Anthology of Ancient Heroines

Who was she?

If you’ve even heard of the name Kubaba, you might be familiar with the goddess Kubaba, but did you know she was probably a real person before she was deified? Not only that, she may be the first recorded woman ruler. Queen Puabi and another unknown Sumerian Queen who was discovered on a very intricate alabaster plaque may predate Kubaba. Then again, maybe the queen on the plaque is Kubaba. Unlike some other theorists, I do not believe Kubaba married into her position. The Sumerian King List refers to her as lugal (king) and not eresh (queen consort). She is the only woman in the Sumerian King List. There is not a lot of information about Kubaba readily available, but here are some other factoids I was able to gather:

Kubaba, as well as her son and grandson are present on the Sumerian King List. According to the list, she ruled around 2400 BC. There are several sources that contain the Sumerian King List, some of which date back to 2000 BC. Next to her name on the Sumerian King List, her epithet states, "the woman tavern-keeper, who made firm the foundations of Kish."

Kubaba is also briefly mentioned in the Weidner Chronicle that is believed to be written by King Damiq-ilišu of Isin who ruled around 1816-1794 BC. It is believed that he wrote to King Apil-Sin of Babylon who ruled around 1830-1813 BC about the blessings that the gods bestowed upon earlier rulers who sacrificed to the supreme god Marduk in the Esagila shrine in Babylon. If my interpretation is correct, King Damiq-ilišu of Isin states that at the time of the dynasty of Akshak, a fisherman of King Puzur-Nirah was fishing for 7 or 8 days and came to the house of Kubaba, a tavern-keeper. Kubaba gave the fisherman bread and water and made him give his fish to the Esagila shrine. The god Marduk favored her and said, “Let it be so!” and the god Marduk entrusted to Kubaba, the tavern-keeper, sovereignty over the whole world.

That is all we have to work with from ancient writings. However, one person has a very fascinating theory. The author of the content on SumerianShakespeare.com speculates that the lack of information on Kubaba may be the direct result of a smear campaign against her grandson, King Ur-Zababa. King Ur-Zababa, had a cupbearer named Sargon. Cupbearers are supposed to be the most trustworthy person in a king’s circle because they are responsible for guarding the king’s drinks, such as wine and beer. An untrustworthy person could simply poison the king’s drinks even after a required taste-test and the king could die. That wasn’t what Sargon had in mind though. A series of unfortunate dreams led King Ur-Zababa to wanting his cupbearer, Sargon, dead. With a couple of close calls, Sargon escaped death and began to make his case for the throne.

Sargon could not simply kill King Ur-Zababa because the throne would just go to another relative of King Ur-Zababa. He had to convince the people of Sumer that the entire lineage of Kubaba’s grandson was tainted. That also posed a problem because Sargon himself was not of royal descent. Who knows what is actually true, but he claimed that he was the illegitimate son of a priestess and she put him in a basket of reeds on a river and a royal gardener adopted him. You may recognize a couple of details from that story that match Moses’s origin story, a man who is believed to have lived around the 14th century, hundreds of years after Sargon. Anyway, since Sargon didn’t know who his biological father was, he could have claimed a potential royal connection, but he didn’t. He, instead, put every ounce of his campaign into slandering Kubaba, who at that point had died of old age and couldn’t defend herself. Not many people alive at the time would be able to disprove any claims Sargon made about Kubaba’s origin. So he condemned her as a tavern-keeper as a way to disavow her grandson. The worst part is that it worked. Sargon went on to be Sargon the Great and reigned for 40 years. As king, he may have destroyed any real evidence of Kubaba’s rule. It’s been rumored that temples that Kubaba’s family built to honor her as a goddess had been repurposed by Sargon the Great to honor other goddesses. That didn’t stop the world from honoring Kubaba though. She became a goddess of many regions with many names.

1. In Sumerian, "Dingir Ku-Baba", (the) goddess Ku-Baba 𒀭𒆬𒀭𒁀𒌑
2. In Phrygian, they worshiped matar kubileya, which means mother Cybele, also spelled Kybele
3. In Hurrian, Kebat, Hepat, and eventually the Hurrian mother goddess Hannahannah
4. In Lydian, Kuvav or Kufav
5. In Ionian Greek, Kybêbê, and eventually the Greek goddess Kybêbê, daughter of Zeus

