Mesopotamian Epic."
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The Epic of Gilgamesh Humbaba from His Days Running Wild in the Forest
Gilgamesh's superiority. They hugged and became best friends. Name Always eager to build a name for himself, Gilgamesh wanted to have an adventure. He wanted to go to the Cedar Forest and slay its guardian demon, Humbaba. Enkidu did not like the idea. He knew The Epic of Gilgamesh Humbaba from his days running wild in the forest. He tried to talk his best friend out of it. But Gilgamesh refused to listen. Reluctantly, By Vickie Chao Enkidu agreed to go with him. A long, long time ago, there After several days of journeying, Gilgamesh and Enkidu at last was a kingdom called Uruk. reached the edge of the Cedar Forest. Their intrusion made Humbaba Its ruler was Gilgamesh. very angry. But thankfully, with the help of the sun god, Shamash, the duo prevailed. They killed Humbaba and cut down the forest. They Gilgamesh, by all accounts, fashioned a raft out of the cedar trees. Together, they set sail along the was not an ordinary person. Euphrates River and made their way back to Uruk. The only shadow He was actually a cast over this victory was Humbaba's curse. Before he was beheaded, superhuman, two-thirds god he shouted, "Of you two, may Enkidu not live the longer, may Enkidu and one-third human. As king, not find any peace in this world!" Gilgamesh was very harsh. His people were scared of him and grew wary over time. They pleaded with the sky god, Anu, for his help. In When Gilgamesh and Enkidu arrived at Uruk, they received a hero's response, Anu asked the goddess Aruru to create a beast-like man welcome. -
Writing and City Life
29 THEME2 writing and city life CITY life began in Mesopotamia*, the land between the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers that is now part of the Republic of Iraq. Mesopotamian civilisation is known for its prosperity, city life, its voluminous and rich literature and its mathematics and astronomy. Mesopotamia’s writing system and literature spread to the eastern Mediterranean, northern *The name Syria, and Turkey after 2000 BCE, so that the kingdoms of Mesopotamia is that entire region were writing to one another, and to the derived from the Pharaoh of Egypt, in the language and script of Mesopotamia. Greek words mesos, Here we shall explore the connection between city life and writing, and then look at some outcomes of a sustained meaning middle, tradition of writing. and potamos, In the beginning of recorded history, the land, mainly the meaning river. urbanised south (see discussion below), was called Sumer and Akkad. After 2000 BCE, when Babylon became an important city, the term Babylonia was used for the southern region. From about 1100 BCE, when the Assyrians established their kingdom in the north, the region became known as Assyria. The first known language of the land was Sumerian. It was gradually replaced by Akkadian around 2400 BCE when Akkadian speakers arrived. This language flourished till about Alexander’s time (336-323 BCE), with some regional changes occurring. From 1400 BCE, Aramaic also trickled in. This language, similar to Hebrew, became widely spoken after 1000 BCE. It is still spoken in parts of Iraq. Archaeology in Mesopotamia began in the 1840s. At one or two sites (including Uruk and Mari, which we discuss below), excavations continued for decades. -
Burn Your Way to Success Studies in the Mesopotamian Ritual And
Burn your way to success Studies in the Mesopotamian Ritual and Incantation Series Šurpu by Francis James Michael Simons A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology School of History and Cultures College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham March 2017 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract The ritual and incantation series Šurpu ‘Burning’ is one of the most important sources for understanding religious and magical practice in the ancient Near East. The purpose of the ritual was to rid a sufferer of a divine curse which had been inflicted due to personal misconduct. The series is composed chiefly of the text of the incantations recited during the ceremony. These are supplemented by brief ritual instructions as well as a ritual tablet which details the ceremony in full. This thesis offers a comprehensive and radical reconstruction of the entire text, demonstrating the existence of a large, and previously unsuspected, lacuna in the published version. In addition, a single tablet, tablet IX, from the ten which comprise the series is fully edited, with partitur transliteration, eclectic and normalised text, translation, and a detailed line by line commentary. -
