Oldest Love Poem Known / Marriage of Inanna and Dumuzi
"Istanbul #2461" was written by the ancient
Sumerians and is etched on a clay tablet.
The following translation of The Love Song of Shu-Sin is from Samuel Noah Kramer's work 'History Begins at Sumer', pp 246-247:
Marriage of Inanna and Dumuzi
“The Love Song for Shu-Sin”
“The Love Song for Shu-Sin”
Addressed to the Sumerian king Shu-Sin
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.
Bridegroom, let me caress you,
My precious caress is more savory than honey,
In the bedchamber, honey-filled,
Let me enjoy your goodly beauty,
Lion, let me caress you,
My precious caress is more savory than honey.
Bridegroom, you have taken your pleasure of me,
Tell my mother, she will give you delicacies,
My father, he will give you gifts.
Your spirit, I know where to cheer your spirit,
Bridegroom, sleep in our house until dawn,
Your heart, I know where to gladden your heart,
Lion, sleep in our house until dawn.
You, because you love me,
Give me pray of your caresses,
My lord god, my lord protector,
My Shu-Sin, who gladdens Enlil’s heart,
Give my pray of your caresses.
Your place goodly as honey, pray lay your hand on it,
Bring your hand over like a gishban-garment,
Cup your hand over it like a gishban-sikin-garment
It is a balbale-song of Inanna.
Marriage of Inanna and Dumuzi
“The Love Song for Shu-Sin”
An inscription dating back to c.2000 BCE, The Love Song for Shu-Sin is described as the world’s oldest known love poem.
“Once a year, according to Sumerian belief, it was the sacred duty of the ruler to marry a priestess and votary of Inanna, the goddess of love and procreation, in order to ensure fertility to the soil and fecundity to the womb,” writes Sumerologist Samuel Noah Kramer.
“The time-honored ceremony was celebrated on New Year’s day and was preceeded by feasts and banquets accompanied by music, song, and dance. The poem inscribed on the little Istanbul clay tablet was in all probability recited by the chosen bride of King Shu-Sin in the course of one of these New Year celebrations.”
“The Love Song for Shu-Sin”
An inscription dating back to c.2000 BCE, The Love Song for Shu-Sin is described as the world’s oldest known love poem.
“Once a year, according to Sumerian belief, it was the sacred duty of the ruler to marry a priestess and votary of Inanna, the goddess of love and procreation, in order to ensure fertility to the soil and fecundity to the womb,” writes Sumerologist Samuel Noah Kramer.
“The time-honored ceremony was celebrated on New Year’s day and was preceeded by feasts and banquets accompanied by music, song, and dance. The poem inscribed on the little Istanbul clay tablet was in all probability recited by the chosen bride of King Shu-Sin in the course of one of these New Year celebrations.”
Marriage of Inanna and Dumuzi
http://http://www.ancient.eu/article/750/
by Joshua J. Mark
published on 13 August 2014
In the 19th century CE, archaeologists descended on the region of Mesopotamia seeking physical evidence which would corroborate the biblical narratives of the Old Testament. While this may not have been initially their driving purpose, their need for funding (based on public interest to justify such funding) soon made it so. When the archaeologist Austen Henry Layard began excavations at Kalhu in 1845 CE, assisted by Hormuzd Rassam, he was under so much pressure to find biblical sites that he jumped to the conclusion the city he had uncovered was Nineveh. His published account of the excavations, in 1849 CE, was titled Nineveh and its Remains and, owing to Nineveh’s fame from the Bible, the book became a best seller. The success of the book sparked further interest in Mesopotamian history as a means of corroborating biblical narratives and so further expeditions were sent to the region in search of other cities mentioned in the Bible.
Prior to this time, the Bible was considered the oldest book in the world and The Song of Songs from the Bible (also known as The Song of Solomon) the oldest love poem. Interestingly, the expeditions sent to historically corroborate the stories from the Bible did precisely the opposite. When Layard excavated the actual site of Nineveh in 1846-1847 CE he discovered the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (reigned 668-627 BCE) and the cuneiform texts, which were then translated by the legendary George Smith, made it clear that the story of the Fall of Man and The Great Flood and Noah's Ark were not original compositions of the authors of the Book of Genesis but were pre-existing Mesopotamian tales which were re-worked by later Hebrew scribes. The Song of Songs, dated to the 6th-3rd centuries BCE, could no longer be considered the oldest love poem once The Love Song for Shu-Sin (written c.2000 BCE) was discovered.
When it was found, the cuneiform tablet of The Love Song for Shu-Sin was taken to the Istanbul Museum in Turkey where it was stored in a drawer, untranslated and unknown, until 1951 CE when the famous Sumerologist Samuel Noah Kramer came across it while translating ancient texts. Kramer was trying to decide what works to translate next when he found the love song in the drawer. He describes the moment in his work History Begins at Sumer:
"The little tablet numbered 2461 was lying in one of the drawers, surrounded by a number of other pieces. When I first laid eyes on it, its most attractive feature was its state of preservation. I soon realized that I was reading a poem, divided into a number of stanzas, which celebrated beauty and love, a joyous bride and a king named Shu-Sin (who ruled over the land of Sumer close to four thousand years ago). As I read it again and yet again, there was no mistaking its content. What I held in my hand was one of the oldest love songs written down by the hand of man."
