The Proverb Collections

[us4-he2-gal2]

Thread Orientation: Here we can read over the primary and secondary literature concerning those brief visions of everyday Mesopotamian that are the Sumerian Proverbs.

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Sumerian Proverb Collections

Hey Everyone:


I wanted to write a short bit about the Sumerian proverb collections even though I am at the library printing resumes (and still no internet at home!). There is a volume here entitled "Sumerian Proverbs - Glimpses of Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia, 1968" by Edmund Gordon (with a chapter by T. Jacobsen).

Gordon's work provided the first definitive addition of the Sumerian proverb collections, sayings which were grouped together by the litari of the e-dub-ba in ancient times and often served as practice material in the schools. While the majority, if not all, of Gordon's translations have since been incorporated onto the ETCSL website and are now easily accessable, his very thorough 1968 work comes complete with extensive commentary and analysis of the cultureal significance these metaphors and sayings bear - below I have taken notes on the authors excellent insights, however I am selective rather than exhaustive in the following.

In order to reference the proverbs Gordon refers to below by special number code, please see the appropriate ETCSL section, ***COLLECTIONS 1 and 2 only***

etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=c.6.1*#

*note - this effort short be considered as a first step in extending reading on this genre, while a necessary improvement may at some point be Bendt Alster's 1997 work on the same subject.

I. Enviroment.

Rivers - 1.89 shows that the cities Zabalam and Larsam were located along the same canal, the latter downstream from the former.

2.13 : Storm as metaphor for fate.

Animals - 1.30 Gazelle as metaphor for excessive drinker; the fox in Sumerian metaphor does not ever seem like the clever fox in European folklore who gets his way, rather he is full of conceit and consistently exagerattes his own role (2.61 , 2.67, 2.69).

Animals/domesticated - The ass is depicted in a good natured spirit, as a slow and foolish creature whose main objective is to act contrary to his master. The dog is depicted as being far from "mans best friend" - he is primarily selfish, vicious etc. and disloyal to man (2.91, 2.112, 2.113m 2.115, 2.116).

Smaller animals - Sparrows as a metaphor for the transitoriness of wealth (1.18).

Flora - Reed is referred to metaphorically as the antithesis of gold (2.135).

II. Economic Life

Ploughing - the "deep furrow" is said to be destroyed by the digging of the dog (2.91.) the ox must be prevented from eating the threshold grain (2.85, 2.87).

Occupations - the shepherd should not try to be a farmer (1.100).

Livestock - The ram was regarded as potentially dangerous but important to the shepherd (1.111, 1.112). The ox was viewed as stupid and whose occasional fits of contrariness are good-naturedly excused in recognition of his basic usefulness (2.83-9 , 2.90-5). Although the pig was possible viewed as dirty (1.119), there are no taboos against the eating of pig flesh.

Commerce - 1.165 and 1.175 indicate house wives indignation at the corrupt dealings of merchants, short changing etc.

Money lending and debts - see proverbs 2.19, 2.27, 2.30, 2.159. 1.183

III. Social Status and Institutions

Social Status

a. Free Men (as opposed to Slaves).

Gordon notes, very interestingly, that the proverbs do not make the distinction of a three-fold social stratification that is apparent in the Hammurabi lawcode, and in this way they seem to be in line with the earlier code of Ur-Nammu. There is a distinction between rich and poor, but this seems to be more of an economic rather than a class distinction - something approahing empathy is often apparent in descriptions of the poor man. For rich and poor see 1.15, 2.16, 2.24, 2.27, 2.35. and 2.15-2.23, and for poor men and their rights 2.28-2.34

b. Gender distinctions

see particularly 1.156


Political Institutions



Palace, changibility of bureaucracy 2.158; corruptability of an official 1.67 (the "registrar of deeds" who will bend written wills to his own gain if they are not explicitly worded). 1.196 seems to comment on the need for experience in order to interpret the "mysterious" ways of the courtroom.


c. The family

Gordon: It is somewhat interesting to observe that there are by far more references to the mother (ama) than there are to the father in the Sumerian proverbs, and that rather strikingly, it is the "personal" (or the family) deity, and not the father, who appears opposite the mothing in parallel couplets, especially in allusions to procreation and the birth of the child."

the father: 1.155, 1.141, 2.146, 1.151

the mother: 1.142-5 , 1.155, 1.157, 1.161, 1.185, 2.8, 2.60, 2.141, 1.125



d. Marriage

1.12, 2.81 - Child marriage is frowned on and compared to matting underage asses. 1.160 "seems to imply that, while the desire for marrying many wives was a human weakness, the more important obligation of man to the gods was the procreation of children."


widowhood - 1.154 , a Widow who was a spendthrift during her husband's lifetie is especially miserable after his death.

having children - 1.146 a young man is told to have children "as his heart desires."

