Philosophy of Love

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Philosophy of Love with Professor Heidi M. Szpek
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Ancient Near East
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Love in Ancient Mesopotamia
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Sumerian Love

• Love and sex not deemed equal
• Patriarchal society marital relations deemed
  business
• Adultery breach in marital contract
• Slaves, prostitutes for patriarchs pleasure
• Sex at ritual level brought lands fertility
• Sex could soothe the savage beast
• Sex for procreation healing/spirituality

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Love Hate Fear
Motivating Emotional Drives in Sumerian conduct
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Sumerian word for love

• A compound verb
• to measure the earth
• to mete out a place

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Nature of Love and Emotion

• Passionate, sensuous love between sexes,
  culminated in marriage
• Love between husband and wife
• Love between parents and children
• Love between friends and intimates
• Love between gods, friends and people

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Sensuous Love
Inanna and Dumuzi
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Inanna spoke  "What I tell you   Let the
singer weave into song.   What I tell you,  
Let it flow from ear to mouth,   Let it pass
from old to young  My vulva, the horn,   The
Boat of Heaven,   Is full of eagerness like the
young moon.   My untilled land lies fallow.  As
for me, Inanna,   Who will plow my vulva!   Who
will plow my high field!   Who will plow my wet
ground!  As for me, the young woman,   Who will
plow my vulva!   Who will station the ox
there!   Who will plow my vulva!" Dumuzi
replied  "Great Lady, the king will plow your
vulva.  I, Dumuzi the King, will plow your
vulva."
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Love songs of the Priestesses
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 trembling before
you, Bridegroom, I would be take by you into the
bedchamber, You have captivated me, let me stand
trembling before you, Lion, I would be taken by
you to the bedchamber Bridegroom, you have
taken your pleasure of me, Tell my mother, she
will give you delicacies, My father, he will give
you gifts.
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Sumerian Proverbs
Marry a wife according to your choice have a
child as your heart desires!
Who has not supported a wife or a child, has not
borne a leash.
My wife is at the outdoor shrine, my mother is
down by the river, and here am I starving of
hunger.
For his pleasure marriage on his thinking it
over divorce.
Friendship lasts a day Kinship lasts forever.
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Divine Love
Deep love for gods like parents to children, With
belief in personal god as father and mother.
The Lamentation over the Destruction of Ur
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Inanna

• Greatest Lover and Greatest Hater
• Dumuzi would not grovel at her feet vengeance
• Gardener, Shukalletuda raped the weary Inanna
  three destructive plagues at Sumer to find him
• Gilgamesh rejected her love Bull of heaven sent
  to ravish his city, Erech

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Love of life in all forms permeates Sumerian
civilization because Afterlife is a shadowy
existence. - Samuel Noah Kramer
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Love in Ancient Egypt
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Egyptian Love

• Sexuality and spirituality united bed temple
• Origin of Universe in myth of Atum
• Myth of Osiris and Isis
• Sex procreation and recreation
• Sexuality/fertility visual phallic gods
• No word for virgin, emphasis on family, yet
  adultery an attack on society

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Egyptian word for love

• Verb /mri/ to love, wish
• Noun /mrit love, wish

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Hathor

• Egyptian goddess of love
• Patron of sky, the sun, the queen
• Of beauty, music, dance, arts
• Cult with men women as artisans
• Her worship through dance music AND

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From Sekhmet to Hathor
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Divine Love Akhenaton
Splendid you rise in heavens lighthand, O living
Aten, creator of life! When you have dawned in
eastern lightland, You fill every land with your
beauty, You are beauteous, great, radiant, High
over every land Your rays embrace the lands, To
the limit of all that you made. Being Re, you
reach their limits You bend them for the son
whom you love Though you are far, your rays are
on earth, Though one see you, your strides are
unseen. - excerpt, The Great Hymn to the Aten
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Human Love
The One, the sister without peer, The handsomest
of all! She looks like the rising morning star At
the start of a happy year. Shining bright, fair
of skin,Lovely the look of her eyes, Sweet the
speech of her lips, She has not a word too
much. Upright neck, shining breast, Hair true
lapis lazuli Arms surpassing gold, Fingers like
lotus buds, Heavy thighs, narrow waist, Her legs
parade her beauty She causes all mens necks
To turn about to see her Joy has he whom she
embraces, He is like the first of men!
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My brother torments my heart with his voice, He
makes sickness take hold of me He is neighbor to
my mothers house And I cannot go to him! Mother
is right in charging him thus Give up seeing
her! It pains my heart to think of him, I am
possessed by love of him. Truly, he is a foolish
one, But I resemble him He knows not my wish to
embrace him, Or he would write to my mother .
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Seven days since I saw my sister, And sickness
invaded me I am heavy in all my limbs, My body
has forsaken me. When the physicians come to
me, My heart rejects their remedies The
magicians are quite helpless, My sickness is not
discerned. To tell me, She is here would revive
me! Her coming to me is an amulet, The sight of
her makes me well! When she opens her eyes my
body is young, Her speaking makes me
strong Embracing her expels my malady Seven
days since she went from me!
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Love in life does not end with death in Ancient
Egypt the afterlife was a continuation a goal
of this life. The harmonious balance of love in
all its forms, the pleasure of sex, and the
nurturing of the soul would hopefully secure one
a place in the afterlife.