In the III - early II millennium BC. e. and, thus, claiming (together with ancient Egyptian) the title of the most ancient literature of the world. The texts have come down to us in the form of cuneiform records on clay tablets.
Discovery history
Genres
There is some uncertainty as to which texts from such an ancient era are considered to have literary value. The circumstances and purpose of their creation are largely unknown to us. Also debatable is the question of their classification and assignment to one or another genre. It is obvious that the criteria applied to modern literatures cannot be fully used to describe the works of the Sumerians. Moreover, the Sumerians themselves had their own principles for grouping literary works, the logic of which is not entirely clear. Perhaps some of them were played to the accompaniment of various musical instruments.
Despite the fact that the Sumerians did not yet know about poetic meters and rhyme, most of their literary works nevertheless belong to poetry, since “practically all other methods and techniques of poetic art were used quite skillfully: repetition and parallelism, metaphor and comparison, chorus and chorus, ... constant epithets, stable formulas, meticulous detailing of descriptions and long speeches.
Myths of Sumer
The unity of Sumerian mythology is conditional: each city-state had its own pantheon, its own genealogy of the most important gods and local variants of myths. According to the mythological worldview of the Sumerians, the role of man was more than modest. The gods created people to serve them and make their lives more enjoyable. The logic of the gods is incomprehensible, and therefore even the performance of all rituals and generous donations did not guarantee prosperity on Earth. After death, everything was even sadder. Everyone was expected to live underground without light, with dust and garbage instead of food and water. And only those to whom the living made sacrifices lead a more tolerable existence. The deities of the underworld were Ereshkigal and her husband Nergal. The Sumerian ideas about the realm of the dead describe the myths "Inanna's descent into the lower world", "Enlil and Ninlil: the birth of the moon god" and the Sumerian song "Gilgamesh and the underworld".
Of the numerous Sumerian deities, four of the most important stand out: the sky god An, the air god Enlil, the water god Enki and the mother goddess Ninhursag. They are the main protagonists of Sumerian cosmogonic myths and creation narratives of humans and civilization: the Sumerian flood myth (whose hero, Ziusudra, gains immortality), Enki and the World Order, Enki and Ninmah: The Creation of Man, Enki and Ninhursag: the Sumerian Myth of Paradise”, “Enki and Eridu”, “Enlil and the Creation of the Pickaxe”, literary disputes “Summer and Winter”, “Sheep and Grain”.
Of the myths dedicated to other gods, it should be noted the myths about the children of Enlil: the god of the moon Nanna (Sine) - "Nanna's Journey to Nippur", Ninurta - "The Return of Ninurta to Nippur", "Acts and exploits of Ninurta" and the goddess of love and war Inanna ( Ishtar) - “Inanna and Enki: transfer arts civilization (me) from Eridu to Uruk”, “Inanna and the conquest of Mount Ebih”, “Inanna and Shukalletuda: the deadly sin of the gardener”, “Inanna and Bilulu” and the already mentioned myth “The Descent of Inanna to the underworld."
A series of myths about Inanna's consort Dumuzi - "Dumuzi and Enkidu: Wooing Inanna", "Nanna's Journey to Nippur", "The Marriage of Dumuzi and Inanna", "The Death of Dumuzi", "Dumuzi and the Evil Spirits of Gala".
Although the rudiments of Akkadian literature undoubtedly date back to the period we are now considering, however, negligibly few of its monuments have come down to us from that time; leading role in Mesopotamia during the entire III millennium BC. e. belonged to Sumerian literature.
Our first, albeit indirect, acquaintance with examples of the Sumerian art of the word, in essence, occurred while studying the monuments of plastic art of Mesopotamia, for, undoubtedly, both types of art were fed from the same source - mythology and folklore; Both the literary tradition and the visual tradition are based on oral verbal creativity. The syncretism of ancient art lies not only in the unity of action, music, singing, recitative; word and plastic are also closely interconnected and interdependent. And since samples of plastic art (even if only official) have come down to us, we cannot
The first despots in Mesopotamia
be considered irretrievably lost and verbal art. We only lost the key that opens the magic chest, but not the chest itself. This does not mean that the plastic images are tracing-paper of literary images and someday will give us the opportunity to restore the original - ancient oral creativity (ancient literature will not be able to do this either). The only thing we can hope for is to restore the general contours of the ancient syncretic art, which, however, it was literature that dealt one of the heaviest blows in its time. Such a blow was the process of separating literature into an independent art form, when the word-image, often associated with a concrete-plastic image, was replaced by a graphically fixed image, intended for reading and therefore more abstract. We can consider this process completed when we meet written monuments intended to be read only with the eyes, “silently” (some formal criteria can provide us with indisputable evidence of this, for example, an acrostic, the samples of which, however, date back to a much later time) .
The period of the emergence of read-only written art is preceded by a long transition period, in which the reader is still dominated by a plastic image, more familiar and familiar, behind which the same oral verbal image will be hidden. Whatever means for its memorization and preservation the oral tradition, for example, a constant epithet, searched for and found, the image in oral artistic speech was more unsteady, more diverse in its emotional and associative possibilities than the image of plasticity. Writing during this period occupies only a secondary, subordinate place in the set of artistic means, being at first only a fixer of the spoken word. The fixation itself does not set itself the goal of a more or less complete reproduction of the entire variety of oral poetic speech. Both the limited space for fixing speech by the size of a clay tile, and the complexity of Sumerian writing determine the trend of simplification when recording oral creativity, so that written fixation partially plays only a mnemonic role, caused by the need to memorize, keep in memory the scenario of an action or a legend intended for public performance, and not for the role of a completely adequate reproduction of living creativity.
This transitional stage in Mesopotamia is demonstrated by Sumerian literature. Although writing was invented solely for economic, practical needs, the first steps towards the creation of literature were taken very early. From the very beginning of the invention of writing, aids for studying it also begin to appear: lists of words for memorizing, lists of names, etc. It turned out very early that the monuments of folk wisdom - fables, parables, proverbs, sayings, jokes, laconic and expressive, - very convenient for memorization: texts from Shuruppak (modern Fara) and materials recently found and known so far only from preliminary publications of a cuneiform archive from a certain Sumerian city that lay on the site of the current settlement of Abu Salabikh, dating from the 26th century BC. BC e., contain, among other records, also examples of folk wisdom - a genre that in other countries usually fell into the written tradition rather late. So from the moment of its inception, the Sumerian school, itself born of writing, contributed to the development of this writing, and at the same time to the creation of a new kind of art - literature.
The second motive for the development of literature turned out to be connected with the needs of the cult. One of the first non-economic tech
stov - lists of gods from the Farah archive. The cuneiform archive from Abu Salabih also contains cult and literary texts - hymns and, possibly, songs of mythological content. Nevertheless, before the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. we do not find full texts of divine services, although there are a lot of hymns. Apparently, for a long time the entire divine service was oral, and individual works created for the cult by scribes and in writing were memorized and included in the temple service as secondary elements. And for a very long time, despite the development of writing and school, oral verbal creativity prevailed in everyday life: most of records of literary texts comes from the period of the Issin dynasty and the later Old Babylonian, that is, it refers to the time when the Sumerian language was practically extinct and was not known among the people. Even from the time of the III dynasty of Ur, the number of recorded works that have come down to us is small.
Records from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. It is customary to call copies of earlier written monuments, but it is quite possible that in many cases the "originals" from which these "copies" were copied never actually existed. Either way, the very nature of the language shows that the texts were subjected to considerable processing during recording. Thus, Sumerian literature has come down to us, as a rule, in very late literary records, and, of course, only a small part of the works of oral creativity made it into these records.
In total, we currently know about 150 monuments of Sumerian literature, many of which have been preserved in the form of fragments. Among them are poetic records of myths, epic tales, psalms, wedding-love songs associated with the “sacred marriage” of the deified king and the priestess-lukur, funeral laments, lamentations about social disasters, hymns in honor of kings (starting from the III dynasty of Ur), pseudo inscriptions (naru); didactics is also widely represented - teachings, edifications, disputes-dialogues, collections of fables, anecdotes, sayings and proverbs.
Such a division into genres, of course, is conditional, we cannot always determine to which genre this or that monument should be attributed, and in the same work, from our point of view, one can find features of several genres in the modern sense. So, the concept of lyrics in ancient literature is very conditional, because for the most part it is cult lyrics. In the same way, it is almost impossible to draw a division between secular and cult literature, for there was no division into literature intended for reading for one's own pleasure and edification, and literature intended for ritual purposes. The reading of an epic or didactic dispute was undoubtedly designed for public performance, perhaps at a school, or even at a feast or in a meeting, perhaps in a temple, but only in the first case the work was read from a note, in the rest - by heart, although, quite likely, after a preliminary acquaintance with the record. Lamentations for social disasters, so widespread in Sumerian literature, include both lyrical moments and the beginnings of a chronicle, and sometimes epic. In addition, in most cases, if not always, they formed part of the worship service. What genre should they be classified as?
The Sumerians themselves had their own principle of subdivision of texts, which they referred to as works of literature, but this principle is not always clear to us. Texts that have come down to us are descriptions of literary monuments; we, again arbitrarily, call them "catalogs", although they are included in the general category of terminological lists, memorized in school. The oldest “literary catalog” known to us dates only to the time of the III dynasty of Ur, the latest - to the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. Essentially,
these are lists of texts that were part of the school literary canon, more precisely, lists of the first lines of works, because the first line served as the title of the work. Such lists-"catalogs" have preserved for us the names of 87 literary monuments, of which about a third, 32 works, have survived (other monuments that have come down to us - mainly hymns to kings, etc. - did not fall into the "catalogues" known to us). It is curious that for many of these works, authors are indicated, though mostly legendary: the composition of some is attributed to gods and other mythical characters. But there are also names that with good reason can be attributed to some real people, although there is no full guarantee that these are the names of genuine authors, since this or that composition was often arbitrarily attributed to some authoritative sage of antiquity, the head of the school or scribe kind. Here we are not at all talking about conscious falsification: a certain type of aphorisms, didactic compositions, legends or chants could be attributed to a tradition dating back to some sage of antiquity, who was remembered by name; and the fact that the text was not written verbatim in the exact form in which this sage could create it was not perceived as an incorrect indication of authorship. The person indicated as the author of the work seemed responsible not for its entire verbal fabric, but for its spirit and intent, developed by storytellers and scribes. But, of course, it is possible that some of the names belong to the authors in our modern sense of the word.
