ABSTRACT
The Sumerian king’s erotic relationship with Inanna can to some extent be understood as a product of royal ideology, which claimed that the sovereign had quasi-divine status and was integrated in the pantheon with symbolic kinship ties. His sexual union with Inanna has therefore been regarded as a marriage, not least because the texts identify the king as Dumuzi, who in the Bridal Songs always features as the goddess’ groom. I have tried to show that there is no substantial evidence, within either the three key-texts or other contemporary sources, that would warrant the conclusion that the UrIII kings (or their successors at Isin) celebrated, let alone acted out, a divine-marriage rite. But if he did not ‘marry’ her, and if we discount the fertility-rite aspect, then why do they talk about their sexual union? In trying to answer this question we need to look at other literary sources of the period that deal with sexuality.
