August 30, 2003
To Enheduanna
Your mournful query, four thousand years ago
Resounds in my ears and unsettles me still
AYou
hack everything down in battle... God of War...
Who can explain why you go on so?@
Might I now venture a tentative answer?
Because children were cursed by old women
Sealed in bridges to prevent these from falling
Placed in cradles and hung up high in trees
Swaddled to immobility and hung on pegs
Hardened by cold, baptism and circumcision
They were taken into the woods to be abandoned
Would have died lest suckled by kindly wolves
They were raped by old men posing as wolves
Poisoned by mothers jealous of their beauty
Sacrificed to the gods in return for good harvests
They were deprived, enslaved and killed by old men
Blamed, whipped for touching their own body parts
And today, they are made dumb by lead in the air
Torn apart by land mines that look like food
And caused by radiation to be born without arms
Invariably, throughout the ages, once in adulthood
They have done to others what was done to them
They hated their mothers and burned them as witches
They gathered in large groups to destroy Athe other@
Blinded to their enemy=s face by the demons within
To make one last plea for that elusive mother=s love
They gave their life for symbols of motherhood
La patrie, la liberte, la justice, l=egalite, la paix
They know fathers prefer sons maimed or dead
To those refusing to fight for the parental life-style
Wars maintain our psychological equilibrium
They rage now, as in your time, Enheduanna
Only now, our ever more efficient killing machines
Threaten to make the earth and all its inhabitants
A mere wrong turn in the trajectory of evolution.
Lament to the Spirit of War
by Enheduanna
You hack everything down in battle...
God of War, with your fierce wings
you slice away the land and charge
disguised as a raging storm,
growl as a roaring hurricane,
yell like a tempest yells,
thunder, rage roar, and drum,
expel evil winds!
Your feet are filled with anxiety!
On you lyre of moans
I hear your loud dirge scream.
Like a fiery monster you fill the land with poison.
As thunder you growl over the earth,
trees and bushes collapse before you.
You are blood rushing down a mountain,
Spirit of hate, greed and anger,
dominator of heaven and earth!
Your fire wafts over our land,
riding on a beast,
with indomitable commands,
you decide all fate.
You triumph over all our rites.
Who can explain why you go on so?
Translation adapted by Daniela Gioseffi
References and Notes
Enheduanna
Enheduanna, ALament to the Spirit of War,@ in Gioseffi, Daniela, Ed., Women on War B An International Anthology of Writings from Antiquity to the Present, Second Edition (The Feminist Press, City University of New York, New York, N.Y.), 2003, p. 3.
Enheduanna, a Sumerian poet-priestess who lived circa 2300 B.C., is the first known poet (man or woman) in history. She is also an early war protester, her work lamenting the same horrors of war that we know today.
Because children were cursed by old women
Rheingold, Joseph, The Fear of Being a Woman B A Theory of Maternal Destructiveness (New York), 1964; and The Mother, Anxiety and Death B The Catastrophic Death Complex (Boston), 1967. Cited in deMause, Lloyd, Ed., The History of Childhood (Jason Aronson, Northvale, New Jersey), 1974, p. 25, 27 and 30.
According to Rheingold, filicide is a sacrifice to the mother of the parents. The grandmother is angry at the young mother for having dared de-throne her by becoming a mother herself. She wants to Aundo@ the young woman=s motherhood. In an attempt to propitiate her mother, the young mother kills her baby, especially the first one. Old women were thought to have an Aevil eye@ under whose gaze the child would die.
ASleeping Beauty (Briar Rose),@ in Grimm=s Fairy Tales, (Random House, New York, N.Y.) 1972, pp. 237-241.
The fairly tale confirms the
dangerousness of grandmothers. The
thirteenth Wise (old) Woman curses the newborn instead of blessing her. At age 14 (adolescence), Ashe will prick herself with a spindle
(menstruation), and fall down dead.@ (The child, therefore, will never be able to
have children). The twelfth Wise Woman
softens the sentence from death to sleep.
After the unfortunate incident happens as per the curse, the girl sleeps
(sexually) for a very long time, until awoken (sexually) by a youth who kisses
her.