Of all the monuments of Sumerian literature, hymns are most fully represented. The earliest examples of their recording date back, as already mentioned, no later than the period of RD II. Of course, the hymn is one of the most ancient ways of collective address to the deity. The recording of such a monument had to be done with special pedantry and punctuality, not a single word could be changed arbitrarily, not a single hymn trope was random, each had a mythological content. The hymns are meant to be read aloud by an individual priest or choir [†††††††††††††††††††††††††††††], and the emotions that arose during the performance of such a work, are collective emotions. The enormous significance of the poetic word, or rather, rhythmic speech world, comes to the fore in such works. Usually the hymn praises the deity and lists the deeds, names and epithets of the god. Most of the hymns that have come down to us are preserved in the school canon of Nippur [§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§] and are most often dedicated to Enlil, patron god of this
city, and other deities of his circle. But there are also hymns to kings and temples (for example, two hymns to E-kuru, the Enlil temple, are known). However, hymns were dedicated to kings only if they were deified, and in Sumer not every king was deified.
The liturgical texts are also lamentations that are widespread in Sumerian literature, especially lamentations about national disasters. However, the most ancient monument of this kind known to us, apparently, is not liturgical. This is a lament for the destruction of Lagash by the king of Umma Lugalzagesi. It enumerates the destruction made in Lagash and curses their perpetrators. The rest of the laments that have come down to us were, of course, ritual in nature: lamentation for the death of Ur, lamentation
- the death of Sumer and Akkad, the lyrical-epic lament "Curse to the city of Akkad" (and to King Naram-Suen), lamentation about the death of King Ibbi-Suen, etc.
- dynasty of Uruk, to En-Merkara, Lugalband and Gilgamesh. The Nippur canon, apparently, began to be created during the period of the III dynasty of Ur, whose kings were closely connected with Uruk: its founder traced his lineage to Gilgamesh. The inclusion of Uruk legends in the canon was most likely due to the fact that Nippur was a cult center, always associated with the main city of the dominant given time dynasties. His canon was also studied in other schools. During the 3rd dynasty of Ur and the 1st dynasty of Issin, the uniform Nippur canon was introduced in the e-oaks of other cities of the state.
The tale of Gilgamesh and Are (or Ak), for example, can be called a heroic retinue song. There are no or almost no events in it that could not take place in reality, there are no fantastic scenes and images. Perhaps this is a historical epic song. The monument could not have been created earlier than the 27th century. BC e., the time of the events described in it, but it is unlikely that it arose much later than the time of the reign of the I dynasty of Uruk, at least in its oral form. The image of the main character, Gilgamesh, differs from his image in other monuments dedicated to him: in them, Gilgamesh is endowed with magical and fabulous features, but here we have a mighty leader, the winner of the enemy army. The text, as mentioned above (p. 168), tells about the struggle of the ruler of Uruk, Gilgamesh, with the ruler of Kish, Agha, and begins with the words:
Ambassadors of Aki, the son of En-Menbarages,
From Kish to Uruk they came to Gilgamesh.
Gilgamesh before the elders of his city Speaks, speaks the word ...
The ambassadors demand that the Urukites take part in the construction of irrigation facilities, started by Kish, threatening war otherwise; for the good of the city, Gilgamesh prefers war; however, the elders are of a different opinion. Gilgamesh gathers a people's assembly - Gurush warriors [******************************], and they agree to fight. Warriors choose Gilgamesh
lugal (military leader), exclaiming in chorus: “You are a lugal, a hero!” Aga besieges Uruk, and Gilgamesh sends an ambassador to him (it is not clear why, maybe a truce?). The entire text is built almost entirely on dialogues; direct speech occupies about 60 lines of text out of 150. Therefore, the development of the action is not entirely clear to us, it does not always seem justified by the content of the previous dialogue (it is possible that those to whom this work was performed were well aware of the events and did not need comments and explanations; it is also possible that part of the action was played out in a mimic form). The climax is the appearance of Gilgamesh on the city wall, the horror and confusion of the enemies at the sight of him, and the victory over the troops of Aga. In conclusion, a chorus of warriors sounds, praising Uruku and Gilgamesh.
Most of all, this text resembles the songs of the skalds, which were composed and performed by singers in the presence of the leader.
Two texts tell of disputes between En-Merkara, the en of Uruk, and the en of Aratta, a city located "beyond the seven mountains". In both texts, fairy-tale elements play an important role - magical riddles and witchcraft. The theme of competition and enmity between the two city-states, however, could and, apparently, reflected real events, and, judging by many other sources, the fabulous Aratta is a real city located on the Iranian Highlands, with which Uruk had trade relations. The form of disputes in which these tales-poems are clothed is characteristic of the Sumerian-Akkadian literature of the developed period, as well as the complicated and somewhat artificial language of this text, common to the genre of word disputes. Perhaps these two monuments are the latest of the so-called Sumerian epic works known to us (see also above about the dispute between En-Merkara and En of Aratta, p. 169).
Five legends are dedicated to the heroes Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh - according to the myth, the son of Lugalbanda. All of them talk about trips to foreign countries, and in three cases they talk about a hike for a tree (Lugalbanda is going to cut down a khashkhur tree - that is, an apple tree on the Khurrum plateau, and Gilgamesh in one song goes for keshch)om-eren, and in the other behind the huluppu tree); one of the texts tells about the battle with the monster (Gilgamesh fights the heavenly bull sent to Uruk by the goddess Inana as revenge on Gilgamesh for refusing to share her love), and the other is about adventures in which essential role a monstrous bird, the Anzu eagle [e] plays: Lugalbanda, depicted in the story not as a mature man, but as a clever and resourceful young man, was left sick in the mountains by his companions. Thanks to his cunning and ingenuity, he achieves the favor of the eagle Anzu (he feeds his eaglet with delicacies and dresses him up), and Anzu endows him with the abilities of a runner for this. Returning to the army, Lugalbanda is able to perform another task - to go as an ambassador to the goddess Inana.
In the legend of Gilgamesh's campaign for the cedar [††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††] he also has to fight the monster - Huwawa, the guard m of cedar forest, possessing seven magical and terrible rays of lightning, the power of which disappears if the cedars are cut down. Gilgamesh goes on a campaign, accompanied by a detachment of bachelor volunteers, and he, like Lugalbande, is helped by his ancestral god Utu the Sun, who supplies Gilgamesh on
the road with seven wonderful helpers - either living beings, or fetish amulets. On the way, before reaching their goal, the detachment must overcome seven obstacles - mountain passes.
The campaign is, therefore, a test of the moral and physical strength of the hero, who is helped by either a tribal god or a monstrous bird, that is, following the terminology of V. Ya. Propp, magical helpers. The motives of a magical helper, magical gifts given on the road, a grateful animal, salvation with the help of "living water" are well known to world folklore and connect Sumerian epic works with a mythological fairy tale. Consequently, the origins of such legends date back to ancient times, to the era of the primitive communal system. The composition of these works also does not give the impression of an epic in the full sense of the word. There is almost no detailed, detailed, figurative action in them, no taste and attention to detail, to "epic" details (such as a thorough description of the hero's weapons or chariot, for example). The action rather takes place according to the principle “Soon the fairy tale is told, but the deed is not soon done,” i.e., the result of the action is more often demonstrated than the action itself.
Of course, all these compositions are of different times, some are more perfect and complete (as, for example, in the song "Lugalbanda and Anzu"), others are less. However, on the basis of such material it is impossible to form even a rough idea of the time of their creation; motifs of different times could be included in them at different stages of their development, and legends could acquire them over the centuries. For us, only the antiquity of the motifs as terminus post quern and the late date of their recording as terminus ante quem are real. One thing can definitely be said: we are not facing an epic, but more early genre- the form from which the epic will subsequently develop. That is why the hero of such a work is not yet an epic hero-hero, a monumental and often tragic personality, but rather a lucky fellow from a fairy tale, a relative of the gods, but not a god, a mighty king with the features of a god.
Very often in literary criticism, the heroic epic (or praepos) is opposed to the so-called mythological epic (people act in the first, gods act in the second). Such a division should hardly be recognized as logical, because myth is not a genre, but a worldview. It is especially inappropriate in relation to Sumerian literature, since the Sumerian gods are so anthropomorphized that sometimes they even seem to be more human than the deified hero-kings. But if we talk about the heroic deeds of the gods, it turns out that the image of the god-hero is less characteristic of Sumerian literature than the mortal hero. So far, we know only two epic or pra-epic tales where the deities are the heroes: a song about the struggle of the goddess Inana with the personification of the underworld Kur, called in the text "Mount Ebeh", and the god Ninurta with the evil demon Asak, also an inhabitant of the underworld, and Ninurta at the same time He also acts as an ancestor hero: he builds a dam-embankment from a pile of stones to fence off Sumer from the waters of the primordial ocean, which Asak held back and which spilled as a result of his death. And the waters that have already flooded the fields, Ninurta diverts to the Tigris. Then Ninurta curses the stones that fought against him, erects Khursang - "The Wooded Mountain", so named after his mother, blesses this mountain and makes his mother her mistress (Ninhursang literally means "Mistress of the Wooded Mountain") [‡‡‡ ‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡].
More common in Sumerian literature are works devoted to the creative deeds of deities, the so-called etiological, that is, explaining, legends; at the same time, they give an idea of the cosmogonic worldview. True, we do not know the actual works reflecting the cosmogonic Sumerian myths. All our information about how the Sumerians imagined the formation and structure of the Universe is gleaned from the beginnings before the legends, perhaps being something like a traditional chant: a long time ago something happened. Thus, the tale of Gilgamesh and the huluppu tree begins with a chant:
When the heavens left the earth, that's when,
When the earth departed from heaven, that's when,
When the seed of humanity was born, that's when,
When Ahn took the sky, that's when
When Enlil took the land for himself, that's when,
When Ereshkigal was presented with Kuru, " big earth»,
that's when...
The chorus before another legend (about the creation of a hoe) says which of the gods divided heaven and earth: it was the god Enlil.
It is possible that there were no more integral cosmogonic tales in Sumer, although it is difficult to assume that the ideas about the struggle of the titanic forces of nature (gods and titans, older and younger gods, etc.) were not reflected in Sumerian mythography, especially that the theme of the dying and resurrection of nature (with the departure of the deity to the underworld) is developed in detail in it.
The personification of the dying and resurrecting forces of nature in the Sumerian myths is Inana, the goddess of love, fertility and strife, her
husband, the shepherd god Dumuzi, and also the supreme god Enlil in the song,
dedicated to his marriage to Ninlil and the birth of his first child, the Urn moon god Nanna.
