Its nearly ten years since I wrote my first “Star Gayzing” article lgbt connections in the constellations and I’ve only mentioned in passing what is, perhaps, the most famous constellation of them all, Orion. Lgbt connections in Orion come from its association with the ancient Sumerian myth about the origin of the seasons which I wrote about last year in “Springing Out of Winter”.
Over the centuries and across continents constellations change, not only in their orientation in the sky but also in the interpretation of the patterns they form. Most of the current interpretations derive from the ancient Babylonians and other cultures that originated in the same region of Iraq, and Orion is no exception.
An ancient star catalogue compiled by the Babylonians over 3,000 years ago saw Orion as “The True Shepherd of Anu” and was a representation of the Sumerian deity Ninshubur. Anu is the main god of the sky in the myths of all of the ancient civilisations that flourished in the region.
Ninshubur is one of the characters who featured in that myth about the seasons in “Springing Our of Winter”. She was the senior attendant to the goddess Inanna. She was also the messenger of the gods, a bit like the Greek Hermes or Roman Mercury. In the myth Inanna decides to visit her recently widowed sister, the Queen of the Underworld. Travelling to the Underworld was dangerous and Inanna asked her servant Ninshubur to ask the gods to rescue her if hadn’t returned in three days.
Three days later, with no sign of Inanna, Ninshubur goes to the gods. Only Enki responds and he creates two intersex beings who help to return Inanna to the surface.
So, we have the modern constellation Orion, representing a male hunter from Greek mythology, that had previously represented the female Sumerian deity Ninshubur. But that’s not the gender switch mentioned in this article’s title.
For hundreds of years Ninshubur was regarded as being female. Her official job title was “sukkal”, which was a kind of vizier. It is generally accepted that a sukkal is of the same gender as the deity she, or he, serves. As the sukkal of the goddess Inanna Ninshubur is female. However, during the 20th century BC a change began to take place.
The rise of the Akkadian civilisation that conquered the Sumerian empire led to the spread of Akkadian deities and their worship. Just as Ninshubur had also served as the messenger of the gods the Akkadian’s had Papsukkal, a male deity whose name obviously indicates his role as a sukkal. For several centuries these two messenger deities were regarded as being quite distinct from each other.
Somehow, during the Middle Babylonian era (c.1595 BC-c.1155 BC) Ninshubur and Papsukkal merged into one. This happens a lot in mythology and is termed syncretisation. It happens in more modern times as well. It’s a bit like the way Santa Claus and Father Christmas have, regrettably, become interchangeable names for the same character, even though they have very different characters with different origins and evolution. The gradual merging of Ninshubur and Papsukkal led to the former changing her gender altogether in an unconscious transgenderization (is that a word, or have I just made it up?).
Those Babylonian star catalogues I mentioned earlier depict Ninshubur/Papsukkal as a male figure in the same location as our modern Orion and they gave it the name “The True Shepherd of Anu”. By the time these catalogues were compiled the Akkadian civilisation had been conquered by the Babylonians who had never known of a female Ninshubur. To confuse matters even further the Sumerians had previously called the constellation Sipazianna, and the Akkadians had called it Sitaddalu.
If the gender switch isn’t queer enough there’s more queer associations with another representation of Ninshubur/Papsukkal. In some depictions of the night sky the deity is shown as a rooster. This bird is closely associated with Papsukkal in particular. In instances in which he isn’t represented by a rooster he is shown with a rooster following him. Back in January 2018 I wrote about instances of gender switchesin roosters and chickens. I’m not claiming that the ancient Babylonians ever associated roosters with the gender switch of Ninshubur/Papsukkal, or that they ever encountered gender switching roosters at all in their time, but knowing that this can happen gives and extra queer angle to the constellation.
Below are two diagrams. First is our modern Orion constellation. Below that is my interpretation of how the Babylonians depicted The True Shepherd of Anu. To the right of him is a representation of the constellation Taurus. Above him is the Babylonian representation of our modern constellation Gemini. Below him is his rooster, which is in the area of the modern constellation Lepus.
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