English (United Kingdom) 
Russian (Russia) From the Babylonian and Assyrian eras of Mesopotamian history, a large number of texts have come down to us that mention the sacred marriage of gods. This ritual appears in the royal annals, and in letters, and in administrative documents, and in some pieces of Babylonian literature. How many Akitu holidays there were at a later time — the same number, one must think, were sacred marriages. Their number and timing of their implementation amaze the imagination of the researcher. We know winter, spring, and even autumn wedding celebrations. Marriages of deities were not arranged, perhaps, only in the summer.
In winter, in the eleventh month of the Nippur-Babylonian calendar (in our opinion, in January-February), marriages of Ashur and Mullissu, Nabu and Tashmet were arranged. Those marriages were the final ceremonies of the Assyrian Akitu festivities, which lasted in Ashur from late January till mid-March. In the Assyrian times, the god Ashur was likened to the Babylonian Ellil (he was also known as Bel), and Mullissu is probably a reworking of the Sumerian name of Enlil's wife Ninlil. We do not know whether the king himself took part in the rite of the sacred marriage or whether he was replaced by one of the high priests of the temple of Eshara. But the main ceremonies of the strange winter ritual are preserved in the sources. In the month of Shabatu (9th month), Mullissu enters a certain temple (perhaps an Akitu, the text is broken in this place), after which grandiose laments are arranged for the flooded and destroyed cities. Those were mainly prayers addressed to Ellil. He was asked not to flood people and their homes, not to destroy temples. A procession of mourners and priests performed that mournful part of the ritual in a special “temple of Dagan” — the god of stormy winds and downpours. The council of the gods also gathered there, deciding the fate of the country. Crying and prayers, accompanied with numerous sacrifices, continued until the beginning of the spring month of Nisan (March-April, the eve of the vernal equinox), when Ashur entered the Akitu to Mullissu, and then took her with him to the Ashur temple of Eshar. The text is broken at this point. The ceremony of the sacred marriage of Ashur and Mullissu took place from the 16th to the 22nd day of the month of Shabatu. The marriage bed was preliminary washed and decorated, after which lambs were sacrificed. Where did the ceremony take place — in Eshara or Akitu? We don't know this for sure. However, the Ashur and Nineveh archives mention the preparation of a certain bed for the temple of Ashur. So, most likely, Eshara should be considered the place of the ceremony.
We know about the winter marriage of Nabu and Tashmetu from the only mention in the royal correspondence, the ceremony itself has not been preserved. Here is what a man named Nabu-shumu-iddina wrote: “Let Bel (and) Nabu, whose (rites of) sacred marriage are performed in the month of Shabatu, protect the life of the son of the king, my lord!” Nothing more is known.
Winter sacred marriages should not be considered as an innovation of the Assyrian times. The ritual of the city of Ashur has a prototype, which is mentioned very dully in the Sumerian texts of the III Dynasty of Ur and in the Babylonian commentaries on calendar festivals. Thus, the month of Shabatu is called here “the month of the feast in honour of Enlil.” In the Sumerian times, that month was the lamentation of the victims in Nippur, beer and flour were given to the mourners. On the same days, wine was offered to Enlil, Ninlil, and the god of winds and rains, Ishkur (later Adad or Dagan). The month of Shabatu was proclaimed the favorite month of Enlil. What was that month? It was the period of maximum cold, squally winds, heavy rains, very early canal floods. It was the time of the threat for the entire life, the catastrophe of all being. Dwellings were flooded, temples were destroyed, people died from the onslaught of the elements. The month of Shabatu was ruled by two deities: Enlil (the personification of the forces of space and the natural course of things) and Ishkur-Adad-Dagan (the element of wind and rain). And the Akkadian name of that terrible time itself is translated as “beating (by the wind), sweeping (everything in its path)”, and this word is applied to the description of the global flood. It was the time when the winter sacred marriage took place. It was a combination of celebration and crying, marriage in spite of the death of the world, marriage as a confrontation with the world chaos, which wants to devour being. But why is it impossible to find a single line about the winter wedding of Enlil and Ninlil and about winter marriage in general (with the possible exception of the myth of the flood) in the monuments of Sumerian literature? We do not yet know the answer to this question.
