Pre-Sargonic Literary Compositions

A Ninurta narrative (the Barton cylinder)
CDLI: P222183
Museum number: [CBS 8383]
Translation: Not Obtained

---

Alster, Bendt. 1976b. On the Earliest Sumerian Literary Tradition. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 28, 109-126.

Alster begins this article by reflecting on some of the conclusions of A. Falkenstein, who concluded that the majority of known literary compositions could not have assumed their final shape before the UrIII period - yet creations like the cylinder inscriptions of Gudea presuppose a long literary activity (if a non-written one.) And Falkenstein "also noted that one of the few pre-Ur III literary compositions known at thattime, the so-called Barton
Cylinder (Barton MBI 1), which he dated to the Akkad dynasty, showed a number of characteristics that recur in all later compositions, such as the grouping in parallel lines and repetitions of entire sections. [SAHG p.19]. While this in itself is hardly surprising, it is perhaps more interesting that he also observed a more specific relationship in that the Cylinders of Gudea repreatedly operate with a poetic formula which has a clear forerunner in the Barton Cylinder. [5] Yet, with reference to the same text, he came to the conclusion that since it differs so much from the later known mythological compositions that practically no connected sense could be gained from it, considerable changes are likely to have occured in the mythological tradition in the Old Babylonian period.


[5] See A. Falkenstein, AnOr 30 183 with n.5. He there referred to Barton MBI 1 xiv (copy "col. iv") 9 = xvii (copy "col.viii") @: gal i3-ga-mu-zu, to Sollberger Corpus EAN. 1 xviii 1 and parallels e2.an.na.tum2-me gal na-ga-mu-zu, and to "Lugalbanda and Enmerker" 50 (see now Cl. Wilck, Das
Lugalbandaepos p.96): lugal.ban3.da gal in-zu gal in-ga-an-tum2-mu "Lugalbanda who is as wise as active." In the Cylinders of Gudea (cf. AnOr 30 183 n.4), the phrase reads: gal mu-zu gal i3-ga-tum2-mu. This very same phrase recurs in the myth "Inanna and Bilulu" 49, with reference to Inanna:
gal mu-un-zu gal in-ga-an-tum2-mu (cf. Th. Jacobsen, JNES 12 174). An Early Dynastic forerunner from Abu Salabikh can now be found in the volume under discussion, No. 327, obv. ii 1: lugal.ban3.da gal.zu6. CRRA 2 19.




edition- Alster, Bendt and Aage Westenholz. 1994. The Barton Cylinder. Acta Sumerologica 16, 15-46.
Handcopy: MBI 1 (= ASJ 16 43-46)
Photo number: MBI pl. 24-28 (= FTS 106 pl. 6)
Object type: Clay cylinder
Provenance: Nippur
Language, writing and usage: Sumerian







Mein Kopf ist schwer

"Tribute"-List

In the DCSL there is also an entry about the so-called Tribute-List. This text is in ATU 3 considered as lexical text. Englund stated in OBO 160/1 that it might be a literal work. There is a new treatment of the text by Niek Veldhuis (Univ. of Berkeley, CA) who interpret this list as a kind of exercise for apprentice scribes. This is very likely and I believe him. He also renamed this list into Word List C. "Tribute" is a mis-interpretation of a later colophon.

Veldhuis, Niek. 2006. How did they Learn Cuneiform? “Tribute/Word List C” as an Elementary Exercise. Pp. 181-200 in Piotr Michalowski and Niek Veldhuis (eds.), Approaches to Sumerian Literature in Honour of Stip (H.L.J. Vanstiphout), Leiden: Brill 2006.

Best wishes,
galzugaltumu

za₃-me hymns:
CDLI: NA
Translation: In Small Part

Robert Biggs in OIP 99 (Oriental Institute Publications) made available for the first time some 515 texts excavated from the site called in modern times Abū Ṣalābīkh. The texts are estimated chronologically to be contemporary with the Fara texts, approx 2600 B.C. Also edited for the first time in this work (I believe partial transliterations are provided) are the za₃-me hymns.

Mark E. Cohen JCS 1976:

In an article "The Name Nintinugga with a Note on the Possible Identification of Tell Abu Salābīkh" , Cohen explains an interesting hypothesis as to the identification of the ancient site which in modern times is called Abu Salābīkh. And he makes this assertion based on the za₃-me hymns.

Apparently no fragments of these hymns have been found anywhere else, and the author explains the hymns are most similar in structure to 'the Temple Hymns', now a well known composition. The Temple hymns are attributed to Enḫeduanna, daughter of Sargon of Akkad, and Cohen notes the concluding hymn is dedicated to "the e₂-a-ga-de₃-ki, the temple of A(m)ba in Akkad, the city of the redactor, Enḫeduanna." Thus this hymns final position conveys a place of honor and correlates to the poets own city.

The author points out that in the za₃-me hymns, the hymn to the goddess Lisi [^dLi₈-si₄] concludes the text and theorizes that this is the tutelary goddess of ancient Abu Salābīkh. Supporting evidence is that Lisi alone recieves special praise (whereas other deities receive a formulaic DM za₃-me, DM priase) and also in this text Lisi is one of three deities to bear the epithet ama, or mother (alongside Nintu and Ningal.)
This goddesses name appears in the Abu Salābīkh god-list directly below ^dBIL.GA, and Cohen believes that in the Fara period she was an important mother goddess, in the za₃-me hymn her city is given as giš-gi ki-du₁₀ or "Giš-gi the good place." Gišgi* then, is the name the author suggests for ancient Abu Salābīkh. According to archaeological evidence, occupation in this city ceased in the ED IIIa period, and so it would follow that the cities tutelary goddess lost her importance, and this accords well with Lisi's later identification with Dingirmah in and in the OB period, position as that deities daughter (thus falling from mother goddess to the status of daughter of a mother goddesss.)




