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@blackthornsandcats The idea of male prostitutes (and, more widely, cultic prostitution) is pretty widespread ... in the secondary literature. You mentioned kulu'u and assinnu; other roles that have been interpreted in that vein include kurgarru and the Sumerian terms pí-lí-pí-lí and (as mentioned) saŋ-ur-saŋ. Saŋ-ur-saŋ in particular may be a direct Sumerian equivalent to Akkadian assinnu.

In recent years, Assyriology has largely come to reject the Classical narratives of Mesopotamian cultic prostitution and other Orientalist tropes, because it is simply not supported by the cuneiform record. Still, there continues to be debate on the role and those individuals, especially with regards to their gender performance and sexual behaviour, which the ancients definitely perceived as in some way unusual. We might even say queer, with a lowercase q.

There's some evidence that they (as well as conventionally gendered female prostitutes) were scorned. The obvious parallels between Ereshkigal's curse of the assinnu in Inana's Descent and Enkidu's curse of the prostitute in the SB Gilgamesh no doubt have further contributed to their identification as prostitutes. It's worth remembering, however, that we know kulu'u, assinnu, kurgarru etc. as cultic personnel associated with the cult of Inana / Ishtar first and foremost, and that we meet them in that context.

In my opinion, at least the better-attested roles -- assinnu, kurgarru, and saŋ-ur-saŋ -- are best explained as cultic performers who combined a martial role (such as show-fighting, note that saŋ-ur-saŋ literally means "chief hero") with a transgressive gender performance that deliberately blurred and crossed masculine and feminine traits and behaviours.

The thing to read on assinnu and kurgarru in particular is Svärd & Nissinnen 2018. I summarised some of it in an old reply chain here. Peled 2016 goes into a lot more detail and gathers the textual references, but I think his analytic framework is rather weak, in part because he doesn't seem to have engaged with modern Queer theory at all and lacks its more precise analytic vocabulary.

Hi, are there any derogatory names for a male prostitute in Akkadian or Sumerian? How would I write that in Cuneiform? Doing a bit of creative writing and found myself in need of these answers. I've seen a few words on the internet, but wasn't sure if each of them had very specific roles or contexts, like Kulu'u or Assinnu

Hello! The generic word I know for "prostitute" in Sumerian is basically gender-neutral: karkid 𒋼𒀀𒆤. It appears most often in literature referring to women, but sometimes is specified as a geme-karkid "female prostitute", which implies the term can be used for either/any gender. Presumably you could use a term like nita-karkid 𒍑𒋼𒀀𒆤 to specify that a prostitute is male, but I don't know of such an example in literature.

Instead, the term I've seen translated as "male prostitute" in the ETCSL is sangursang 𒊕𒌨𒊕, which is more often translated "eunuch", in the role of either a prostitute, powerful servant, or cultic performer. These roles overlapped for eunuchs in Sumerian society, and a given text is often unclear about which role is being referred to by this term.

The main euphemistic terms for "prostitute" vary: suhurla 𒋦𒇲 "(the one with) done-up hair" isn't specifically gendered, but tilla 𒊩𒀭𒀸𒀭"market-woman" is written with the "woman" sign 𒊩 to distinguish it from tilla 𒀭𒀸𒀭 "marketplace, crossroads, street".

As for derogatory terms, I don't know of any that would be specifically derogatory (for either gender). Prostitution was not seen in the same negative light in Sumerian society as in many modern societies, though I guess almost any term can be positive or negative depending on tone, context, and the like. I hope that's helpful!

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Worth noting that the same sound is also often transcribed using ŋ or ĝ. All represent the same velar nasal /ŋ/. In older texts, you'll find g instead for historical reasons -- scholars have theorised the existence of a /ŋ/ phoneme since 1911, but it only became generally accepted in the 70s and 80s.

Other phonemes that are believed to exist in Sumerian, but which do not consistently show up in cuneiform or transcription, are something generally transcribed as /dr/ (perhaps a consonantal cluster, perhaps something like /ɾ/ or /d~r/?) and possibly a prenasalised b~p, like /ᵐb/ of some sort.

All of these phonemes are reconstructed from odd variant spellings, so take it with a grain of salt (although /ŋ/ is pretty certain these days).

As for vowels ... we've really got no fucking clue beyond "this is how Akkadian speakers heard it". I tend to suspect that Sumerian was a tonal language, since otherwise we have a lot of homophones, but there's no way to recover tonality since it doesn't show up in the cuneiform record.

Silim! Sorry I wanna ask again hehe, what is the cuneiform letter for the word "beloved" and also the right pronunciation? Because when I looked at Sumerian Lexicon the word is pronounced as "ki-ág" but on Electronic Text Cospus of Sumerian Literature the word is pronounced as "ki aj-ja-ni"

Silim! So both of the examples you have here are (non-standard) transliterations - the ETCSL's in particular is used for search strings only, because there's no single English letter that corresponds to the Sumerian "ng" sound, so they chose the (unrelated) letter "j" to make searching their site easier.