The Sumerian King List the Sumerian King List (SKL) Dates from Around 2100 BCE—Near the Time When Abram Was in Ur
BcResources Genesis The Sumerian King List The Sumerian King List (SKL) dates from around 2100 BCE—near the time when Abram was in Ur. Most ANE scholars (following Jacobsen) attribute the original form of the SKL to Utu-hejel, king of Uruk, and his desire to legiti- mize his reign after his defeat of the Gutians. Later versions included a reference or Long Chronology), 1646 (Middle to the Great Flood and prefaced the Chronology), or 1582 (Low or Short list of postdiluvian kings with a rela- Chronology). The following chart uses tively short list of what appear to be the Middle Chronology. extremely long-reigning antediluvian Text. The SKL text for the following kings. One explanation: transcription chart was originally in a narrative form or translation errors resulting from and consisted of a composite of several confusion of the Sumerian base-60 versions (see Black, J.A., Cunningham, and the Akkadian base-10 systems G., Fluckiger-Hawker, E, Robson, E., of numbering. Dividing each ante- and Zólyomi, G., The Electronic Text diluvian figure by 60 returns reigns Corpus of Sumerian Literature (http:// in harmony with Biblical norms (the www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk/), Oxford bracketed figures in the antediluvian 1998-). The text was modified by the portion of the chart). elimination of manuscript references Final versions of the SKL extended and by the addition of alternative the list to include kings up to the reign name spellings, clarifying notes, and of Damiq-ilicu, king of Isin (c. 1816- historical dates (typically in paren- 1794 BCE). thesis or brackets). The narrative was Dates. -
SUMERIAN LITERATURE and SUMERIAN IDENTITY My Title Puts
CNI Publicati ons 43 SUMERIAN LITERATURE AND SUMERIAN IDENTITY JERROLD S. COOPER PROBLEMS OF C..\NONlCl'TY AND IDENTITY FORMATION IN A NCIENT EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA There is evidence of a regional identity in early Babylonia, but it does not seem to be of the Sumerian ethno-lingusitic sort. Sumerian Edited by identity as such appears only as an artifact of the scribal literary KIM RYHOLT curriculum once the Sumerian language had to be acquired through GOJKO B AR .I AMOVIC educati on rather than as a mother tongue. By the late second millennium, it appears there was no notion that a separate Sumerian ethno-lingui stic population had ever existed. My title puts Sumerian literature before Sumerian identity, and in so doing anticipates my conclusion, which will be that there was little or no Sumerian identity as such - in the sense of "We are all Sumerians!" outside of Sumerian literature and the scribal milieu that composed and transmitted it. By "Sumerian literature," I mean the corpus of compositions in Sumerian known from manuscripts that date primarily 1 to the first half of the 18 h century BC. With a few notable exceptions, the compositions themselves originated in the preceding three centuries, that is, in what Assyriologists call the Ur III and Isin-Larsa (or Early Old Babylonian) periods. I purposely eschew the too fraught and contested term "canon," preferring the very neutral "corpus" instead, while recognizing that because nearly all of our manuscripts were produced by students, the term "curriculum" is apt as well. 1 The geographic designation "Babylonia" is used here for the region to the south of present day Baghdad, the territory the ancients would have called "Sumer and Akkad." I will argue that there is indeed evidence for a 3rd millennium pan-Babylonian regional identity, but little or no evidence that it was bound to a Sumerian mother-tongue community. -