On the Earliest Sumerian Literary Tradition, by Bendt Alster (Journal of Cuneiform Studies 1976)



Alster here provides just the first hymn of the (I believe 26) za₃-me hymns, this one dedicated to Enlil:

1. uru an-da mú
2. an-da gú-lá
3. dingir nibru.ki
4. dur.an.ki
5. den.líl kur.gal
6. den.líl en nu:
7. nam.nir
8. en dúg-ga
9. nu-gí -gí
10. LAK 809 nu-LAK 809
11. den.líl a.nun
12. ki mu-gar-gar
13. dingir gal gal
14. zag.me mu-dúg

1. City, grown together with heaven,
2. embracing heaven,
3. god of Nippur,
4. "Bond of heaven and earth"
5. Enlil, "great mountain,"
6. Enlil, lord
7. Nunamnir,
8. whose command
9. is irrevocable
10. whose ... cannot be ...
11. Enlil who placed the Anunna gods
12. below earth,
13. the great gods
14. spoke his praise.

Interestingly, the za₃-me hymns have Enlil addressed first rather then Enki as in the Temple Hymns - Enki acutally isnt apparent at all in the earlier hymns which may be relatable to the proximity of Abu Salābīkh (Giš-gi?) to Nippur if anything.

Alster provides a fascinating cosmological commentary on this which Id have to quote in full to do any justice:

"If it is justifiable to translate "who placed the Anunna gods below earth" (line 11-12), there is probably a connections with ideas contained in other early sources. A small Ur III literary text, NBC 11108, describes the world before the seperation of heaven and earth. At that time An, the god of heaven, was "lord" (en), information which could also have been obtained from another early text, Sollberger Corpus Ukg. 15 iii 1, and the "Anunna gods did not walk around (NBC 11108: 12: [...] a.nun-[ke4-n]e nu-um-di-di). No light existed. This stage corresponds to the reign of Ouranos in Hesiod's Theogony. In our sources it was changed by the seperation of heaven and earth, which, according to the Barton Cylinder, happened when the first stroke of lightning occurred in Nippur. A later text, the "Hymn to the Hoe" (UET 6 26 and dupls.), tells that it happened when Enlil hit Dur.an.ki with his hoe, but I would suggest precisely that this hoe of Enlil is a symbol of lightning. At any rate the lightning in this context reminds one of lightning as the attribute of Zeus, and Dur.an.ki, meaning "the bond of heaven and earth," reminds one of the Greek Omphalos in Delphi. It is hinted at in an Early Dynastic hymn, UM 29-16-273 + N 99 iv 7, as "the twisted rope to which heaven is secured" (dur sur an la2-gim). When seen in this context, it is possible that our text hints at the time when Enlil, by separating heaving [sic] and earth, established Dur.an.ki as the navel of the world, and divided the gods in two groups, the gods of the upper world (these are later called the Igigi-gods), and the gods of the lower world, who are the Anunna gods. It is well known that the Anunna gods acted as judges in the nether world, but, admittedly, one must count on the possibility that some Anunna gods belong to the upper world, such as those mentioned in "Lahar* h and Asnan*s" 2, where we probably have to read: u4 an-ne2 an [d]a.nun.na im-tu-de3-es*-a-ba "on the day when the celestial Anunna gods were born by Heaven."

The Barton Cylinder

CDLI: P222183
Museum number: [CBS 08383]

Transliteration:
cdli.ucla.edu/search/result.pt?id_text=P222183

Translation:

i 1-2 Those days were indeed faraway days.
i 3-4 Those nights were indeed faraway nights.
i 5-6 Those years were indeed faraway years.
i 7 The storm roared,
i 8 The lights flashed.
i 9 On the sacred area of Nippur
i 10 the storm roared,
i 11 the lights flashed.
i 12-13 Heaven talked with Earth.
i 14 Earth talked with Heaven.

Lacuna

ii 1 With the "Grand-Good-Lady-of-Heaven",
ii 2 Enlil's older sister,
ii 3 with Ninhursag,
ii 4 with the "Grand-Good-Lady-of-Heaven",
ii 5 Enlil's older sister,
ii 6 with Ninhursag,
ii 7 he had intercourse.
ii 8 He kissed her.
ii 9 The semen of seven twins
ii 10 He impregnated into her womb.
ii 11-12 Earth held a conversation with the "scorpion":
ii 13 "Supreme Divine River,
ii 14 'Your little "things" are carrying water".
ii 15 For you(?), the god(?) of the river . . .

Lacuna

iii 2 . . . reached Heaven.
iii 3 The "ears" of the poplars swelled.
iii 4 "Grape-eyes" were placed among them.
iii 5 "White-eyes", "great lights"
iii 6 were piled up with them.
iii 7 The gudu-priest . . .
iii 8 "Mighty . . . , your . . .
iii 9 'is being taken away".
iii 10 . . .
iii 11 the beans . . .
iii 12 The gudu-priest like a man of Aratta
iii 13 directed it.

Lacuna

(At this point a passage parallel to v 3-6 may have been included).

iv 3-5 Enlil's . . . caused (Enlil) to feel bitterness
iv 4 toward Nippur.
iv 6-7 He caused Inanna to feel bitterness toward Zabalam.
iv 8-9 He caused Enki to feel bitterness toward Abzu.
iv 10 Enlil's . . .
iv 11 did not provide Nippur with food to eat.
iv 12 He did not provide (Nippur) with water to drink.
iv 13 His oven(?) in which bread was baked
iv 14 contained no baked bread.
iv 15 His oven(?) in which bread cooled down
iv 16 [contained no] bread cooling down.