Note that a popular word for menstruation is, Athe curse.@
Philip, Neil, The Illustrated Book of Fairy Tales (DK Publishing, New York, N.Y.), 1997, pp. 18-21.
This French tale dates back at least to the 14th century. The best-known version was set down in 1697, by the Frenchman, Charles Perrault (1628-1703), in 1697, under the title, ALa Belle au Bois Dormant.@ His version formed the basis for later re-tellings, such as by the Brothers Grimm, in the early 19th century.
Sealed in bridges to prevent these from falling
Bett,
Henry, Nursery Rhymes and Tales B Their Origin and History (New York), 1924, p. 35, and The Games of
Children B Their Origin and History (London), 1929, pp. 104-105; Many other
authors. Cited in deMause, Lloyd, Ed., The
History of Childhood (Jason Aronson, Northvale, New Jersey), 1974, p. 27.
ASealing children in walls, foundations of buildings
and bridges to strengthen the structure was... common, from the building of the
wall of Jericho to as late as 1843 in Germany.
To this day, when children play, ALondon Bridge is Falling Down,@ they are acting out a sacrifice to a river goddess
when they catch the child at the end of the game.@
Placed in cradles and
hung up high in trees
Chorao,
Kay, ARock-a-bye, Baby,@ in Big
Book for Babies (Barnes and Noble, New York, N.Y.), 1998, pp. 124 and 155.
ARock-a-bye, baby,
On
the tree-top,
When
the wind blows,
the
cradle will rock;
When
the bough breaks,
the
cradle will fall,
and
down will come baby,
Cradle
and all.@
The
swaddled infant has apparently been placed in its cradle up on a tree, and (as
might have been predicted), crashes down.
deMause,
Lloyd, Ed., The History of Childhood (Jason Aronson, Northvale, New
Jersey), 1974, p. 31.
Cradles
began to be in disfavor in the 18th century because the violent
rocking of infants Aputs the babe into a dazed condition, in order that
he may not trouble those that have the care of him.@
Swaddled to
immobility and hung on pegs
deMause,
Lloyd, Ed., The History of Childhood (Jason Aronson, Northvale, New
Jersey), 1974, p. 37 -38. deMause cites
many authors.
ATying the child up in various restraint devices was
a near-universal practice. Swaddling was
the central fact of the infant=s earliest years... [and was] much the same in every
country and [in every ] age... It >consists in entirely depriving the child of the use
of its limbs...= Its
convenience to adults was enormous B they rarely had to pay any attention to infants
once they were tied up... Children were
described as being laid for hours behind the hot oven, hung on pegs on the
wall, placed in tubs, and in general, >left, like a parcel, in every convenient corner.=@
AThe English led the way in ending swaddling, as they
did in ending outside wet-nursing.
Swaddling in England and America was on its way out by the end of the 18th
century, and in France and Germany, by the 19th century.@
Hardened by cold, baptism and circumcision
Cold and baptism:
deMause, Lloyd, Ed., The History of Childhood (Jason Aronson, Northvale, New Jersey), 1974, pp. 31-32. deMause cites many authors.
AUrges to mutilate, burn, freeze, drown, shake and throw the infant violently about were continuously acted out in the past... Infant were... sometimes nearly frozen through a variety of customs, ranging from baptism by lengthy dipping in ice-water and rolling in the snow, to the practice of the plunge bath, which involved regular plunging of the infant... in ice cold water over its head...@
Circumcision
deMause,
Lloyd, Ed., The History of Childhood (Jason Aronson, Northvale, New
Jersey), 1974, pp. 23-24 deMause
cites many authors.
AMutilations of children by adults [such as circumcision]... involve projection and punishment to control projected passions.@
Bryk, Felix, Circumcision in Man and Woman B Its History, Psychology and Ethnology (New York), 1934, p. 100; cited in deMause, Lloyd, Ed., The History of Childhood (Jason Aronson, Northvale, New Jersey), 1974, p. 24.