The tales about the descent into the underworld of the goddess Inana, as well as about Enlil's wanderings in the underworld, unlike later Babylonian works, do not seem to directly connect the events that happened to the main characters with the dying and resurrection of nature; both are dramatic, with a sharp plot, poetic narratives-poems (or actions), largely obscure to us (too few explanations), but, of course, absolutely understandable to the ancient listener (and maybe the viewer).
Inana is going to the underworld and carefully preparing for the journey; she knows she won't come back from there. (Why does she go there? Why does she guess what awaits her there? The text does not answer all these questions.) Leaving the earth, Inana leaves nine temples of Sumer at once, where her cult exists. In the underworld, her divine sister, the mistress Ereshkigal, meets the newcomer very angrily, again without any motivation:
She looked at her - death in her eyes,
She uttered the words - in the words of her anger,
A cry was issued - a curse cry,
She turned the one that came in into a corpse And hung the corpse on a hook ...
Enki comes to the aid of Inana, who from the dirt under the nails creates mysterious creatures- apparently, jesters or freaks, gives them "herbs of life and water of life" and sends them to the underworld. In the dungeon, the messengers of Enki find the mistress of the underworld in the throes of childbirth. (Again, why? Is she imitating these torments, or is her condition only
comparable to birth pangs? Perhaps she is unable to be born because Inana, the goddess of universal fertility, is dead?)
Pre-taught by Enki, his messengers utter auspicious words (maybe incantations?), after which Ereshkigal swears to fulfill all their requests. They demand the corpse of Inana. But when she, animated by water and the grass of life, wants to leave the underworld, the gods of the underworld of Anuna grab her with the words:
Which of those who descended into the underworld came out unharmed from the underworld?
If Inana wants to rise to the ground,
Let him leave his head behind his head ...
To get a ransom for Inana, she is accompanied to earth by the evil demons of the goddess Ereshkigal - the galla. Male deities, pairs of Inana, in each of the local "nome" temples where she was revered, prostrate before her and pay respect to her. But the shepherd Dumuzi, who occupied the throne of his wife in her absence, did not bow before her, and it is he who becomes the ransom, the “head” for the “head” of Inana. After a long chase and multiple transformations, Dumuzi Inana betrays him instead of herself to the terrible demons of the underworld.
The idea "for the head - the head" dominates, of course, not directly expressed, and in the legend of Enlil. The god Enlil was inflamed with love for the young Ninlil and took possession of her, for which the angry gods banish him to the underworld. But Ninlil, who already carries in her womb the future lord of heaven, the god Nanna, decides to follow her husband. And then Enlil, who is tormented by the thought that his first-born is destined to live underground, does seemingly strange things: he alternately takes the form of three guardians of the underworld - the guardian of the gate, the "man of the infernal river" and the carrier, unites in the guise of these creatures with Ninlil thus conceives three more gods of the underworld. What are these gods but a substitute sacrifice for Enlil, his wife and his firstborn?
Inana's departure to the underworld, as well as Enlil and Ninlil, we can consider as a certain stage in the development of ideas about the dying and resurrecting forces of nature. The same idea is embodied in the image of the god Dumuzi, the second hero of the song about the descent of Inana, who, in addition, is dedicated to several more texts telling about his tragic death*, as well as a number of lamentations about his untimely death. Of all the deities, perhaps it is Dumuzi who embodies the metaphor of dying and the resurrection of nature most perfectly The songs about Dumuzi tell about his matchmaking with Inana and their young love, about the hero's prophetic dreams and forebodings of imminent death, about a desperate attempt to escape her with the help of the sun god, and about a painful death at the hands of evil demons. Inana, who in relation to Dumuzi is the bearer of an evil inclination (however, the latter does not prevent Inana from mourning mournfully over the death of Dumuzi), has a double-antipodal sister of Dumuzi, Ngeshtinana ("Vine of heaven"), the personification of a good inclination, Dumuzi's savior and redemptive a sacrifice for him, who voluntarily agrees to go down to the underworld in exchange for his beloved brother. The arbitration decision of the gods turns out to be quite traditional: Dumuzi will spend half a year on earth, half a year - his sister.
The organization of life on earth, the establishment of order and prosperity on it - is almost a favorite topic of Sumerian literature: it is filled with stories about the creation of deities who must monitor the earthly order, about the distribution of divine duties, about the establishment of a divine hierarchy, about the settlement of the earth by living creatures and even about the creation of separate agricultural tools. The main acting gods, creators (demiurges) are usually Enki and Enlil. Enlil, as we have seen, gives birth to the god Nanna (Moon) and a number of deities of the underworld. In another legend, he creates the gods Emesh and Enten (Summer and Winter, or rather, summer and winter cattle breeding), who descend to the earth to make it plentiful and fertile. For mercy, other deities go to Enlil with rich gifts, asking him to endow their rivers, date groves, fields with fertility and wealth, or to consecrate the sanctuary built for them. Just like Enlil, mankind and Enki do good, wandering the earth and determining the fate of many cities and countries: blessing them, he creates a plow, a hoe, a brick mold, entrusts each area of \u200b\u200bthe economy to the care of some minor deity.
Enki and Enlil are the creators of mankind. There are two Sumerian myths about the appearance of man on earth. In one of them, the creation of people is, as it were, a secondary motif: it tells about the goddess of cattle Lahar and her sister, the goddess of grain Ashnan, who were created by Enki and Enlil so that the deities of the earth and the underworld of Anuna could use the products of agriculture and cattle breeding. But the Anuns can never learn to drink milk and eat bread. Then the gods decide to create a person who, obviously, will have to bring sacrifices to the Anupam. The second version is contained in a poem devoted exclusively to the theme of the creation of man, and looks more organic (although it also has artificial motives, for example, the purpose for which man was created: to work for the gods and feed them with his victims). According to this poem, the mother goddess Dingirmah (or Ninmah) and Enki participate in the act of human creation. They mold a man from clay mixed with the blood of some murdered god, and then arrange a feast to celebrate. Drunk, they again try to mold people from clay and breathe life into them, determining their fate, but they end up with only freaks and cripples: it turns out to be impossible to create humanity a second time.
The goddess Inana also appears in the legends as the ancestor deity and bearer of culture, and these functions of hers are clearly of a late nature. The song about Inan and me tells how the goddess, wanting to bless her native Uruk, goes to Eredu, to the god Enki, and cunningly makes him give her me-“divine powers”, embodying in this song the achievements of civilization, which, moreover, are presented as apparently, not only figuratively, but also materially: Inana immerses in her boat the supreme power, the power of the gods, the power of the “shepherd” (ruler), priestly positions, the share of the sacred harlot nu-gigg of various kinds of crafts, etc.
Many etiological legends are composed in the form of disputes. Either representatives of one or another area of the economy argue, or the economic objects themselves, trying to prove their superiority to each other. It is possible that in the spread of this genre, typical of many literatures of the ancient East, big role played the Sumerian school - e-oak.
The influence of the Sumerian school on the process of development and formation of literature has already been mentioned. About the same as this
school in the early stages of its creation, we know very little beyond the very fact that it existed in some form (as evidenced by the availability of benefits already from the PP I period). Apparently, as a special institution of e-oak, it takes shape no later than the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. e. Initially, the goals of education were purely practical: the school trained scribes, land surveyors, etc. As the school developed, education became more and more universal, and at the end of the 3rd - beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. e-oak turns into something like an "academic center" of that time, where they taught all the branches of knowledge that existed then - mathematics, grammar, singing, music, law - and studied lists of legal, medical, zoological, botanical terms, lists of literary works, etc.
Most of the texts discussed above have been preserved precisely in the form of school or teacher notes e-duba. But there are also special groups of texts that are customarily called “e-duby texts”: they include works that tell about the structure of the school and school life, didactic essays (teachings, morals, instructions), specially addressed to schoolchildren, very often compiled in the form of dialogue-disputes, and, finally, monuments of folk wisdom: aphorisms, proverbs, anecdotes, fables and sayings. Through e-oak, the only example of a prose fairy tale in the Sumerian language has come down to us.
Folklore texts are especially difficult to understand, since they use puns more than other monuments, colloquial expressions, are based on realities that are incomprehensible to us, everyday details. Nevertheless, they are at the same time and most of all international and universal in the sense in which humor, cunning and keen observation are universal. Therefore, it turned out to be possible not only to translate many of these texts, but also to find parallels to them from the modern folklore of different peoples: “Do not cut off the head of someone whose head has already been cut off” (cf. “Do not hit a lying person” or “Do not push water in a mortar "?); “Without sleeping, you won’t get pregnant; without eating, you won’t get fat” (cf. “There is no smoke without fire”); “A ferry sank in Zabalam, and logs are being picked up in JIapce” (“You won’t know where you will find, where you will lose”); “My bull will bring you milk” (“To the point, like milk from a goat” or “How, wait!”); "Elephant in a settled boat" ("Elephant in a china shop"); “Last year I chewed garlic - this year it hurts my throat” (“As it comes around, it will respond”).
Two funerary elegies kept in the USSR, put into the mouth of a man named Ludingira, who mourns the death of his father Nanna and his wife Navirtum, have come down to us through e-oak. These texts, of course, are not genuine laments, but literary works. Perhaps they were written by one of the teachers of the Sumerian school and were used as educational texts: a school tablet was found in Nippur containing the twentieth line of one of the elegies, written by the hand of the teacher and rewritten by the hand of the student.
Closely related to this genre is the text conventionally called "Man and his personal god". It contains a story about a certain humble and wise righteous man who was suddenly struck by an illness and who turns to his personal guardian god with prayers, with complaints about the blindness of fate, subjecting such a worthy and zealous performer of rituals as he was to severe, unfair trials.
As well as some liturgical texts (hymns, lamentations, etc.), these monuments can be classified with a certain caution as lyrical genres. Not without a stretch to this genre is possible
include several so-called love songs, which in reality are ritual wedding songs included in the rite of the “sacred marriage” of the king of the III dynasty of Ur with a priestess[******************** ***********]. The texts name the king Shu-Suen, but it could be any other king who personified the god Dumuzi in the rite. We have reason to think that there were real love songs, but probably only oral ones.
