Kitchen experiments meet Assyriology.

I am still working off and on with what I’ve been calling my “Milk Research,” trying to work through all the things listed in “Inanna Prefers the Farmer.”

This seems pretty straightforward, but I first encountered this verse with slightly different offerings. From Samuel Kramer’s Sumerian Mythology:

The farmer more than I, the farmer more than I,
     The farmer what has he more than I?
If he gives me his black garment, I give him, the farmer, my black ewe,
If he gives me his white garment, I give him, the farmer, my white ewe,
If he pours me his first date-wine, I pour him, the farmer, my yellow milk,
If he pours me his good date-wine, I pour him, the farmer, my kisim-milk,
If he pours me his "heart-turning" date-wine, I pour him, the farmer, my bubbling milk,
If he pours me his water-mixed date-wine, I pour him, the farmer, my plant-milk,
If he gives me his good portions, I give him, the farmer, my nitirda-milk,
If he gives me his good bread, I give him, the farmer, my honey-cheese,
If he gives me his small beans, I give him my small cheeses;
More than he can eat, more than he can drink,
I pour out for him much oil, I pour out for him much milk;
More than I, the farmer, what has he more than I?"

Here we see Dumuzi, the shepherd-god, offering increasingly valuable gifts to match the farmer’s produce. Well, the gifts are presumably listed in increasing value, assuming that a white wool garment is more valuable than a black wool garment and that “heart-turning” wine is better than “good wine” (which is itself better than “first wine”); however, this raises some issues. How is water-mixed wine the height of quality? So perhaps the pattern is inconsistent, or perhaps some of our translations are lacking because we don’t have the right context. It’s an interesting piece of text.

In later posts, I am going to go line by line, discussing the various milks offered by Dumuzi, what I have read about them, and what I think they are.