage throne,
Dumuzi, the shepherd! He will go to bed with you."
Inanna spoke:
"No, brother
The farmer! He is the man of my heart!
He gathers the grain into great heaps.
He brings the grain regularly into my storehouses."
Utu spoke:
"Sister, marry the shepherd.
Why are you unwilling?
His cream is good; his milk is good.
Whatever he touches shines brightly.
Inanna, marry Dumuzi.
You who adorn yourself with the agate necklace of fertility,
Why are you unwilling?
Dumuzi will share his rich cream with you.
You who are meant to be the kings protector,
Why are you unwilling?"
Inanna spoke:
"The shepherd? I will not marry the shepherd!
His clothes are course; his wool is rough.
I will marry the farmer.
The farmer grows flax for my clothes,
The farmer grows barley for my table."
See Separate Article: EROTIC MYTHOLOGY INVOLVING OF ISHTAR (INANA) africame.factsanddetails.com
Let My Hand Touch Your Pudenda!
Part of the myth of the god Enlil and his consort Ninlil goes:
Having decided in my mind,
I made my plans,
and was filling from him
my empty womb,
Enlil, king of all lands
made love with me.
As Enlil is your master
so also am I your mistress!
An you be my mistress
let my hand touch your pudenda!
A sperm, your future master,
a lustrous sperm, is in my womb,
a sperm, germ of Suen the moon,
a lustrous sperm is in my womb!
May the sperm, my future master,
go heavenward,
and may my sperm
go to the netherworld,
may my sperm
instead of the sperm, my future master
come to the netherworld!
Enlil, as the man of the city gate
had her lie down in the latter's chamber,
made love with her, kissed her;
and at his lovemaking,
at his first kiss,
he poured into the womb for her
the sperm, germ of Nergal,
the one issuing forth from Meslam!
See Separate Article: EROTIC MESOPOTAMIAN MYTHOLOGY WITH ENLIL AND NINLIL africame.factsanddetails.com
Enki Digs His Phallus into the Dykes and Reedbeds
Part of the myth of Enki and Ninhursanga goes: “All alone the wise one, toward Nintud, the country's mother, Enki, the wise one, toward Nintud, the country's mother, was digging his phallus into the dykes, plunging his phallus into the reedbeds. The august one pulled his phallus aside and cried out: "No man take me in the marsh." [Source: J.A. Black, G. Cunningham, E. Robson, and G. Zlyomi 1998, 1999, 2000, Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, Oxford University, piney.com]
“Enki cried out: "By the life's breath of heaven I adjure you. Lie down for me in the marsh, lie down for me in the marsh, that would be joyous." Enki distributed his semen destined for Damgalnuna. He poured semen into Ninhursaja's womb and she conceived the semen in the womb, the semen of Enki.
“But her one month was one day, but her two months were two days, but her three months were three days, but her four months were four days, but her five months were five days, but her six months were six days, but her seven months were seven days, but her eight months were eight days, but her nine months were nine days. In the month of womanhood, like juniper oil, like juniper oil, like oil of abundance, Nintud, mother of the country, like juniper oil, gave birth to Ninsar.
See Separate Article: EROTIC MESOPOTAMIAN MYTHOLOGY WITH ENKI AND NINHURSANGA africame.factsanddetails.com
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons, Times of Israel, Vorderasiatische Museum Berlin, University of Chicago
Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Mesopotamia sourcebooks.fordham.edu , National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, especially Merle Severy, National Geographic, May 1991 and Marion Steinmann, Smithsonian, December 1988, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Discover magazine, Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, BBC, Encyclopædia Britannica, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Time, Newsweek, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare”by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.
Last updated July 2024