The cuneiform for this word is 𒆠𒉘 or 𒆠𒉘𒂷, pronounced kiang or kianga respectively. The "ng" is pronounced like the sound in English "singing", not with a hard "g" like in "finger". So it'd be approximately "kee-awng(-uh)" (if that's helpful!)

The form you list with -ni on the end includes the possessive suffix corresponding to "his/her", so kiangani 𒆠𒉘𒂷𒉌 would be "his/her beloved". "My beloved" would be kiangangu 𒆠𒉘𒂷𒈬.

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Adding to this -- @decaf-lesbian

The Standard Babylonian epic has the incipit ša naqba īmuru ("he who saw the Deep"). Šūtur eli šarrī is the incipit of the Old Babylonian version, but in the SB recension that forms the basis of most modern translations, a 28 line prologue is placed before that.

Another, freer way to translate "epic" might be éš.gàr / iškaru, "series (of tablets of a literary work)". In fact, most of the colophons on Gilgamesh tablets go something like "Tablet N of ša naqba īmuru, series of Gilgamesh."

As @sumerianlanguage said, there's no real equivalent to the Greek concept of "mythology" as in "the corpus of texts in a literature containing narratives concerning deities and ancient heroes". In modern Assyriology, we tend to class texts as "literary" and "non-literary", which I think you can argue are categories ancient scribes would have understood -- literary texts are those that are copied and collected, non-literary texts are ephemeral -- but as you can see that's already quite a difference to the colloquial understanding of "literature" as "belles lettres": things like lexical lists count as "literature" in Assyriology. There are more narrow categories in our texts, but these are largely with regards to what we might call "form" rather than "genre". Krecher 1978, Sumerische Literatur, discusses the terms for various types of texts with regards to Sumerian narrative poetry, and Heckel 1974, Untersuchungen zur akkadischen Epik, touches on it for (you guessed it) Akkadian epic poetry.

If we understand "mythology" less as a corpus of texts than their subject matter -- using a definition like "the narrative stuff concerning deities and ancient heroes" -- there is still no satisfactory answer (in fact, "heroes" as a category are very difficult to grasp in Mesopotamian literature). However, it lends itself more easily to circumscription. There is a common phrase that, with variations, opens a fair number of Sumerian "myths": u4 re-a ... gi6 re-a "In those far-off days ... in those far-off nights ...". There's no real Akkadian equivalent, though a similar idea is expressed by the beginnings of Enuma Elish and Enuma Anu Enlil.

If we assume ud re-a to refer to mythological time, i.e. the age of gods and heroes of yore, I think it makes for a decent circumscription. So I might consider something like this in wonky Akkadian:

𒃻 𒅘 𒁀 𒄿 𒈬 𒊒 𒊭 𒁕 𒊒 𒃻 𒌓 𒊑 𒀀

šá naq-ba i-mu-ru ša-ṭa-ru šá U4 RE-A

Ša naqba īmuru šaṭāru ša "U4 RE-A"

"'He who saw the Deep': Writing about 'those far-off days'"

hi! i just found your blog and i cannot thank you enough for your translations. seriously, you're doing god's work for us history students lmao.

i wanted to know if you could somewhat translate the title of my midterm paper "the epic of gilgamesh: a study on sumerian mythology and writing" for my antique history class. my professor is a bit bonkers and gives bonuses for students who write in ancient languages (i have already learned a bit of ancient greek and i have been trying to learn cuneiform for his class, but the deadlines he sets are basically impossible to meet). i completely understand if it cannot be translated though, and thankfully it's not mandatory.

thank you so much for your time! have a nice day/evening :)

Hi there! That sounds so fun - and I would love to help, but this title is basically untranslatable in Sumerian for a couple reasons.

The first is that there isn't a word for "epic" in Sumerian, since it wasn't a category of writing they described; our words for forms of literature derive from later Greek, particularly from Aristotle. The Epic of Gilgamesh would have been referred to by its incipit, or first line. But this incipit (like the whole comprehensive epic) is in Akkadian, not Sumerian (it's Shūtur eli sharrī, "Surpassing all other kings"). The Sumerians only wrote independent stories about Gilgamesh, some of which were then consolidated into the Akkadian version(s) we know today, so there's also no word for Epic of Gilgamesh in Sumerian.

The other problem comes with the word "mythology", also a concept we derive from Ancient Greek (μῦθος). The Sumerians didn't conceive of themselves as having mythology, since to them it was religion, or just the truth. They also don't have a clear word for the concept of "story" or "tale" - we have a lot of Sumerian stories, but not documents of Sumerians talking about their stories as such. There's also no great match for "study" as a noun, beyond maybe ningzu 𒃻𒍪 "knowledge, learning" - so ningzumashdaraEmegira "learning of Sumerian-language inscription(s)" is the closest I can get.

Thank you for the kind words, and enjoy your antique history class! May it bring you much fascinating ningzu ^__^

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Attinger 2021 suggests a pronunciation closer to /suten/ and reads su-ten2{mušen} based on a nonstandard spelling su-te-en!