(Someone speaks to Enlil and gives him an account of what has been told in the last part of column iv).

v 2 Enlil . . . to . . .
v 3 "The brackish water he . . .
v 4 'The brackish water he is holding back.
v 5 'Enlil! he . . .
v 6 'The brackish water he is holding back.
v 7 'Your oven(?), in which bread was baked,
v 8 'contains no baked bread.
v 9 'Your oven(?), in which bread cooled down,
v 10 'contains no bread cooling down.
v 11 'Your(?) supreme ox-devouring oven,
v 12-13 'its stones(?) he made lie (idle) in(?) the sacred area of Nippur.
v 14 'Your supreme bronze . . .
v 15 'does not return(?) to(?) . . .

vi looks like the conclusion of the preceding speech, addressed to Enlil, although the sequences follow in a different order. (v 3-6 may correspond to the beginning or end of column iv; v 7-10 to iv 13-16; vi . . . 3-4 to iv 3-9). However, another possibility is that this is the end of a separate speech addressed to Ninurta.

v [". . . Enlil's . . . caused (you,) (Enlil,) to feel bitterness
v 'toward Nippur,]
vi 1-2 ['he caused Inanna to feel bitterness toward Zabala,]
vi 3-4 'he caused Enki to feel bitterness toward Abzu".
vi 5-6 He came out! He came out!
vi 7 As the day rose from the night
vi 8-9 Ninurta came out!
vi 10 As the day rose from the night,
vi 11 he dressed his body in a lion's skin.
vi 12 With lions' skins
vi 13 he garnished himself.
vi 14-15 (unintelligible)

...

vii, viii, and ix 1-7: No translation is provided here. Note vii 9 and 11: "My mother", and vii 10: "Your young man". viii 12: "Those who enter the place".

ix 8 For their children
ix 9 the fate was determined.
ix 10 For the north wind
ix 11 its fate was determined.
ix 12-13 "Come, let Azulugal be(?) your life!"
ix 14 The shepherd . . .

. . .

x 9-10 For the . . . wind its fate was determined.
x 11 Come! May Enkidu be your friend!
x 12 "The wasteland may Enlildu . . .
x 14 'for men . . ."

. . .

xii 4 . . . left Keš.
xii 5 [The place] where Enlil eats his bread
xii 6 . . .
xii 7 Irhan,
xii 8 the good one . . .

. . .

xiii 3 The [pure] Tigris and the [pure] Euphrates
xiii 4 Enlil's pure scepter
xiii 5 . . . the mountain(?).
xiii 6 Let its roots . . .
xiii 7 [Let] its top . . .
xiii 8 On its side [let] . . .
xiii 9 [Let] eggs [be laid] on the ground.

. . .

xiv 3 . . . multiplied in the mountains.
xiv 4 Black bulls multiplied.
xiv 5 White bulls multiplied.
xiv 6 Reddish bulls multiplied.
xiv 7 Dark-red bulls multiplied.
xiv 8 Horrible "horse-lions"
xiv 9 also multiplied.
xiv 10 Mountain horses
xiv 11 climbed on top.
xiv 12 . . . dwelt.
xiv 13 The . . . carried wool.
xiv 14 The . . . stags of Ninhursag
xiv 15 [multiplied(?)]

. . .

xv 6 Dabala . . .
xv 7 To the temple . . .
xv 8 after the birds left it,
xv 9 after he has put flour into its sack,
xv 10 after he has poured water into its water skin,
xv 11 Dabala, who is equally wise (said):
xv 12 "To my temple . . .
xv 13 'after the birds have left it,
xv 14 'after flour has been put into the sack,
xv 15 ['after water has been poured into its water skin . . ."]

. . .

xvi 2 Ninhursag, our "arm"(?),
xvi 3 took possession of our precious metal.
xvi 4 . . . returned.
xvi 5 Our pure container, our . . . container,
xvi 6 our man of . . .
xvi 9 took possession of
xvi 7 the . . . gold,
xvi 8 our . . .
xvi 10 Two pots . . .
xvi 11 poured two . . .
xvi 12 Their . . . beloved heart,
xvi 13 dispersed beer.
xvi 14 Irhan . . .

. . .

xvii 2 "The pure Tigris and the pure Euphrates,
xvii 3 'the pure scepter, my brother,
xvii 4 'Enlil,
xvii 5 'the man . . .
xvii 6 'M[y] son . . .
xvii 7 '. . ."
xvii 8 Ninhursag
xvii 9 put fine antimony, eye-paste(?), and fine oil(?)
xvii 10 onto her eyes.
xvii 11 She established a seat of honour in Keš(?).
xvii 12 Below they(?) carried.
xvii 13 Below nobody . . .

. . .

xviii 3 The temple . . .
xviii 4 That day, passing . . .
xviii 5 That night, darkening . . .
xviii 6 Irhan . . .
xviii 7 . . .
xviii 8 The temple . . .
xviii 9 My child, . . .

xix 2 . . . Ešpeš,
xix 3 who is equally wise,
xix 4 bolted the great gate,
xix 5 bound the door with his/her hand,
xix 6 and brought . . . down from the sanctuary.
xix 7 Irhan . . .

. . .

xix 11 raised his/her eyes toward heaven
xix 12 like a wild boar of the canebrake . . .

xx 2 . . . pleasure
. . .
xx 5 greatly(?) pleasant
. . .
xx 9 his "place of manhood"
xx 10 like . . .

This text, which we first saw in reply #7 above, as an Presargonic text form Abu Salabikh and was translated originally by Jacobsen in 1989. There exist many unknowns about the reading of the text, it's interpretation and the intriguing religious notions evident, yet elusive within. Today I have the good fortune of being able to compare three separate translations of this text and so I will present them below should anyone be interested on comparing or contrasting. Following the translation I will make a few comments. The text editions below are:


A) Translation from: "Lugalbanda and Ninsuna" , Thorkild Jacobsen JCS 41, 1989, pp. 69-86

B) Translation unpublished: This translation was kindly submitted by Nadia on the Sisig thread, reply #19.