A[According to] Moses Maimonides [the great Hebrew scholar, 1135-1204], >The true purpose of circumcision [is] to give the sexual organ that kind of physical pain as not to impair its natural function or the potency of the individual, but to lessen the power of passion and of too great desire.=@
They were taken into the woods to be abandoned
AHansel and Gretel,@ in Grimm=s Fairy Tales, (Random House, New York, N.Y.) 1972, pp. 86-94.
The tale is one of child abuse. Hansel and Gretel are taken into the woods and left there so their parents can Abe rid of them.@ Though the reason at the beginning of the tale is poverty, as the tale goes on, we are told that they have Aplump and rosy cheeks,@ so that evidently, they are well children.
When the first attempt at abandonment fails, the parents try again, all the while lying to the children (AWe will come back and fetch you away@), deceiving them, (fastening a branch to a withered tree so that it would sound like the father=s axe nearby), insulting them (Asluggards,@ Afools=) and blaming them for their misfortune (AYou naughty children, why have you slept so long in the forest? B we thought you were never coming back at all!@).
The children=s freedom is taken away by Aan old witch@ (a grandmother) who also lies to them (ANo harm shall happen to you@), deceives them (enticing them with cake and sugar), and insults them (AGet up, lazy thing...,@ ASilly goose,@ or when Gretel cries, AJust keep your noise to yourself, it won=t help you at all@).
Gretel then becomes a murderer B she burns the old woman to death despite her horrible howls. The children steal her wealth and return home B to their father who is no less a murderer than the Agodless witch.@ The tale ends with the story-teller inviting his listeners to kill a mouse (an easy victory over a weak enemy).
Would have died lest suckled by kindly wolves
The New Columbia Encyclopedia (Columbia University, New York, N.Y.), 1975, ARomulus.@
According to Roman legend, Romulus and Remus were twin brothers, founders of Rome in 753 B.C. Amulius had usurped the throne of his brother, Numitor, king of Alba Longa, and had forced Numitor=s daughter, Rhea Silvia, to become a vestal virgin so that she would not bear children. When she gave birth to twins, Amulius had her imprisoned and set the infants adrift in a basket on the Tiber. They floated ashore where a she-wolf suckled them until a shepherd found and reared them. When grown, the brothers learned their true identity, killed Amulius, restored Numitor to the throne, and established a city at the point where they had been rescued from the Tiber.
They were raped by old men posing as wolves
ALittle Red Riding Hood (Little Red Cap),@ in Grimm=s Fairy Tales, (Random House, New York, N.Y.) 1972, pp. 139-143.
Red Riding Hood, the little girl
with red (menstruation), is warned by her mother not to run off the path
(explore the world). She nevertheless is
beguiled into doing so by one (a Ahe@) who poses as a benign wolf but
swallows her up (rapes her) in her grandmother=s
bed (where no sex usually occurs). The
huntsman who saves Little Red Riding Hood admonishes the wolf for being Aan old sinner,@
and Little Red Riding Hood promises never again to leave the (straight)
path.
Note that the girl, not her rapist, changes her behavior to avoid further rapes.
Philip, Neil, The Illustrated
Book of Fairy Tales (DK Publishing, New York, N.Y.), 1997, pp. 88-89.
This French tale was first written
down by the Frenchman, Charles Perrault, in 1697. He
concluded, AChildren, especially young lasses,
pretty, courteous and well-bred, are wrong to listen to any sort of man.@
Poisoned by mothers jealous of their beauty
ALittle Snow White,@ in Grimm=s Fairy Tales, (Random House, New York, N.Y.) 1972, pp. 249-258.
Snow White, the beautiful adolescent, is envied to death by her step-mother who has looked at herself in the mirror and realized her age. After no less than four murder attempts by her step-mother, Snow White escapes through marriage. She becomes an accomplice to the murder, by torture, of her step-mother B upon arriving at the wedding ceremony, her step-mother is forced to dance in red-hot shoes until she drops down dead.
Philip, Neil, The Illustrated Book of Fairy Tales (DK Publishing, New York, N.Y.), 1997, pp. 122-125.
