Il Cantico dei cantici nel quadro della poesia dell´antico Oriente

Abstract

The most ancient erotic poetry was born in Mesopotamia, towards the end of the 3rd millennium BC, as a component of the liturgies for the sacred marriage of Dumuzi and Inanna. Love poems are a literary genre of Phoenician origin, arising from the marzeaḥ, the sacred banquet which probably commemorated a dead god. Attested at least from the 14th cent. BC, love poems were introduced from Phoenicia into Mesopotamia during the Cassite period (14th-13th cent. BC) and into Ramessid Egypt (13th cent. BC). After 1200 BC, love poetry survived only in Phoenicia. The Song of Songs, written in Mishnaic Hebrew, cannot be dated prior to the 2nd cent. BC; it shows affinities with Egyptian love lyrics but we do not know anything of the link. The Song of Songs further gives a theological solution to the problem of the god traditionally conquered by death: on the basis of Platonic philosophy, it makes of Love a god stronger than Death.