Breaching the boundaries of being: metamorphoses in the Mesopotamian literary texts.

• Author: Sonik, Karen
• Position: Essay

In the mythology of ancient Greece and Rome, the topos of physical transformation is pervasive: the boundaries between gods, humans, monsters, and animals, and occasionally plants and inanimate objects as well, are transgressed with ease in the service of seduction, punishment, escape, and reward. Zeus takes the form of a bull to seduce Europa, a swan to rape Leda, and a shower of gold to impregnate Danae. Artemis punishes the hapless Aktaion for his chance glimpse of her nudity by transforming him into a stag; the lovely Medusa is turned into a petrifying gorgon by an offended Athena; and the tyrant Lykaon becomes a ravening wolf, making visible the natural depravity of his character. More sympathetically, the sea goddess Thetis, a talented shape shifter, undergoes a brilliant if futile series of metamorphoses in the attempt to escape the embrace of the mortal Peleus; (1) Artemis saves the terrified nymph Daphne from Apollo's lust by turning her into a laurel tree; and Pygmalion's hopeless love for the statue he has carved from ivory is pitied by Aphrodite, who turns the frozen form into living female flesh. By and large, those transformations deliberately imposed by the gods on other entities, unlike instances of typically reversible divine self-metamorphosis, represent permanent and absolute rather than transitory changes of state: (2) "a departure from the norm often a transgression--is fixed forever by a change into a non-human state, frequently one (as with Lykaon) appropriate to the transgression or abnormality." (3) The ability to change shape or to confer a change of shape is not restricted to any single god but appears to be a universal divine prerogative exploited by most of the Olympian gods and some of the lesser deities at one time or another. (4)

The role of such alterations in the surviving literary texts of ancient Mesopotamia, a subject that has not yet been the subject of any comprehensive study, stands in stark contrast: the topos of metamorphosis, here defined specifically as radical physical transformation from one category of being to another (as from human to animal), is rarely invoked and is associated with only a few deities in a very restricted set of circumstances. This suggests a relative stability and immutability of the boundaries between different classes of being in Mesopotamia that diverges sharply from the apparent permeability of such boundaries in the ancient mythology of Greece and Rome. While at least some of the Mesopotamian gods are described as transforming themselves for specific purposes, as Enlil in Enlil and Ninlil and Enlil and Namzitara and also, perhaps, as Sin in The Cow of Sin, these transformations are reversed once the goals for which they were undertaken have been achieved. (5) Of rather more interest here are the instances of permanent metamorphosis, specifically physical transformations of anthropomorphic figures into theriomorphic beings or inanimate objects, conferred or imposed by the gods whether as punishment, in the course of rendering aid, or on some private whim. This study considers three such externally imposed metamorphoses from the surviving Sumerian and Akkadian literary texts. The turning of Dumuzid into a lizard or gazelle in several texts from the Inana and Dumuzid Cycle; the turning of Bilulu into a water-skin in Inana and Bilulu; and the turning of Etar's shepherd lover into a wolf in the Standard Babylonian Gilgame.ss' Epic are explored in the attempt to define the nature of the boundaries between different classes of being in Mesopotamia, the common elements involved in the transgression of such boundaries, and the meaning of such transgressions in the context of the Mesopotamian world view. (6)

INANA'S DESCENT TO THE NETHERWORLD, DUMUZID AND GESTINANA, DUMUZID'S DREAM

Perhaps the best known of these metamorphoses is the first, the alteration of Inana's spouse Dumuzid as he attempts to escape the galla, the netherworld wardens who seek to take him off to the land of the dead. This episode appears, with slight variations, in several of the narratives from the Sumerian Inana and Dumuzid cycle, Inana 's Descent to the Neth-erworld (ID), Dumuzid and Gestinana (DG), and Dumuzid's Dream (DD) among them. (7)

Dumuzid, in each of these narratives (Table 1), appeals to the sun god Utu to endow him with specific theriomorphic features that will allow him to escape his netherworld pursuers: the sun god, in each case, hears the appeal and grants the requested boon. The interaction between Dumuzid and Utu follows a generally consistent pattern: the hapless shepherd begins his appeal by raising his hands, even if bound or fettered, to the heavens, a direct physical appeal to the sky where Utu appears. This is followed by a three-part verbal petition: 1) Dumuzid establishes his claim to aid from the sun god on kinship grounds, married as he is to Utu's sister Inana; 2) He bolsters this claim either by detailing the actions he has taken to establish and maintain this kinship, such as the providing of food for Ningal or for the E-ana and the bringing of wedding gifts to Uruk, or by appealing directly to Utu in the sun god's aspect as divine judge, presumably to recognize the injustice of his current plight and to aid him in escaping it; 3) He outlines the nature of the aid that he seeks, namely, the alteration of at least his hands and feet, plausibly read as shorthand for his whole person, into those of a lizard or of a gazelle that he might gain the speed and agility of the animals he references, (8) as well as, presumably, their forms as a disguise, and so escape his captors.

Table 1. The Metamorphosis of Dumuzid (25) Inana's Descent Dumuzid and Dumuzid s Dream Gestinana Text (II. 369-80) (II. 22-37) (II. 164-79, 191-204,226-39) Physical The lad raised The lad raises The lad raised his hands Petition his hands to his hands heaven- ward to Utu: Verbal heaven, to Utu: heaven- ward to Utu. you are my Petition Utu, you and 1 Utu: O Utu. I am brother-in-law, I am Pt. I are brothers your friend. I your sister's husband! -in-law /1 am am a young man your relation by you recognize / marriage. Your sister, whom I married, descended to the netherworld. Verbal I brought butter Because she I am the one who carries Petition to your mother's descended to the food to Eanna. / I am Pt. II house / I underworld. / the one who brought the brought milk to She had to hand wedding gifts to Uruk, / Ningal's house. me over to the I am he who kisses the netherworld as holy lips, / I am he who her substitute / dances on the holy O Utu, you are a knees. the knees of just judge, Inana! don't disappoint me! Verbal Change my hands Change my hands, Please change my hands Petition into snake's alter my into gazelle hands, / Pt. III hands / and appearance / So change my feel into change my feet that I might gazelle feet, / Let me into snake's escape the escape my galla. 1 Let feet / Let me clutches of my me escape alive to escape my galla, galla: Don't let Ku-bires-dildares (or don't let them them seize me! the house of old woman keep hold of Like a sagkal Belili or the holy me. snake that sheepfold). slithers across the meadows and mountains / Let me bring myself alive to the dwelling of my sister Gestinana. Utu Acts Utu accepted his Utu accepted his Utu accepted his tears / tears. / He tears. / He Like a merciful man he turned Dumuzid's changed his showed him mercy / He hands into hands, he changed his hands into snake's hands / altered his gazelle hands. / he He turned his appearance. changed his...