Aside from Inanna B and Nanše C, I'm aware of the following appearances of bats in literary texts --

Išme-Dagan AB 57, ed. Ludwig/Metcalf 2017: su-din{mušen}-gen7 du10-de3 im-mi-in-ta3 IM x x x NI-dub "She [Amanamdag] crawled(?) into a hole like a bat, she was turned into a heap of her own(?)." The translation here is pretty difficult, the restoration of the latter half of the line is based on an assumed parallel in line 54. This doesn't seem to hold much symbolic potential beyond, ya know, bats liking to roost in holes.

Šulgi D 182, per ETCSL: 182. gi-bar-bar-ra su-din{mušen} dal-a-gin7 183. ka me3-bi-a ḫa-ma-an-dal-dal "Arrows, like bats in flight, / fly in the mouth of battle!" The reference to bats here could be based on them being small, quick fliers. gi-bar-bar-ra "(reed) arrow" is a fairly rare word and may be poetic, but if it's a reference to a specific type of arrow it may have had other associations with bats that are now inaccessible to us.

Forerunners to Udug-ḫul 861, ed. Geller 1985: [a-la2 ḫu]l su-din{mušen!} ki-in-dar-gen7 [ge6-a] 'i3'-in-dal-dal-le-e-da ḫe2 su-ut-ti-in-ni ina ni-gi5-ṣa-ti [ina mu-ši2] it-ta-nap-ra-šu "Whether you be the evil ala-demon that flies in the night like a bat in the crevice ..." Really just about being able to fly at night -- given the other comparisons in this passage, I don't think it's necessary to assume bats are portrayed as inherently creepy, here.

Another word for "bat" is arkab{mušen}, pronounced /arkab/ or /irkab/. I am aware of only one reference in a literary composition:

Diatribe "Two Women B" 140, ed. Matuszak 2021: mu-ud-na arkab{mušen}-a {(mu-)uš-tu9}PI ša3 ba-šub-bu "The bat's [i.e. your] husband loses his mind and heart [because of her appearance]!" This seems to just be an insult based on "bat-like" appearance, whatever that means.

There's a recent PhD thesis discussing animal metaphors in Sumerian literature but it doesn't cover any of our sources, so no bats. Watanabe 2002 is about animal symbolism in Mesopotamia more generally, but almost exclusively focuses on lions and bovines.

did the sumerians have a word for bats (the animals)?. what religious/cultural symbolism did they hold?

They did have a word for the bat, sudin, written 𒋢𒁷 in cuneiform. The Sumerians generally classified bats as a type of bird, so you also see this term written with the bird determinative, as 𒋢𒁷𒄷.

I can't find much evidence on bats as having any cultural symbolism beyond that associated with birds in general. There are a few references to bats in literature, as in Inanna B, in which "...the great Anuna gods fly from you to the ruin mounds like scudding bats." There is a fragmentary reference to them in Nanshe and the Birds, in which it is called "the bat with no voice", so they were distinguished from other birds by their lack of audible calls. If anyone has other good sources on bats or their significance to ancient Mesopotamians, please reblog with it below!

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These are less “insults” and more “vicious xenophobic streams of abuse”, but this is how Curse of Agade describes the Gutian invaders (citing ll. 154-156 of Cooper’s composite):

uğ-ğa2 nu-si3-ga kalam-ma nu-šid-da

“They are not classed among people, they are not counted part of the land --”

gu-ti-umki uğ keš2-da nu-zu

“Gutium, a people who know no restraint,”

dim2-ma lu2-ulu3lu ğalga ur-ra ulutim2 uguugu4-bi

“with human cunning, but the instinct of a dog and the features of a monkey.”

Sumerian insults

The Sumerians were big on putting one another down, and the language has quite a few mean insults! This post will give you some examples of useful Sumerian insults and how to use them, in case you need to tell anyone off in a dead language.

Sumerian insults I’ve found useful include uzuh “unclean person”, igibala “traitor”, and shabarra “bastard”. Less intense ones would be hara “rascal, ruffian”, lutumu “dishonest or unreliable person” or nungarra “foolish, disorderly (adj.)”. Many Sumerian insults refer to a person’s bad activities or behavior, like nibulung “pompous”, ninggu “glutton” and lunamtagga “sinner”.

My personal favorite insults in Sumerian are agaashgi “most awkward person” and sangdu nutuku “idiot”, which literally means “(one) not having a head”.

I don’t know if the Sumerians used any insults regarding specific foreign groups, but lukurra “stranger, enemy” is a pretty common negative word for anyone not Sumerian.

Make sure to know that, to insult just one person, use the subject pronoun zae and the singular verb form -men, as in Zae haramen “you are a rascal”. It’s important to use zae because otherwise it might be interpreted as (ngae) haramen “I am a rascal”, which is not what you mean. To insult several people, just take the noun and add -menzen “you (plural) are”, e.g. Haramenzen “y’all are rascal(s)”. In sentences with the verb “to be” you don’t specifically pluralize nouns (and a video on plural pronouns & verb me forms is coming soon!) Also note that if you’re using an insulting adjective, make sure to attach lu- “person” before it: Zae lunibulungmen “you are (a) pompous (person)”.

Now go forth and insult away!

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George’s Gilgamesh is still available on the SOAS website! Look under Publications -> Books https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/andrew-george

OP, you want the 2003 critical edition. Volume 1 has the twelve tablet epic and its older antecedents, volume 2 has Bilgamesh and the Netherworld, the philological commentary, and the cuneiform plates.