This German story was collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1823 under the title, ASnowdrop.@
Sacrificed to the gods in return for good harvests
deMause, Lloyd, Ed., The History of Childhood (Jason Aronson, Northvale, New Jersey), 1974, p. 27.
AInfanticide has probably been common since pre-historic times... The Greeks and Romans were actually an island of enlightenment in a sea of nations still in an earlier stage of sacrificing children to gods, a practice the Romans tried to stop in vain... Child sacrifice is... the most concrete acting out of Rheingold=s thesis [that] filicide [is] a sacrifice to the mother of the parents.@ (See also note under ABecause children were cursed by old women@).
They were deprived, enslaved and killed by old men
Deprived [Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus)]:
The New Columbia Encyclopedia (Columbia University, New York, N.Y.), 1975, ANicholas.@
Nicholas, a 4th century bishop in Asia minor, is identified as having become Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus), patron of children. He is credited with restoring to life three boys who had been chopped up and pickled in salt by a butcher.
The old man, Saint Nicholas, gives candies and toys to good children but not to bad ones, even though (in Belgium) these latter are generous to him, leaving potatoes and carrots in their shoes under the chimney as food for his donkey.
Enslaved and killed (Bluebeard):
deMause, Lloyd, Ed., The History of Childhood (Jason Aronson, Northvale, New Jersey), 1974, pp. 11-12. deMause cites many authors.
AIf adults project all their own unacceptable feeling into the child, [then]... severe measures must be taken to keep [the]... child under control, once swaddling bands are out-grown... Frightening the child [is one of these]... When religion was no longer the focus of the terrorizing campaign, figures closer to home were used B the werewolf will gulp you down, Bluebeard will chop you up, Boney (Bonaparte) will eat your flesh, the black man or the chimney sweep will steal you away at night.@
Philip, Neil, The Illustrated Book of Fairy Tales (DK Publishing, New York, N.Y.), 1997, 114-117.
Bluebeard was a rich man who had already killed several wives (and, therefore, was old) by the time he married a young woman (the youngest of two daughters B therefore, young). After she disobeys him and enters the room where the corpses of his previous wives are hanging along the walls, their throats cut, he takes his revenge by preparing to kill her in the same manner. Her brothers arrive by chance, just in time to save her. They kill Bluebeard.
This French story was first written down in 1697 by the Frenchman, Charles Perrault, under the title, ABarbe Bleue.@
Blamed, whipped for touching their own body parts
Blamed (Oedipus):
Webster=s New Collegiate Dictionary (Merriam, Springfield, MA, 1975), under Agoad.@
A goad is a Apointed rod used to urge on an animal; something that pricks like a goad (a thorn), that urges or stimulates into action (a spur).@
deMause, Lloyd, Ed., The History of Childhood (Jason Aronson, Northvale, New Jersey), 1974, pp. 41-42. De Mause cites many authors, including Sophocles, Oedipus Rex, p. 808.
The early medieval [English] ecclesiastic Alcuin [(Albinus), c735-804], reported having been punished as an infant by Acuts or pricks on the soles of his feet with an instrument resembling a cobbler=s knife... [which may have been] a goad.@
AShould further research show that the goad was also used on children in antiquity, it would put a different light on Oedipus= killing of Laius on that lonely road, for he was literally Agoaded@ into it B Laius having struck him >full on the head with his two-pointed goad.=@
The New Columbia Encyclopedia (Columbia University, New York, N.Y.), 1975, AOedipus.@
In Greek legend, Laius, king of Thebes, abandons the baby Oedipus on a mountainside. Oedipus is rescued and adopted by the king of Corinth, who, however, lies to him, never telling him of his adoption. Grown, Oedipus encounters his real father (a complete stranger to him) at a crossroad. Laius strikes him on the head with a goad and Oedipus then kills him. After unknowingly marrying his mother, Oedipus blinds himself.
Sophocles (496-406 B.C.) wrote the play, Oedipus Rex, in c429 B.C..
Despite all the provocations by
father figures, it is Oedipus, never Laius (or Oedipus= mother, Jocasta) who is considered a
murderer. Could it be that Oedipus
accepts the blame, blinding himself to the fact that he was an abused child?
