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The Whores of Babylon
THE WHORES OF BABYLON
Ishtar's sacred harlots belonged to an organized hierarchy, painstakingly recorded by the Babylonians. Her top-ranking priestesses were called Entu, and wore special clothing to distinguish them from the others. Their caps, jewelry and ceremonial staff were the same as those of the ruler, and their status equal to those of the male priests.
The Babylonian naditu, ranking next in importance to the entu, were drawn from the highest families in the land. In dedicating their lives to the goddess they were supposed to remain single and childless. However, the naditu cheerfully ignored this structure, and led full and active lives. They were bright and canny, with considerable business acumen: 'They bought, sold and hired out; lent money and grain; invested, imported, exported, dealt in slaves, managed land and people, played from the cloisters an essential part in the economy of the country. Beneath these women came the qadishtu (sacred women) and the ishtaritu, many of whom specialized in the arts of dancing, music and singing.
From snippets of information in classical literature, and certain artifacts, it is possible to surmise that these women demonstrated their sexuality by dancing a version of the sensuous, undulating belly dance which is still extremely popular all over the Middle East today. As Wendy Buonaventura writes of the dance: '... everything indicates a connection between birth mime, early creation dance and that which was part of goddess rites in the prehistoric world'. The dance is characterized by 'snakelike and vigorous hip and pelvic movements, the manipulation of veils, a descent to the floor and the ritual wearing of a hip- belt or sash, which we can link with the girdle, Ishtar's symbolic emblem. In the Middle East this alluring dance is still performed by women, at all-female gatherings from which men are banned.
The snake's sensuous coils may have inspired the undulations of Middle Eastern dance.In addition to the activities of the sacred temple whores, there were sacramental sexual initiations of a slightly different character. The Greek historian Herodotus (3 BC) tells us: 'Babylonian custom... compels every woman of the land once in her life to sit in the temple of love and have intercourse with some stranger... the men pass and make their choice. It matters not what be the sum of money; the woman will never refuse, for that were a sin, the money being by this act made sacred. After their intercourse she has made herself holy in the sight of the goddess and goes away to her home; and thereafter there is no bribe however great that will get her. So then the women that are tall and fair are soon free to depart, but the uncomely have long to wait because they cannot fulfill the law; for some of them remain for three years or four. There is a custom like this in some parts of Cyprus.'
Many of these women returned home to marry and have children. Later Sumerian texts, however, advised against marrying a fully-fledged temple prostitute since she would be too independent, 'besides being accustomed to scepting other men, she would make an unsympathetic and intractable wife'.
Overall, the sacred whores were credited with transformative powers, as the myth of the wild, hairy Enkidu makes plain. The Epic of Gilgamesh tells how the semi-divine hero became so overweeningly arrogant that the other gods created Enkidu to steal some of his power. A hunter discovered this primitive being at a watering hole, drinking with the animals, and informed Gilgamesh of the trap. On hearing the news, Gilgamesh sent a 'child of pleasure' from the temple of love to lure Enkidu away. The woman disrobed 'laying bare her ripeness'. This had the desired effect and the animal man was ensnared:
. . . and [Enkidu] possessed her ripeness.
She was not bashful as she welcomed his ardour.
She laid aside her cloth and he rested upon her.
She treated him, the savage, to a woman's task,
And his love was drawn into her.
After six days and seven nights instructive lovemaking, Enkidu became an initiate - possessed of both 'wisdom' and 'broader understanding'. The harlot then led him to the gates of the city, where he took up a new, more civilized, existence - his animal nature having been transformed by his intensely passionate encounter and his newfound knowledge of the arts of love.
The semi-divine hero Gilgamesh with a lion from an Assyrian stone relief (8th century BC)
THE SACRED MARRIAGE
The goddess Inanna speaks to her lover:
Bridegroom, dear to my heart,
Goodly is your beauty, honeysweet.
Lion, dear to my heart,
Goodly is your beauty, honeysweet.
You have captivated me, let me stand tremblingly before you,
Bridegroom, I would be taken by you to the bedchamber.
You have captivated me, let me stand tremblingly before you,
Lion, I would be taken by you to the Bedchamber.
My precious caress is more savory than honey,
In the bedchamber, honey filled,
Let us enjoy your goodly beauty, Lion, let me caress you.
My precious caress is more savory than honey.Ishtar sits at the window - an image of the goddess as the sacred prostitute.
The sacred marriage between priestess and king was the most solemn and numinous of all Mesopotamian religious rituals. Through this act, the fecundity and sheer life-force of the goddess was honored, released, and drawn down to vivify the land and its people. Her blessing was conferred on the earth itself and on the position of the ruling king. Without his wedding to the goddess, in the living form of her priestess, the king was not considered fit or able to rule the people. His temporal potency was inextricably linked with his physical prowess and attuned to his own instinctual sexual energies.
New Year, the 'day of rites', was the time set aside for these ecstatic, hedonistic celebrations. In Mesopotamia, New Year fell at the time of the spring equinox, when the earth was pulsing with fresh, new life. In a feast of collective pleasure lasting many days, the people venerated the divine nature of sexual joy. Everything was designed to stir the senses, and men and women bathed and anointed their oiled skin with herbs and essences. They darkened their eyelids, painted their faces and decorated themselves with jewelry. Scented lotions were used to set curls in their dark hair. Arrayed in all their finery they toasted the goddess and her bridegroom with wine, and performed serpentine, circling dances to the haunting music of lyres, flutes and drums. Sacrifices and libations were made and the perfumed air was thick with the heady scents of cinnamon, aloes and myrrh. In Babylon, a great pyre of incense smoldered atop the legendary, pyramid-like Tower of Babel. At the peak of this lavish carnival the king approached the temple, bearing offerings of oil, precious spices and tempting foods to lay before Inanna/ Ishtar. The crowds thronging the temple precincts chanted sacred erotic poems, creating a highly-charged atmosphere of sensual anticipation and mystical participation. In these poems the goddess, and by extension the priestess who embodied her, prepared for her nuptials with great care: When for the wild bull, for the lord, I shall have bathed, When for the shepherd Dumuzi, I shall have bathed, . . . When with amber my mouth I shall have coated, When with kohl my eyes I shall have painted.
The sacred marriage took place in the heart of the temple, where the king waited for the goddess/priestess to approach and receive him. One poem describes how the profound religious significance of their union made 'the throne in the great sanctuary' as glorious as the daylight, and transformed the king, who became 'like the Sun-god', literally and symbolically enlightened. Inanna's passion is described in rapturous poetry. The hymns and sacred erotic poems of Mesopotamia celebrate sexuality in a way which reveres its power, inspirational energies and transformative qualities. It is this indivisible fusion of the sexual and the spiritual that formed the core of their religion.
The following sensuous text describes the divine lovemaking of Inanna and Dumuzi - the consummation of the sacred marriage. It is a continuation of the lines quoted above, and was translated from the Gudea Cylinders (3000 BC) from ancient Sumer:
When the lord, lying by holy Inanna,
the shepherd Dumuzi,
With milk and cream the lap shall have smoothed...
When on my vulva his hands he shall have laid,
When like his black boat, he shall have... it,
When like his narrow boat, he shall have brought life to it,
When on the bed he shall have caressed me,
Then I shall caress my lord, a sweet fate I shall decree for him,
I shall caress Shulgi, the faithful shepherd,
A sweet fate I shall decree for him,
I shall caress his loins,
The shepherdship of all the lands, I shall decree as his fate.