Spring marriages were always made in the month of Ayaru (April-May), at the time of the renewal of nature. They were quite numerous. Those were the marriage of Marduk and Tsarpanitu in Babylon, and the spring marriage of Nabu and Tashmetu in Ashur and Kalhu, and the marriage of Nabu and Nanaya in Borsippa and Babylon, and the memory of the Uruk marriage of Inanna and Dumuzi (Ishtar and Tammuz), which emerged from many monuments of literature. Without any doubt, the old Uruk ritual, from which, by and large, all the rituals of Ancient Mesopotamia began, became the source and model of all the multiple options for spring marriage. The old, classical story of the marriage of a king and a priestess receives a new twist in the post-Sumerian time. This is what it looks like in an Assyrian song (we give only plot-related lines):
Ishtar is looking everywhere for Tammuz: “My shepherd! My shepherd!”
He manages his flock, looking for a pasture with juicy grass,
His eyes are looking for water in the meadows and valleys, in the steppe and mountains.
Ishtar saw her beloved, went to him, and said to him:
“Come on, Oh, my shepherd, I will bring my sons — feed your flock, my shepherd!
Let the children of Ashur graze on your lawn!..”
She accepted the prayers of Shalmaneser, who raised his hands,
She gave him everything he asked for.
(Nissinen, 2001, 118).
Now Inanna-Ishtar, having found Dumuzi-Tammuz, does not swear her love to him, does not long for an immediate meeting — no, her thoughts are very far from the desire for personal happiness. She entrusts the care of Tammuz to the citizens of Assyria, after which she accepts the prayers of the king. The king does not participate in the sacred marriage, he only uses the favor of its participants for his own political purposes. And this is a very important fact that speaks of ideological changes in the understanding of sacred marriage: marriage is needed to confirm the legitimacy of the king and to protect the people as a shepherd god, while the king himself is an observer and only prays for the prosperity of his country. Moreover, the intelligibility of his prayer, apparently, directly depends on the outcome of the marriage ceremony. Such removal of the king from the rite became the reason for the constant anxiety of the rulers for the success of its implementation. In Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian letters, the kings are regularly reminded of the timely preparation of the marriage bed, its decoration and bathing, the preparation of the temple for the ceremony, etc. A ruler worries about what he is not able to prepare and implement himself, but which will certainly affect the further course of his life.
A typical example of the sacred spring marriage is the well-documented marriage of Nabu and Tashmetu in the Assyrian cities of Ashur and Kalhu. The ritual was held for nine days, from the 3rd till the 11th of the month of Ayaru. On the third day, a marriage bed was erected in the inner chambers of the temple. On the following days, the main characters of the rite solemnly entered the temple, each from his and her own sanctuary: Nabu left the school, Tashmetu left the workshop. At the meeting, the gods had a short conversation, after which, on the evening of the fourth day, they lay down in their marriage bed. On the fifth morning, a plentiful meal was arranged for the newlyweds, in which, in addition to them, the temple administration took part. Then, for the next five days, the couple stayed in the marriage chambers, and at that time the garden and playground were prepared for the reception of the gods. On the eleventh day, the god Nabu was put on a chariot and, accompanied by the chief administrator of the temple, they were taken first to a luxurious flowering garden, and then to a park where some games were held in honour of the newlyweds and where wild bulls were sacrificed to them (it may have been believed that Nabu personally killed them on the hunt). Where Tashmetu was at that time is unknown. It is possible that she did not leave the marriage chamber.
(Nissinen, 2001, 93-135).
Literature:
- Lapinkivi P. The Sumerian Sacred Marriage in the Light of Comparative Evidence (State Archives of Assyria Studies 15). The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, Helsinki, 2004.
- Nissinen M. Akkadian Rituals and Poetry of Divine Love // Melammu Symposia II. Helsinki, 2001.