The poem was not just a love poem, however, but a part of the sacred rite, performed each year, known as the "sacred marriage" in which the king would symbolically marry the goddess Inanna, mate with her, and ensure fertility and prosperity for the coming year. Kramer writes:
"Once a year, according to Sumerian belief, it was the sacred duty of the ruler to marry a priestess and votary of Inanna, the goddess of love and procreation, in order to ensure fertility to the soil and fecundity to the womb. The time-honored ceremony was celebrated on New Year's day and was preceeded by feasts and banquets accompanied by music, song, and dance. The poem inscribed on the little Istanbul clay tablet was in all probability recited by the chosen bride of King Shu-Sin in the course of one of these New Year celebrations."
The scholar Jeremy Black, also well respected for his work with Mesopotamian texts, interprets the poem along the same lines. Black writes:
"This is one of several love songs composed for this king which articulate a belief in his very close and personal repationship with the goddess of love. In some songs of this type, the king's name seems to have been merely substituted for that of Dumuzi [Inanna's celestial lover in myth]. Almost certainly they were performed in the context of certain religious rituals which have been referred to as the `sacred marriage' but the precise details are unknown. The belief that the king could in some sense actually have sexual intercourse with the goddess is intimately connected to the belief in the divinity of the kings of this period."
It is likely that the king, in having sexual relations with one of Inanna's priestesses, was thought to be having sex with the goddess herself but, as Black notes, the details of the sacred marriage ritual are unknown. While the recitation of the poem by the `bride' served a religious and social function in the community by ensuring prosperity, it is also a deeply personal and affectionate composition, spoken in the female voice, concerning romantic and erotic love.
Shu-Sin reigned as king in the city of Ur from 1972-1964 BCE according to what is known in scholarly circles as the `short chronology' but, according to the `long chronology' used by some scholars, reigned 2037-2029 BCE. The poem, therefore, is dated according to either 1965 BCE or 2030 BCE but is most often assigned a general date of composition at around 2000 BCE. Shu-Sin was the younger son of Shulgi of Ur (reigned 2029-1982 BCE) who was the last great king of the Ur III Period (2047-1750 BCE). According to the historian Stephen Bertman, besides this poem, "Shu-Sin was also the male lead in a series of erotic poems in Akkadian written in dialogue form similar to the later biblical Song of Songs" (105). Long before the biblical narratives were set down, then, the Mesopotamians were writing the `first drafts' of some of the most influential works in world history.
The archaeological work done in Mesopotamia in the 19th century CE completely changed the way history, and the world, could be understood. Once upon a time, the ancient past stopped with the Bible and the version of history presented in the biblical narratives. Following the discovery of Mesopotamia's ancient past, history was enlarged, deepened, and humanity's story became much more complex and interesting. The literature of ancient Mesopotamia provided the first forms of world literature, the first expressions of human emotion and experience and, among them, the experience of romantic love and passion through the world's oldest love poem.
This translation of The Love Song of Shu-Sin is from Samuel Noah Kramer's work History Begins at Sumer
About the Author of this Article
Joshua J. Mark
A freelance writer and part-time Professor of Philosophy at Marist College, New York, Joshua J. Mark has lived in Greece and Germany and traveled through Egypt. He teaches ancient history, writing, literature, and philosophy.
by Joshua J. Mark
published on 13 August 2014
In the 19th century CE, archaeologists descended on the region of Mesopotamia seeking physical evidence which would corroborate the biblical narratives of the Old Testament. While this may not have been initially their driving purpose, their need for funding (based on public interest to justify such funding) soon made it so. When the archaeologist Austen Henry Layard began excavations at Kalhu in 1845 CE, assisted by Hormuzd Rassam, he was under so much pressure to find biblical sites that he jumped to the conclusion the city he had uncovered was Nineveh. His published account of the excavations, in 1849 CE, was titled Nineveh and its Remains and, owing to Nineveh’s fame from the Bible, the book became a best seller. The success of the book sparked further interest in Mesopotamian history as a means of corroborating biblical narratives and so further expeditions were sent to the region in search of other cities mentioned in the Bible.
Prior to this time, the Bible was considered the oldest book in the world and The Song of Songs from the Bible (also known as The Song of Solomon) the oldest love poem. Interestingly, the expeditions sent to historically corroborate the stories from the Bible did precisely the opposite. When Layard excavated the actual site of Nineveh in 1846-1847 CE he discovered the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (reigned 668-627 BCE) and the cuneiform texts, which were then translated by the legendary George Smith, made it clear that the story of the Fall of Man and The Great Flood and Noah's Ark were not original compositions of the authors of the Book of Genesis but were pre-existing Mesopotamian tales which were re-worked by later Hebrew scribes. The Song of Songs, dated to the 6th-3rd centuries BCE, could no longer be considered the oldest love poem once The Love Song for Shu-Sin (written c.2000 BCE) was discovered.
