Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature

ISBN-13: 9780415311618 / Angielski / Miękka / 2003 / 336 str.

Gwendolyn Leick

Opis

A glimpse of a world with a sexual culture and erotic values very different from our own, through exploration of the earliest preserved written evidence on the subject - the Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform sources of the 21st to 5th centuries BC. Drawing on sophisticated literary texts - courtly love poems and bridal songs, myths, narratives and incantations - this book uncovers a range of perspectives on the subject of passion and pleasure. The reader is treated to eloquent and freely-expressed views on topics from prostitution, love magic and deviant sexual practice to gender, fertility and potency. This revealing volume celebrates a wealth of erotic material from one of the world's earliest literate civilizations, and encompasses archaeological, religious, historical, anthropological and gender-based themes and approaches.

Recenzje

'In this excellent study, Gwendolyn Leick presents an extensive body of Sumerian an dAkkadian cuneiform poems, magic spells, myths and stories bearing on a wide range of sexual themes.' – Antiquity

Spis treści

List of illustrations Acknowledgements Preface Notes for Non-Assyriologist readers Abbreviations Chronological Chart Map Introduction Part I: The Sumero-Akkadian tradition of the third and early second millennium, The cosmological articulation of sexuality 1. Masculine sexuality in Sumerian Literature 2. Femininity and Eroticism in Sumerian Literature Part II: Sources from the later second and first millennium Glossary Illustrations Bibliography

O autorze

Dr Gwendolyn Leick