Sacred Trees and Enclosed Gardens j 111111 111
date gardener might well get some “dust” in his eyes, which would be consistent with the
interpretation of the myth as an allegory of the artificial pollination of date palms.
Shukaletuda, observing Inanna sleeping under a poplar tree, focuses on her vulva.
References to Inanna’s vulva in Sumerian poetry usually have agricultural significance.
Inanna’s vulva, in this context, may represent the female inflorescence of the date palm.
Recall that the female inflorescence is enclosed within a prophyll, which must be unwrapped
to insert the male inflorescence during hand- pollination. In the story, Inanna’s “loincloth
of the seven powers,” which Shukaletuda must “untie” before he can consummate his lust,
may symbolize the female prophyll. This would tie Parts II and III together, relating them
both to the pollination of date palms.
According to our interpretation, the story of Inanna and Shukaletuda can be read as
a meditation on the sexual, moral, and religious significance of artificial pollination.
Sumerians clearly viewed the practice of opening the female prophyll to insert the male
rachis in sexual terms, which takes on the character of a rape. Yet the metaphoric rape is,
in reality, a routine agricultural practice. Therefore, something must be sacrificed to atone
for Inanna’s sexual violation, and Shukaletuda, like most of Inanna’s lovers, must pay the
ultimate price. She comforts him by assuring him that his name “shall not be forgotten,”
but will live on “in songs and make the songs sweet.” The “sweetness” of the songs may refer
directly to the date harvest. In the end, it was Inanna’s destiny to be raped, just as it was
Shukaletuda’s destiny to be sacrificed so that the date harvest and the agricultural cycle can
continue.Images of Tree Goddesses on Cylinder Seals
Small stone cylinder seals for identifying property or notarizing clay documents first
appeared in Uruk in the second half of the fourth millennium bce.^63 The outer surface
was carved with an illustration, usually of some mythological scene, which appeared as an
impression when rolled onto wet clay. During the third millennium bce, the new rever-
ence for trees was manifested by the many cylinder seal illustrations of sacred trees, usu-
ally date palms, and their iconic goddesses. For example, a cylinder seal from the first half
of the third millennium bce shows a vegetation goddess seated on a throne of branches
(Figure 5.9A). Two branches sprout from each shoulder, and she is holding a branch in her
left hand. Three female servants attend her, and the tableau is bracketed by two small date
palms. A similar scene from the same period shows the enthroned goddess in the center
flanked on each side by two female attendants and date palm bearing fruit (Figure 5.9B).
Sometimes the goddess is omitted and her physical incarnation, the female date palm, is
shown providing its bounty, as in Figure 5.9C. Since the three women are tree- sized, we
can infer that they are themselves tree spirits or priestesses. In other examples, the identity
of the tree deity is indicated. For example, Ishtar can be identified in Figure 5.9D from her
weapons and the fact that she is standing on a lion. Images of sacred trees were sometimes
highly stylized, either in the shape of a pillar or a candelabra- like structure. Figure 5.9E is a
cylinder seal from the middle of the second millennium bce. A female adorant, perhaps a
priestess, stands to the right of a highly stylized sacred tree, probably a date palm. A winged
sun with a rosette,^64 the emblem of Inanna, is directly overhead, and a sword- bearing hero