Where can I read The Epiv of Gilgamesh in Akkadian? I'm trying to find it on Oracc but it's very old and wonky.

Yeah, sadly Oracc is a challenge, and SOAS has revamped their website, seemingly deleting their very useful reference text from the internet. I found it via the wayback machine - links at the bottom - but I recommend downloading the PDFs given the Internet Archive is in some legal copyright trouble lately and the wayback machine may itself disappear.

I didn't realize when getting involved with archaeology that archaeology of the internet would be such a big part of it. If anyone has a link to a readily-usable Akkadian Gilgamesh, please link it below!

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The IPA would be something like /eaʔ.na:.t͡s’ir/. (I say having not really read up on reconstructed Akkadian pronunciation, but that is how scholars pronounce it today.)

Ea-Naṣir Goes Clothes Shopping (UET V 848/BM 131428)

In the interest of helping y’all stalk a guy who’s been dead for three thousand years, I present to you another document excavated from the archives of Ea-Naṣir!  This one is a purely practical one: a record of sale for 50 garments to Ea-Naṣir.  The guy apparently liked his clothing (or, more likely, bought it to sell as a merchant).

11 garments: value: 1/3 mina, 2 2/3 shekels of silver 5 garments: value: 13 shekels of silver 2 garments: value: 6 ½ shekels of silver 5 garments: value: 10 2/3 shekels of silver 27 garments: value: 5/6 mina, 4 ½ shekels, 15 še ______________ 50 garments: value: 1 2/3 mina, 7 1/3 shekels, 15 še: in the hands of Mr. Ea-Naṣir

(A mina was about 500g; a shekel was 8.3g; a še was .05g.  So the total weight in silver for 50 outfits was about 895g, or two pounds.)

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Since OP asked about Sumerian, let me also recommend ETCSL https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/ which has both Sumerian composites and English translations of a lot of Sumerian literary texts! Beyond that, there's a lot of sharing PDFs going on in the field (there's a facebook group dedicated to filesharing you can probably find if you need it), because fuck predatory academic publishing.

Do you translate the akkadian/sumerian yourself or where do you get the translations from? And do you know a place where one could find the transcribed original text so that I could try to translate them myself?

Hi! Generally, everything I post in this blog is my own translation. (I'll say explicitly if it's not.)

As for the original text, that varies wildly. Sometimes they're available on the CDLI (which is the best source for actual high-res photos of the tablets). If I'm lucky, it's in one of ORACC's projects, such as the State Archives of Assyria Online; they're individually great (searchable and tagged), but you have to search within each project separately. ARCHIBAB is another fantastic resource for transcriptions and translations, though the interface is in French and annoyingly complicated.

Otherwise, I have to find it in a book (physical or scanned). The CDLI has a useful list of abbreviations for finding what the numerous book abbreviations mean; from there, I'll see if the book is available in electronic format somewhere. If it's not, I'm mostly out of luck these days, as my current institution's library doesn't exactly have much in the way of Assyriology. But between the above options, I can usually find most things. It just takes a little searching. If there are specific texts you'd like to look at, let me know!

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Counterpoint: absolutely do start off with the Ring of the Nibelung if you want an epic about a broken family and the corrupting influence of power and greed, all following some of the most interesting characters in opera with some absolutely stunning music! I recommend the Copenhagen Ring (which has a feminist angle), alternatively, people also love the classic Chereau Ring from the 80s, which is all about capitalism.

Other than that, gonna second Tosca because it’s got a lot of really cool stuff and an interesting plot (was gonna say not to spoiler yourself but it’s too late for that!)

If you wanna start off right at the beginning, try Monteverdi, the earliest composer whose operas survive. Orfeo in particular is stunning, but Il ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria and L’incoronazione di Poppea are great too. Berlin’s Komische Oper put on some lovely reorchestrated German-language versions for the 400 year anniversary a while back (see below for the link).

For Strauss, I also recommend Salome which is deeply fucked up in a bunch of ways but absolutely enthralling.

If you wanna try out modern opera, maybe have a look at John Adams’ Nixon in China or The Death of Klinghoffer, something minimalist like Philip Glass’s Akhnaten (a soundscape first and foremost, as most of the singing is in ancient Egyptian!) or something classic like Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.

I’ve got a bunch of operas, including lots of the ones I mentioned above, on my cloud drive if you’re interested (download and play in VLC to select subtitles). Beyond that, a lot of opera is freely available on youtube, as well, often with subtitles. https://1drv.ms/u/s!AvUGhvX3NGkwgodcxPoNUJt385ANUg?e=vEqhaZ Welcome to operablr!

@sorryiwasdrunk1 (idk if this actually tags you or not lol)

so @sorryiwasdrunk1 recently saw their first opera (Ariadne auf Naxos) live in HD from the Met and asked me for more recommendations. ergo, here are some operas that I think would be great:

first up, not because it’s the greatest opera for a beginner but (partly) because it’s next on the Met HD series (March 26 at 11:55 AM EST!) is Verdi’s Don Carlos. it’s a looooooooooooong work (about 3.5 hours not counting intermissions) but I promise that it will be so worth it: the cast is great, the production looks cool, the music and story are *chef’s kiss*, there’s personal drama, political drama, and pretty much everyone in this opera is queer (trust me, it’s true, just look in the subtext, and also not subtext).

