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An ancient Mesopotamian omen in the Summa Alu warns that if a woman takes the dominant role in sex, the man loses his strength and his guardian deity for a time. Rabbinic tradition in the Alphabet of Ben Sira repeats this idea, showing that this belief in harmful effects from reversed sexual roles continued into antiquity.
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Summa Alu 104
Akkadian Omen Series
Ancient Near East
16 If a man is regularly engaged (in sexual activity) in the daytime of the afternoon: this man will have luck, happiness will be established for him. 17 If a man, a woman mounts him, this woman will take his manliness, for one month he will not have a personal god. 18 If a man speaks with a woman on a bed and he rises from the bed and acts in the way of a man (has an erection) this man, happiness and exultation will be established for him. Wherever he goes, he will find acceptance in every respect, he will always reach his goal.
Date: 2300 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Alphabet of Ben Sira
Midrash
Rabbinic
When the Holy Blessed One created the first Adam alone, They said, (Genesis 2:18) 'It is not good for this Adam to be alone.' They created for him a wife out of the Earth like he had been, and called her Lilith. Immediately they began to challenge each other. She said, 'I will not lie below,' and he said, 'I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.' Lilith responded, 'We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the Earth.' But they would not listen to one another. When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the world's air. Adam stood in prayer before his Creator and said, 'Sovereign of the universe! The woman you gave me has run away from me.'
Date: 700 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... If human sexuality is experienced as liminal, then the omens that consider occasions of sexual marginality can be considered doubly liminal. These body-related sex omens represent liminalities of two types. They deal with sexual interactions that take place on the boundaries of male and female bodies (omens 2, 3, 4, 12) and with the ominous import of body emissions (omens 6, 7, 8, 11(?), 17). The asymmetries of power and the binary construction of gender electrify the boundary between male and female bodies and constrain the way the erotic body is experienced and deployed ... A woman who is allowed to take a sexually dominant position is able to rob a man of his physical power. The sexual inversion of gender hierarchy deprives him of his vigor and his personal god, in essence, his drive to pursue his proper place in the world ..."
Guinan, Ann Kessler
Auguries of Hegemony: The Sex Omens of Mesopotamia
(pp. 462-479) Gender & History, Vol. 9, No. 3, 1997
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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