Even from such an incomplete review, one can judge how rich and diverse the monuments of Sumerian literature are. This heterogeneous and multi-temporal material, most of which, as we have seen, was written down only at the very end of the 3rd (if not at the beginning of the 2nd) millennium BC. e., even to a very small extent bears traces of a special "literary" processing and largely retains the techniques that are rather characteristic of oral verbal creativity. The main stylistic device of most mythological and praepic stories is multiple and verbatim repetitions, for example, of the same dialogues between different characters. Moreover, this is not only an artistic device of three times, which is also characteristic of the epic and fairy tales (in Sumerian monuments, it can be increased to nine; cf. the beginning of the song about the descent of Innin into the underworld), it is also a means to better memorize the work when it is pronounced aloud, - the legacy of the oral transmission of myth, epic, the transmission of the characteristic features of rhythmic, magical speech, reminiscent of a shamanic ritual in form. Compositions composed mainly of such monologues and dialogue repetitions, among which the already unfolded action is almost lost, now seem to us loose, unprocessed, “unpressed” (although in reality they might not have been like that, they could, for example, be supplemented by facial expressions, dance, action) the story on the plate sometimes seems to be just a synopsis of the story (or action?), where the notes were, as it were, basic mnemonic milestones for such a story. But if this is so, then what was the point of pedantically writing out the same phrases up to nine times? This seems especially inconsiderate, given the specific nature of the material on which the recording was made - heavy clay. As if the material itself should have led one to think about the brevity and economy of the phrase, to the desire for a more concise composition (which eventually happens, but only to the Middle Babylonian period). It is this circumstance that suggests that Sumerian literature is, to some extent, nothing more than a written record of oral literature. Not knowing how, and not trying to break away from the living word, she fixed it on clay, retaining all the stylistic devices and features of oral poetic speech.
We never perceive oral literature - an epic, a fairy tale, etc. (even if it is ancient) - as something frozen, in an obligatory form found once and for all; on the contrary, each narrator can and should lead the tale in his own way; so the young Sumerian literature was a developing phenomenon: on the one hand, it was influenced by the living word, constantly in motion, development, but which it sought to fix, and on the other, in parallel, it was looking for and gradually finding
developed its own paths, which in the end made literature a completely independent art form (although nourished by a constantly living word).
We do not have known monuments of the same genre in the Sumerian language, by which we could trace the course and direction of the evolution of literature. Nevertheless, one genre that the Sumerians themselves did not attribute to literature and which at first had no direct relation to it, we can consider in development, which will help to understand both the stylistic evolution and literary genres proper.
Royal inscriptions are a genre that owes its very existence to the emergence of writing, which allows us to trace its evolution from the moment of its emergence from the very cradle. They appear in Sumer in the second quarter of the 3rd millennium BC. e. (RD II), shortly before the so-called Ur I Dynasty. The first inscriptions are associated with the construction of temples and canals and usually consist of one phrase: “he built such and such a structure to such and such a god” (or “dedicated such and such an object”). The dimensions of the inscription increase over time: several structures are listed, then wars begin to be mentioned, and the form of the inscription changes somewhat: “when such and such destroyed such and such a structure, he built such and such a structure.” Gradually, the inscriptions become even more extensive: the "Stele of the Kites" by Eanatum of Lagash already contains a description of the battle, and the inscription of one of his immediate successors, Enmetena, gives a brief history of the relationship between Lagash and Umma; it tells about the wars and treaties between these cities. The inscription of Uruinimgina outlines his building and legislative activities. From royal inscriptions, as well as from Omina, royal lists and lists of "dating formulas", the genre of historical chronicle will subsequently develop, but so far this is not a work of art, but only a dry and concise enumeration of facts.
But here we have the inscription of Gudea, the Lagash ruler of the post-Akkadian period (XXII century BC). She also talks about the construction of the temple. But this is a completely different inscription, and the point here is not at all in the personality or special tastes of the ruler, but in the elements of the emergence of a certain genre. The inscription begins with a poetic and figurative description of Gudea's dream [†††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††]. In a dream, beautiful mysterious images appear to Gudea, and he receives an order to do something, but he does not understand the meaning of the dream until the end. Then the ruler’s mother volunteers to interpret this dream (here the mother is a poetic-mythological image: Gudea was apparently the offspring of the “sacred marriage”, but the mother in the text means the goddess Ngatumdu herself, and not her substitute priestess). It turns out that in a dream to Gudea the gods appeared, led by Nin-Ngirsu, the divine patron of Lagash, who gave the order to Gudea to build a temple of this god. Then the preparation and progress of construction are described, the beauty and decoration of the building erected by the ruler, the variety and value of materials brought from distant countries for construction are praised. The text is written in rhythmic form, replete with figurative comparisons, lively dialogues. Thus, following the evolution of the style of royal inscriptions from the moment they appeared, we discover a truly literary work.
Of course, we cannot, and should not, compare Gudea's inscriptions with literary texts of those genres whose monuments we know.
a century or two later, - too different traditions gave birth to them; nevertheless, the poetization of the chronicle genre, apparently, is one of the milestones in the formation of literature and an indicator of the ongoing process of its emergence as an independent art form ‡‡‡‡‡‡]
A picture of evolution of a different kind is presented to us by legends of an etiological nature. Works of this kind arise when something needs to be justified and proved. They are always a product of speculative thinking, an attempt at ideological influence (most often by some closed group on the wider population). In this sense, the Sumerian etiological tales are no exception. The mythological ideas carried out in them (the genealogical ordering of different groups of gods, the creation of a system of divine hierarchy, the establishment of the role of man in relation to the gods, etc.) are closest to the ideology of the time of the III dynasty of Ur - the time of canonization of ideological forms and the addition of the pantheon. But all these works could not be created from scratch, there had to be something behind them, and this “something” was most likely the ancient legends about the ancestral heroes, “cultural heroes”, common among primitive peoples.
It is unlikely that the legends about the creation of man, about the underworld, a gloomy and joyless place, from where even the gods cannot return without replacing themselves with someone else, were created only at the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e. They could only be appropriately "proved"; to the stories about life in the underworld is added, for example, the argument that only one who performs rituals on earth, regularly makes sacrifices, can achieve a more tolerable fate than one who is careless of his gods (cf. the story of the underworld, expounded by the deceased servant of Gilgamesh, Enkidu, his master in the primal epic "Gilgamesh and the huluppu tree"); the story of the creation of man from clay by the gods is added: “so that he works for the gods,” etc. However, at the same time, the main idea of the myth, embedded in the previous content of the legend and often contradicting its new interpretation, was not edited and helps in distinguishing between more archaic and later layers in the texts. So, the lord Enlil, the patron of Nippur, is affirmed as the main deity, but there is another ancestor god, “the father of all gods”, An-Nebo. Like Enlil, the benefactors of mankind are Enki and Inana. Duplication by one god of the activities of others (evidence of the simultaneity of ancient cults) seems to be unnoticed and mechanically fixed - obviously, because the myth is not subject to dispute, since it concentrates the experience of traditional knowledge of the world. It is interesting how the Sumerians imagined the almighty gods. The world of feelings of these gods is emphatically base and rude. They are not only great, but terrible. Like the gods of antiquity, they are endowed with all sorts of human weaknesses. They create people in a drunken state, because of one whim they are able to destroy all life, they are dirty and untidy; so, the god Enki from under the nail, painted in red, extracts the clay and creates an incomprehensible, vile creature.
Enki, Enlil, Inana, similar to the gods-ancestors of primitive peoples by the ambivalence of their cult *, passed into literature. And what is surprising is not so much that they continued to retain earthly * human features, but that these features were not smoothed out by later processing. Moreover, even the degree of archaism of the deity is often reflected in the text.
As if the great gods, An, Enlil, Inana and Enki should be roughly equivalent. But even Enlil, with all his greatness (iln thanks to him), turns out to be a much less active god than Inana and Enki. And very far from the people of An. He, more than all other gods, approaches those heavenly gods of primitive peoples who live in transcendental heights, without interfering in earthly life, and to whom people turn for help only in times of nationwide disasters. And these apparently staged or at least typologically heterogeneous gods were united and canonized in simultaneous texts. The reason for such phenomena lies in the patterns of development of Sumerian literature, about which we said: this is not so much "literature" as the fixation of oral verbal creativity.
It is important, however, to note that the Sumerian "literary" scribes did not set themselves the task of recording all oral creativity or all its genres. The selection was determined by the interests of the school and partly of the cult. But along with this written proto-literature, life continued oral works, which remained unrecorded, may be much richer.
In total, we currently know about one hundred and fifty monuments of Sumerian literature (many of them have been preserved in the form of fragments). Among them are poetic records of myths, epic tales, wedding and love songs associated with the sacred marriage of a deified king with a priestess, funeral laments, lamentations about social disasters, hymns in honor of kings (starting from the III dynasty of Ur), literary imitations of royal inscriptions; didactics is very widely represented - teachings, edifications, disputes-dialogues, collections of fables, anecdotes, sayings and proverbs.
Inscriptions stand apart (on stones, steles, clay cones, etc.); the oldest contain only the name of the god, the name of the building erected in his honor, and the name of the ruler. Later, the inscription, especially in Lagash, includes descriptions of the battle (Eanatum's Stele of the Kites), the history of wars with neighbors (the Enmetena inscription), and an account of social events (Uruinimgina's cones); The pinnacle of the genre is Gudea's meter-long clay cylinders, which describe in poetic form the construction of a temple to the god Ningirsu at the request of the gods.
Of all the genres of Sumerian literature, hymns are most fully represented. The earliest records of them date back to the middle of the Early Dynastic period. Of course, the hymn is one of the most ancient ways of collective address to the deity. The recording of such a work had to be done with special pedantry and punctuality, not a single word could be changed arbitrarily, since not a single image of the anthem was random, each had a mythological content. Hymns are designed to be read aloud - by a separate priest or choir (Of course, the text was not read aloud from a clay tablet, but was previously memorized "from the mouth" of a scribe. Priests of the III-II millennium BC, as a rule, were illiterate. ), and the emotions that arose during the performance of such a work are collective emotions. The great importance of rhythmic speech, perceived emotionally and magically, comes to the fore in such works. Usually the hymn praises the deity and lists the deeds, names and epithets of the god. Most of the hymns that have come down to us have been preserved in the school canon of Nippur (This canon, or "stream of tradition", contains works written down, and most often compiled in the city of Nippur, which were part of the reading circle of trained and mature scribes. the library was discovered in the school, the so-called e-dube ("house of tablets"). Although this school was secular (it trained scribes for civil administration), it is natural (especially for such a cult center as Nippur) that the priests great influence.) and are most often dedicated to Enlil, the patron god of this city, and other deities of his circle. But there are also hymns to kings and temples. However, hymns could only be dedicated to deified kings, and not all kings were deified in Sumer.
Along with hymns, liturgical texts are laments, which are very common in Sumerian literature (especially laments about national disasters). But the most ancient monument of this kind, known to us, is not liturgical. This is a "lament" about the destruction of Lagash by the king of Umma Lugalzagesi. It enumerates the destruction made in Lagash and curses their culprit. The rest of the lamentations that have come down to us - the lamentation of the death of Sumer and Ur, the lamentation of the death of Ur, the lamentation of the death of Uruk and Eredu are of a ritual nature: they were performed, apparently, during the rite of restoration of destroyed cities and temples.
