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Women of Sumer
Sep. 27th, 2008 10:34 pmRecently a couple of purchases materialised on the New Books shelf, only for me to immediately make off with them. One is the first volume of Women, Crime, and Punishment in Ancient Law and Society by Elisabeth Meier Tetlow, which surveys the laws of Sumer, Babylonia, Assyria, and Khatti. The other is Prostitutes and Courtesans in the Ancient World, edited by Christopher A. Faraone and Laura K. McClure.
My particular interests (other than goddesses, of course) are priestesses; sex workers; the intersection between the two, the "sacred prostitute", who probably never existed; and the general status of women in Mesopotamia and its decline over time.
OK, first, a few notes from Women, Crime, and Punishment.
Since male gods usually had female priests (and vice versa), and most city-states had male gods, priestesses predominated. They were prominent and respected and often wealthy. High priestesses were often royalty or nobility, and played important political roles. Tetlow also describes the high status of female musicians. Most Sumerian women married, including many priestesses, and the relevant laws were similar for priestesses and laywomen. Unmarried priestesses were given their dowry when they left home.
Tetlow notes: "Women priests were so common that the Sumerians criticized less civilized foreigners for not having women priests." I followed the trail of references to a remark in a letter from Sin-iddinam to the god Utu. The king complains that his city of Larsa is faring worse even than the tent-dwelling foreigner, ignorant of the gods and prayer "like a wild beast", who "does not elect nugig or lukur priestesses for the places of the gods". "Yet his troops are in good health!" laments Sin-iddinam. (I think this could mean just that the barbarians have no priests at all, rather than that they only have male priests.)
( Quibbles )
More notes when I've snavelled a few more of the sources!
__
Kramer, Samuel Noah. "Poets and Psalmists: Goddesses and Theologians: Literary, Religious, and Anthropological Aspects of the Legacy of Sumer". in Schmandt-Besserat, Denise (ed). The Legacy of Sumer: invited lectures on the Middle East at the University of Texas at Austin. Malibu CA, Undena, 1976.
Tetlow, Elisabeth Meier. Women, Crime, and Punishment in Ancient Law and Society. Volume 1: the Ancient Near East. New York, Continuum, 2004.
My particular interests (other than goddesses, of course) are priestesses; sex workers; the intersection between the two, the "sacred prostitute", who probably never existed; and the general status of women in Mesopotamia and its decline over time.
OK, first, a few notes from Women, Crime, and Punishment.
Since male gods usually had female priests (and vice versa), and most city-states had male gods, priestesses predominated. They were prominent and respected and often wealthy. High priestesses were often royalty or nobility, and played important political roles. Tetlow also describes the high status of female musicians. Most Sumerian women married, including many priestesses, and the relevant laws were similar for priestesses and laywomen. Unmarried priestesses were given their dowry when they left home.
Tetlow notes: "Women priests were so common that the Sumerians criticized less civilized foreigners for not having women priests." I followed the trail of references to a remark in a letter from Sin-iddinam to the god Utu. The king complains that his city of Larsa is faring worse even than the tent-dwelling foreigner, ignorant of the gods and prayer "like a wild beast", who "does not elect nugig or lukur priestesses for the places of the gods". "Yet his troops are in good health!" laments Sin-iddinam. (I think this could mean just that the barbarians have no priests at all, rather than that they only have male priests.)
( Quibbles )
More notes when I've snavelled a few more of the sources!
__
Kramer, Samuel Noah. "Poets and Psalmists: Goddesses and Theologians: Literary, Religious, and Anthropological Aspects of the Legacy of Sumer". in Schmandt-Besserat, Denise (ed). The Legacy of Sumer: invited lectures on the Middle East at the University of Texas at Austin. Malibu CA, Undena, 1976.
Tetlow, Elisabeth Meier. Women, Crime, and Punishment in Ancient Law and Society. Volume 1: the Ancient Near East. New York, Continuum, 2004.
