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__**Divinities of Fertility**__ For the divinities of fertility, the feminine aspect of sexuality is based upon seduction, sensual enjoyment, sex appeal, and the breaking of social norms. The interpretations of the role of the goddess Inanna/ Ishtar is the most referenced evidence of this and it is known that she embodied all these qualities. In the Akkadian version of Inanna's Descent to the Underworld, her death is the reason why all sexual activity ends at one point in history. Knowing that there will be serious consequences if procreation is forever stopped, it is the god Ea who travels to the underworld to revive her and bring her back to life. Inanna was the official goddess of love and war. Female deities like Inanna usually participated in sexual adventures for sexual pleasure, oppose to male deities who mainly did it to secure offspring. Conjugal sex of divine couples was celebrated in the temples during special festivals and adulterous affairs could be ritually re-enacted according to some texts found about the Babylonian god Marduk. Inscriptions of the third and early second millenium demonstrate what the king's royal titles were, and that he referenced himself as the 'spouse' or the 'beloved' of Inanna. This is evidence of how the king used mythology and religion to show his subjects that he was of equal status among the gods and that they should treat him as a divinity. (Leick 2008)

__**The Sex Life of Gods and Goddesses**__ There are several Sumerian texts that deal with the sexual encounters of the gods Enki, Enlil, and Inanna/ Ishtar. The stories of sexual adventures of male deities are most frequently described with the goal of securing their offspring, the female lovers stress sexual pleasure. Festivals would celebrate the sexual union of divine couples. Evidence of this was found by a Mesopotamian ruler called Lagash from the third millenium, who described the rites ceremony of the two gods Ningirsu and his wife Baba. There exist erotic texts form the Sumerian culture and is found most prominently about the goddess Innana. The following text showed how some references of her refer to how her body has changed into a woman, "See now (my) breasts stand out; see now, hair has grown on our (my) genitals, signifying (?) my progress to the embrace of a man. Let us be very glad! Dance, dance! O Bau, let us be very glad about my genitals! Dance, dance! Later on it will delight him, it will delight him!" (Leick 2008). Other references show her to be a more experienced woman, "When my sweet precious, my heart, had lain down too, each of them in turn kissing with the tongue, each in turn, then my brother of the beautiful eyes did it fifty times to her, exhaustedly waiting for her, as she trembled underneath him, dumbly silent for him. My dear precious passed the time with my brother laying his hands on her hips''. According to Leick, Inanna is very popular in Mesopotamian culture because she epitomizes a whole range of sexuality from affectionate, to nurturing, to seductive, and to an aggressive predator. There are passages that acknowledged Inanna clearly as a prostitute, "They cannot compete with you Inana. As a prostitute you go down to the tavern and, like a ghost who slips in through the window, you enter there." Passages like this (among several others about prostitution and Inanna) are very common and promote the idea that a goddess behaved like a prostitute because all depictions of sexuality were seen as fundamental part of life given to humans by the gods. With the story of Inanna she was both prostitute and bride and these were both conflicting roles even for ancient Mesopotamian times. In the case of Inanna, the contradictions within her character were believed to be a result of a fusion between originally different goddesses like the Semitic warrior deity or the Sumerian love goddess. Mesopotamian society referenced her to be like the actual planet Venus, since they both shared many binary qualities that were merged together and were demonstrated in the tales of her manifestation.

There was much controversy on this topic and what type of prostitutes and transvestites were a part of the Inanna cults. Many historical documents like the Epics of Gilgamesh, the Laws of Hammurabi, Sumerian and Akkadian passages, and even greek foreigners like Herodotus wrote references about the Inanna cults. Most troubling however, is the Western biased interpretations of these customs and subsequent issues that have arose from what they documented as being the sacred prostitutes of Mesopotamia. Many words that were believed to translate into several words for prostitute have been challenged for their categorization that this was a profession done for mere commercial and profit gain. (Leick 2008) With the years many anthropologists like Leick, Gerda Lerner, and Ann Kessler Guinan to name a few have refuted this theory. We have a different bias on what prostitution meant culturally and this was portrayed in the anthropologists of twentieth and twenty-first century. This can be seen clearly, in Friedrich Engels' analysis of the economic function of prostitution in Mesopotamia which was inspired by Lewis Henry Morgan. In his writing Engels failed to put his Victorian bias aside and even spoke of these woman from more than 2000 years ago in expecting women to be eager to "exercise the right to chastity" (Lerner 1986). Leick argued that the translation alone of the word prostitute by modern definition was very different from what it meant culturally to Mesopotamian citizens because of the rules that exist in our society today. When it comes to the subject of having sex in public it is something rarely permitted in many parts of the world today. Some sexual acts were private but others had much to do with the moral standards of a particular time and had variation among different social classes. More importantly, these acts were seen as having a divine purpose and sacred to the worship of Inanna.
 * __Sacred Prostitution:__**[[image:Sacred_Deity.jpg width="249" height="438" align="right" caption="Inanna/ Ishtar of Sumeria"]]

__**New Article Referenced:**__ http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy.lib.ucf.edu/doi/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2008.00063.x/abstract Sexuality and Religion in Mesopotamia in Religion Compass Gwendolyn Leick. **Year:** 2008 **Volume:** 2 **Issue:** 2 **Page:** 119 -133. ISSN: 1749-8171

__The Origin of Prostitution in Ancient Mesopotamia__ Gerda Lerner Signs Vol. 11, No. 2 (Winter, 1986), pp. 236-254 Published by: [|The University of Chicago Press] Article Stable URL: []
 * __Prior article referenced again:__**