C) Translation from: "The Birth of Gilgamesh in Ancient Mesopotamia Art", Douglas R. Frayne, Bulletin CSMS 34 (1999), pp. 39-49









[/i][/td][td]B) N. Linder 2011[/i][/td][td]C) D. Frayne 1999[/i][/td][/tr]

[tr][td]lines 1/2[/td][td] Cherub Ninsuna was lifting out (baked) "beer bread" confections.[/td][td]Lamma-Ninsuna - verily she brought the aromatic beer-'matrix'(1)[/td][td]The protective goddess, Ninsuna (Gilgamesh's mother), brought beer-bread (out of the oven).[/td][/tr][tr][td]lines 3-5[/td][td]Cherub Ninsuna was very shrewd, she stayed awake and lay down at his feet. [/td][td] Lamma-Ninsuna - she knew great (things). (Her) eye grew tired, at his feet she lay down to rest. [/td][td]The protective goddess, Ninsuna, performed a wise deed. She stayed awake. She lay at his (Lugalbanda's) feet.[/td][/tr][tr][td]lines 6-9[/td][td]Wise Lugalbanda passed the arm around Cherub Ninsuna, could not resist kissing (her) on the eyes,[/td][td]Lugalbanda, who knew great (things) - (his) arm was touching the Lamma, the lady; on the eyes he kissed her, overwhelmed[/td][td]Lugalbanda, the wise one, put his arm around the protective goddess, Ninsuna. His kissed her eyes.[/td][/tr][tr][td]lines 10/11[/td][td]could not resist kissing (her) on the mouth,also taught her much love making.[/td][td]on the mouth he kissed her, overwhelmed: The day that she learned great things(2). [/td][td]He kissed her mouth. He... her.[/td][/tr][tr][td]lines 12/13[/td][td]Cherub Ninsuna brought grass, melted the frozen grass and spread it;[/td][td]Lamma-Ninsuna had brought food: 'Your plant, your water!' She spread it there in front of him.[/td][td][The protective goddess Ninsuna] brought [/td][/tr][tr][td]lines 15-17[/td][td] on a pad of lettuce until dawn they slept in Uruaza.[/td][td]A place (of) various woods ........... they sat down in Uru'aza-[/td][td]In a lettuce(?) patch, until day-break- they rested(?) in Uruaza...[/td][/tr][tr][td]lines 18-20[/td][td]Lugalbanda was wise, took Niri in hand,[/td][td]Lugalbanda, who knew great (things) grabbed IM.RU[/td][td][Lugalbanda] performed a wise deed. He took the clay pot in hand.[/td][/tr][tr][td]lines 21-25[/td][td]Cherub Ninsuna said to Lugalbanda:
"To Uruk, to the en, let me set out with you for the 'tablet of deliveries'."[/td][td]Lamma-Ninsuna spoke to Lugalbanda: "To the En, to Unug I want to rise with you, to the tablet of deliveries!"[/td][td]The protective goddess, Ninsuna, conversed with Lugalbanda: "[...]" "[...]" "[...] at the 'tablet of delieveries'"[/td][/tr][tr][td]lines 26-29[/td][td]Lugalbanda prostrated himself on the ground before the en, and the en said to Lugalbanda:[/td][td]Lugalbanda - he kneeled on the bare floor in front of the En, and the En spoke to Lugalbanda:[/td][td]Lugalbanda prostrated himself before the lord [....] The lord conversed with Lugalbanda (saying):[/td][/tr][tr][td]lines 30-34[/td][td]"Let me look at what you have brought from the mountains, the Anunaki are headed hither, let me have them look at what you have brought from the mountains."[/td][td]"You brought things from the mountains - I want to marvel at them! The offspring of the nobles are coming hither in a row - things from the mountains you brought, (and) I want to marvel at them!"[/td][td]"Let me examine that which you have brought from the mountain land." The "princely offspring" (= Gilgamesh[?])...[The lord said]: [Let me..] at that which you have brought from the mountain land."[/td][/tr][tr][td]lines 35/36[/td][td]Lugalbanda came out into the outer courtyard,[/td][td]Lugalbanda went out into the outer courtyard[/td][td]Lugalbanda went out to the courtyard (of the temple/palace),[/td][/tr][tr][td]lines 37-42[/td][td]neck cutting Niri, noble Niri, reported to the spirit,
and the goddess mother of Lugalbanda came out of the hatch.[/td][td]IM.RU the neck-cutter, IM.RU the Anunna - he spoke (to) the LÍL-ghost, to the divine mother. The LÍL-ghost, the divine mother came out of the hatch![/td][td]The clay pot... The "princely offspring: (= Gilgamesh[?]) A lil demon [...] [...] ... went out from the window.[/td][/tr][tr][td]lines 43-46[/td][td]Cherub Ninsuna was quick,
sprinkled holy water on the ground, Lugalbanda shuddered.[/td][td]Posthaste, Lamma-Ninsuna sprinkled the proper water onto the ground. Lugalbanda shuddered - [/td][td]The protective goddess, Ninsuna, quickly poured out an oblation. Lugalbanda shuddered.[/td][/tr][tr][td]lines 47-50[/td][td]When she had sprinkled water on the ground for the spirit, the goddess mother of Lugalbanda she said:[/td][td]he touched the LÍL-ghost! The divine mother, she spoke to Lugalbanda:[/td][td]After (Ninsuna) poured a libation, the lil demon... The goddess Ina[nna] conversed with Lugalbanda (saying):[/td][/tr][tr][td]lines 51-55[/td][td] he has brought you a wife from the
mountains and has slept with the wife. Mother-in-law, for me, a bride worthy of your son, decree issue, 5 males ... "(text omitted here)[/td][td]"You - a wife (you) brought from the mountains! The wife, you have lain (down together) with her!" - "(O) mother-in-law (??) - the husband is a fitting regalia (?!), he is your son (and) the temple of (my) heart!" [......][/td][td]You have brought a wife from the mountain land. (Since) I have no spouse, Let me be your mother-in-law, may your son (Gilgamesh) take counsel with me."[/td][/tr][tr][td]lines 57-61[/td][td]Noble Niri whispered to the spirit: "In the outer courtyard, in "The gate that brings myriads' let me take office. To noble Niri
the spirit said: (text breaks off)"[/td][td]IM.RU, the Anunna, whispered to the LÍL-ghost: "(In) the outer courtyard, (by) the Gate which brings Thousands into for me - I want to partake in the Rites!" (To) IM.RU, the Anunna, the LÍL-ghost spoke: [.....]"[/td][td]The "princely offspring" (= Gilgamesh[?]) ... the clay pot.. the lil demon. In the courtyard, at the gate where everything is brought. ... The clay pot, the "princely offspring" ( = Gilgamesh?[?]) ...[/td]
[/tr]
[/tbody][/table]














So there are a good many peculiarities and mysteries within this text; Jacobsen believes that the text we have preservered is only a part of the whole story, while the beginning and ending, while may allow for a more full understanding, may have been contained on other tablets, so far undiscovered. While the text cannot be expected to yield it's answers any time soon, we could at least proceed by examining some of the concepts..