When it was found, the cuneiform tablet of The Love Song for Shu-Sin was taken to the Istanbul Museum in Turkey where it was stored in a drawer, untranslated and unknown, until 1951 CE when the famous Sumerologist Samuel Noah Kramer came across it while translating ancient texts. Kramer was trying to decide what works to translate next when he found the love song in the drawer. He describes the moment in his work History Begins at Sumer:
"The little tablet numbered 2461 was lying in one of the drawers, surrounded by a number of other pieces. When I first laid eyes on it, its most attractive feature was its state of preservation. I soon realized that I was reading a poem, divided into a number of stanzas, which celebrated beauty and love, a joyous bride and a king named Shu-Sin (who ruled over the land of Sumer close to four thousand years ago). As I read it again and yet again, there was no mistaking its content. What I held in my hand was one of the oldest love songs written down by the hand of man."
The poem was not just a love poem, however, but a part of the sacred rite, performed each year, known as the "sacred marriage" in which the king would symbolically marry the goddess Inanna, mate with her, and ensure fertility and prosperity for the coming year. Kramer writes:
"Once a year, according to Sumerian belief, it was the sacred duty of the ruler to marry a priestess and votary of Inanna, the goddess of love and procreation, in order to ensure fertility to the soil and fecundity to the womb. The time-honored ceremony was celebrated on New Year's day and was preceeded by feasts and banquets accompanied by music, song, and dance. The poem inscribed on the little Istanbul clay tablet was in all probability recited by the chosen bride of King Shu-Sin in the course of one of these New Year celebrations."
The scholar Jeremy Black, also well respected for his work with Mesopotamian texts, interprets the poem along the same lines. Black writes:
"This is one of several love songs composed for this king which articulate a belief in his very close and personal repationship with the goddess of love. In some songs of this type, the king's name seems to have been merely substituted for that of Dumuzi [Inanna's celestial lover in myth]. Almost certainly they were performed in the context of certain religious rituals which have been referred to as the `sacred marriage' but the precise details are unknown. The belief that the king could in some sense actually have sexual intercourse with the goddess is intimately connected to the belief in the divinity of the kings of this period."
It is likely that the king, in having sexual relations with one of Inanna's priestesses, was thought to be having sex with the goddess herself but, as Black notes, the details of the sacred marriage ritual are unknown. While the recitation of the poem by the `bride' served a religious and social function in the community by ensuring prosperity, it is also a deeply personal and affectionate composition, spoken in the female voice, concerning romantic and erotic love.
Shu-Sin reigned as king in the city of Ur from 1972-1964 BCE according to what is known in scholarly circles as the `short chronology' but, according to the `long chronology' used by some scholars, reigned 2037-2029 BCE. The poem, therefore, is dated according to either 1965 BCE or 2030 BCE but is most often assigned a general date of composition at around 2000 BCE. Shu-Sin was the younger son of Shulgi of Ur (reigned 2029-1982 BCE) who was the last great king of the Ur III Period (2047-1750 BCE). According to the historian Stephen Bertman, besides this poem, "Shu-Sin was also the male lead in a series of erotic poems in Akkadian written in dialogue form similar to the later biblical Song of Songs" (105). Long before the biblical narratives were set down, then, the Mesopotamians were writing the `first drafts' of some of the most influential works in world history.
The archaeological work done in Mesopotamia in the 19th century CE completely changed the way history, and the world, could be understood. Once upon a time, the ancient past stopped with the Bible and the version of history presented in the biblical narratives. Following the discovery of Mesopotamia's ancient past, history was enlarged, deepened, and humanity's story became much more complex and interesting. The literature of ancient Mesopotamia provided the first forms of world literature, the first expressions of human emotion and experience and, among them, the experience of romantic love and passion through the world's oldest love poem.
This translation of The Love Song of Shu-Sin is from Samuel Noah Kramer's work History Begins at Sumer
About the Author of this Article
Joshua J. Mark
A freelance writer and part-time Professor of Philosophy at Marist College, New York, Joshua J. Mark has lived in Greece and Germany and traveled through Egypt. He teaches ancient history, writing, literature, and philosophy.
Kissing has been recorded for at least the last five millennia.
The earliest literate civilization in the world,... Sumer, mentions both lip and tongue kissing in its poetry;
My lips are too small, they know not to kiss.
My precious sweet, lying by my heart,
one by one "tonguemaking," one by one.
When my sweet precious, my heart, had lain down too,
each of them in turn kissing with the tongue, each in turn
The earliest literate civilization in the world,... Sumer, mentions both lip and tongue kissing in its poetry;
My lips are too small, they know not to kiss.
My precious sweet, lying by my heart,
one by one "tonguemaking," one by one.
When my sweet precious, my heart, had lain down too,
each of them in turn kissing with the tongue, each in turn
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