Associated with the cult is a remarkable series of poems (or chants), beginning with "Inana's Journey to the Underworld" and ending with "The Death of Dumuzi", reflecting the myth of the dying and resurrecting deities and associated with the corresponding rites. The goddess of carnal love and animal fertility, Yinnin (Inana), fell in love with the god (or hero) shepherd Dumuzi and took him as her husband. However, she then descended into the underworld, apparently to challenge the power of the queen of the underworld. Mortified, but brought back to life by the cunning of the gods, Inana can return to earth (where, in the meantime, all living things have ceased to multiply), only by giving the underworld a living ransom for herself. Inana is revered in different cities Sumer and each has a spouse or son; all these deities bow before her and pray for mercy; only one Dumuzi proudly refuses. Dumuzi is betrayed by the evil messengers of the underworld; in vain his sister Geshtinana ("Vine of heaven") turns him into an animal three times and hides him at home; Dumuzi is killed and taken to the underworld. However, Geshtinana, sacrificing herself, achieves that Dumuzi is released to the living for six months, for which time she herself goes to the world of the dead in return for him. While the shepherd god reigns on earth, the plant goddess dies. The structure of the myth turns out to be much more complicated than the simplified mythological plot of the death and resurrection of the deity of fertility, as it is usually presented in popular literature.
The Nippur canon also includes nine tales about the exploits of heroes attributed by the "Royal List" to the semi-legendary I dynasty of Uruk - Enmerkar, Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh - about their long campaigns and fabulous adventures. The Nippur canon, apparently, began to be created during the III dynasty of Ur, and the kings of this dynasty were closely connected with Uruk: its founder traced his family to Gilgamesh. The inclusion of Uruk legends in the canon was most likely due to the fact that Nippur was a cult center that was always associated with the city that dominated at that time. During the 3rd dynasty of Ur and the 1st dynasty of Issin, a uniform Nippur canon was introduced in the e-oaks (schools) of other cities of the state.
All heroic tales that have come down to us are at the stage of formation of cycles, which is usually characteristic of the epic (grouping heroes according to their place of birth is one of the stages of this cyclization). But these monuments are so heterogeneous that they can hardly be united by the general concept of "epos". These are compositions of different times, some of which are more perfect and complete (like a wonderful poem about the hero Lugalband and the monstrous eagle), others less so. However, even a rough idea of the time of their creation is impossible - various motifs could be included in them at different stages of their development, legends could change over the centuries. One thing is clear: we have before us an early genre, from which the epic will develop later. Therefore, the hero of such a work is not yet an epic hero-hero, monumental and often tragic personality; it is rather a lucky fellow from a fairy tale, a relative of the gods (but not a god), a mighty king with the features of a god; he has fabulous helpers - the eagle, the wild man Enkidu.
There are also epic works where the hero is a deity. One of them is a legend about the struggle of the goddess Innin (Inana) with the personification of the underworld, called “Mount Ebeh” in the text, the other is a story about the war of the god Ninurta with the evil demon Asak, also an inhabitant of the underworld. Ninurta also acts as an ancestor hero at the same time: he builds a dam-embankment from a pile of stones to fence off Sumer from the primordial ocean, which overflowed as a result of the death of Asak, and diverts the water that flooded the fields into the Tigris. There is another long poem in praise of Ninurta.
If not directly to the cult, then, in any case, the priestly literature should include poems that respond to the events of history. Such is the series of poems associated with the Akkade dynasty and especially with the name of Naram-Suen - first with his exploits, and then with his pride, condemned by the god Enlil. This also adjoins the hymn work, conditionally called "The Curse of the City of Akkad."
More common in Sumerian literature are works devoted to descriptions of the creative deeds of deities, the so-called etiological (i.e., explaining) myths; at the same time, they give an idea of the creation of the world, as it was seen by the Sumerians. It is possible that there were no specially cosmogonic legends in Sumer (or they were not recorded). It is difficult to say why this is so: it is hardly possible that the idea of the struggle of the titanic forces of nature (gods and titans, older and younger gods, etc.) was not reflected in the Sumerian worldview, especially since the theme of the death and resurrection of nature (with the departure deities to the underworld) in Sumerian mythology is developed in detail - in stories not only about Innin-Inan and Dumuzi, but also about other gods, for example about Enlil.
The device of life on earth, the establishment of order and prosperity on it - is perhaps the favorite topic of Sumerian literature; it is filled with tales of the creation of deities who are supposed to keep order on earth; take care of the distribution of divine duties, the establishment of a divine hierarchy, the settlement of the earth with living beings, and even the creation of individual agricultural implements. The main active creator gods are usually Enki and Enlil.
Many etiological myths are composed in the form of a debate - either representatives of one or another area of the economy, or the economic objects themselves, who are trying to prove their superiority to each other, are arguing; for example, summer and winter, copper and silver, hoe and plow, pastoralist and tiller. Sumerian e-oak played an important role in the spread of this genre, typical of many literatures of the ancient East. Very little is known about what this school was in the early stages, but in some form it existed from the very beginning of writing (as evidenced by the presence of teaching aids). Apparently, as a special institution of e-oak, it takes shape no later than the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. Initially, the goals of education were purely practical - the school trained scribes, land surveyors, etc. As the school developed, education became more and more universal, and at the end of the 3rd - beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e-oak becomes something like an "academic center" of that time - it teaches all branches of knowledge that existed then: mathematics, grammar, singing, music, law, study lists of legal, medical, botanical, geographical and pharmacological terms, lists of literary essays, etc.; there is a textbook of farming techniques - in a rhythmic form.
Most of the works discussed above have been preserved precisely in the form of school or teacher records, through the school canon. But there are also special groups of monuments, which are commonly called “e-duby texts”: these are works that tell about the structure of the school and school life, didactic essays (teachings, morals, instructions) specially addressed to schoolchildren, often also composed in the form of dialogue-disputes , and, finally, monuments of folk wisdom: aphorisms, proverbs, anecdotes, fables and sayings. Through e-dubu, the only example of a rhythmic fairy tale in the Sumerian language has reached us.
Even from this incomplete review, one can judge how rich and diverse the monuments of Sumerian literature are. This heterogeneous and multi-temporal material, most of which was written down only at the very beginning of the III (if not at the beginning of the II) millennium BC, largely retained the techniques inherent in oral verbal creativity. The main stylistic device of most mythological and praepic stories is multiple repetitions, for example, the repetition in the same expressions of the same speeches (but alternately between different interlocutors). This is not only an artistic device of three times, which is so characteristic of the epic and fairy tale (in Sumerian monuments it sometimes reaches nine times), but also a mnemonic device that contributes to better memorization of the work - the legacy of the oral transmission of myth, epic, specific trait rhythmic, magical speech, in form reminiscent of a shamanic ritual. The story on the tablet often looks like a simple synopsis, where the notes of individual lines served as a kind of memorable milestones for the narrator. However, why then was it pedantic, up to nine times, to write out the same phrases? This is all the more strange because the recording was made on heavy clay and, it would seem, the material itself should have prompted the need for conciseness and economy of the phrase, a more concise composition (this happens only by the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, already in Akkadian literature). Not trying to break away from the living word, Sumerian literature fixed it on clay, retaining all the stylistic devices and features of oral poetic speech. The connection with oral poetry is felt very vividly.
It is important, however, to note that the Sumerian "literary" scribes did not set themselves the task of recording all oral creativity or all its genres. The selection was determined by the interests of the school and partly of the cult. But along with this written proto-literature, the life of oral works, which remained unrecorded, continued, perhaps much richer.
It would be wrong to present this Sumerian written literature making its first steps as of little artistic or almost devoid of artistic, emotional impact. The very metaphorical way of thinking contributed to the figurativeness of the language and the development of such a technique, which is most characteristic of ancient Eastern poetry, as parallelism. Sumerian verses are rhythmic speech, but they do not fit into a strict meter, since neither stress counts, nor longitude counts, nor syllable counts can be found. Therefore, the most important means of emphasizing rhythm here are repetitions, rhythmic enumerations, epithets of gods, repetition of initial words in several lines in a row, etc. Characteristic are alliterative consonances, spontaneous rhyme, sometimes linking two half-lines. Rhythmization is also created by the same structure of verb forms, which invariably stand at the end of a verse-sentence.
When getting acquainted with the ancient Sumerian monuments, especially mythological ones, the lack of poeticization of images is striking. The Sumerian gods are not just earthly beings, the world of their feelings is not just the world of human feelings and actions; the baseness and rudeness of the nature of the gods, the unattractiveness of their appearance are constantly emphasized. Primitive thinking, suppressed by the unlimited power of the elements and the feeling of their own helplessness, apparently, was close to the images of gods creating a living creature from the mud from under the nails, in a drunken state, capable of destroying the humanity they created from one whim, having arranged the Flood. What about the Sumerian underworld? According to the surviving descriptions, it seems to be extremely chaotic and hopeless: there is no judge of the dead, no scales on which people's actions are weighed, there are almost no illusions of "posthumous justice". However, the afterlife is not equal for all people: the type of death creates a difference, and in particular the presence or absence of burial victims.
The ideological legacy of primitiveness at first could do little to oppose the elemental feeling of horror and hopelessness in the face of a hostile world. Gradually, however, as the ideology of class society becomes stronger and becomes dominant in the states of Lower Mesopotamia, the content of literature also changes, which begins to develop in new forms and genres. The process of separating written literature from oral literature is accelerating and becoming obvious. The emergence of didactic genres of literature at the later stages of the development of the Sumerian society, the cyclization of mythological subjects, etc. signify the increasing independence acquired by the written word, its other ideological and emotional orientation. However, this new stage in the development of Asiatic literature was essentially continued not by the Sumerians, but by their cultural heirs, the Babylonians, or Akkadians.
Great Definition
Incomplete definition ↓
A large group of Sumerian literary texts are the so-called Eduba texts. Eduba(Also Edubba, E-dubba- letters. "house of tablets") - the so-called Sumerian school. We do not know as much about any of the schools of the ancient world (school education systems) as we do about the Sumerian school, because scientists have a large number of tablets from which Sumerian schoolchildren studied and which they themselves performed, imitating the teachers. Educational texts are among the most ancient finds in Mesopotamia and date back to the end of the 4th - the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. e. In the 3rd millennium BC. e. the Sumerian school reaches its peak. The schools were the true centers of Sumerian culture. Here, a universal education for those times was given: the students learned not only the difficult art of cuneiform writing, but also studied mathematics (mathematical tables have come down to us), theology, botany, zoology, mineralogy, geography, linguistics, literature (at the same time they themselves practiced writing literary texts).
