Whipping-Tops in Ancient Mesopotamia

This contribution discusses the Mesopotamian (ešemen2 =) keppû-game, often connected to the violent behaviour of the goddess Inanna / Ištar, and other (male) characters of Mesopotamian mythology, such as Enmerkar and Gilgamesh. Through a close review of all relevant attestations, we show that the (still) prevailing translation “skipping rope” as well as a recently proposed alternative “toy rope” are untenable and that the only acceptable meaning of the word is “whipping-top”. This equivalence has been tentatively advanced in the past but the lack of a systematic lexical assessment has so far hindered general acceptance.