(Honestly, I may be biased because Verdi is my favorite opera composer, but just about any Verdi opera is a good one to check out. For first-timers, I’d recommend Nabucco, Rigoletto, or La traviata, although sadly none of them have as strong Queer Vibes TM as Don Carlos. But they all have music you will likely recognize, great stories, and great characters, and plus there are plenty of great performances of each on the Internet, which cannot be said for all Verdi operas, sadly.)

Some other general good-for-first-timers:

Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro: A package deal here: even though the Mozart was written first, the Rossini opera takes place first. They share characters, they’re both iconic, and many of the characters give off Heavy Bi Vibes. Both among the best operatic comedies ever written.

For Mozart: Don Giovanni is also really great. Die Zauberflöte has great tunes but the plot is…something.

You cannot go wrong with just about any Rossini comedy: La cenerentola is a witty take on the Cinderella story, Il viaggio a Reims is both utterly brilliant and utterly stupid, Le Comte Ory is one of the most delightful things you will ever see. Guillaume Tell is more serious and also LONG but the music is iconic and the whole thing is just so good.

Speaking of Cinderella, Jules Massenet’s Cendrillon is “you didn’t think Cinderella could be GAY, could you? well you’re wrong” because the Prince is sung by a woman. Go check out the Met 2018 production, which is absolute magic.

(Massenet in general was very good at writing a) marvelous roles for women and b) gay. His opera Chérubin—quite an obscure piece—was a sequel to Le nozze di Figaro.)

Bizet’s Carmen is iconic. That is all.

Puccini is great for first-timers, but you have to choose carefully: La bohème is a sweet sentimental tragedy, Tosca is a thriller (more women shanking their would-be r*pists please), Il trittico is 3 one-act operas (a violent gritty thriller, a mystical tearjerker about redemption, and one of the funniest comedies in all opera) put together. It is a TREAT. The other Puccini ones are best saved for later IMO.

Speaking of which, do not slack on the one-act operas of any kind. They are amazing. Also the operettas: Johann Strauss (not the one who composed Ariadne auf Naxos), Lehar, Offenbach, and Gilbert and Sullivan are all great choices.

Since you seemed to really like Ariadne auf Naxos, Richard Strauss seems to be a good direction to go into: you’d probably like Der Rosenkavalier, which is long and has some highly problematic elements (a woman in her early 30s is having an affair with a 17-year-old, although she eventually gives him up), but the romance between the two younger people (Octavian and Sophie) is so adorable. Also it’s supposed to be broadcast Live in HD next April with Lise Davidsen and Isabel Leonard (Ariadne and the Composer from this HD) as the Marschallin and Octavian.

You’d also probably really like Arabella (romantic complications revolving around two sisters, one of whom has been raised as a boy) and Capriccio (a poet and a composer are both in love with a Countess. it’s supposed to be a metaphor for opera).

Baroque operas are long and can get repetitive. The upside: a) they bop and b) they are gay as fuck. Seriously. The amount of gender-bending is amazing (and to discuss more on this, I will pass you along to my friends @solointhesand and @monotonous-minutia).

Other miscellaneous things in no real order:

-check out anything by Gaetano Donizetti. comedies, tragedies, this guy could do it all.

-Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma is another gay as fuck opera. Seriously. (I’m not a huge Bellini fan, but this one can stay and also that is just my opinion. It is not The Law.)

-so is Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann (will once again pass you on to @monotonous-minutia).

-I LOVE Tchaikovsky. You’d probably love Eugene Onegin…the sheer YEARNING in that.

-especially from the 20th century, there are a LOT of English-language operas. three I’d recommend are Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress (passing you on to @madmozarteanfelinefantasy), Floyd’s Susannah (Susanna and the Elders with an Appalachian, much darker bent), and Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which is great and also obviously very gay.

-people are going to try to get you into Wagner very early. go as you are comfortable. Wagner is great but also very intimidating. my first Wagner was Lohengrin, which was a good choice. I’ll pass you on to a couple of my huge Wagnerian friends @dichterfuerstin and @beckmessering for more in-depth thoughts on this subject.

That’s just to start—I’ll ask my opera friends on here to add their own opinions about good operas to explore, particularly ones with Gay Vibes, because operablr is really a very diverse community and I am only a small part of it. Welcome! Make yourself at home. ❤️

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The whole complex of assinnu is fascinating but really poorly understood, unfortunately. What seems to be clear, at least, is that we’re finally moving away from the traditional understanding of assinnu (and their lesser-known cousins, the kurgarru) as “male cult prostitutes”. Some rather disorganised notes:

- The Šumma Ālu omens, in another famous place that may or may not refer to an activity “denied” to the assinnu, use the term “male intercourse” (nak zikurata) which is pretty ambiguous: it could mean “sex with a man” or “sex as a man” (i.e., performing sexually according to a male gender role -- not necessarily as a bottom, mind). 

