Would you have been consecrated a priestess?

No one became a high priestess by asking: a sign named you, and then it was checked three times. Two Mesopotamian texts tell the rest. Seven questions, each set beside what the text says.

The first text is a clay cylinder found at Ur: King Nabonidus tells how he consecrated his daughter high priestess of the moon god, around 554 BC. The second comes from Emar, in Syria, in the thirteenth century BC: it lays down, day by day, the installation of the priestess of the storm god. Answer for yourself; nothing is sent anywhere.

1. Would you accept not choosing, and being named by a sign?

Nabonidus: “When the god Nannāru desired an ēntu-priestess”, he made his sign known — an eclipse of the moon on the thirteenth day of the month Ulūlu. At Emar: “The daughter of any son of Emar may be identified” (l. 3). By lot, Fleming reads, with a question mark; by the diviner, Sallaberger thinks.

Yes Perhaps No

2. Could you bear being checked three times for suitability?

The king consults the diviners, then repeats it. He asks about a daughter of his extended family: “they answered me ‘no.’” He asks a third time, about his own daughter: the omen is auspicious.

Yes Perhaps No

3. Would you accept being given another name?

Nabonidus: I “elevated (my) daughter … to the office of ēntu-priestess and (then) I named (her) En-nigaldi-Nanna”. It is her name of office; her birth name is not given.

Yes Perhaps No

4. Would you leave your father’s house to live in the house of the god?

At Ur the king rebuilds a house for her beside the sanctuary and has her enter it. At Emar she goes back to her father’s house each evening until the last day; then, when she leaves the house, “they will cover her head as a bride” (l. 61), and she sleeps at the temple.

Yes Perhaps No

5. Would you accept being shaved, anointed and robed before the whole town?

At Emar: fine oil on her head, then she is shaved “at the opening of the courtyard gate” (l. 9). Two days later “they will seat the NIN.DINGIR on her throne” (l. 40): two gold earrings, the gold ring of the god on her right hand, a red wool headdress.

Yes Perhaps No

6. Could you hold an office for life, without fault?

The cylinder ends with this wish for her: “May her deeds be pleasing to you (and) may she avoid cultic mistake(s).” The Emar text runs to her death: “When the NIN.DINGIR goes to her fate” (l. 91), an ox and a sheep are slaughtered in the house.

Yes Perhaps No

7. Would you accept living on what the town gives you?

At Emar: “In a good year, they will give her […] thirty parīsu of barley. In a bad year, she will get fifteen” (l. 85), with wool, oil and wine. At Ur the king endows her house with fields, orchards and herds.

Yes Perhaps No

Cylinder of Nabonidus: translation by F. Weiershäuser and J. Novotny (RIBo, CC BY-SA 3.0). Ritual of Emar: translation by D. Fleming (1992, pp. 49–59), with line numbers.

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Where these texts come from, and what they do not say

The cylinder of Nabonidus (Yale, YBC 2182) was found at Ur. The king says the office had been forgotten “since distant days”, that he found an ancient stele showing a high priestess with her insignia, and that he remade everything from it. His daughter is purified, dedicated to the god Sîn and the goddess Ningal, then led into the sanctuary. The edition and translation are open access at oracc.org/ribo/Q005431.

The ritual of Emar (tablet Emar 369, thirteenth century BC) was published by Daniel Arnaud in 1986. We read it in full in the translation of Daniel E. Fleming, The Installation of Baal’s High Priestess at Emar, Harvard Semitic Studies 42, Atlanta, 1992, pp. 49–59, quoted here with line numbers. The sequence:

• Naming and anointing (ll. 1–6). “The daughter of any son of Emar may be identified” (l. 3, p. 49). On the same day fine oil from the palace and the temple is put on her head. The diviner receives one shekel of silver.
• The shaving day (ll. 7–21). One ox and six sheep go in procession, with “the divine weapon” and the singers ahead. She is shaved “at the opening of the courtyard gate” (l. 9, p. 50). Her father carries the divine weapon. In the evening she is anointed again at the temple gate, then brought back to her father’s house.
• The day of sanctification (ll. 22–28). The goddess NIN.KUR is laid down in the father’s house and a red wool vestment from her temple is placed on her. Four tables are set for the gods, two of them on the ground “for the underworld gods” (ll. 24–25, p. 51).
• The day of installation (ll. 29–48). This time she carries the divine weapon herself. She pours fine oil on the standing stone of the goddess Hebat. Just before the evening watch, “they will seat the NIN.DINGIR on her throne” (l. 40, p. 53): two gold earrings of her father’s house, the gold ring of the god on her right hand, a red wool headdress. Two of her brothers carry her on their shoulders. “The city elders will fall at her feet” (l. 44, p. 54) and give her a silver pin.
• The seven days (ll. 49–58). Each day two sheep are offered at her house. At her banquet she presents two gold figurines to the storm god and Hebat. The previous priestess, the priestess of Dagan and the kings each have a table and a cut of meat.
• The last day (ll. 59–75). NIN.KUR is made to rise and goes home. When the priestess leaves the house, “they will cover her head as a bride” with a colourful sash of her father’s house; “her two maids will embrace her as a bride” (ll. 61–62, p. 56). A torchlit procession goes to the temple. The elders give her a garment, a bed, a chair and a footstool. Her sister washes her feet; a silver ring is put in the water, and the sister keeps it. “The NIN.DINGIR will ascend her bed and lie down” (l. 75, p. 57).
• Her share, and her death (ll. 85–94). Barley, wool, oil, wine, fruit, sandals, for one year. “When the NIN.DINGIR goes to her fate” (l. 91, p. 59), an ox and a sheep are slaughtered in the house. Her goods go back to her father’s house: “The city (gets) nothing” (l. 94, p. 59).

What scholars dispute. Fleming translates line 2 as a drawing of lots, but with a question mark: “lots(?)” (p. 49). Walther Sallaberger, in his review (Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 86, 1996, p. 144), follows Manfried Dietrich in reading the oil vessel of the anointing, and thinks the priestess had been named beforehand, by the diviner. He sets the anointing of the head and the veil beside the wedding rites of ancient Syria. The text nowhere says what follows the lying down: it is the installation in the house of the god that is described with the gestures of a wedding.

What we did not find. These consecrations are often tied to Ishtar. The two texts we read concern the moon god at Ur and the storm god at Emar. We have read no ritual for the consecration of a priestess of Ishtar, and have therefore drawn nothing from one.

This test sets your answers beside two ancient texts. It consecrates no one, belongs to no cult and no order, and says nothing of any gift.