With all of these people honoring her as a deity, it is hard to believe that the living, breathing Kubaba deserved to have her legacy tainted and her artifacts destroyed. It’s hard to know the truth, but I speculate that the god Marduk did somehow bestow upon Kubaba the luck she needed to gain the respect of the people of Kish. Some people believe she was working at her parents’ tavern and a king or lord did find favor in her, marrying her to give her a higher status. I propose that she did not marry into status but was just a fantastic tavern-keeper. In Kubaba’s time, only women made beer and beer was considered a gift from the goddess Ninkasi. Brewing beer in Mesopotamia can be traced all the way back to 3500 BC. Beer back then didn’t look exactly like the beer we see today. People would drink it with a straw to avoid the dregs at the bottom and the foam at the top. Also, a hymn that had been passed down orally for generations before it was written down in 1800 BC acts as both a recipe to make the beer and a way to honor the goddess Ninkasi. I’ve included it below.

The following translation of the Hymn to Ninkasi is by Miguel Civil:

Hymn to Ninkasi

Borne of the flowing water,

Tenderly cared for by the Ninhursag,

Borne of the flowing water,

Tenderly cared for by the Ninhursag,

Having founded your town by the sacred lake,

She finished its great walls for you,

Ninkasi, having founded your town by the sacred lake,

She finished its walls for you,

Your father is Enki, Lord Nidimmud,

Your mother is Ninti, the queen of the sacred lake.

Ninkasi, your father is Enki, Lord Nidimmud,

Your mother is Ninti, the queen of the sacred lake.

You are the one who handles the dough [and] with a big shovel,

Mixing in a pit, the bappir with sweet aromatics,

Ninkasi, you are the one who handles the dough [and] with a big shovel,

Mixing in a pit, the bappir with [date] - honey,

You are the one who bakes the bappir in the big oven,

Puts in order the piles of hulled grains,

Ninkasi, you are the one who bakes the bappir in the big oven,

Puts in order the piles of hulled grains,

You are the one who waters the malt set on the ground,

The noble dogs keep away even the potentates,

Ninkasi, you are the one who waters the malt set on the ground,

The noble dogs keep away even the potentates,

You are the one who soaks the malt in a jar,

The waves rise, the waves fall.

Ninkasi, you are the one who soaks the malt in a jar,

The waves rise, the waves fall.

You are the one who spreads the cooked mash on large reed mats,

Coolness overcomes,

Ninkasi, you are the one who spreads the cooked mash on large reed mats,

Coolness overcomes,

You are the one who holds with both hands the great sweet wort,

Brewing [it] with honey [and] wine

(You the sweet wort to the vessel)

Ninkasi, (...)(You the sweet wort to the vessel)

The filtering vat, which makes a pleasant sound,

You place appropriately on a large collector vat.

Ninkasi, the filtering vat, which makes a pleasant sound,

You place appropriately on a large collector vat.

When you pour out the filtered beer of the collector vat,

It is [like] the onrush of Tigris and Euphrates.

Ninkasi, you are the one who pours out the filtered beer of the collector vat,

It is [like] the onrush of Tigris and Euphrates.

So being a woman tavern-keeper is not all that bad. Kubaba could have easily become a well-respected person to her entire community through years of serving her people great beer and even caring for fishermen who are far from home with bread and water. Even today, we hear about people who own restaurants and go on to be very important figures in their community and some even run for political office. It’s not far-fetched in my opinion to believe that Kubaba won the hearts of the people of Kish long before she became their ruler. Some say that tavern-keepers may have been associated with prostitution because drinking and sex often went hand in hand, but beer was also closely associated with the gods. So we should be careful before casting any kind of judgement.

What did she accomplish?

Honestly, we may never know everything Kubaba accomplished while alive. We know she made the Sumerian King List which is no small feat. She started a dynasty that lasted three generations before Sargon ended all of the fun. We also know that hundreds of years later, a king spoke to another king about the benefits of honoring the gods as Kubaba did prior to her reign. We know that at least five regions honored her as a goddess. I would call that a life worth honoring and remembering.

Special Thanks:

• https://sumerianshakespeare.com/748301/769001.html
• https://www.worldhistory.org/article/222/the-hymn-to-ninkasi-goddess-of-beer/
• https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/issr/vol95/iss3/1/
• https://www.livius.org/sources/content/mesopotamian-chronicles-content/abc-19-weidner-chronicle/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Why am I doing this?

I am starting an anthology to remember women that time has forgotten because their stories are noteworthy and it is to our detriment that we do not talk about them anymore. These women are a strong reminder of what is possible simply because they are real people who have already accomplished the unthinkable. If you liked this, stay tuned for more stories about ancient heroines.