Lines 21-25: The 'tablet of deliveries' - I am unable to locate other instances of the term that Jacobsen transliterates dub mu-ir10(ra) in anything I have on hand. We notice in line 15-17 that the story begins in Uru'aza. which Frayne understands to be somewhere in Elam to the east; Jacobsen addresses this situation wherein Lugalbanda is, presumably, on his way back to Uruk, very likely, after completing some errand for the en: "The r6le of messenger is traditional with Lugalbanda, who traverses the mountains between Aratta and Uruk as messenger for Enmerkar in Lugalbanda II, and that tribute from outlying areas, gun mada, was collected and brought in by royal messengers is shown by the Ur III text CT 32 19f. vi 14 and 23, which presumably reflects also earlier practice..." This suggestions reminds me very much of Steinkeller's discussion of the possible utility of the Uruk period City seals - that they acted as proof of collection by the varies officials sent by the Urukian administration. Notes on that here. In any case that Lugalbanda may have been acting as such a functionary here is interesting.




*******Must break for now. More to follow...


A Hymn to dLAMA-SA6-GA, Åke W. Sjöberg

c

Nadia:




This updated translation is really an improvement - it looks brilliant! Some really fascinating ideas touching on concepts which I am familiar with and others which I've long neglected.. The sacred marriage is something I've put off reading about for years now and on checking for the Lapankivi at the library the other day, the book was out 0_0 Nonetheless, I will proceed with some impressions, comments and open questions:


About /i/ , the potion drug: I haven't heard anything like this yet, but it seems plausible in my mind! Although I'm lacking a Mesopotamian analogy of this situation, it brings to mind some modern aboriginal cultures I've learned about recently who smoke the leaves of a certain plant to get high - and believe it is the spirit of a supernatural being effecting them.


/i/ the name d.lamma-nin-súmun: So in considering this name I have the disadvantage of being fairly unfamiliar with both Lama/Lamma/Lamassu/Lamassatu and Ninsun/Ninsuna/Ninsumun/Ninsumuna etc. etc. I'm sure your research on d.lamma has helped you out here - what strikes me as curious first of all is *why* is Ninsumun called d.lamma in this text??



For members who may be less familiar with Ninsun/Ninsumuna, here is Leick's entry for the goddess from "A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology." I should add she is commonly said to be the spouse of Lugalbanda:

Her name means ‘Lady of the wild cows’. She had a sanctuary in Kullab, a district of Uruk and belonged to the herding-circle around Dumuzi; she is in fact his mother and therefore the mother-in-law of Inanna. Gilgameš was also said to be a son of Ninsun’s and in the epic she interprets his dreams. In the Neo-Sumerian period, several kings claimed to have been the ‘children’ of goddesses, such as Gudea of Lagash, as well as Urnammu and Shulgi of Ur.

Leick's entry on Lamma:

"Sumerian protective minor deity or demon, with a predominantly
intercessary role. She is well known from the Lagash pantheon since the Early Dynastic period. Her cult was most popular during the Old Babylonian period; inscriptions tell us that one or more Lamas resided in the major temples. She may also be represented on cylinder seals, introducing the worshipper to the presence of a great god (Spycket). After this time Lamassu became a term for protective spirits generally.."



Getting back to the question at hand then.. It seems relatively more common to encounter a faceless sort of Lamma, as in the Lamma of this king, or even the Lamma of this goddess or god, or just the "protective spirit" as is translated at ETCSL. But to the examples of d.lamma functioning as *an epithet* of a goddess, this seems more rare (at least, in my investigation at the moment!). Jacobsen's comment on line one of AbS 327 defines the d.lamma of d.lamma-nin-súmun just that - an epithet:


"dlama(r), Akkadian lamassu or lamassatu, denotes a special
kind of guardian angel. It is used throughout the text as an epithet of Ninsuna and it occurs with her name also in the za-mi hymns OIP 99 48:84, as pointed out by Biggs.4 The epithet is not unique to Ninsuna, but occurs with Irnina in the list of gods Weidner, AfK 2 (1924/25) 73:27: dlamma-Ir-ni-na = dIshtar. "


And so Inanna/Ishtar is another goddess described in such a way - hardly the type of goddess I'd want on my shoulder (but I suppose she is relevant to the sacred marriage in Uruk..) I've read through an article by Ake Sjoberg's article "A Hymn to ^dLama-sa₆.ga" (JCS 26,3 1974) which treats an Old Babylonian hymn to ^dLama-sa₆.ga - here, a goddess in her own right local to Lagash. Sjoberg mentions that Ninsuna is called ^dLama-sa₆.ga in YOS 1 29, but as far as he can see, that's no reason to say she is the same as this ^dLama-sa₆.ga of Lagash. The text which Sjoberg treats concerns the Lama of the goddess Baba - that is, how the Lama of this goddess is great and how that Lama helps Baba. Therefore, in this case the lama is a separate entity, I suppose. The second half of CBS 10986 seems to mention beer and a garden although in different context - more interesting may be that the Lamma seems credited with giving Baba a husband and child - line 11 refers to the lama and line 12 "she" is refering to Baba I think:


"11. Your name (is) like a... -cake, oil and cream, which fills the
mouth,
12. When she brings in something from the street, when she'brews beer, it is of best quality,
13. She says that they should provide her with the best products from her garden,
14. Daily she is looking around in the house Girsu,
15. Daily (Baba??) walks brightly in front of you,
16. L a m a - spirit, . . you have given to 'this woman' a husband (who is) like a father,
17. You have given her a husband (who is) like a father, you have given her a son in place of a field that produces food."