Whipped (Masturbation):
deMause, Lloyd, Ed., The History of Childhood (Jason Aronson, Northvale, New Jersey), 1974, pp. 40, 43 and 48. deMause cites many authors.
AThe evidence... on methods of disciplining children leads me to believe that a very large percentage of the children born prior to the eighteenth century were what would today be termed, >battered children.=@
AIn the last two hundred years, the severe punishment of children for their sexual desires, has been [an attempt on the part of] the adult [to use] the child to restrain... his own sexual fantasies [instead of acting them out and abusing the child sexually]... Little boys and girls [were punished] for touching their own genitals...@
And today, they are made dumb by lead in the air
Epstein,
Samuel, The Politics of Cancer, Revisited (East Ridge Press, Fremont
Center, N.Y.), 1998, pp. 391 and 394.
Body-lead levels correlate [inversely] with I.Q.
The lead pollution in many of the world=s largest cities are such as to cause a measurable decrease in the I.Q. of children.
Torn apart by land mines that look like food
Roy, Arundhati, Power Politics (South End), Cambridge, MA), 2001, p. 112.
The Afghan countryside is littered with ten million land mines. The country has 500,000 maimed orphans.
The food rations dropped over Afghanistan by the United States, in 2001, were packaged in bright yellow paper, attractive to children. They looked like the land mines which clutter the countryside.
And caused by radiation to be born without arms
Caldicott, Helen, The New Nuclear Danger B George W. Bush=s Military-Industrial Complex (The New Press, New York, N.Y.), 2002, pp. 151-152 and 158-161.
Iraqi children, particularly around Basra, have an extremely high rate of congenital abnormalities, due to radioactive weaponry used by the American forces during the First Gulf War (1991). Other countries in which the United States has used radioactive weaponry include the United States continent itself, the Marshall Islands (Bikini), Japan, Puerto Rico (Vieques), Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan.
They hated their mothers and burned them as witches
deMause, Lloyd, Ed., The History of Childhood (Jason Aronson, Northvale, New Jersey), 1974, p. 10-11.
ABy medieval times,... witches and devils took front stage [to terrify the child] Sprenger and Kramer, in their bible of witch hunting, Malleus Maleficarum (1487), contend that you can recognize changelings...@
The New Columbia Encyclopedia (Columbia University, New York, N.Y.), 1975, AWitchcraft.@
The Christian Church was particularly hostile to witchcraft, an attitude which resulted in an explosion of fear and mass hysteria. Religious persecution of supposed witches began early in the 14th century, reached a peak in the 16th and 17th centuries, and continued to the 18th century. The auto-da-fe, as this mass burning was called, took on the qualities of a carnival.
Witches were often old women B that is, mothers of adult children.
They gathered in large groups to destroy Athe other@
Armies.
La patrie, la liberte, la justice, l=egalite, la paix
These, in French, are all feminine concepts. In Western countries, the first four are represented by women, and the fifth by a bird B which, like mothers, hover over one=s world.
They know fathers prefer sons maimed or dead
During a special defense briefing, ADevelopments concerning Attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center last Week,@ September 20, 2001, Donald Rumsfeld, United States Secretary of Defense, was asked what he would call a victory in America=s new war. He answered that if he could convince the world that Americans must be allowed to continue with their way of life, he would consider it a victory. Reported by the Federal News Service. Cited in Arundhati Roy, Power Politics (South End), Cambridge, MA), 2001, p. 119-120.
Time Line of Events in, ATo Enheduanna@ (*)
753 B.C. Romulus and Remus found Rome.
Infanticide common.
c429 B.C. Sophocles writes Oedipus Rex.
Infanticide common.
A.D.
300- 400 Infanticidal Mode of child rearing gives way to Abandonment Mode.
Nicholas, a bishop in Asia Minor, will later become Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus).
700- 800 c750 Alcuin [(Albinus), reports having been punished as an infant by cuts or pricks on the soles of his feet, with (probably) a goad.
1200-1300 Abandoning Mode of child rearing
gives way to Ambivalent Mode.