Education was based on the principle of linguistic classification (teaching other subjects was inevitably associated with teaching writing, vocabulary and grammar). The vocabulary was divided into groups in which words and expressions were connected by a common meaning. These groups of words were memorized and copied by students until they got used to correctly reproduce them. The longest lists of names of animals and plants, birds, insects, stones, minerals, etc., lists of complex nouns, verb forms have come down to us. The students copied and memorized poetic texts ranging from 50 to 1000 lines, and in many respects their success was determined by the training of their memory. School teachers - ummia(lit. "a knowledgeable person") created exemplary literary texts containing teachings or telling about school life, and also taught how to write similar writings their students (undoubtedly, it was from the teaching environment that many talented Sumerian poets came out, as well as from the pupils of Eduba).
So, the literary texts of Eduba are, firstly, works about school life, secondly, didactic essays (teachings, disputes, dialogues), and thirdly, aphorisms, proverbs, sayings, fables. The researchers were surprised to find among the oldest educational texts (XXVII century BC) a collection of proverbs and sayings (the collection of such works was traditionally considered a phenomenon of a much later time). Obviously, this is due to the fact that very concise and expressive texts were convenient to use for learning, rewriting, and memorization.
Eduba's texts very vividly and directly, using the colloquial speech of that time, depict the life of the Sumerian school, ordinary school days. One of the poems, first reconstructed by S. N. Kramer from 21 passages and individual fragments stored in the museums of Pennsylvania, Istanbul and Paris (in the Louvre), and published in 1949, describes the day of a schoolboy (before that, some of its fragments were translated and studied by T. Jacobsen and A. Falkenstein). A. Falkenstein called the poem "Son of the House of Tablets", and Kramer - "School Weekdays", which he spoke about in the chapter with the corresponding title in his book "History Begins in Sumer"; in the Russian translation by V.K. Afanasiev, the text is named in accordance with its first line - “Schoolboy, where did you go from childhood?” - with the subtitle "Essay on schooling". This is one of the first works about the life of Eduba, which became known to scientists and the rest of the world. It begins with questions addressed to the student:
“Schoolboy, where do you go from childhood?”
"I am going to school".
"What do you do at school?"
“I study my tablet, then I eat my breakfast.
Here I made my tablet, wrote it, finished it.
Putting my copies
Having prepared my tasks by noon,
After finishing school, I can go home.
I hurry home, where my father is waiting for me.
Here is my task I told him,
I read my tablet to him - my father is very pleased.
Apparently, this schoolboy is still quite small, because he says to his father: “I want to drink - give me a drink. // I want to eat - feed me. // Wash my feet, put me to bed - I'll go to bed. And in the morning, the Sumerian schoolboy hurries to school and, just like the modern one, is afraid to be late, only the consequences for the Sumerian student were much worse: corporal punishment existed in the Sumerian school:
Mother gave me two loaves of bread - I ate right in front of her.
With you Mother gave me two loaves of bread - and I ran to school.
And at school mentor: "Are you late?" - so he said.
Everything inside me shook.
So I approached the teacher, so I bowed to him.
School "father" looked at my plate
And, her having broken, hit me.
On this day, the student was clearly unlucky: teachers, educators and supervisors completely reprimanded him and constantly punished him. Truly, it was a “rainy day” for a schoolboy, and harsh morals reigned in the Sumerian school:
The teacher, following the school rules,
Together with the warden: "You look at the street,
you haven't cleaned your dress!" —
And hit me.
... And the one who monitors the behavior: “Without my permission
what are you talking about? —
And hit me.
... And the teacher drawing: "Without my permission
why are you getting up? —
And hit me.
And the watchman at the gate stands: “Without my permission
why are you leaving?" —
And hit me.
A another warden: "Without my permission
what are you taking?" —
And hit me.
And the teacher Sumerian: "By- Sumerian you speak badly!" —
And hit me.
And my teacher: "Your hand is not good!" - and hit me.
"Your hand is not good!" - this means that the tablet written by the schoolboy was recognized as absolutely unusable. The student is terribly upset, he is close to despair: “I hate learning! I am to study not able to! // My teacher does not speak with me says! The student foresees that he may be expelled from school altogether. Contrary to despair, he has a very strong desire to learn, and he, telling his father about all his misadventures at school, says: I will master ! // Among the younger students of the school , // Let me be allowed to study among the “elder brothers”! // Give him a fee, let him find the way to you! // From bills-calculations, let him free! // Let the school be decided! // Counting the students of the school, let him count me among them! Thus, the student invites the father to invite the teacher home, give him gifts and treat him properly. S. N. Kramer calls the hero of the poem "the first sycophant in the history of the school." But, as modern Sumerologists suggest, this was the code of conduct prescribed in the Sumerian school (the poem presented it, had an edifying meaning and was probably written by one of Eduba's teachers). It is significant that at home, in a relaxed atmosphere, the student demonstrates brilliant knowledge in front of his father and teacher:
The father heeded the words of the student.
He called the school teacher
Invited to the house, put him in the place of honor.
The schoolboy served him, he stood before him
And all that he comprehended by literacy,
He showed his father.
His father with a rejoicing heart
Father school joyfully says:
“Here, the baby opened my hand,
and you put your wisdom into it.
Literate wisdom, all its skill you revealed to him.
All decisions, all calculations,
you explained all the interpretations to him,
Knowledge, its secrecy - with that radiance illuminated it!
The student's father is extremely grateful to the school teacher and seeks to thank him in every possible way: “Good oil was poured out on his stomach and back, like water, to him. // They dressed him in a new dress, gave him bread and food, decorated his hands with rings. The grateful teacher, who was so well received and rewarded in the student's house, pronounces a special blessing to his pupil, calling for help the patroness of scribe wisdom, the goddess Nidaba:
The teacher in the joy of the heart says:
“Baby, you didn’t throw away my words, didn’t throw them away.
You will reach the peak of literate wisdom,
learn it to perfection!
Something you managed to give me, so that I could take it.
Bread - my livelihood - you gave beyond measure,
did me a great honor.
Nidaba, mistress of protectors,
be your patroness!
Let luck be invested in a reed stick,
From a copy of clay, let evil be removed,
Stand before your brothers
You will dominate your peers
You will be among the students
recognized as the best of the best…”
The teacher promises the student a brilliant future, so that his father, mother and all relatives will be proud of him: “Your relatives will truly be ennobled by your valor!” The poem ends with a brief message that the student has fully justified the hopes of his teacher and his family: “He brilliantly graduated from school, he got a good position. // Nidaba, mistress of the school business, praised his successes. // Hail, Nidaba! Scientists have found 21 copies of this poem, which indicates its high popularity (probably, its text was in almost every school library).
Another school text, restored by Professor Kramer from more than twenty tablets and fragments, studied by him, and then by his student Ake Sjöberg and conditionally named “Father and his wicked son”, and according to the first line in the Russian translation by V. K. Afanasyeva - “ Come to me!" ("Instruction to the unlucky son"), raises the problem of "difficult" teenagers and is the oldest variation of the eternal theme of "fathers and children" known to us. The text is structured as a dialogue between father and son and surprises with its very lively intonations: the father impatiently asks, and the son reluctantly, hiding his irritation, answers:
"Come to me!"
"Here I come" .
"Where are you going?"
"He wasn't going anywhere."
“If you don’t go anywhere, how do you spend your days?
Go to school. Sit at school.
Read the assignment. Solve problems.
Write a clay tablet.
A new clay tablet “your school elder brother”
let me write to you.
When you finish your homework,
You will answer your elder, then come to me.
Tell me your task .
Stop wandering the streets!
Well, answer me!
What did I say, do you understand?"
“Yes, I understand and I can answer.”
"So answer."
"Well, I'll answer."
"So say it."
"Well, I'll tell you."
"Speak quickly."
The son reluctantly repeats his father's instructions, and the father becomes more and more inflamed, scolding his loafer son: “Well, go on, be a man. // Don't hang out in the squares, don't wander around. // Don't wander the streets. // ...The way I care about you, // No one cares about his son. // In terms of natural talent, no one can compare with you! // You act like a loafer, your hand is not worthy of you! // After all, if you look for our family, // You won’t find anything like it! At the same time, the father passionately defends the knowledge and art of the scribe - "literate wisdom", his profession, and reproaches his son for not wanting to adequately continue his work:
Among the human wisdom that exists in the world.
Of those that are named after the god Enki,
Such a difficult task as literate wisdom,
what I chose
Was not named. Except the art of singing.
Like sea shores that are far apart,
The heart of the art of singing is also removed.
About my writing business you don't think at all...
The father reproaches the son for not appreciating the special relationship to him in the family: he was released from hard work for the sake of study, and while his brothers work physically, he only walks and has fun: “You became fat, you became fat, // All spread, all blurred! // All your relatives think that you will end badly! // Why don't you want to become a human, why are you having fun? // And your fun finished me off! As a harsh sentence to his son, the words sound: “You are lazy forever and ever!”. These accusations, and most importantly, the father’s assertion that absolutely everyone speaks badly about his son, hurt him to the core, but not in the sense of admitting his guilt, but only in the sense of indignation at the unfair, as the son believes, words: “ What, are they bullying me? Is that what they say?!". This causes a new outburst of indignation in the father, who can no longer stop, and the scolding from his lips becomes more and more strong (this fragment was initially incomprehensible to the researchers, and Kramer mistook it for aphorisms, proverbs and sayings, with the help of which the father teaches his son to be smart). mind):
If I'm so attached to you
And you don't understand what I'm doing!
You are a deceiver, a liar, you are completely unfaithful!
The deceiver, the robber that broke into the house!
Foul-mouthed, stinker,
Stupid, savage!
Drooling disgusting!
Robber, freak!
The villain, the deceiver,
Rancid oil, you stinker!
Dirty smelly and vicious,
Disgusting bastard!
The ancient author perfectly conveyed the psychological state of a person who was seized by a strong affect: the more the father gets inflamed, the more he loses control of himself, and swearing becomes almost indecent:
Milk that's sour, smelly ass
The dog that sniffs the ground with its muzzle is a deceiver!
... A dog that constantly licks his penis!
A donkey that eats its own litter!
... The savage that eats all sorts of muck!
A paralyzed sheep that shakes its head!
... Thrown into a well, dropped into a hole,
A broken crock that is lying on the ground!
