Beer: Hymn to Ninkasi (2024-06-12)

Created by: Englund, Robert K.

The Hymn to Ninkasi was recorded in Sumerian cuneiform on a clay tablet during the Old Babylonian period around 1800 BC, but it is believed to be much older. The hymn has two parts, and is both a praise song to the goddess of beer and a recipe for brewing her special type of beer. The tablet is displayed in Louvre Museum, Paris, France.

In Sumerian mythology, Ninkasi is the daughter of Enki and Queen Ninti, and is one of eight children created in order to heal one of the eight wounds that Enki receives. Along with being considered the goddess of beer, she was made to satisfy desire and sate the heart through the beer-brewing process she performed daily. In accordance with her ties to libations, the poem states Ninkasi was born out of "fresh flowing water" (Civil 1-4). In the poem, Ninkasi is praised for doing things like putting piles of grain in order, and setting up the fermenting vat. Some of the processes and ingredients of the recipe, such as bappir, a twice-baked bread made from barley used to make beer, are included below: Ninkasi is “the one who handles the dough, with a big shovel, mixing in a pit, the bappir with sweet aromatics… the one who bakes the bappir in the oven, puts in order the piles of hulled grains… you who water the earth-covered malt… you who soak the malt in a jar… you who spreads the cooked mash on large reed mats… you who hold with both hands the great sweetwort, brewing it with honey and wine… the sweetwort to the vessel… you place the fermenting vat, which makes a pleasant sound, appropriately on top of a large collector vat… Ninkasi, you are the one who pours out the filtered beer of the collector vat, it is like the onrush of Tigris and Euphrates.” (Civil Lines 13-48) The beer produced by the recipe in the hymn is most likely of high quality and used for religious offering or consumed by elite members of the society, as Ninkasi was the brewer for the gods. Reference Civil, Miguel, “A Hymn to the Beer Goddess and a Drinking Song,” Fs Oppenheim (1964) 67-89 CDLI reference: P345364

credit: Quinn, Alexandra N.