Human Heritage, Semester 1, Professor S. Holinbaugh October 16, 2010 Ancient Times, Eternal Love Throughout time, people have been in love, it is of human nature to feel certain ways about people and events in life. Love poetry is one way people would channel such emotions. It shows societal views on gender roles, social history, and everyday beliefs about relationships between men and women. People would record their emotions to remember what they have gone through, and to express themselves in ways others can read and understand. Being able to read texts and poems from ancient civilizations allows modern readers to enter the world of the past. However, love poetry is not always about praise and longing of another person, but about hurt, pain, tradition, and simple tasks such as hunting and farming. Some of the most popular poems about these topics are from Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and India. Some of the oldest written records are from Mesopotamia, some dating as far back as 3100 BCE. (Pay Sumerian Songs paragraph 1). The poems were Sumerian Songs. The ancient civilization of the Sumer arose around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers which is now Southern Iraq (Pay Sumerian Songs par.1). These poems were expressions of love between an individual man and woman. These poems, however, were looked at in a larger context and were used in ceremonial purposes for fertility gods to protect and increase crops and livestock (Paragraph 3, Intro). In many of the poems, harvesting and the relations between a man and a woman were closely related. For example, people would describe growing passion as growing crops and compare parts of
their bodies to nature. Not all of these poems however served an erotic function; there were lullabies and praise poems. Many poems concerned family because family was very important. One poem from Mesopotamia is Man of My Heart. This poem is a deeply passionate love poem. A woman is explaining how much she wants and loves this man. Repetition is throughout the poem, as she starts many of her lines by addressing him as Man and uses the saying sweet as honey frequently. My precious sweet, let me bring you honey. / In the bedchamber dripping with honey ( Sumerian Songs lines 12-13). Social historians may get the idea that honey represents an intimate love and want. Also in this poem, the importance of family life is shown. Speak to my mother and I will give myself to you; / speak to my father and he will make a gift of me. (lines 18-19). One can glean that the tradition of asking one s parents for permission to be with their daughter is meant by these lines. Another Mesopotamian love poem is My Honey Sweet. Once again the repetition of honey and sweet is presented here. "The gazing of your eyes is pleasant to me; / come my beloved sister. (lines 5-6). In ancient poetry, writers would call their lovers their sister or brother. Perhaps, this is said because of the importance and closeness of family and is a compliment. My desirable apple garden shows how women were described beautiful and appealing by comparing them with food and fruit, which was also a key part and passion of life (line 17). My sister, the beer of your barley is good (line 11) and My fruitful garden of mes trees also shows examples of how women were described through nature (line 19). Yet another Mesopotamian love poem is Lu-dingir-ra's Praise of his Mother. In
this poem he describes to a messenger five signs to identify his mother. I shall give you a third sign about my mother: My mother is a heavenly rain, water for the best seeds, A bountiful harvest, which grows a second crop: A garden of delight, full of joy, An irrigated fir-tree, covered with fir-cones: An early fruit, the yield of the first month; (lines 27-32) This poet speaks highly of his mother, and how beautiful and caring she is. Some historical evidence of these human rights is from the code of Hammurabi. The Babylonian King Hammurabi, who conquered the neighboring states in Mesopotamia, established a stable empire by making a set of laws. He made these laws so the strong could not oppress the weak and everyone could get justice (Hammurabi paragraph 1). This explains the importance of woman back in ancient Mesopotamia and how men thought so highly of them. Women have been known to have a lot of respect and were treated almost as royalty in ancient Egypt. Since people can find love poems in almost every culture, it is no surprise that there would be intensely emotional love poems found in Egypt. These poems are from 1,500 and 1,000 BC and were recovered from pieces of papyrus and fragments of a vase ( Egyptian Poems Intro paragraph 1). These poems primarily praise the lover or are poems of lounging. Although they appear to be spontaneous outbursts of young lovers, they are deliberate works of literary artists (par 2 Intro). One Egyptian love poem is Sister without Peer. This poem is about a man that talks about how beautiful a girl is, and similar to the Sumerian style, they both address each other as brother and sister. The reason they may have corresponding styles is because of trade routes between the regions in the second millennium BCE (Par. 3). The
