Wine and Beer in the Daily Life and Religion of the Ancient Orientals, j^j 



mesh in his burning quest for eternal life, having passed 

 the abodes of men, finally reached the gate of the sun. 

 Giant scorpion men guard this gate. He is unwillirigly ad- 

 mitted to pass on the dark road of the sun. He travels 

 for twentyfour hours, and at last he comes to a beautiful 

 vineyard. 



"Amethyst it bore as its fruit, 

 Grape-vine was trellised, good to behold; 

 Lapis-lazuli it bore as grape-clusters. 

 Fruit it bore, magnificent to look upon"'. 



Gilgamesh meets Siduri, the taverner, in this her vineyard. 

 The vineyard is her domain, the vinestalk the tree of life 

 and the noble and precious fluid, which she prepares, the 

 means of imparting eternal life. As the Babylonian female 

 taverner was primarily concerned with the preparing of beer 

 or wine, and secondarily with the serving of beer or wine-, 

 so Siduri, the taverner, is described as engaged in the pre- 

 paration of wine. To this purpose "they have made her ajar, 

 they have made her a pressing vat" 3. 



One of the oldest divinities of the pantheon of the 

 ancient Sumerians was a vinegoddess, called dingirQg^|-in4^ or 

 also, ^^'ng'^Ama-gestin, i. e., "the mother vinestalk". A temple 

 was dedicated to her in the city of Lagash, which is men- 

 tioned in an inscription ofUrukagina^ At a very early date, 

 however, she loses all characteristics of a vinegoddess, and 

 appears as the goddess Nina, "the lady of the waters". This 

 was but natural, when we consider, how little vine was culti- 

 vated in Babylonia, on the one hand, and on the other. 



i) sanihc nasat inibsa 



ishunnatum ulliilat ana dagala tctbat 



uknu nasi hashalta 



inba na'sl-ma ana amari sa'dh. ' 



2) Scliwen2ner, Altbabyl. Wirtschaftslebm, p. 25 ff. (MVAG, 1914, III). 



3) Gilganicsh-Epos, Tablet X, 3: epstiU kannu epsusi namzUn. On the 

 restoration nam-zi-tu see Zimmem, 1. c., p. 169, 



4) Or dingirMu-tin and dingirMu-ti. As the consort of the god of heaven 

 she is later called Ge^tin-anna, "the vinestalk of heaven", or Mu-tin-an-na. 



5) Urukagina, Clay Tablet, Rev. H, i and 3. 



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