Gilgamesh Sung in Ancient Sumerian Gilgamesh and the Ancient Near East
Gilgamesh sung in ancient Sumerian Gilgamesh and the Ancient Near East Dr. Le4cia R. Rodriguez 20.09.2017 ì The Ancient Near East Cuneiform cuneus = wedge Anadolu Medeniyetleri Müzesi, Ankara Babylonian deed of sale. ca. 1750 BCE. Tablet of Sargon of Akkad, Assyrian Tablet with love poem, Sumerian, 2037-2029 BCE 19th-18th centuries BCE *Gilgamesh was an historic figure, King of Uruk, in Sumeria, ca. 2800/2700 BCE (?), and great builder of temples and ci4es. *Stories about Gilgamesh, oral poems, were eventually wriXen down. *The Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh compiled from 73 tablets in various languages. *Tablets discovered in the mid-19th century and con4nue to be translated. Hero overpowering a lion, relief from the citadel of Sargon II, Dur Sharrukin (modern Khorsabad), Iraq, ca. 721–705 BCE The Flood Tablet, 11th tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Library of Ashurbanipal Neo-Assyrian, 7th century BCE, The Bri4sh Museum American Dad Gilgamesh and Enkidu flank the fleeing Humbaba, cylinder seal Neo-Assyrian ca. 8th century BCE, 2.8cm x 1.3cm, The Bri4sh Museum DOUBLING/TWINS BROMANCE *Role of divinity in everyday life. *Relaonship between divine and ruler. *Ruler’s asser4on of dominance and quest for ‘immortality’. StatuePes of two worshipers from Abu Temple at Eshnunna (modern Tell Asmar), Iraq, ca. 2700 BCE. Gypsum inlaid with shell and black limestone, male figure 2’ 6” high. Iraq Museum, Baghdad. URUK (WARKA) Remains of the White Temple on its ziggurat. Uruk (Warka), Iraq, ca. 3500–3000 BCE. Plan and ReconstrucVon drawing of the White Temple and ziggurat, Uruk (Warka), Iraq, ca. -
The Lost Book of Enki.Pdf
L0ST BOOK °f6NK1 ZECHARIA SITCHIN author of The 12th Planet • . FICTION/MYTHOLOGY $24.00 TH6 LOST BOOK OF 6NK! Will the past become our future? Is humankind destined to repeat the events that occurred on another planet, far away from Earth? Zecharia Sitchin’s bestselling series, The Earth Chronicles, provided humanity’s side of the story—as recorded on ancient clay tablets and other Sumerian artifacts—concerning our origins at the hands of the Anunnaki, “those who from heaven to earth came.” In The Lost Book of Enki, we can view this saga from a dif- ferent perspective through this richly con- ceived autobiographical account of Lord Enki, an Anunnaki god, who tells the story of these extraterrestrials’ arrival on Earth from the 12th planet, Nibiru. The object of their colonization: gold to replenish the dying atmosphere of their home planet. Finding this precious metal results in the Anunnaki creation of homo sapiens—the human race—to mine this important resource. In his previous works, Sitchin com- piled the complete story of the Anunnaki ’s impact on human civilization in peacetime and in war from the frag- ments scattered throughout Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Hittite, Egyptian, Canaanite, and Hebrew sources- —the “myths” of all ancient peoples in the old world as well as the new. Missing from these accounts, however, was the perspective of the Anunnaki themselves What was life like on their own planet? What motives propelled them to settle on Earth—and what drove them from their new home? Convinced of the existence of a now lost book that formed the basis of THE lost book of ENKI MFMOHCS XND PKjOPHeCieS OF XN eXTfCXUfCWJTWXL COD 2.6CHXPJA SITCHIN Bear & Company Rochester, Vermont — Bear & Company One Park Street Rochester, Vermont 05767 www.InnerTraditions.com Copyright © 2002 by Zecharia Sitchin All rights reserved. -
Iscrizioni Reali Dal Vicino Oriente Antico
