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ikhet_sekhmetApologies for spamming you all recently. One of the mes of depression is the obsessive re-organising of folders and files. :-) I hope at least some of it's of interest. I'll try to use cuts a little more.
An inscription found by Woolley at Alalakh in Southern Turkey contains a ripping curse:
"... may the god Hadad dash him into pieces with the weapon which is in his hand; may Hebat-Ishtar shatter his spear; may Ishtar deliver him into the hands of those who pursue him; may Ishtar... impress feminine parts into his male parts."
I assume that last bit means "May Ishtar turn him into a woman". As we know from the hymn "The great-hearted mistress", turning men into women and women into men is one of Inanna's mes. Commenting on the inscription, Nadav Na'aman gives a number of examples of Ishtar turning men into women, for example in Assyrian royal inscriptions, and deduces "a popular legend or belief where Ishtar played the role of a castrating goddess". Perhaps so, but Ishtar's own masculinity and her ability to also change women into men make me wonder if there was more to it than just castration - the curse describes changing male genitals, not their removal.
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Na'aman, Nadav. The Ishtar Temple at Alalakh. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 39(3) July 1980, pp 209-214.
An inscription found by Woolley at Alalakh in Southern Turkey contains a ripping curse:
"... may the god Hadad dash him into pieces with the weapon which is in his hand; may Hebat-Ishtar shatter his spear; may Ishtar deliver him into the hands of those who pursue him; may Ishtar... impress feminine parts into his male parts."
I assume that last bit means "May Ishtar turn him into a woman". As we know from the hymn "The great-hearted mistress", turning men into women and women into men is one of Inanna's mes. Commenting on the inscription, Nadav Na'aman gives a number of examples of Ishtar turning men into women, for example in Assyrian royal inscriptions, and deduces "a popular legend or belief where Ishtar played the role of a castrating goddess". Perhaps so, but Ishtar's own masculinity and her ability to also change women into men make me wonder if there was more to it than just castration - the curse describes changing male genitals, not their removal.
__
Na'aman, Nadav. The Ishtar Temple at Alalakh. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 39(3) July 1980, pp 209-214.
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Yes
Date: 2007-02-15 12:52 am (UTC)It is more than castration, although in related Shakti cults like that of Cybele, of course, this did literally happen (cf. Catullus' famous poem). Broadly speaking, it is referring to the inner polarity principle which was re-discovered for modernists by Carl Jung, where a man's soul is feminine and vice versa. This has been central in my own Work with Ishtar/Astarte, as it was for the pre-modern alchemists, who (mostly men) described what they did as "women's work".
It is a powerful psychic experience, but the closet most of the profane will come to it is in cross-dressing or strap-on play.
Re: Yes
Date: 2007-02-17 01:20 am (UTC)