In any case, as Jacobsen mentions, the za3-mi3 hymn contains what may be the only other mention of d.lamma-nin-súmun (?). I had a copy of Biggs on hand and will type the text below. There is no translation, but the proximity of the deities invoked is significant I think:


78. gi en ki ki-sikil
79. ^dMes-sanga-unug za₃-mi₃
80. an gudu₄ dumu-nun
81. kisal en an-da mu₂
82. ^dMen za₃-mi₃
83. gi en ki zalag₂ ku₃
84. lamma ^dNin-sun₂ za₃-mi₃
85. ba₄ amar-ku₃ ub nun
86. ^dLugal-ban₃-da za₃-mi₃
87. IM ti she gu
88. ^dIM za₃-mi₃
89. LAK 4 nun Eresh₂ (NISABA)^ki
90. NISABA nun ta tuku te lul
91. ^dNisaba za₃-mi₃



Biggs makes the comment here: "Deities known from myths to be in a close relationship are often grouped together in the hymn collection." So obviously, Lugalbanda and Ninsumun are going to be grouped together; what may be interesting, in light of your interpretation of IM.RU as a possibly windy substance, is the precense of ^dIM following Lugalbanda in this hymn. I wonder if this could be referencing AbS 327 as well?





/iv/ "grasping the IM.RU":


IM.RU seems to be a definitively rare thing in Sumerian literature. For lack of my own massive philological note archive (seeing as I haven't learned Sumerian yet etc.) I tend to refer to Yoshikawa's database; yet even he records just one example of IM.RU , and it is AbS 327:

htq.minpaku.ac.jp/databases/sumer/images/PDF/065/065-0035.pdf




^dIM seems most often to be one writing for the name of the storm god Ishkur/Adad. This is basically what I understand Schwemer to be saying in his ridiculously massive book Wettergottgestalten: "Die Schreibung des Sturm- un Windgottes IShkur mit dem Zeichen ZATU 396 = LAK 377 ("IM- + A") , die die Fara-Texte geben, mutet angesichts der Schreibung des Wortes "Wind" mit dem Zeichen IM- (ZATU 264 + LAK 376) ungewöhnlich an und widerspricht der Erwartung, der Name des Sturmgottes und das Wort für "Wind" würden mit demselben Keilschriftzeichen wiedergegeben. "

Schwemer has recognized an Early Dynastic god ^dME.RU, who is known from the Abu Salabikh godlist; this god may be related to Mēr, a god identified with Adad or at least part of his circle. Schwemer seems uncertain (pg.202):


"Wenden wir uns den Belegen im einzelnen zu: Schon Fara-zeitlich begegnet in der Gotterliste aus Tall Abu Salabikh eine dME-RU (lies dme-ru?) geschriebene Gottheit, die sich wohl auch als theophores Element in Semitishcen Personennamens der Fara-zeitlichen Texte nachweisen läßt.....

....Ebenso unsicher muß blieben, ob wir in den zitierten Farazeitlichen und vorsargonischen Belegen überhaupt den späteren Mer erkennen dürfen."


So that's all I have on IM.RU - there may be a god from Abu Salabikh whose name sounds similar and who also may have something to do with wind. Admittedly, that means absolutely nothing because you could say that wind and wand are related because the words sound similar and both may move through the air 0_0


Adad/Ishkur may be ruled out of the equation on philological grounds, I suppose, depending on whether or not the IM sign is invoking the deity or not? I've no idea. I would say that that his conceptual relevance may not be as far off as some people place it; Schwemer is, by page number, is the reigning god of weather god knowledge, and yet I don't like his explanation of why it is that Adad is Shamash's assistent, as it were, in divinatory rites. According to my bad English translation, Schwemer says (pg.225):


'The [fundimental reason] for the close linkage of Adad with divination, and in particular their most standard method, the entrails, should be sought in that the specific utterances of the storm of God, especially lightning, thunder, and rain, since ancient times these were interpreted as being ominous phenomena. Even from Old Babylonian Mari, we have real records of meteorological phenomena that show attention to what is happening in the sky...'


I prefer Piotr Steinkeller's interpretation, which, as I've mentioned elsewhere, recognizes that divinatory rites took place at night when the sun was in the netherworld; His assertion is that future knowledge traversed from below to above, and the reason why Adad was Shamash's assistant in this was due to his role as "cosmic wind", which assisted in the transfer of the message - perhaps much as windy spirits and dreams traversed to and from the netherworld, in conjunction with the sun god or his offspring. The relevant article is "Of Stars and Men:the Conceptual and Mythological Setup of Babylonian Extispicy" in Biblical and Oriental Studies in Memory of William L. Moran: Biblica et Orientalia 48, 2005. Editrice Pontificio Istituto Biblico, Roma.



Additionally about IM as human spirit, there are the Old Babylonian funerary texts which I am aware of mainly through the work of D. Katz - indeed Katz' comments have surfaced now again on enenuru in relation to the text she calls "Lulil and his sister" - apparently, this text relates mainly to the dead god Ashgi, and his request to his 'sister' to send his wind-soul along - So why is this deceased unfortunate referred to by lu2-lil2? No one knows for certain (I don't think) but Katz now speculates that the Old Babylonian scribe used this term, lil2, to stress the ethereal quality of the word IM , which in the time he was writing, related predominantly (or even more so than before) to atmospheric phenomenona i.e. wind storms and rain. (Katz , "The Naked Soul: Deliberations on a Popular Theme."



So the topic of d.lamma-nin-súmun and IM.RU are very fascinating - but certainly there are other interesting points on this new translation. Will have to pause for now. Nice work


P.S. Steinkeller had also a novel interpretation of Anunnaki which I wonder may inform a-nun.. I'll have to get the Moran tribute out from the library again.

This story confirms my persuasion of Lugalbanda as having attained to the self-initiation so necessary according to the universal criterion of becoming a magician. Lugalbanda's epos is a magician's epos for me.


Could be of real use for eneneru if I was an ANE student and knew Sumerian, but anyway, what constitutes one as a sorcerer/magician is one's relation with one's personal guardian spirit or genius. Or, said in simple words, one becomes a magician when one comes to know one's true self. Though the Western occult traditions are inauthentic it doesn't make the experience of certain magicians less authentic.