IV: Religious Beliefs and Institutions

1. gods - specified by name:

2.74 Enlil is invoked by a discouraged donkey driviner. 2.103 Enki has rescued the ship-wrecked kalum-priest from drowning. 1.147 Inanna is responcible for providing a good wife for a man. 2.100 The kalum priest asserts that he belongs to Inanna. 1.2, 1.89, 1.86,1.87 Utu is recognized as the all seeing god who mets out retribution for good and evil. 1.4 Ningishzida being not alive himself is not empowered to grant the favour of life to men.

1.7, 1.145 refer to personal gods. 1.160 refer to the gods desire that a man procreate.

2. Spirits, Genii, Demons

1.19 The Guardian Genius, aids a man when he is set on action

Malevolent Demons:

i. Fate. Nam-tar "in Sumerian proverbs, is represented as the personified demon Namtar, who is in charge, not only of an individual's death, but also of the latter's as yet undisclosed future (cf. especally proverbs 1.67, 2.9 and 2.10, where the expression used is nam-nu-tar-ra, concertely "not provided for (by means of will, in economic terms)"; jere, of course, the demon Namtar is not alluded to. In two proverbs 2.11 and 2.14m Fate is likened to a biting vicious dog. By looking into the water (divination by hydromancy?) , a man is said to see his own Fate walking there (2.4). One can invoke one's own Fate (although what this invovles concretly is not clear) with dire consequences (2.2)."

ii. Sickness demons: "In proverbs 2.9 and 2.10, the demons Destruction and Sickness appear in person to a man who has been left no monetary legacy for his support, and offer, each in turn, to place themselves at his service (i.e figuratively, to take the place f a monetary legacy). Note also proverb 1.154, where the sickness-demons are said to plague the thriftless wife aftrr she becomes a widow."

3. Religious concepts

i the Netherworld:
1,30, 1.38, 1.68, 2.163 depict just who barren and fearful the netherworld is

ii. ME (divine norms

According to 2.1 when a conqueror completely destroys a place and its religious rites, he destroys that places ME (divine norms).

4. Religious Institutions and Cult:


Cult Practices -

Libations and offerings to the dead 1.38. Hymns sung by the people 1.70. Divination by Extispicy 1.70. Rites 2.1. Incense cups 2.21. Spells 2.54, 2.106.

Cult Personnel -

a. The Kaum Priest (gala). "For some reason, perhaps because of his "atypical" sexual life - see particularly proverb 2.100 and the commentary to that proverb - as well as the possibility that he may also have been a eunuch, the kalum-priest (even though he was most important in the temple cult and frequestly also in the political administration) seem to have been made the butt of a great number of satirical anecdotes and scornful bywords. It is to be noted that just as the hymns and lamentations which were chanted by the kalum priest were written in the Emesal dialect (the specch of female deities and of women), so too are most of the quotations of the kalum-priest's words in these satires given in the Emesal dialect. Even his diet seems to be ridiculed (2.104 and 2.105). His manner of singing, if 2.106 has indeed been correctly understood, was considered to be the direct antithesis of the singing style of the secular singer (n a r); with 2.106, cf. 2.41 and 2.57. Other proverbs pertaining to the kalum priest are the following: 2.54 ... 2.97 ... 2.98 ... 2.99 ... 2.101 ... 2.102... 2.103..."

VII. Abstract Ideas

The Future (egir). 1.2 (Future outcroppings of evil are know only to Utu). 1.6 (Submission eventually becomes a means of resistence). See also 1.35, 2.9, 2.10, 2.110

Reoccurence in Time - 1.83 (The constant "renewal of destiny" i.e. perhaps, the concept of the "vicious circle" or the "cyclical" return of events.)

Realness or fact - 2.2 (letting ones fate materialize.) 1.21 (a person who has not been "lax toward the evil which exists" : the realist)

Realtivity: 1.10, 1.32, 1.33, 1.98, 1.193, 2.115, 2.122, and especially 2.125 (pleasures and displeasures of individuals are relative: "this proverb is a most explicit statement of the idea of relative values".)


Values: "Cosmic Truth" or honesty, 1.1, 1.86. Truthfulness 2.71, 2.142 Strange (?) (Kur2) 1.10 (a relative judgement is involved here.

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Still to come... brief notes from Jacobsen's commentary

[ummia-inim-gina]

Great post Bill this was really cool to get to see.

