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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2024

How to determine the gender of the en-priesthood in ancient Sumer and why it matters

Résumé

For five centuries, en-priests and en-priestesses were chosen by means of the omens and installed, generally by kings, as such in important religious centers throughout ancient Sumer. En was the most important priesthood title from the Akkadian Empire to the end of the Isin-Larsa period as is evident from the number of year names and commemorative inscriptions documenting it. En was also one of the few Sumerian priesthoods held by both men and women. Since the Sumerian language is generally gender-neutral, the question of whether a given en was a woman or a man is a rather difficult one. For a long time, it was thought that an en and their deity were of opposite genders, this theory however does not hold to the evidence presented in written sources. Authors have often translated the title en as priest or priestess without justifying their choice. The en of Enki in Eridu for example has been presented both as a man and as a woman by different scholars. One of the aims of this paper will be to explore how and to what extant it is possible to determine the gender of the en-priesthood using both textual and iconographical sources. A few Akkadian texts pertaining to the priesthood as well as clues found in their Sumerian titles permit some assertions. Regarding the iconography, the regalia of en-priestesses has been identified by Claudia Suter (2007), this allows the gendering of identified representations of priestesses. The other objective will be to address why the gender of a given en might be of importance. Indeed, the gender of the priesthood raises an array of questions: for example, did male and female en have the same cultic duties? What does it entail about the controversial sacred marriage ritual? Is the agency of a female en equivalent to that of a male en? Is the son of a king ousted from the line of succession upon being installed as en-priest? This paper will seek to answer some of these questions and provide a framework, wherever possible, to determine the gender of the en-priesthood depending on their deity, city and the period in which they officiated.
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Dates et versions

hal-04552699 , version 1 (19-04-2024)

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  • HAL Id : hal-04552699 , version 1

Citer

Sonia Mzali. How to determine the gender of the en-priesthood in ancient Sumer and why it matters. Gender, Methodology and the Ancient Near East (GeMANE 6), Omar N’Shea, Apr 2024, Valletta, Malta. ⟨hal-04552699⟩
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