A passive, and therefore prized, bride. new proposals for the queen's wedding in the Ebla Royal Rituals

A new in-depth analysis of the royal wedding rites at the beginning of the three sources of the Ebla Royal Rituals suggests that the Ebla bride, even if a queen, was forced by the traditional customs to keep a totally passive behaviour, everything being decided, done and performed by the king, by his parents and by her parents. In general, the passive royal bride and the expected royal baby turn out to be the most important persons of these rituals. The unique connection of the Ebla Royal Rituals with fertility is stressed. The new structural interpretation of the royal wedding rites suggests in fact that, on the whole, the Ebla Royal Rituals were only aimed to facilitate and make possible the queen's pregnancy, also by means of the special royal devotion towards the goddesses protecting fertility, pregnancy and childbirth. Furthermore, some new proposals about specific lexical and topographical matters, including ma?-tá-pù, gú-a-tum and 'Saza', are suggested.