VA 6214, an Old Babylonian relief. One man penetrates another man, who is drinking beer through a phallic tube. Although this motif appears elsewhere with a woman as the partner, the figures were identified as two bearded men in its original publication (Ziegler, Warka 55).
As a scholar in training, I hesitate to disagree with scholarly consensus, but I’m going to do it here. This is a Neo-Assyrian “incantation to bring profit to an innkeeper” by attracting sexual attention from men; inns were popular locations to obtain both alcohol and sex, as in the image above. As far as I have found, interpreters unanimously interpret the subject of this spell as a female prostitute, but that assumption is both unfounded and unlikely. (I discuss some of my reasoning in the footnotes.)
Rather, as I read it, this is an incantation in which a male prostitute asks Ishtar, the goddess of sexuality, for help in attracting male clients. As someone who worked in the harbor district, where sailors and tradesmen came and went regularly, he would have had ample opportunities to ply his trade.
“An incantation for profit to the innkeeper of the docks”
Ishtar of the nations, most heroic of the goddesses, this is your sanctum. Be happy and rejoice! Come, enter our house. Let your handsome bed-partner enter with you, your seducer or your temple-boy. [1] May my lips be sugar-syrup; may my hands be sensual; may the lips of my “hole” be honeyed lips. [2] Just like birds flutter over a snake as it emerges from its pit, may people fight each other over me! [3] From the sanctum of Ishtar or the abode of Ninlil, even from the herds of Ningizzida: [4] seize him and bring him to me, so I can please him! If he is faraway, may he return; if he is upset, may he come back. May his heart come back to me, good as gold. Just like the sky fertilizes the earth, so that plants became abundant, so may I overflow with my bounty! [5]
Mooncustafer 