The greatest attainment in magic is reaching the point of contact with the personal genius. This attainment is called the Great Work (an alchemic term) and Crowley has defined it as "the Attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel". The Golden Dawn tradition in this respect was based on a grimoire from the 15th century written by a Jewish magician (Abraham von Worms) - "The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage" In brief, the practice of this sacred magic consists in retirement in total solitude for 100 days spent in special purification rituals and prayings to "God" for sending a guardian angel to the supplicant. If everything is done correctly the Angel appears to the mage and gives him control over "the 4 princes of evil" (or the 4 elements) and thus he becomes a magician.


Another ritual used by the Hermetic order of the Golden Dawn for contacting the personal genius was the "Preliminary Invocation to Goetia" taken from the 17 th century grimoire "The Lesser Key of Solomon" - a magical system to call the 72 fallen angels and compelling them in the name of "God" to do the magician's will. One may recognize some pagan gods and goddesses from Egypt, Mesopotamia and otherwhere under these demonic disguises.


At the time I had no nerves to read and study these obscurantist and dogmatic grimoires but Crowley has given much elucidation on this central topic of his system and given different and reformed versions of the older ritual practices. There are even better elucidations on the matter given by certain postCrowlean neo-pagan and other traditions. The essential thing to be known is that it's really a great ordeal for one's psyche and demads a constant will and determination. Some have ended in madness. The isolation/retirement/solitude for a certain period (preferably in the wilderness/kur) is necessary - there are no substitutes for this practice. The stories about Lugalbanda confirm that rule. There is a lot of parallels in the so called primitive cultures survived nowadays.


When one investigates the remnants of the pagan traditions one will also find traces of this magical quest of contacting the personal genius. It always appears to be of the opposite gender to the magician/hero and the relationship therewith is once and forever. A sacred marriage. Jung has also investigated these tradiotions prior to arrive at his concept of Anima/Animus. In brief, according to Jung, one attains to individuation (separating/unconditioning one's consciousness from the collective unconscious) when one has integrated one's personal subconscious Anima/Animus - usually of the opposite gender to oneself.


According to Crowley the personal god is not to be confused with the Holy Guardian Angel. Becoming one with one's personal god via worship is regarded as a preliminary to the Great Work, which is attaining to the "Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel". This attainment makes one a divine incarnation on the earth because after it one already does one's true will which acts in accordance with the cosmic laws and nobody could stand on one's way.


"Every man and woman is a star" as Crowley was told by his genius though the most of humanity are obscure stars who have no will to realize their potential: "The slaves shall serve" as Crowley was told by his genius. Maybe this is the true attainment which gives one the right to put the eight-rayed dingir star before one's name. Instead of "true" self which already became a dogma in the Crowlean circles, I prefer to say total self.


Sometimes one's true self (or some significant component of the total self) could be of nature which is at odds with one's character and that makes the work even harder, so us4-he2-gal2 please, take this into account when speaking so about Inanna


(As far as I know Samuel Kramer claimed that Inanna was his guide after he broke with his Judaic religion. )

On July 12 2011, a treatment of Lugalbanda and Ninsumuna was posted above by nininimzue (N. Linder). This text has long fascinated me because of its inclusion of a lil2 spirit and, further, the enigmatic IM-RU - the importance of this thing/spirit/essence to the narrative is clear when you read over the post above and the translation and comments provided, however the exact interpretation of IM-RU is not clear to the contributor nor has it been clear to scholarship in general.


Well, IM seems to be reasonable easy to interpret. At least, we know this has a certain range of meaning and above mentioned contributor suggested: "another windy concept perhaps?" as in, another spirit like entity along with lil2. The relation between these concepts has been explored by D. Katz among others. Wind or spirit are possible. The sign RU can stand for a number of nouns and verbs, one possibility is that is may be used to write the verb šub: "to fall; to drop, lay (down); to thresh (grain). This has an equivalence with the Akk. nadû

Today I have noticed at random that im-ru is listed in MEE 4, a volume which treats bilingual (Sumerian/ Semitic) lexical texts from Ebla. Entry number 1338 gives:

im-ru = pu3-a-tum. In Black's concise dictionary of Akkadian, puātum is given an equivalence with later puādum which means simply "word" (=awatum).


This application of this semantic value may be reinforced in section IX which ends with "The good content of the word (it is)." The question is, how to conceptualize IM (wind/spirit) and RU (possibly 'cast down') with the nuance of "word" ? While I may shortly be able to ask some people at the Uni. about this, and update this post, I seem to recall that the Akkadian word nadû is often used in conjunction with the casting of a spell, literally to throw down - to throw down the words of the incantation, so to speak. It is the same in English, when you say "to cast (down) a spell."



More to come.

The Sumerian term IM.RU could also refer to 'family' or 'clan' - see the PSD under imria [CLAN] where it is also spelt IM.RU and IM.RU.A

Continuing....

- The problem of IM-RU -

So, I have been able to compare 4 different translations of AbS 327 in the last week, with the aim of gaining a better understanding into the context of the text. As Jacobsen himself once stated, the difficulties involved in reading and translating an ED piece of literature like this are significant, and as a result there is considerable variance from one scholar to another, unfortunately. This creates confusion, so what we may attempt now is to lessen that confusion..or at least to explore it further.


The 4 translation I have collected are a) Jacobsen 1989 "Lugalbanda and Ninsuna" JCS 41 no. 1 pp. 69-86; b) Bing 1977 Gilgamesh and Lugalbanda in the Fara Period JANES 9 pp. 1-4; c) Linder 2011 (unpublished, see this thread Jul 12, 2011); d) Wilcke 2011 (unpublished, I refer to a prepublish version of this scholar's latest work on Lugalbanda). Wilcke's initial PhD work centered on the epic of Lugalbanda, and since this time he has remained the expert of the subject (he wrote the RlA entry on Lugalbanda), hence I have been fortunate to be able to access his latest translation of the AbS 327.


