Kubaba, A Queen Among Kings
Bow Down to this Tavern-Keeper
Want to know which monarch of ancient Sumer reigned supreme at any given
time? You’d have to check out the aptly named Sumerian King List. But the
Sumerians had a super-special idea of “kingship”: it was a force that liked to
travel. For generations at a time, nam-lugal, or “kingship,” was bestowed upon a
particular city, represented by a monarch who ruled for a long time. Only one city
was believed to hold true kingship at any given time.
After a few hundred years, kingship went from one city to another, which then
held the honor of nam-lugal for a few generations. Apparently, the gods, who
bestowed rulership as a privilege, not a right, upon humans, got fed up of one
place after a period of time, so they regifted it elsewhere. In reality, the list may
have reflected a particular city’s rise to power or military defeat in Sumer: if City
A came to prominence, then its hegemony could be justified by claiming divine
right. This mythological idea wasn't realistic - many cities had individual kings
reigning at the same time – but since when did myth have reflect reality?
It's Ladies' Night
Tons of monarchs make an appearance on the Sumerian King List, but
there’s only one lady named: Kubaba, or Kug-Bau. Not to be confused with
the monster Huwawa or Hubaba in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Kubaba was a woman
alone – the only queen regnant who’s recorded as bearing divine rulership.
The Sumerian King List records that the city of Kish held nam-lugal multiple
times. In fact, it was the first city to hold kingship after a great mythical flood –
sound familiar? After sovereignty bounced around to a lot of different places, it
landed in Kish a few more times – although that’s since been cast in doubt. On
one of those occasions, a woman named Kug-Bau ruled the city.
Drink Up!
Kubaba is first identified in the King List as the “the woman tavern-keeper.” How
could she have gone from owning a bar/inn to ruling a city? We can’t be sure, but
female tavern-keepers actually held important positions in Sumerian mythology
and daily life. Perhaps that’s because of the mega-importance of beer in Sumerian
culture. While some scholars theorized that taverns equaled brothels in Sumer,
apparently “tavern keeping was a common and respectable female occupation
until later periods in Mesopotamia,” according to Julia Assante. Regardless of
what kind of show they were running, women often ran taverns, holding perhaps
one of the only independent female positions of power in ancient Sumer.
In the Epic of Gilgamesh, an important character is Siduri the tavern-keeper, who
runs an inn in the Underworld. She must be an immortal of some sort to live
where she does, and gives Gilgamesh sage advice like “Who of the mortal can live
forever? The life of man is short….let there be pleasure and dancing.” So, in what
was probably a very important epic even in antiquity, a female tavern-keeper was
seen as a guide along perilous paths and a figure worthy of veneration.
Real-life politics may or may not have allowed a tavern-keeper co to rule over her
city. But what was the purpose in identifying her profession? By associating her
with the mythical Siduri and a prominent feminine profession – whether she ran
a brothel or not - the recorder of the King List literally immortalized Kubaba and
made her the one of world’s most independent women before Beyoncé.
According to Carol R. Fontaine in her essay “Visual Metaphors and Proverbs
15:15-20,” there was a sacredness attached to female tavern-keepers. She wrote
that, “given the association of Inanna-Ishtar with the tavern and the sweet
(sexual?) wine to be drunk there, as well as female ownership of taverns and
involvement with the process of brewery, we should not assume Ku-Baba to be
some sort of prostitute but a successful business woman with divine associations
herself.”
So what else did Kubaba do? The King List says she “made firm the foundations
of Kish,” indicating she fortified it against invaders. Lots of monarchs did this;
Gilgamesh even built a lot of walls to protect his city of Uruk . So it sounds like
Kubaba carried on a grand royal tradition of building up her city.
According to the King List, Kubaba ruled for one hundred years. That’s obviously
exaggerated, but a lot of other monarchs on the list have similarly long reigns.
But it didn’t last forever. Eventually, “Kish was defeated” – or destroyed,
depending on the version you’re reading – and the gods decided to remove
kingship from this city. It went to the city of Akshak instead.
A Woman's Work Never Ends
But Kubaba’s legacy didn’t end there. It seems that later generations weren’t
crazy about women occupying traditional men’s roles. A later omen reading
indicated that, if an individual is born intersex, it’s the “omen of Ku-Bau who
ruled the land; the land of the king will become waste.” By taking on the duties of
a man – a king – Kubaba was seen to have crossed a boundary and transcended
gender divisions in an improper fashion. Combining male and female genitalia in
an individual would echo her reign as lugal, or king, which the ancients saw as
violating the natural order of things.
The omen texts indicate that both an individual with the sexual organs of two
genders and a queen regnant were seen as unnatural. “These were linked in the
elite mind as a challenge and threat to the political hegemony of the king,” said
Fontaine. Similarly, in another omen reading, if a patient’s lung didn’t look so
good, it was the sign of Kubaba, “who seized the kingship.” So, basically,
Kubaba’s legacy served as a means of identifying bad stuff that went against the
way things "should" be. It's also worth noting that Kubaba is portrayed as an
improper usurper here.
Kubaba’s legacy might not have been limited to her reputation. In fact, she
might've founded a real dynasty! After her reign, kingship transferred to Akshak;
a few generations later, a king named Puzur-Nirah ruled there. Apparently,
Kubaba was still alive at this time, according to the Weidner Chronicle, and
Kubaba, a.k.a. “the alewife,” fed some local fishermen who lived near her house.
Because she was so nice, the god Marduk liked her and gave “royal dominion of
all lands entirely over to Ku-Baba.”
On the King List, royal power is said to have gone back to Kish after Akshak…and
guess who ruled? “Puzur-Suen, the son of Kug-Bau, became king; he ruled for 25
years.” So it looks like the story about Marduk giving kingship back to Kubaba’s
family demonstrates her real-life family taking power eventually. Puzur-Suen’s
son, Ur-Zubaba, ruled after him. According to the list, “131 are the years of the
dynasty of Kug-Bau,” but that doesn’t add up when you tally the years of each
reign. Oh, well!
Eventually, the name “Kubaba” became best-known as that of a Neo-Hittite
goddess, hailing from the city of Carchemish. This Kubaba probably didn’t have
any relation to our Kug-Bau from Sumer, but an incarnation of the deity so
prominent in Asia Minor might’ve become the goddess the Romans knew
as Cybele (née Cybebe). If so, then the name Kubaba had come a long way from
Kish!
