»Innana kam heraus zum Hirten [Dumuzi] in den Schafstall.
Beim sich richtigen Niederbeugen war ihre Vulva bewundernswert;
Als sie sich niederbeugte [wie ein Apfelbaum],
war ihre Vulva [bewundernswert].
Voller Freude über ihre Vulva spricht sie selbstgefällig zu sich selbst«
This blog is inspired by Innana, the Sumerian Goddess of Love and War.
What I like about Innana - Warrioress and Holy Virgin, as well as the Courtisan of the Gods – is the unabashed combination of Sex, Love and War – Eros & Thanatos, Fertility & Aggressivity – combined in one powerful female figure. About 3000 years later this Goddess would have evolved into Mary, Saintly Madonna, Holy Virgin of Virgin Birth fame, and on the other hand Mary Magdalen, the Prostitute, while War has become the terrain of that icon of Manliness, Adonai.
Aphrodite, Freya, Anat, Astarte and other fertility-&/or-love-goddesses have a partly Warrioress-Character; some of them also oversee the Holy (or not so holy) Prostitution: the Greek Diana on the other hand is a Huntress, but a totally a-sexual one; only Love Goddess Innana/Ishtar is unique in combining all three aspects.
I’m speculating about this evolution of the female role in the Ancient Near East. As far as I can see, it is connected with the evolution from pantheism to monotheism, and I read somewhere* that the understanding of the human male’s role in the process of baby-making meant the end of the Matriarchat, which includes, I go on speculating, the power of the Love-and-War-Goddesses. Once Man understood that his semen produced the babies he went over the top and usurped all power. He raised the Phallus as power symbol over the lapislazuli Vulva, and the rest seems to be history. Aristoteles said that the woman was only a vessel wherein the precious seed could grow. And Freud still thought of Woman as a castrated Man. Well well.
As a pro-feminist mostly heterosexual female, I deeply admire Innana’s approach to life.
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* Anton-Andreas Guha. Der ungeliebte Lust. Streitschrift für eine Kultur der Sexualität. Frankfurt, 1990. The theory is ascribed to Friedrich Engels.
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