Università di Pisa Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia ISCRIZIONI REALI DAL VICINO ORIENTE ANTICO Materiali per il corso di Storia del Vicino Oriente antico Traduzione di Giuseppe Del Monte Pisa – 2004 Indice 1 L’EPOCA PROTODINASTICA Mesalim di Kish 1 3 Mesannepada di Ur 1 3 Enshakushanna di Uruk 1 3 Urnanshe di Lagash 51 3 Eannatum di Lagash 2 4 Enannatum I di Lagash 1 4 Entemena di Lagash 28-29 5 Urukagina di Lagash 4-5 6 Urukagina di Lagash 16 8 Lugalzagesi di Uruk 1 9 LA DINASTIA DI AKKAD Sargon b 1 11 Sargon b 2 11 Rimush b 2 12 Rimush b 7-8 12 Rimush b 9/10 12 Rimush b 12 13 Man-ishtushu a 1 13 Man-ishtushu b 3 13 Naram-Sîn b 1 13 Naram-Sîn b 5 14 Naram-Sîn Statua A da Susa 15 Naram-Sîn Base di statua da Basetki 15 Shar-kali-sharri BM 38302 15 La nascita di Sargon (VIII sec.) 16 La “Lettera di Sargon” (Ur, XVIII sec.) 16 Sargon Re della battaglia (versione da Boghazköy, XVI sec.) 16 La rivolta generale contro Naram-Sîn (versione “Ginevra”) 17 La rivolta generale contro Naram-Sîn (versione da Boghazköy) 18 PERIODO GUTEO Erridu-pizir 1 19 Erridu-pizir 2 19 Gudea Statua B V 21-VII 20 20 Utu-hegal 4 21 Utu-hegal Coni di argilla da Lagash 22 Stele di Ur-Nammu governatore di Ur 22 III DINASTIA DI UR Ur-Nammu 23 Cono di argilla 22 Ur-Nammu 26 Cono di argilla 22 Shulgi 9 Tavola di pietra da Nippur 22 Shulgi 3 Mattone da Eshnunna 22 Shulgi 63 Mattone da Susa 23 Amar-Suen 3 Mattoni da Ur 23 Shu-Sîn 9 Cardini di porta da Umma e altrove 23 2 Indice Ibbi-Sîn 1/2 Coni di argilla da Ur 23 Ibbi-Sîn 9 (Tavoletta paleo-babilonese) 23 Ibbi-Sîn 11 (Tavoletta -
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-88094-7 - The Cambridge Companion to the Epic Edited by Catherine Bates Excerpt More information 1 A. R. GEORGE The Epic of Gilgamesh Introduction The name ‘Epic of Gilgamesh’ is given to the Babylonian poem that tells the deeds of Gilgamesh, the greatest king and mightiest hero of ancient Mesopotamian legend. The poem falls into the category ‘epic’ because it is a long narrative poem of heroic content and has the seriousness and pathos that have sometimes been identified as markers of epic. Some early Assyri- ologists, when nationalism was a potent political force, characterized it as the ‘national epic’ of Babylonia, but this notion has deservedly lapsed. The poem’s subject is not the establishment of a Babylonian nation nor an episode in that nation’s history, but the vain quest of a man to escape his mortality. In its final and best-preserved version it is a sombre meditation on the human condition. The glorious exploits it tells are motivated by individ- ual human predicaments, especially desire for fame and horror of death. The emotional struggles related in the story of Gilgamesh are those of no collective group but of the individual. Among its timeless themes are the friction between nature and civilization, friendship between men, the place in the universe of gods, kings and mortals, and the misuse of power. The poem speaks to the anxieties and life-experience of a human being, and that is why modern readers find it both profound and enduringly relevant. Discovery and recovery The literatures of ancient Mesopotamia, chiefly in Sumerian and Babylonian (Akkadian), were lost when cuneiform writing died out in the first century ad. -
Chapter 2 Biblical Law in Cultural Context Science Offers Great Hopes
Chapter 2 Biblical Law in Cultural Context Science offers great hopes for tomorrow. Whether one seeks a vaccine for an epidemic, treatment for cancer, or simply a better mode of transportation, science advances optimism. Scientific knowledge is constantly expanding and things that were science fiction fifty years ago are taken for granted today. To some degree, people may fall prey to the idea that all areas of civilization progress like science does. This assessment would not be accurate or fair, however. A clear example is in the area of law. Certainly, the legal system found in most developed countries today is more complicated and intricate than many legal systems of history, but law itself is as old as human civilization. Rules of relationships and transactions, modes of accountability and fairness – these predate even the ability to write them down. The earliest legal codes available for study are those of the Ancient Near East, a common term to label the area that spans the modern countries of Egypt to the South, Turkey to the North, and Iran to the East. Legal codes are not some modern invention; they certainly weren’t invented on Mount Sinai with the Biblical Law.1 Legal codes long pre-existed Israel and the Israelites. Depending on how one dates Israel’s exodus from Egypt, the Biblical Law could date as early as the mid-1400’s BC, although I think the earliest dates more likely in the 1200’s BC, during the reign of Ramesses II of Egypt. “Proto-writing” (very primitive writing with symbols) arose around two-thousand years earlier, roughly 3200-2900BC. -