[us4-he2-gal2]

Hey Ummia - thanks! How are the odd and persistent musing of Ummia on misc. ancient materials this month ;]


Well, I am following up my earlier post today with a small sample of Thorkild Jacobsen's reviewing of Gordon's work on Proverbs (found in that same volume, incedently...). Gordon's relationship with Jacobsen is interesting as the fiormer was cheifly a student of S.N. Kramer - their correspondence may continue the productive exchange of the those two older scholars therefore, while it also seems to emulate the frequent clash of interpretation commen in that exchange.


Jacobsen reviewed all of Gordon's translations offering commentary and assistance where possible to Gordon's sincere gratitude. Particularly interesting to me are some translations of Jacobsen wherein he groups a large cluster of sayings together as a more or less coherent whole, where Gordon has interpreted many little sayings, quite unconnected and incohernt. The translated wording also differs wildly. Jacobsen's ambition to see a bigger message may seem desirable to any hoping to make sense of these words, although my suspicion is that many minimalist scholars would take some offense with this. In any case, I have typed below Jacobsens rendering of proverbs 2 to 14 in the proverb collection number 2 (2.2 to 2.14), which he treats as one unit:

"What determine my fate I will tell - (though) only disdainful words;
Her (who spoke them) I will make appear - (though) only where a ghost (can) stand;
What determined my fate, to my neighbor-woman I will tell:
She (my mother) took it upon herself to expose me to disdainful words;
On the germ (of a man) she looked, into which (thus) stole my fate;
On an ill-fated day I was born;
What determined my fate she spoke: She denied being my mother!

An acquiantance...
The neighbor-woman, coming into the house to (help) my mother,
Was the one who brought me into life, who anointed me.
As the saying goes: I am one to whom, before his fate was determined, a waif applied;
I am an expert paymaster, let me serve you! she said to me.
As the saying goes: I am on to whom, before his fate was determined, a bondman(?) applied;
'I am an expert on money and goods, let me serve you!' he said to me.

Fate is a beast - well able to bite.
Like dirty clothes, it clings, (saying):
'Whoever is my master, let him know it:
Fate is (as) the very clothes (he has on), it is wrapt around him in the desert,
Fate is (too) the raging storm blowing over the country,
Fate is a dog dogging his heels!'"


Jacobson's notes to this piece are of perhaps more value than his translation, on account of his insights about fate - he explains that nam-tar may be used to denote a person or thing determining fate, more or less like "an angel of death" - the word can also imply fate itself as it more often does, a usage he says that "may have originated in the use of the word nam-tar for the verdict of fate, which both imposes and describes (i.e., "is") the fate." More rare is Jacobsen's understanding of the effect of positive of negative words on the fate on an infanct at birth. He notes that the disdainful words of the mother upon the childs birth (above), had "the effect of imposeing what they described upon the newborn infant as his fate." For this belief, that words spoken at birth were determing for the child, he refers us to Stamm, Akkadische Namengebung, and to the Nungal Hymn where the birth goddess claims to use words for the positive effect of the childs fate: "I assists the goddess Nintur at the place of bringing children into life; I am an expert at cutting the umbilical cord and at the pleasing talk to determine fate."





On another subject, I also find Jacobsen's note on the word ub-lil2-la2 quite interesting! Mr. Halloran was nice enough to mention this word to me on account of my interest in the word lil2 - whether or not the word may eventually be seen to relate to the dream spirit phenomena Im intrigued with remains to be seen, but it should at least be noted when mapping the semantic range of lil2-la2. This word in any case, is generally translated "outdoor shrine" which appears in proverb 1.142 .. Gordons note 7 on the word reads: "ub-lil2-la2 = Akkadian ibratum, "a religious shrine in the open air"; cf. SL 206:42 and Landsberger, ZA XLI 1933, p. 296."

Jacobsen reviews this proverb and adds about the word: "Ibratu, defined by Landsberger as an open-air sanctuary, seems - at least in Nippur - to have marked a burial-ground; cf. Reisner, SBH p. 137 no. IV line 56-57 .... "The 'Lady of the house of the dead' who occupues the Ibratu" .. on Gashan-ma-ug5-ga : (d)E5 (=NIN)-e2-ug5-ga, a form of the goddess Ninkarrak, see Deimal, Pantheon no. 2516).

In his second review of the book, Jacobsen offers a revised translation of 1.142:

"O my sister, were it not the graveyard (toward which I am headed); O my mother, were it not into the river (that I shall throw myself), I might be able to die of hunger!


Hence he translates "graveyard" where the more common "outdoor shrine" is rendered. While this isn't definitive by any means, it perhaps sets the "lil2-la2" in this word back toward the notion of spirit, haunting place, or convergence with the netherworld I associate with lil2 at the moment.