The only thing the son can do is to insert a single remark: “How long will you insult me?”. However, it is she, and also, probably, the understanding that he has reached a certain critical point, that bad words spoken about his son can become the final reality, makes the father change his intonation. And although he grumbles that you can only offend someone like his son (“Yes, the one who offends you, let him stay three thousand six hundred miles from you!”), he nevertheless again expresses the hope that his son will become a man and bless him:
Raise your head, straighten your chest - you are a man!
Among the wise men of the city you must be the best!
Your city is a beautiful place your name call me!
An honest name, a good word be given to you by your God!
At Nanna, your god, seek mercy!
Mother Ningal, may you be treated kindly!
Such is this poem about the "difficult teenager", ending with the praise of the goddess Nisaba (Nidabe), the patroness of "literate wisdom." It is interesting that it is in this text that the word namlulu, which Professor Cramer translated as "humanity" ("qualities befitting a person").
The Sumerians greatly appreciated a well-aimed, sharp word, an intellectual game, and used this when teaching schoolchildren. IN school libraries found enough a large number of tablets with records of aphorisms, proverbs, sayings (they are several centuries older than similar Egyptian texts and are typologically close to both Egyptian and Hebrew aphorisms - the famous biblical Book of Proverbs of Solomon). Proverbs and sayings are the most difficult to understand, because they sometimes use an untranslatable (and sometimes incomprehensible) play on words, contain indications of unknown everyday realities. Nevertheless, they are surprisingly close to our modern ones, and best of all allow you to feel the soul of the ancient people, their sly humor and irony. So, the Sumerians said about the overly hasty: “He has not yet caught the fox, // And he is already making a block for her” ( translation by V. Afanasyeva; proverbs and sayings most often took the form of a couplet). About the overconfident and boastful: “The fox urinated in the sea. // “Here is the sea! I made the whole sea!” Or: “The fox urinated into the Tigris River. // “Oh, what waves I raised!”. About those who are always looking for excuses for any act and are afraid to commit it, they said: “If you don’t sleep, you won’t get pregnant, / If you don’t eat, you won’t get fat!” About the situation “out of the fire - and into the frying pan”: “Dodged a wild bull - // Came across a wild cow”. S. N. Kramer notes that one of the Sumerian sayings resembles a verse from Ecclesiastes: “Sweet is the dream of the worker, whether he ate little or much, / And the satiety of the rich man does not allow him to forget his sleep” ( Ecclesiastes 4:12; translation by I. Dyakonov) and to an even greater extent - the saying from the Talmud that he who multiplies his wealth multiplies his worries. It sounds like this:
He who has a lot of silver may be happy,
He who has a lot of barley may be happy,
But the one who has nothing at all sleeps peacefully.
An outstanding Sumerologist writes: “If you ever doubt the unity of the human race, the commonality of all peoples and races, refer to proverbs and sayings, to folk aphorisms and sayings! Proverbs and sayings, better than any other literary genre, break open the shell of the cultural and everyday stratifications of each society, exposing the basic and common that is characteristic of all people, regardless of where and when they lived and live.
Probably, from the proverb, from the accurate observation of life, the fable genre is born. It was in Sumerian literature that the fable genre was first introduced, which is usually called the "Aesopian fable" (after the famous ancient Greek fabulist Aesop). This is an allegorical fable in which various animals act (for example, the proverb about the fox, which declared that she made the whole sea, can be considered the shortest fable, its embryo). A student of S. N. Kramer, E. Gordon collected and translated 295 proverbs and fables, in which a wide variety of animals act (64 species in total). Among the most popular are a dog, a donkey, a fox, a pig, a sheep, a lion, a wild bull, etc. The fox acts as the personification of boastfulness, vanity and cowardice at the same time (“The fox gnashes its teeth, but its head is shaking”). The lion, as in the later fables of Aesop, and then European fables, acts as the embodiment of brute force that does not need justification: “The lion grabbed the pig of the bush and began to torment it, saying:“ Although your meat has not yet filled my mouth, your has already drilled into my ears!” However, the ferocious predator itself can be deceived by the “defenseless goat”. One of the longest Sumerian fables that has come down to us demonstrates the advantages of quick intelligence and cunning over brute force. So, “The lion grabbed a defenseless goat ...” (as this fable is called on the first line):
“Let go! I will bring a sheep-girlfriend instead of myself to you!
"If I let you go, tell me your name!"
The goat answers the lion like this:
"You don't know my name?!
“Call the one that you let go” is my nickname.”
When the lion came to the pen,
"I let you go!" he growled.
From behind the fence, she answers him:
“You let me go - you acted smart.
As for the sheep, they don't exist here."
The genre of teachings and instructions was also very common in Sumer - in the form of advice worldly wisdom or a practical guide (for example, the so-called Farmer's Almanac, in which the deity teaches how to cultivate the land and harvest). Typologically, this genre (especially its first variety - sayings of worldly wisdom) is close to the Egyptian teachings and parables collected in the biblical Book of Proverbs of Solomon.
Especially popular with the Sumerians, and then with the Babylonians, was the famous Teachings of Shuruppak, preserved in four versions, of which the earliest, found in Abu-Salabih (Selyabikh), dates from about 2500 BC. e., and the latest, which has come down in the Akkadian translation, is ca. 1100 BC e. The first translation into Russian, made by V. K. Afanasyeva according to the most complete Old Babylonian version (c. 1800 BC), the researcher and translator named in accordance with the first line of the cuneiform text: “In ancient days, in ancient days ... "
The beginning of the text emphasizes the deep antiquity of the wisdom presented in Shuruppak's instructions:
In the days of old, in the days of old
In the old nights, in the old nights
In the old days, in the old days
At the time it is a certain sage, cunning words
he was the compiler
Knowledgeable in the word, Sumerian inhabitant,
Shuruppak, son of Ubartutu,
Instructed his son Ziusudra.
As you know, Ziusudra is a hero who survived the flood. The fact that the teachings were put into the mouth of his father Shuruppak should have had a special effect on readers and listeners, intensifying their reverence for the “antediluvian” ancient wisdom. As V. K. Afanasyeva notes, “there is reason to believe that initially the family of the mythical sages Ubartutu - Shuruppak - Ziusudra had nothing to do with the hero of the legend about the flood and the identification occurred later” .
The “Teachings of Shuruppak” consist of separate, most often unrelated, aphorisms (some are even written from a female name and are addressed exclusively to women), but differ from all surviving Sumerian aphoristic codes in that they are inserted into a single “frame”: words “Shuruppak instructed his son. // Shuruppak, son of Ubartutu, // Instructed his son Ziusudra" sound at the beginning of the text, then several times - in its middle, and also - in a somewhat modified form - at its end. In addition, the father’s words addressed to his son are important, urging him to be attentive and obedient, not to neglect father’s advice (they are also repeated several times in the text):
My son, I want to give advice, take my advice.
Ziusudra, I will say a word, listen attentively.
Do not neglect the advice that I give.
Do not neglect the words that I say.
Almighty are the instructions of the fathers, be obedient to them.
This immediately makes us recall typologically (and in some ways lexically) similar formulas repeated in the Book of Proverbs of Solomon: “Listen, my son, to the instruction of your father, and do not reject the covenant of your mother, because this is a beautiful wreath for your head. and an ornament for your neck" ( Prov 1:8-9; here and below Synodal translation ); "My son! do not forget my instructions, and let my commandments keep your heart ... "( Prov 3:1); "Listen, my son, and accept my words..." ( Prov 4:10); "My son! listen to my wisdom, and incline your ear to my understanding" ( Prov 5:1), etc. However, these convergences and coincidences (as well as the previously noted convergences with Egyptian aphorism) only indicate that the Hebrew aphorism was formed in a certain cultural context that it was influenced by the general Middle Eastern tradition, but this in no way cancels its originality.
Many fragments in the Teachings of Shuruppak record folk proverbs and sayings, including those related to practical housekeeping. However, most of Shuruppak's advice relates to people's relationships and aims to protect a person from all sorts of difficult, controversial, tense situations: “Do not vouch - you will not be dependent. // Yes, don't vouch for anyone - who vouches is imprudent”(Regarding the first line, V.K. Afanasyeva comments: “Lit.“ Do not vouch - that person will seize you (take power over you) ”; cf. in the Proverbs of Solomon: “My son! if you vouch for your neighbor and gave your hand for another, / You have entangled yourself with the words of your mouth, caught by the words of your mouth ”- Prov 6:1-2); “And you don’t need to testify - his city speaks for a person. // Don't go there, where they argue, - // Don't you be witness in a dispute. // It's better to let the dispute itself fade away. // Don't start arguments yourself. There are especially many of these calls for peacefulness in the text: “The dispute that fire is won't flare up. // Avoid disputes, don't know any other way"; “Do not kindle quarrels, do not drop yourself”; “Do not favor the enemy, do not smooth out disputes. // My child, do not take by force, do not give birth to strife. A lot of aphorisms are tips related to etiquette, the ability to behave in society, as well as accurate observations of human characters revealed in people's behavior: “Dishonest, like a spindle, turns his eyes. // With an evasive look, the heart is changeable. / Do not litter with words, like a liar in a pub, / Do not wave your hands in the meetings of husbands.
The most valuable thing in the Teachings of Shuruppak is, of course, moral and ethical advice concerning the foundations of a just society, a reasonable arrangement of human society. Some of them remotely resemble the biblical commandments, however, which is significant, the Sumerian aphorisms appeal primarily to a kind of “healthy egoism” of a person (each time it is reminded that it will be bad first of all for those who do not follow this advice): “Do not steal - don't ruin yourself. // Do not break into the house, don't get on someone else's sieve. // The thief is a lion, but they seized him - a slave. // My child, don't commit murder! // Don't raise the ax yourself! //<…> Don't be seduced by stolen goods, // Don't dirty your hands, // You won't get much profit. // Do not speak insincere words - // As if in a trap, then you will fall into them. Of course, it would be an exaggeration to derive the biblical commandments from here, especially the great Ten Commandments inscribed on the Tablets of the Covenant (the very emphasis of the latter speaks of a different level of comprehension of the ethical principle in human life; in addition, these are not just the instructions of a sage, but the Commandments sanctified by the authority of God). However, it is extremely important that the Sumerian thinkers-sages reflected on how to educate a person who distinguishes good from evil, how to make good triumph in life: “... For the heart in love builds a house, // An evil heart destroys a house” . They reasonably believed that a good and wise word can change a lot in society and in a person, because it is not without reason that in the finale of Shuruppak's Teachings it is said:
The gift of the word freshener hearts,
Palace worthy, freshener of the heart.
Gift of words that the stars of heaven.
