Games played by goddesses, girls and children in Ancient Mesopotamia

Résumé 0

Among the goddesses of the Mesopotamian world, two female figures stand out: the sisters Ištar et Ereškigal. Ištar’s spheres of activity are love and especially battle. She takes part in battle as if playing "with a skipping rope". Ereškigal reigns over the world of the dead: she is the one "who has never known girls’ games". This article is based on written documents (hymns, mythological narratives) in cuneiform (Sumerian – Akkadian and bilingual texts) of the second and first millennium BCE. It takes as its angle of approach the conflicting relations between these great goddesses in order better to understand their respective relationships to gameplaying: where and when do they play? What do they play at and with whom? What information can be drawn from this relating to human women and girls? Various issues are addressed in the light of gender studies: those of intergenerational and inter-familial relationships, the definition of private-public spaces, seduction and eroticism.