ikhet_sekhmet: (Butterfly hair)
Plaything of Sekhmet ([personal profile] ikhet_sekhmet) wrote2014-05-13 08:10 pm

Inanna snippet

The final lines of a Sumerian hymn to Ninkasi, the goddess of beer:
šà-dinanna ki-bi ba-ab-gi4
šà-ga-ša-an-an-na-ke4 ki-bi ba-eb-gi4

The heart of Inanna is happy again,
The heart of the queen of heaven is happy again!
The author's footnote: "'Queen of heaven' translates ga-ša-an-an-na which is nothing but the Emesal form of dinanna." He adds that Emesal, the women's language, is used to indicate male and female speakers in different parts of the hymn.

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Civil, M. A hymn to the beer goddess and a drinking song. Biggs, R.D. and J.A. Brinkman (eds). Studies Presented to A. Leo Oppenheim. Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 1964.

[identity profile] murasaki-1966.livejournal.com 2014-05-13 11:43 am (UTC)(link)
There's a beer goddess? Some of my friends must worship her every weekend.

BTW, there is a theory going around archeology circles that the first use of wild yeasts was not bread, but beer. Bread was, essentially, a byproduct.


Really Ancient beer (mentions your goddess) (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-beer-archaeologist-17016372/?no-ist)

[identity profile] ikhet-sekhmet.livejournal.com 2014-05-21 02:25 am (UTC)(link)
I love that beer theory. XD

[identity profile] murasaki-1966.livejournal.com 2014-05-21 05:58 am (UTC)(link)
It amuses me that the whole start of civilization happened because someone discovered a way to get drunk. BTW, a further part of the theory is that women probably discovered the fermentation process.