composer may be explaining that the girl he speaks of has not been with a lot of men. This can be interpreted though the saying Joy has he whom she embraces,/ He is like the first of men! (lines 19 and 20). Another thing that Egyptian poetry has in common with Mesopotamian poetry is that they both find beauty in curvier women. Heavy thighs, narrow waist, / Her legs parade her beauty; (lines 13-14). Another example of love poetry in ancient Egypt civilizations is Sickness Invaded Me. Unlike many of the other poems, this one is about heartache and missing someone. It is about a man who hasn t seen his love in seven days. The poem is dramatized and full of emotion. I am heavy in all my limbs, My body has forsaken me. When the physicians come to me, My heart rejects their remedies; (lines 3-6). The poem explains the importance of this girl in this man s life. It is important to notice how men and women both write these poems. It shows that both men and women were literate. From reading these poems, one can see how women had political rights and had powerful authority seeing how some women were pharaohs. The land was sacred to ancient Egyptians and it was ruled by these pharaohs. Land was passed from generation to generation through the female line. This shows an example of some of the power and authority women had. Chinese Odes were some of the earliest poetry expressing warm enjoyment of human activities such as gathering food, hunting, farming, courtship, marriage, and festivals ( Chinese Odes Intro par. 1). Chinese Odes were also called The Book of Poetry or the Book of Songs. In this collection, there are 305 poems originating between
the twelfth and seventh century BCE. They mark the beginning of 3,000 years of Chinese poetry (Par.1). One Chinese poem is The Plum Tree. This poem shows that people can get impatient waiting on love. The poem is a woman explaining how she is waiting for love patiently but, over time, gets irritated. She shows how she gets anxious, when she says, Now might be the time, and again when she adds, Now truly is the time. (lines 4,8). Time is represented by plums dropping from the tree. This is similar to when leaves change colors and fall. The passing of time is underscored by Two thirds of them remain!, and later, The plums are dropping from the tree; /Two thirds of them are gone! (lines 2, 5-6). Another Chinese Ode shows love and caring from a man s perspective in War Robs Us from Our Wives. The poem is about men who have gone to war and are feeling guilty that they cannot be with the women they love: Alas for our separation! / We have no prospect of life. (lines 17-18). However, in times of ancient china, women had more negative rights then positive ones. Women were forced to bind their feet because it was supposed to make a woman more attractive. They also were not allowed to study for academics and had to learn more about cleaning, cooking, and taking care of a family. Men often had multiple families and relationships with other women and women did not have a say. The relationship between men and women during ancient times shaped the types of poetry they made. One last ancient civilization that explains societal views on gender roles is in India with Tamil Love Poetry. It was composed in southern India during 400-300 BCE. ( Tamil Love Poetry Intro Par.1). Similar to other civilizations they focus on praise,
longing, joy, and the beauty and love for women. There are more than one thousand Tamil love poems and they are divided into two genres: Akam, which is personal and intimate poems, and Puram, which are social and exterior poems (Intro par 3). Tamil poems are further separated in three categories, Praise, Longing, and Joy. In all three of these sections, they explain how important women were in society. They were looked upon as forms of beauty that men would describe in terms of nature. For example, Young maiden is she; / her teeth are like the shining pearls ( Praise, section 4, lines 1-2 ). In all of the love poems from ancient civilizations, people can see that women had an important role in society. They inspired men to write these poems and they were also able to write about their feelings. From these poems, it can be seen that men and women looked highly upon each other. They needed each other to feel complete and relied on one another to get through life. Women s role in society was important and it is refreshing being able to read all the wonderful things men adored about them. Perhaps creating these poems were ancient peoples ways of making sure their love can live on forever. Works Cited Pay, Rex. "Humanistic Texts." Humanistic Texts. Web. 21 Oct. 2010. <http://www.humanistictexts.org/>.
Chinese Odes The Plum Tree War Robs Us of Our Wives Egyptian Poems Sickness Invaded Me Sister without Peer Sumerian Songs Lu-dingir-ra's Praise of his Mother Man of My Heart My Honey-Sweet Tamil Love Poetry Joy Longing Praise