Imagine thousands of people in a big city making love in the streets. Are we in a porn screenwriter's dream? Well no. We will be in a Sumerian city during the New Year's party. The Sumerians only considered two seasons:summer and winter. The New Year was celebrated at the beginning of the summer, coinciding with what for us would be the end of April.
The New Year's party was in honor of the goddess Inanna (later Ishtar ), goddess of love, sex and war. Inanna was never a mother goddess as some believe, in fact, she did not even have children. She was the young rebel of the Sumerian pantheon. Smart and willing to learn from mistakes; but also with a great personal ambition, compassion towards humans and at the same time a very vengeful character. On one occasion, after being raped by a gardener, she launched a series of plagues against humanity (water that turns into blood, rain from frogs and locusts, skin ulcers... What does this sound like? Where have I found it? read before? I have a strange feeling of déjà vu…). The festival commemorated the descent of the goddess to hell, where she crossed its seven gates, leaving a garment in each one and delivering her own body in the last one, after which she died. However, on the third day she was resurrected and triumphantly returned to the world more powerful than ever (she again has a strange feeling of déjà vu). In the first versions of the myth, Inanna finds her husband, Dumuzi , in the middle of a party and angry she sends a kick to hell. In more modern ones, the myth had been decaffeinated and she is a submissive and enamored wife who goes down to hell to save her husband instead of becoming a supergoddess.
Inanna, by my countryman Luis Royo
The Sumerians had a total disinhibition towards sex, considering it a fundamental part of life, which is why in those days it was practiced, and a lot. It is thought that it was also a way to get “synchronize ” the births, since it would be tried that a large part of the women would become pregnant by giving birth at a time of the year when, once the harvest was harvested, the babies could be better cared for. Depending on the cities, the party lasted more or less days -the average was a week-. Throughout these days public banquets were held at the expense of the temples or the ruler's palace, and music recitals and solemn processions were organized during which gifts were thrown to the crowd. The central act of the New Year was the hierogamy ceremony. or sacred marriage . During it, the ruler went inside the temple and, before the divine statue, slept with the high priestess, at which time her powers of command were transmitted to him. In fact, it is thought that most of the time the sex was feigned, since it is known of cases in which said high priestess was the daughter of the ruler and for the Sumerians incest was a terrible crime. Whether it was real or fake depended on the times and the cities. There were cases in which the high priestess became pregnant and her child was given a semi-divine character. Keep in mind that, for the Sumerians, it was not shameful to be a single mother. In fact, Sargon of Akhad , great conqueror and founder of the Akkadian dynasty, boasted in his biography of being the son of a single mother, who had abandoned him in a basket in the river, being and adopted by a member of the royal court of Kish that she found it (Again the damn déjà vu assails me. What will that story sound like to me?).
After the hierogamy, everyone made love, either with their better half or with the hierodules of the temple (sacred prostitutes). Nor was it frowned upon to make love on those days with the lover on duty. Men could have concubines and mistresses, and women could have mistresses as long as the husband gave her permission. And it seems that it was usual for them to give it, also it did not matter if the woman became pregnant, because for the Sumerians children were fundamental and the husband had no problem in adopting the offspring, having all the rights of a natural child. In his mind, the loser was the lover who was left without a child and the winner was the husband who got one more child. As they were very uninhibited people, it was not strange to see couples doing it even in the streets. They drank beer, sang and made love... And they didn't even have to confess or feel guilty about it. No wonder it was the most important holiday in the Sumerian religion!
Contributed by Joshua BedwyR author of In a Dark Blue World
Image:Journeying to the Goddess