- There’s another Šumma Ālu omen phrased in a somewhat similar way to the ones OP cites (CT 39 44:13) which goes (in Svärd and Nissinen’s translation)

If a man has sexual relations with his social peer from the rear, he will become foremost amongst his peers and brothers.

In this light, I’m inclined to think that all four of the Šumma Ālu omens about male-on-male sex describe a situation where having (penetrative?) sex with a superior or equal is desirable, but undesirable with a social inferior.

- In some older lexical lists and bilingual texts, assinnu is equated with the Sumerian term  s a ŋ - u r - s a ŋ,  which is another category of cultic personnel similarly associated with kurgarrû and rituals of the Ishtar cult. However, in their earliest associations,   s a ŋ - u r - s a ŋ  are related less with gender and sex than with war, kingship and heroism (hence the name). However, in Iddin-Dagan A a cultic procession of Ishtar is described that features   s a ŋ - u r - s a ŋ  along others. At least some of the participants were clothing that is split down the middle, with feminine garb on the left and masculine garb on the right side of their bodies. 

- Assinnu and  s a ŋ - u r - s a ŋ  are also connected with healing rites (specifically, “carrying away” sickness in their bodies) and, in all periods and places, with music, song and some sort of performance involving weapons, possibly showfighting. In lexical lists of cult personnel, they are listed alongside prophets and ecstatics.

- The Neo-Assyrian Erra Epic has this to say (4:52-59):

As for Uruk, the dwelling of Anu and Ištar, a city of kezretus, šamḫatus and ḫarimtus [traditionally, categories of prostitutes, TN] whom Ištar deprived of husbands and delivered into th[eir]/yo[ur] hands. Sutean men and women shout “yarurūtu” [probably a battlecry, TN], they rose up (in) Eanna; the kurgarrûs and assin[nus], who for making people reverent, Ištar turned their masculinity to fem[ininity]; the carriers of dagger, carriers of razor, scalpel and flin[t-blade], who for delighting the mind of Ištar, do regularly f[orbidden things]. You have plac[ed] over them a cruel and merciless governor.

Note that the words used are “masculinity” (zikrutu) and “femininity” (sinnišutu) rather than words for “men” and “women”. This is part of why I don’t think it’s very useful to think of the assinnu as genderqueer or trans in the sense of our modern understanding of identity. More interesting I find the association with various sorts of knives, which shows up in other places also. We don’t know what they used them for, but it may be part of their old martial association. Likewise, we don’t know what “forbidden things” the assinnu do for Ishtar, but it’s presumably something that further sets the assinnu apart as liminal figures able and required to transgress. Finally, I find it remarkable that the text explicitly declares the assinnu were created by Ishtar to exemplify her power over gender and sex.

- I think there’s at least one reference, though I cannot find it anywhere right now, to an assinnu or kurgarrû who has a family and children. Usually, though, it seems that assinnu is used as an example of not conforming to a male gender role, particularly as regards having a wife and children. In one Middle Babylonian letter, KAR 144:45-47, it is said that someone is “a kulu’u, not a man” -- a kulu’u is yet another, closely related cult official. This seems to be a mocking reference to that person’s familial situation, but I can’t find the source to check.

- In any case, assinnu are very definitely sacred in some way. They seem to perform as and be perceived as a personification of the power of Ishtar, not only to change and transgress gender roles (see Inanna C) but also with regard to Ishtar’s transgressive power as a war goddess.

Three Queer Omens  (CT 39 45 32-34)

These omens come from Šumma Ālu tablet 104, a fascinating set of omens that predict the future for men who engage in various sexual practices.  (Another gem is “If a man repeatedly looks at his woman’s vulva, his health will be good; he will grasp anything that he does not have.”)  Unfortunately, this tablet has never been published in a full modern edition or translation.

These lines are complicated by the ongoing ambiguity around the identities of the assinnu and the girseqû.  Both were AMAB.  The former was a type of Ishtar priest who was associated with genderqueerness; the cuneiform for “assinnu” literally means “man-woman.”  The latter was a type of palace servant who may have been a eunuch, although some had wives and (adopted?) children.  The question of why sex with them is favorable, while sex with one’s own slave is unfavorable, is a subject of debate.  (An ethically optimistic view might suggest that the former groups are able to consent freely, while a slave cannot consent … but this is decidedly anachronistic.)

—

32. If a man (sexually) approaches an assinnu, his difficulties will be released.

33. If a man (sexually) approaches a girseqû, for one whole year, the losses that befall him will be blocked.

34. If a man (sexually) approaches a male slave born in his house, difficulties will seize him.

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Additions as of 30 March 2021:

Adams, Doctor Atomic (Amsterdam, 2007, cond. Renes / dir. Sellars). Finley is the definitive Oppenheimer, and I love the stunning, dance-heavy staging.

Glass, Einstein on the Beach (Châtelet, 2014, cond. Riesman / dir. Wilson). The revival of Glass’s, Wilson’s and Childs’ original staging for the 2012-2015 world tour. Hypnotic and mesmerising.

