Texts in Conversation
In the Song of Solomon, milk and honey are used as images of love and pleasure, similar to Sumerian poems like the Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi, where milk represents fertility and desire. This similarity shows how the poet used familiar ancient Near Eastern traditions about romance and sexuality.
Share:
The Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi
Inanna Prefers the Farmer
Ancient Near East
Inanna sang: “Make your milk sweet and thick, my bridegroom. My shepherd, I will drink your fresh milk. Wild bull Dumuzi, make your milk sweet and thick. I will drink your fresh milk. Let the milk of the goat flow in my sheepfold. Fill my holy churn with honey cheese. Lord Dumuzi, I will drink your fresh milk. My husband, I will guard my sheepfold for you. I will watch over your house of life, the storehouse, the shining quivering place which delights Sumer—the house which decides the fates of the land, the house which gives the breath of life to the people. I, the queen of the palace, will watch over your house.”
Date: 1900 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Song of Solomon 4:11
Song of Songs
Hebrew Bible
9 You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride! You have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace. 10 How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine; the fragrance of your perfume is better than any spice! 11 Your lips drip sweetness like the honeycomb, my bride; honey and milk are under your tongue. The fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon. 12 The Lover to His Beloved: You are a locked garden, my sister, my bride; you are an enclosed spring, a sealed-up fountain.
Date: 3rd Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Search:
Notes and References
"... The subtext is clear: the land flowing with milk and honey has been defiled; both products have become harbingers, not of promise and life, but of betrayal and death; fruitfulness gives way to corruption, nightmare comes in place of dream ... moreover, he may be making an oblique reference to Canaanite cultic practice. Driver relates that the Phoenicians honoured standing stones with libations of milk and honey. Milk and honey are among the gifts that the Sumerian deity Enlil offers for his bride Ninlil and they feature together as erotic metaphors in the important Sumerian composition ‘The Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi’. The goddess Inanna-Ishtar sings of Dumuzi-Tammuz, her shepherd-king suitor ... They figure too as erotic metaphors in Song of Solomon 4:11 and 5:1 ..."
Baker, Robin
Hollow Men, Strange Women: Riddles, Codes, and Otherness in the Book of Judges
(p. 24) Brill, 2016
* 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.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.