As enenuru has been focused on (among other things) the discussion of the Mesopotamian notion of spirit, the occurrence of lil2 in this text is of high interest. The reading of the relevant sign as lil2 is not universal among translators however. IM.RU is another item of high interest of course, as it's reading and interpretation remain elusive in this text. A third term over which the understanding of the text hinges is the term a-nun. I intend to examine the following problems in more detail below:











While I am not at liberty to put all of this material online (for example, the Wilcke) I have included two full translations in chart form below so that enenuru readers and visitors can get a sense of the basic narrative of the text, and some of the differences in translation:









Please note that the column number (which I have marked in red above) corresponds to the relevant column on the observe and reverse of AbS 327, as can be noted in the below line drawings (taken from CDLI):















Philological problems/




i) lil2



If there was agreement on the presence of a lil2 spirit in this text, I would be pleased. However, there isn't and while two translations maintain the reading lil2 in column VIII and X (Jacobsen as well as Linder), Wilcke's latest treatment of the text does not. Below is a chart comparing 4 treatments of column VIII wherein lil2 may or may not first appear. Bing's treatment was largely discounted by Jacobsen in comments he made in his 1989 article (pg. 72). I have translated Wilcke's translation from the German for the sake of convenience.











So, the real point of contention comes in line 6 col. VIII which Wilcke reads: Lugal-bàn-da, ḫa-luḫ, ⌈kisal⌉ [a?] ⌈ki ub⌉-ta[g] ; importantly, instead of reading lil2 after "Lugalbanda became frightened" (Lugal-bàn-da ha-luh), Wilcke reads instead kisal. I understand this to translate simply to "courtyard" as it occurs also later in the text, however the translation "courtyard" (oddly) is not reflected in the author's translation here. Nonetheless, the question now becomes: which of these readings is more convincing? The relevant cuneiform sign must be examined.










As can be seen in the above, line 6 or col. VIII is badly preserved. The relevant sign, occurring at the start of the line, is impossible to identify short of saying, well, it appears quite rectangular - both kisal or lil2 are possible readings. Therefore, to extrapolate further, we can look ahead to the next time that Jacobsen translates "(lil2) spirit" and this occurs in line 2 col. X (see above illustration, left side). Finally a visible sign which leads Jacobsen to read "lil2" and Wilcke to read "e2" : so is it "Noble Niri whispered to the spirit" or "My relatives, and the Anuna of your house" ? While there are several variables at play here, much hinges on the reading of the sign as e2 or lil2.


Wilcke's reading e2 here against Jacobsen's lil2 is indeed very reminiscent of the debate surrounding the name of En-lil2: Against Jacobson and the traditional readings, Steinkeller argues that the name of En-lil2 was written with the e2 sign (En-E2) throughout the third millennium. This in turn was refuted by Wang and R. Englund - see, the name of Enlil thread. The point is, the similarity between these two signs has been confusing scholars for decades and here we have an excellent example of the same problem.

Having reviewed the evidence myself I generally agree with Jacobsen. I still have to read Frayne though. For IM.RU I find Wilcke's explanation has more shortcomings. As noted the neck cutter line doesn't make sense, being the object of the shu ti verb doesn't make sense, and the sign forms do line up with ni2 more than im even if thats not entirely reliable. The reading Ni-ri denoting a deified weapon a la Ninurta's weapon Shar-ur fits fairly well. Jacobsen reads it as the one imbued with dreadfulness but to me it seems like a dub-sar construction: Fear Caster. This would be another way it lines up well with Shar-ur, which means Multitude Striker. Additionally Ni-ri appears in one of the A.S. god lists fairly low down the line, basically what you would expect from a weapon turned deity. Maybe alternatively Niri was Lugalbanda's godly side kick who liked to hold hands

An issue I find interesting that was not touched on in this thread is whether we are to read the mother as speaking to Lugalbanda, or Ninsumuna speaking to the mother. When Jacobsen sees amalu Lugalbanda-ra he comments that the dative being made explicit shows that it is preceded by a genitive, thus "To the mother of Lugalbanda..." More intuitive is that the dative simply applies to Lugalbanda, and the mother is speaking to him. After all, you expect the mother to say something after her ghost has dramatically risen from the underworld, right? The za sign in the next line suggests that the mother is the speaker: "You have brought a wife from the mountains." If Ninsumuna is the speaker and says "He has brought a wife from the mountains for/to you" then we seem to be short a dative element, unless Jacobsen is right in saying that datives are only written after genitives. Conversely the next line suggests Ninsumuna is the speaker, as it has ushbar, which is attested as "mother(or father)-in-law" while if the mother herself was the speaker ushbar would have to be understood as a general term for a relative that could be used for a daughter-in-law.

Lastly, the reading dumu-zu (en-)me-te "Your son, (En-)Mete" certainly has some fun implications. I liked your description for it; "dangerous." Imagine if Gilgamesh, Mesopotamia's golden boy, was a fratricidal usurper who erased his older brother Enmete from history once he gained hegemony over Sumer. With the A.S. tablets coming only a generation or two after the historical Lugalbanda, and being from a fairly peripheral site, they just might have survived the purge. Or in a much less dramatic account maybe Mete was the original heir apparent but died before his father. All just some fun speculation of course.

Thanks! I made a post in the introduction section.


I was reading an old article by Krecher today and he says that OIP 99 text 283 preserves the beginning of this Lugalbanda composition. I checked Biggs' notes on the text and he says its a text concerning Ashnan. CDLI lists secondary publications as: Alster 1976b, 124f.; Krebernik OBO 160/1, fn. 796; 808; p. 323. Sounds like something fun to look into on a rainy day.

I went looking up LAK489 and it can be read as shita meaning priest or prayer, but Biggs notes that from an Abu Salibikh text it appears in the context: LAK489 za-gin3 showing that it must be an object people craft from materials such as lapis lazuli. I went looking for a phonetic variant and found shita2 = a weapon. This reading would support the idea that IM.RU was a weapon as it is an object coming right after the line with shita.

I read an article saying a shita was a mace, but I noticed that the Akkadian equivalent is kakku, which to me looks like an Akkadianization of gag = nail/peg. Kakku means a weapon or stick and maybe this is where they get mace, but the gag connection makes me think a steak/dagger. ePSD lists shitax(GAG.GISH) as a variant of shita2 which is another connection to gag.