I also use the drive for the occasional movie and TV show. Those tend not to be around for too long, though.

currently included:

Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro (Glyndebourne, 2012, cond. Ticciati / dir. Grandage). Set in the 1960s in case you wanna see Almaviva boogie in a velvet suit. Also, I really love that Cherubino.

Rossini, Il barbiere di Siviglia (Glyndebourne, 2016, cond. Mazzola / dir. Arden). Ngl Danielle de Niese is adorable

Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Glyndebourne, 2011, cond. Jurowski / dir. McVicar). Gerald Finley is a fantastic Sachs and the Personenregie is fantastic throughout

Wagner, Parsifal (Bayreuth, 2016, cond. Haenchen / dir. Laufenberg). Thought-provoking production, Bayreuth acoustic, a very convincing Vogt in the title role

Puccini, Tosca (Covent Garden, 2012, cond. Pappano / dir. Kent). Dream cast of Jonas “bae” Kaufmann, Angela Gheorghiu and Bryn “I only look like a villain honest” Terfel

coming soon (once I get around to ripping the DVDs):

Monteverdi, L’Orfeo / Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria / L’incoronazione di Poppea (Komische Opera Berlin, 2016, cond. de Ridder / dir. Kosky). Pretty unique anniversary performance of all three surviving Monteverdi operas, originally staged in a single day. All three works are brought into excellent modern German and rescored by Elena Kats-Chernin for an orchestra including baroque instruments, an electronic guitar and folk instruments from around the world. Definitely worth watching, and absolutely stunning.

Händel, Giulio Cesare in Egitto (Glyndebourne, 2006, cond. Christie, dir. McVicar). The now-famous McVicar production still shines brightest with its original cast starring Sarah Connolly and Danielle de Niese, both absolutely delightful, greatly entertaining, and a really cute couple.

Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen (Bayreuth, 1991/1992, cond. Barenboim / dir. Kupfer). I’ve yet to actually watch this production (just unwrapped the boxset), but it’s been my go-to audio Ring for a while now. Siegfried Jerusalem and Anne Evans as Siegfried and Brünnhilde, respectively, are standouts, as is Barenboim’s subtle, somewhat languid conducting of one of opera’s best orchestras.

Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen (Copenhagen, 2005, cond.  Schønwandt / dir. Holten). Some have called it “the Feminist Ring” and it’s certainly female-centric to an extent that few other productions are, with Irene Théorin as a stunning Brünnhilde at the centre of a stellar in-house cast. It’s also an example of great Personenregie and a gripping family epic with great sensibility for characters and relationships.

Wagner, Parsifal (Metropolitan Opera, 2013, cond. Gatti / dir. Girard). Jonas Kaufmann as Parsifal and René Pape as Gurnemanz. ‘nough said. 

Gilbert and Sullivan, HMS Pinafore / Trial by Jury (Opera Australia, 2005, cond. Greene / dir. Maunder). Two comic favourites in an excellent double-billing. Anthony Warlow as both Cpt. Corcoran and the Learned Judge are particularly impressive

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Never Shall You Ask Me (5577 words)

Elsa Agnarrsdóttir had never minded the cold. It was warmth that made her shiver.

The cold had been her constant companion for as long as she could remember: at first, long days spent by the seashore, waiting for her father’s drakkar to fly into Arnardalr’s harbour laden with riches from foreign lands, ocean breeze tearing at her braid and gown and salt wash speckling her skin. Then, after, silent marches through wintery woods, white as far as the eye could see, with no companion save the darkness and the numbing chill in her bones.

The warmth, though? Loge’s flickering child had danced through the straw and thatch and rafters of her father’s hall like a hungry houseguest as, below, her kinsmen had fallen to the storm of shining battle-flames. The warmth had seared her, marked her for its own. Even now she feared it, for it meant the din of cups and the laughter of men in the feast hall, the company of ravens and the courtesy of wolves.  

Continue reading on Archive of our Own.

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what even are the valkyries if not a lesbian biker gang

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Batter my Heart (2290 words)

Batter my heart, three-person’d God, for you as yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend that I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new. I, like an usurp’d town, to another due, labour to admit you, but oh, to no end; Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend, but is captiv’d, and proves weak or untrue. Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov’d fain, but am betrothed unto your enemy. Divorce me, untie or break that knot again, take me to you, imprison me, for I, except you enthrall me, never shall be free nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

 Staccato triplets hammering the piano strings. They say it is the greatest discovery of the age, of all ages. The desert air is thick and hazy with cigarette smoke, each a flower blooming in the dark. Ta-ta-tap, ta-ta-tap, ta-ta-tap. Her fingers stagger along the keys drunk and cold like strangers in the cones of streetlights.

She starts to hum. They say it is the greatest accomplishment in the history of man (she notes the phrasing). They will divide the indivisible, they say, but their pride is hollow. Someone taps out his cigarette, only to light another moments later. Fermi is taking bets. Nervous laughter all around.

Continue reading on Archive of Our Own

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Additions as of 11 September 2020:

Wagner, Tannhäuser (Bayreuth, 2019, cond. Gergiev / dir. Kratzer). Pretty similar to the Copenhagen Tannhäuser in that it seems to take some notes from Meistersinger. A lot of fun and genuinely funny, though some of the jokes seem designed for the Bayreuth crowd rather than viewers at home. French drag artist Le Gatêau Chocolat steals the show, with Stephen Gould trying on a somewhat unfortunate whining, nasal voice for act 3.