1300-1400 Religious persecution of Awitches@ begins
ASleeping Beauty@ dates back from this century.
1400-1500 1487 Sprenger and Kramer publish Malleus Maleficarum, on witch hunting.
1500-1600 Peak of religious persecution of witches.
1600-1700 Ambivalent Mode of child rearing
gives way to Intrusive Mode.
Peak of religious persecution of witches continues.
1697 Charles Perrault writes down, ASleeping Beauty,@ ALittle Red Riding Hood@ and ABluebeard.@
1700-1800 Cradles incur disfavor because of the violence of the rocking.
The end of swaddling in
England
Children are severely punished for masturbation
1800-1900 Intrusive Mode of child rearing
gives way to Socialization Mode.
The end of swaddling in France and Germany.
1812 The Grimm brothers publish AHansel and Gretel@ in Grimm=s Fairy Tales.
1823 The Grimm brothers publish ASnow White.@
1843 The end of sealing children in bridges and other structures in Germany.
1900-2000 Socializing Mode of child rearing
gives way to Helping Mode.
_____________________________
(*) Modes of child rearing are from deMause, Lloyd, Ed., The History of Childhood (Jason Aronson, Northvale, New Jersey), 1974, pp. 51-54.
Child rearing Modes (*)
Antiquity - 400 A.D. Parents kill children
Infanticidal Surviving children project their rage onto their own children
The child is seen as the parent (reversal) and is sodomized.
400 - 1300 Parents abandon the child emotionally or physically (to the wet-nurse, the
Abandoning monastery, nunnery, a foster family or the home of other nobles either as a servant or hostage).
The child is full of evil and must always be beaten (projection)
Sodomy (reversal) diminishes.
1300 - 1700 Parents mold the child into shape, as they would soft wax, plaster or clay, Ambivalent by regular beatings and whippings (projection). The child is still swaddled and its insides are examined by means of regular enemas.
1700 - 1800 Parents try to conquer the mind (will) of the child in order to control its Intrusive insides B its anger, needs, masturbation. Projection diminishes and reversal disappears. Mother nurses, toilet trains early, prays (but does not play) with the child, punishes for masturbation, hits but not regularly, often obtaining obedience by means of threats and guilt.
1800 - 1950 Parents train, guide, teach the child to conform, socialize it, help it Socializing form habits. The guiding concept is sociological functionalism. Freud conceptualizes Achanneling impulses.@ Skinner develops Abehaviorism.@ Children are struck and scolded. The father begins to take interest in the child.
1950 - Parents listen to the child express what it needs. Both parents are Helping fully involved emotionally in the child=s life, empathizing with and fulfilling its expanding needs. They play with it, tolerate its regressions, interpret its emotional conflicts and provide the objects which are specific to its evolving interests. They do not discipline, strike or scold.
_________________________
(*) Summarized from deMause, Lloyd, Ed., The History of Childhood (Jason Aronson, Northvale, New Jersey), 1974, pp. 51-52.
Nursery Rhymes, Legends.
Fairy Tales and Myths B
Their Messages
Siblings of murdered Children deny
Title Type Culprit Resolution
London Bridge Nursery rhyme Society Children play the game
Rock-a-Bye-Baby Nursery rhyme Society Children sing the rhyme
Survivors of Attempted Murder become Murderers
Title Type Culprit Child-Murderers
Romulus and Remus Legend Their uncle Themselves
Oedipus Legend His father Himself
Hansel and Gretel Fairy tale The witch Themselves
Their mother (equivocal) Good fortune
Snow White Fairy tale Her step-mother She, as an accomplice
Bluebeard Fairy tale Her husband (father-figure) Her brothers
Old Women (Grandmothers) hate Children
Title Type Culprit Resolution
Sleeping Beauty Fairy tale 13th Wise Woman Community Support; Marriage
Men rape
Title Type Behavior Resolution
Red Riding Hood Fairy Tale Rape She must avoid it
Parents are Accusers, Judges and Executioners
Title Type Behavior Resolution
St. Nicholas Myth Deprivation Children must propitiate adults