The corpus of the Divine Love Lyrics (henceforth DLL) has long held a significant place in Assyriology, thanks to the groundbreaking studies of W.G. Lambert (1959 and 1975). These texts are frequently cited by scholars exploring the themes of love, sex, and rituals throughout Mesopotamian history. Despite their long-standing recognition, however, no comprehensive edition or in-depth study of the intricate and often enigmatic body of texts has yet been produced. This book seeks to redress the gap. By expanding the size of the corpus by more than four times, elucidating its structure and main themes, and providing a detailed, up-to-date edition and translation of each tablet, the present monograph aims to establish a solid philological foundation that will facilitate a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the intriguing yet challenging corpus of the DLL. We do not claim to offer the final word on the subject; rather, our efforts seek to pave the way for further scholarly exploration and analysis of this fascinating ritual.
The project’s roots trace back to 2016 when Da Riva discovered BM 40090+ among the Late Babylonian temple ritual texts provided by Andrew R. George and Gianluca Galetti. Intrigued, she began studying and collating the DLL texts published by Lambert with the original tablets. Concurrently, Christopher B.F. Walker granted her access to the then-unpublished catalogue of Babylonian texts (later published as Leichty et al. 2019). In 2018, following a suggestion from Michael Streck, Da Riva connected with Wasserman, and an idea took shape between them to edit the DLL texts jointly. Despite the challenges of the Covid pandemic and the horrors of an ongoing war, our partnership remained both successful and rewarding throughout the project’s completion.
We wish now to express our sincere appreciation to the many individuals and institutions who have contributed to the completion of the work. The project was supported by Da Riva’s three-year grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2019–104191GB-I00: “Las liricas amorosas divinas: rituales religiosos y poesía erótica en la Babilonia del i milenio a.n.e.”) and Wasserman’s three-year grant from the Israel Science Foundation (ISF grant no. 464/19: “Divine Love Lyrics: Erotic Poetry and Mating Rituals in Late Babylonian Temples”). We are also grateful to Yigal Bloch for his technical and philological assistance throughout the project, and to our research assistants Jeremiah Peterson (2020) and Chunrong Ni (2023–2024). We also wish to thank Selim Adalı, Yoram Cohen, Paola Corò, Juliane Eule, Irving L. Finkel, Eckart Frahm, Uri Gabbay, Andrew R. George, Ilgi Gerçek, Joel Graham, Alrun Gutow, Barbara Helwing, Tawny L. Holm, Enrique Jiménez, Michael Jursa, Jamie Novotny, Stefan Pfeiffer, Gonzalo Rubio, Adrián Salgado, Babette Schnitzlein, Daniel Schwemer, Dalia Shehata, Josep Socorregut, Robartus J. van der Spek, Junko Taniguchi, Jonathan Taylor, Olaf M. Teßmer, Christopher B.F. Walker, and Mark Weeden for their valuable help across a variety of matters.
Rocío Da Riva (Girona) and Nathan Wasserman (Jerusalem)