Mavi Boncuk | Love letter Istanbul Archaeological Museum[1]A Sumerian letter.
A number of these songs have actually been found in Nippur and elsewhere, but the contents of most of them are fragmentary and obscure. One of the best preserved is a passionate love song inscribed on a Nippur tablet now in the Istanbul Museum of the Ancient Orient, which was probably recited by a priestess and votary of the goddess Inanna, selected to be the holy bride of king Shu-Sin who reigned over Sumer about 2000 B.C.
Scholars say, this was a ritual taking place in Mesopotamian festivals for fertility and power which also included the initiation of a sacred Marriage. The new year for the Sumerians is around the spring equinox, and every new year the Sumerian king “married” the Sumerian goddess of love and war, namely Inanna. Inanna is the Babylonian version of Ishtar. Inanna’s powers included renewing the land’s fertility.
Every summer at the special festival Inanna’s high priestess of Inanna representing Inanna married the King : The King would provide offerings ; and the priestess would accept the king into her bed, preceded by an invitational love poem : In the one below Sumerian king is Shu-Sin, and we are introduced to Enlil, the high priestess. This is the oldest love poem known in the world. Addressing her king and husband-to-be, she sings:
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.
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 (245).
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 (245-246).
Samuel Noah Kramer (September 28, 1897 – November 26, 1990) was one of the world's leading Assyriologists and a world-renowned expert in Sumerian history and Sumerian language.
[2] Which civilization had the first system of law? The first formal educational system? The first tax cut? The first love song? The answers were found in excavations of ancient Sumer, a society so developed, resourceful, and enterprising that it, in a sense, created history. The book presents a cross section of the Sumerian "firsts" in all the major fields of human endeavor, including government and politics, education and literature, philosophy and ethics, law and justice, agriculture and medicine, even love and family. History Begins at Sumer is the classic account of the achievements of the Sumerians, who lived in what is now southern Iraq during the third millennium B.C. They were the developers of the cuneiform system of writing, perhaps their greatest contribution to civilization, which allowed laws and literature to be recorded for the first time.
See also: The Biblical “Song of Songs” and the Sumerian Love Songs By: Samuel Noah Kramer
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"...In Sumer, then, practically all the love songs recovered to date–and no doubt many more like them are still lying in the ancient ruins–relate in one way or another to the Dumuzi-Inanna cult and its joyous sacred marriage rites. Similarly the love songs of which the Biblical book, “Song of Songs,” is composed, must originally have been cultic in character–a priori, it is hardly likely that the Hebrew men of letters spent their time and labor on collecting frivolous romantic love ballads current in the street and market place. Then, too, the imagery found in the songs–the similes, metaphors, and rhapsodic adjurations–bespeak court poetry rather than idyllic love lyrics between a man and a maid. And since the lover is designated repeatedly as both king and shepherd, it is not unreasonable to assume that his beloved was an Astarte votary, and that at least some of the “canticles” were recited during a sacred marriage ceremony not too different from that which featured the Sumerian Dumuzi-Inanna cult. ..."