Händel, Rinaldo (Glyndebourne, 2012, cond. Dantone / dir. Carsens). Delightfully funny and entertaining Rinaldo framed as the daydream hero fantasy of a bullied schoolboy.

Wagner, Lohengrin (Munich, 2009, cond. Nagano / dir. Jones). Kaufmann and Harteros are a great leading couple as always, though I still much prefer the 2012 La Scala production. If only that one was on DVD :( Staging focuses on the authoritarian regime at the centre of the political plotline, and the absence of Gottfried.

Wagner, Rienzi (Berlin, 2010, cond. Lang-Lessing / dir. Stölz). Wagner’s earliest complete opera in what I think might be the only video recording of it on DVD. Solid singing throughout. The staging is very on the nose but visually impressive, especially the first act inspired by German Expressionist movies like The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. Later on, a split level stage proves quite effective, at least on film. Also, the staged overture (based on Chaplin) is delightful.

Beethoven, Fidelio (Salzburg, 2015, cond. Welser-Möst / dir. Guth). Nothing much to say about this staging, mostly as I have yet to watch it since I first saw it on Youtube over a year ago. Kaufmann is a great Fidelio, though.

Strauss, Salome (Salzburg, 2019, cond. Welser-Möst / dir. Castellucci). Visually absolutely stunning and musically superb. Asmik Grigorian is an amazing Salome, perhaps the best I’ve seen, and brings all the seductive psychosis you could want to the role. There’s no actual Dance of the Seven Veils, which is a bit disappointing, but the visual tableus are striking.

Boito, Mefistofele (Munich, 2016, cond. Welber / dir. Schwab). I’ve not actually watched this one. However, it’s got René Pape as Mefistofele and it seems to make Amazon commenters rant about Regietheater, so ... what more could you want?

currently included:

Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro (Glyndebourne, 2012, cond. Ticciati / dir. Grandage). Set in the 1960s in case you wanna see Almaviva boogie in a velvet suit. Also, I really love that Cherubino.

Rossini, Il barbiere di Siviglia (Glyndebourne, 2016, cond. Mazzola / dir. Arden). Ngl Danielle de Niese is adorable

Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Glyndebourne, 2011, cond. Jurowski / dir. McVicar). Gerald Finley is a fantastic Sachs and the Personenregie is fantastic throughout

Wagner, Parsifal (Bayreuth, 2016, cond. Haenchen / dir. Laufenberg). Thought-provoking production, Bayreuth acoustic, a very convincing Vogt in the title role

Puccini, Tosca (Covent Garden, 2012, cond. Pappano / dir. Kent). Dream cast of Jonas “bae” Kaufmann, Angela Gheorghiu and Bryn “I only look like a villain honest” Terfel

coming soon (once I get around to ripping the DVDs):

Monteverdi, L’Orfeo / Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria / L’incoronazione di Poppea (Komische Opera Berlin, 2016, cond. de Ridder / dir. Kosky). Pretty unique anniversary performance of all three surviving Monteverdi operas, originally staged in a single day. All three works are brought into excellent modern German and rescored by Elena Kats-Chernin for an orchestra including baroque instruments, an electronic guitar and folk instruments from around the world. Definitely worth watching, and absolutely stunning.

Händel, Giulio Cesare in Egitto (Glyndebourne, 2006, cond. Christie, dir. McVicar). The now-famous McVicar production still shines brightest with its original cast starring Sarah Connolly and Danielle de Niese, both absolutely delightful, greatly entertaining, and a really cute couple.

Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen (Bayreuth, 1991/1992, cond. Barenboim / dir. Kupfer). I’ve yet to actually watch this production (just unwrapped the boxset), but it’s been my go-to audio Ring for a while now. Siegfried Jerusalem and Anne Evans as Siegfried and Brünnhilde, respectively, are standouts, as is Barenboim’s subtle, somewhat languid conducting of one of opera’s best orchestras.

Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen (Copenhagen, 2005, cond.  Schønwandt / dir. Holten). Some have called it “the Feminist Ring” and it’s certainly female-centric to an extent that few other productions are, with Irene Théorin as a stunning Brünnhilde at the centre of a stellar in-house cast. It’s also an example of great Personenregie and a gripping family epic with great sensibility for characters and relationships.

Wagner, Parsifal (Metropolitan Opera, 2013, cond. Gatti / dir. Girard). Jonas Kaufmann as Parsifal and René Pape as Gurnemanz. ‘nough said. 

Gilbert and Sullivan, HMS Pinafore / Trial by Jury (Opera Australia, 2005, cond. Greene / dir. Maunder). Two comic favourites in an excellent double-billing. Anthony Warlow as both Cpt. Corcoran and the Learned Judge are particularly impressive

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love those babs so much, they deserve all the happiness in Valhalla

do you ever think about how the most and possibly only functional love story wagner ever wrote is between incestuous twins or...

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apparently I like opera now