Cunning Linguists: Oral Sex in the Song of Songs
In: Vetus TestamentumSearch for other papers by M. L. Case in
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As is typical of the metaphorical nature of poetry, the Song of Songs describes sexual activities indirectly, without giving any explicit references. As a result, interpreters often hesitate to define the exact practices portrayed in any given verse. For example, both Song 2:16 and 6:3 describe the male lover as “he who grazes among the lotuses.” Many scholars read these verses as some type of sexual activity, but do not specifically define the action. Using comparative evidence from Egyptian and Sumerian love poetry, as well as contextual analysis of these verses within the Song as a whole, I argue that these verses depict a particular type of love-making, cunnilingus. According to my reading, Song 2:16 and 6:3 focus exclusively on the sexual pleasure of the two partners, disregarding other potential benefits of sexual intercourse, such as reproduction, giving us a rare glimpse into a particular sexual practice in ancient Israel.
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13
D. Langgut et al., “Fossil Pollen Reveals the Secrets of the Royal Persian Garden at Ramat Rahel, Jerusalem,” Palynology 37 (2013), pp. 115-129.
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16
G. Pinch, “Lotus,” in Handbook of Egyptian Mythology (Santa Barbara, 2002), p. 158.
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19
Leick, Sex and Eroticism, p. 122; Moens, “Procession,” p. 67; and J. R. Harlan “Lettuce and the Sycamore: Sex and Romance in Ancient Egypt,” Economic Botany 40 (1986), p. 4.
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23
Ibid., p. 94.
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29
Ibid., pp. 138-139.
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31
Alster, “Sumerian Love Songs,” pp. 140-142. Kramer’s translation of these four lines is very similar. See S. N. Kramer, The Sacred Marriage Rite: Aspects of Faith, Myth, and Ritual in Ancient Sumer (Bloomington, 1969), p. 94.
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36
Exum, Song, p. 19. For Brettler, this ambiguity, which is especially strong in poetry in general and the Song in particular, provides an impediment for our understanding the Song. Brettler, “Unresolved and Unresolvable,” p. 187.
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42
See Pope, Song, p. 617; Keel, Song, pp. 232-35; A. Brenner, “ ‘Come Back, Come Back the Shulamite’ (Song of Songs 7:1-10): A Parody of the waṣf Genre,” in A. Brenner (ed.), The Song of Songs: A Feminist Companion to the Bible (Sheffield, 1993), p. 246; E. Ullendorff, “The Bawdy Bible,” bsoas 42 (1979), pp. 448-449; Black, “Beauty or the Beast,” p. 312; K. Hügel, “Queere Lesarten des Hohelieds,” Journal of the European Society of Women in Theological Research 21 (2013), pp. 177-180; and E. Würthwein, Ruth, Das Hohe Lied, Esther (Tübingen, 1969), p. 62. Cf. Exum, Song, pp. 233-234; and Bloch, “Translating Love,” p. 153. In conjunction with the description of this body part as a bowl, a more anatomically accurate translation than “vulva” is “vagina.”
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Cunning Linguists: Oral Sex in the Song of Songs
In: Vetus TestamentumSearch for other papers by M. L. Case in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
As is typical of the metaphorical nature of poetry, the Song of Songs describes sexual activities indirectly, without giving any explicit references. As a result, interpreters often hesitate to define the exact practices portrayed in any given verse. For example, both Song 2:16 and 6:3 describe the male lover as “he who grazes among the lotuses.” Many scholars read these verses as some type of sexual activity, but do not specifically define the action. Using comparative evidence from Egyptian and Sumerian love poetry, as well as contextual analysis of these verses within the Song as a whole, I argue that these verses depict a particular type of love-making, cunnilingus. According to my reading, Song 2:16 and 6:3 focus exclusively on the sexual pleasure of the two partners, disregarding other potential benefits of sexual intercourse, such as reproduction, giving us a rare glimpse into a particular sexual practice in ancient Israel.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 10672 | 2212 | 100 |
| Full Text Views | 657 | 36 | 4 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 608 | 63 | 9 |