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The Sal-Zikrum ‘Woman-Man’ in Old-Babylonian Texts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
Extract
In Old-Babylonian texts and notably in the Code of Ḫammu-rabi there is frequent mention of priests and priestesses of various classes and also of eunuchs and other specially privileged persons; amongst them there occurs the mysterious SAL-ZIKRUM ‘woman-man’, who has hitherto defied identification.
The term used to describe this person is obscure; for, while the first element in it is clearly Sumerian, the second element is prima facie a Babylonian word although it is treated as indeclinable, i.e. as a Sumerian rather than as a Babylonian term. In the Babylonian language only proper names are normally left undeclined. The only remaining possibility is that this second element is a pseudo-ideogram, i.e. a Babylonian term which has been treated after the analogy of the first element as a Sumerian word, though never incorporated into the Sumerian language; if this suggestion is correct, the component elements are the Sum. SAL ‘female’ and the Acc. zikarum or zikrumI ‘male’. Even the sex of the SAL-ZIKRUM is in doubt; for, while the word as it stands (at any rate, if ZIKRUM is Babylonian) is masculine in form, the preceding SAL is commonly put as the determinative prefix before feminine nouns; moreover, the whole complex is regularly construed as of the feminine gender.
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- Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1939
References
page 66 note 1 It is true that only the full zikaru m occurs normally in early Babylonian texts (e.g. CH. 12943, 13056, 13171, 13279. 83, 15362; Schorr, , U.Ab.Z.-Pr. 258, 290 19)Google Scholar while the syncopated zikru is characteristic of late Assyrian texts (see Meissner, , Stud, z. ass. Lex. III. 23–4Google Scholar); but this form is perhaps not impossible in a document in which both nakrum (CH. i b. 26, xxiv b. 30) and nakirum (CH. ii. 68) are found.
page 66 note 2 Kohler, and Ungnad, , Hamm. Ges. III. 773 Google Scholar (dated in the reign of Ammi-saduga).
page 66 note 3 In Z.D.M.G. LXIX. 519 Google Scholar, where he assumes that the SAL-ZIKRUM and the (SAL)zikrītum of one Old-Babylonian letter (UNGNAD, B.B. 164. 9) are identical. This is very unlikely; for the SAL-ZIKRUM is always treated as an indeclinable expression, while the (SAL)zikrītum is declined like an ordinary Babylonian noun. Probably the Bab. (SAL)zikrītum is identical with the Ass. (SAL) sigrī/ēti ( Streck, , Assurbanipal, 11. 38–9 IV. 64–5, 122–3 vi. 20–1)Google Scholar, which has been plausibly explained as meaning ‘enclosed women’, i.e. the ladies of the royal harem (Ungnad in Z.A. XXXVIII. 194); they may then further be connected with the Hebr. masgēr ‘enclosure’ if this, too, denotes ‘enclosed women’ in the same sense ( Driver, in J.Q.R. N.S. XXVIII. 116–18Google Scholar). The Ass. sikīru ‘to close up’ and the Hebr. sāgar ‘closed’, obviously cognate verbs, strongly suggest some such common explanation of these two obscure terms.
page 67 note 1 Germ, ‘weibliche Männer', Frauen, die als Manner bezeichnet sind.
page 67 note 2 See pp. 68–9.
page 67 note 3 Bab. entum.
page 67 note 4 Bab. natītum.
page 67 note 5 Bab. girsēgūm muzaz ēkallim.
page 68 note 1 Such dowries were obviously of considerable importance for the maintenance of Babylonian cloisters as the portions brought by nuns were to that of European convents. Thus in England ‘a certain degree of education was demanded in a nun before her admission and the poor man's daughter would have neither the money, the opportunity, nor the leisure to acquire it. … The chief barrier which shut out the poor from the nunneries was doubtless the dower which, in spite of the strict prohibition of the rule, was certainly required from a novice in almost every convent’, and again ‘the practice of demanding dowries from those who wished to become nuna was strictly forbidden by the monastic rule and by canon law. … This sentiment was, however, set aside in practice from early times; and a glance at any conventual register, such as the famous Register of Godstow Abbey, shows something like a regular system of dowries, dating certainly from the twelfth century’ ( Power, E., Medieval English Nunneries, 13–14, 16–18)Google Scholar.
page 68 note 2 e.g. Kohler, and Ungnad, , Hamm. Ges. III. 17 Google Scholar (husband and wife who is naṭītum of Marduk adopting son and daughter), V. 1088 (woman who is naṭītum of Adad adopting daughter).
page 68 note 3 Hebr. qādēš.
page 68 note 4 III Ki. xxii. 47, IV Ki. xxiii. 7. The fact that the word for a ‘female sodomite’ or ‘sacred prostitute’ (Hebr. qědēšāh) is also translated ἐνδιηλλαγμένη ‘disguised’ by Aquila (Gen. xxxviii. 21; Deut. xxiii. 17; Hos. iv. 17) suggests either that these women were likewise disguised as men or that the Greek word has become a stereotyped term for such persons. It may be added that Cod. A of the LXX (III Ki. xxii. 47) and that the unknown Greek translation called ‘O’λλος (Lev. xxi. 7) each have this term once, the former in the masc. and the latter in the fem. gender.
page 69 note 1 Deut. xxii. 5.
page 69 note 2 Smith, Robertson, The Old Testament in the Jewish Church2 , 365 Google Scholar; cf. Driver, S. R., Deuteronomy3 , 250 Google Scholar, and Smith, G. A., Deuteronomy, 260 Google Scholar.
page 69 note 3 Catullus, , Carmina, lxiii. 12 Google Scholar.
page 69 note 4 Lucian, , de Dea Syria, XV. xxvi. 51 Google Scholar; cp. Apuleius, , Metamorphoses, viii. 24 ff.Google Scholar; Augustine, , Civitas Dei, vi. 26 Google Scholar; Jerome, , in Hoseam, iv. 14 Google Scholar.
page 69 note 5 Macrobius, , Saturnalia, iii. 8 Google Scholar; cp. Servius, , in Verg. Aen. ii. 632 Google Scholar.
page 69 note 6 In the Illustrated London News, CXCIII (10 12 1938), p. 1091 Google Scholar, col. iii (see p. 1092, fig. 5).