Sumerian Disputation Poems
chapter i.2 Sumerian Disputation Poems A total of six Sumerian poems fulfil the five characteristics of the genre outlined above: Hoe and Plow (csl 5.3.1), Ewe and Grain (csl 5.3.2), Summer and Winter (csl 5.3.3), Tree and Reed (csl 5.3.4), Bird and Fish (csl 5.3.5), and Silver and Copper (csl 5.3.6). These six poems are called in their final doxologies a- da-mìn, “disputation” (see above). They are, however, not the only Sumerian poems so classified: at least two other texts are called adamin by their rubrics: Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta (csl 1.8.2.3) and Enmerkar and Ensuḫkešdana (csl 1.8.2.4).25 In addition, the poem Dumuzi and Enkimdu (csl 4.8.31)26 is classified by its rubric as a balbale (a rubric often used for love poetry), but a line towards the end represents it as a “disputation held between a shepherd and a farmer.”27 These three poems, which have been normally described as either “epics” (thus the two texts featuring Enmerkar) or “love poems” (thus Dumuzi and Enkimdu), have been shown by several authors to have the same basic structure as other disputation poems, and also to contain indicators that suggest that they were performed.28 Although they belong to the same emic category as the six poems men- tioned, and although they display the same basic tripartite structure, these three poems differ from them in a number of ways. First, none of them con- tains a cosmogonic prologue, which appears in five of the six disputation poems (all except Hoe and Plow). -
The Origins of Social Justice in the Ancient Mesopotamian Religious Traditions Brian R
Digital Commons @ George Fox University Faculty Publications - College of Christian Studies College of Christian Studies 4-2006 The Origins of Social Justice in the Ancient Mesopotamian Religious Traditions Brian R. Doak George Fox University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ccs Part of the Near Eastern Languages and Societies Commons, and the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Doak, Brian R., "The Origins of Social Justice in the Ancient Mesopotamian Religious Traditions" (2006). Faculty Publications - College of Christian Studies. Paper 185. http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ccs/185 This Conference Proceeding is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Christian Studies at Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications - College of Christian Studies by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “The Origins of Social Justice in the Ancient Mesopotamian Religious Traditions” Brian R. Doak Presented at the American Schools of Oriental Research Central States Meeting St. Louis, MO (April 2006) Note: This paper was solicited from me as an entry in an introductory multi-volume encyclopedia project on social justice in the world’s religious traditions. I presented it, polished it up for publication, and then the whole project fell apart for some reason that I never understood a few months after I submitted the piece. Since it will never see the light of day otherwise, I post it here for whomever might find it useful. (I) Introduction The existence of written law in the ancient Near East predates the earliest legal codes of other notable ancient civilizations, including those in China and India; thus, through the early Mesopotamians, we are given the first actual historical glimpse of law as idealized and, in some cases, practiced in human civilization.