* * *
Thus, Sumerian culture and literature is in many ways the soil (like Egyptian literature) where the consciousness of the subsequent civilization (especially, with all the differences, European civilization) is rooted. It is here that for the first time many images and plot archetypes are born, which will then be widely represented in the culture and literature of various peoples. It is here that the most important parallels to many biblical stories, perhaps shedding light on the origin of the latter or on their archaic mythological overtones (the creation of the world and man, the idea of garden of paradise, Cain and Abel, the global flood, the first attempt to raise the question of suffering in the world of the innocent, etc.). But if for ancient Hebrew literature the impact of Sumerian was indirect, mediated by the thickness of centuries and cultures (and this impact was not only based on the principle of perception and assimilation, but also repulsion, distancing, cardinal rethinking), then for another ancient culture of Mesopotamia - Akkadian - this is the influence was the most direct, immediate and very fruitful.
Cm.: Sjöberg, A.W. Der Vater und sein missratener Sohn / A. W. Sjöberg // Journal of Cuneiform Studies. 25 (1973). No. 3. S. 105-169. A tablet with an abridged version of this text, extremely popular in Eduba, is kept in the Hermitage. In 1966, it was read and published by I. T. Kaneva (see: Kaneva, I.T. A new tablet with an excerpt from the Sumerian poem "The Scribe and His Wicked Son" / I. T. Kaneva // Bulletin of Ancient History. 1966. No. 2. S. 68-78). A fragment from the tablet, dedicated to the glorification of the art of the scribe, was translated by V. K. Afanasyeva and published in 1973 (see: “The work of scribes, my brothers ...” // Poetry and prose ancient east. pp. 140-141; note - With. 665-666). A complete translation into Russian of the entire text, reconstructed by Kramer and Sjöberg, was first made by V.K. Afanasyeva and published in 1997.
From the beginning of the beginning ... S. 344-350.
Cm.: Kramer, S.N. The story begins in Sumer. pp. 28, 31.
Cit. By: Kramer, S.N. The story begins in Sumer. S. 134.
Cit. By: Kramer, S.N. The story begins in Sumer. S. 136.
Cm.: Alster, B. The Instruction of Šuruppak / B. Alster // Mesopotamia. 2. Coppenhagen, 1974; Wilcke, C. Philologische Bemerkungen zum Rat des Šuruppag und Versuch einer neuen Übersetzung / C. Wilcke // Zeitschrift für Assyriologie. bd. 68.2 Haldband. 1978. S. 196-232.
From the beginning of the beginning ... S. 301-310 (commented by V. K. Afanasyeva - p. 443-447).
Afanasiev, V.K.
See: section "Egyptian Literature" (chapter "Literature of the New Kingdom").
Afanasiev, V.K.. Commentary // From the Beginning of the Beginnings... S. 444.
Archeology, especially the study of the remote past of man as seen from the excavations of buried towns and villages, by its very nature, tends to be the most eloquent evidence of material culture, since archaeological finds are usually bricks and walls, tools and weapons, pots and vases, jewelry and decorations, large statues and small figurines, in short, the most varied arts and crafts of man.
His social life, economic and administrative structure and especially the worldview reflected in religious beliefs, ethical ideals and spiritual aspirations - all this is usually indirectly evidenced by works of applied art, architecture and funerary rites, but only in the form of vague and vague generalizations.
The situation changes radically, however, in the case of Sumer, as here archaeologists have unearthed tens of thousands of clay tablets with texts that add what can be called a deeper dimension to our understanding of its ancient culture. More precisely, more than 90 percent of the written material consists of economic and administrative documents, which, while useful in their way, contribute little to the understanding of the spiritual life of the ancient Mesopotamians. But about five thousand tablets and fragments with various kinds of literary works were also found; it is they that allow one to penetrate a little deeper into their very hearts and souls. Sumerian literary documents vary in length, from twelve-column tablets of hundreds of compactly written lines to tiny fragments of only a few incomplete lines. The literary works on these tablets and fragments number in the hundreds, ranging from hymns of less than fifty lines to myths of a thousand lines. In its artistic merit, Sumerian literature occupies a high place among the aesthetic creations of civilized mankind. They are quite competitive with ancient Greek and Hebrew masterpieces and, like the latter, reflect the spiritual and intellectual life of one of the ancient cultures, which otherwise would have remained largely closed. Their significance for cultural and spiritual development of the entire Ancient Near East is difficult to overestimate. The Akkadians, that is, the Assyrians and Babylonians, borrowed these works in full. The Hittites, the Hurrians, and the Canaanites translated some of them into their own language, and no doubt imitated them extensively. The form and content of Jewish literary works, and to some extent even Greek ones, were strongly influenced by the Sumerian texts. As practically the oldest written literature ever discovered, represented by a sufficiently large body of texts - it is unlikely that literary documents older than the Sumerians will ever be found - it represents a new, richest and unexpected source for all students of the history of civilization, especially its intellectual and spiritual aspects. . It is easy to predict that the reconstruction and restoration of this ancient forgotten literature will be the greatest contribution of our century to the field of humanities.
The realization of this task, however, is not so simple: in the coming years, it will require the selfless efforts of more than one scientist in the field of cuneiform writing. Despite the fact that most of the documents were found by archaeologists more than fifty years ago, the selection of fragments and the translation of the works contained in them made relatively little progress in subsequent decades. The fact is that the vast majority of the tablets appear from the bowels of the earth in a broken and fragmentary form, so only a small part of their original remains intact.
The fact that ancient scribes usually made several copies of the same work helps to compensate for the losses. Damage and gaps in one tablet or fragment are often compensated by its duplicates, which, in turn, can also be damaged.
In order to make the most productive use of these duplicates and already restored material, it is necessary to have a maximum of published sources available. This often requires hand-copying hundreds and hundreds of finely written tablets and fragments - a tedious and lengthy undertaking. It is not surprising, therefore, that even in 1935 only a small part of the Sumerian literary monuments was processed, despite the selfless work of many scientists: Hermann Hilprecht, Hugo Rado, Stephen Langdon, L.V. King, Heinrich Zimmern, Cyril Gadd, Henri de Genouillac, Arnaud Pöbel and Edvard Kier.
In an attempt to help in the slightest degree to alleviate the situation, I have devoted most of the last twenty-five years to the study and copying of unpublished Sumerian literary texts scattered throughout the museums of the world. As time went on, it became clear that this was not a task for one person. Fortunately, in the past few years, a number of others have shown considerable zeal and determination to cooperate in this matter: Edmund Gordon, whose work on the proverbs and fables of Sumer opened new perspective comparative study of world literature on wisdom; they are Ines Bernhardt, assistant superintendent of the Hilprecht collection at the F. Schiller University in Jena; this is Eugène Bergmann from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, and Georges Castellino from the University of Rome. At the same time, Y.A. van Dyck, a former student of De Liagre Böhl and Adam Falkenstein, copied and published Sumerian literary texts held in the holdings of the Iraqi Museum in Baghdad and in the Böhl collection in Leiden. And finally, and most importantly, several hundred Sumerian literary texts from tablets found in Ur between 1923 and 1934. and copied over the years by Cyril Gadd are being prepared for publication. Thus, on the whole, there is every reason to believe that the coming decade will witness the publication of a significant part of the Sumerian literary tablets and fragments that have remained untouched in museum cases for many years.
But, as experience shows, and it will be confirmed by more than one Sumerologist, even with the full text of a Sumerian literary work, its translation and interpretation is a difficult and sometimes insoluble task. Indeed, the problems of Sumerian grammar are no longer as acute as before. Convincing progress in this area has been due to the efforts of such eminent scientists in the field of cuneiform as Delitzsch, Thureau-Dangin, Zimmern, Landsberger and especially Pöbel; it was him, Pobel, the work "Fundamentals of Sumerian Grammar", published about forty years ago, put Sumerian grammar on a scientific basis. And even in the most complex area of Sumerian lexicology, the contribution of scholars such as Falkenstein, Jacobsen, and Landsberger, to mention only the pillars, promises to be crowned with overcoming some seemingly dead-end problems. On the whole, therefore, it is likely that, as a result of the joint and concerted efforts of cuneiformists throughout the world, the coming decade will see comparatively reliable translations of a fairly large number of more significant literary works. No matter how events unfold, the situation today is conducive to taking a fresh look at Sumerian literature in general, which we are going to do in the following essay.
Sumerian literature - the term we have adopted - includes myths and epic narratives, hymns, lamentations, historiographical documents, long and short essays, prescriptions and proverbs; this does not include votive inscriptions as having no artistic value (for example, the historical inscriptions of Entemena), the texts of the Urukagina reforms and political letters, besides some of them are not without literary merit. The Sumerians first began to write down their literary works around 2500 BC. e., although the earliest so far found literary documents belong to approximately 2400 BC. e. Around the same century, hard clay cylinders with twenty columns of text containing a myth relating primarily to the god Enlil and his sister Ninhursag, but mentioning a number of other well-known deities, such as Inanna, Enki and Ninurta, are dated. Its plot is still unclear, but certain words, phrases and storylines reveal a style and structure very similar to the myths of a much later time, thus pointing to the long-term sequential development of the literary process over the centuries. This is confirmed by a fragment of another myth of the XXIV century. BC e. about the son of Enlil, Ishkur, the god of storms, who disappeared into the lower world. Saddened, Enlil called all the Anunki to ask for help, and probably a fox volunteered to rescue Ishkur from the Lower World; this motif is somewhat reminiscent of the plot of the myth of Paradise.
There is every reason to believe that literary heritage Sumera grew from century to century and undoubtedly became quite fruitful towards the end of the 3rd millennium, when the Sumerian school, edubba, became an important center of education and learning. The literary activity of the Sumerians remained active in the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. BC, despite the fact that the Akkadian language of the Semites gradually supplanted the Sumerian language as a spoken language. In the edubbas, which functioned throughout the reign of the Yixing dynasty and even later, early literary works were studied, copied and edited with care and zeal, care and understanding; almost all literary works known to us have come down to us in copies and editions prepared already in the post-Sumerian edubbs. Probably Akkadian teachers, poets and writers - staff members of the edubba - even composed new Sumerian literary works, although, quite naturally, these texts followed the patterns of earlier documents in form and content, style and character.
It is often assumed that all Sumerian literature was religious and that it was written and edited by its priests for use in temple cults. However, with the exception of hymns and lamentations, this is not entirely true. Let's start with a very specific case: it is strange to believe that Sumerian proverbs and prescriptions or texts about edubba were written by or for priests and were in any way connected with the temple cult. There is also no good reason to believe that the epic poems about the heroes Enmerkar, Lugalband and Gilgamesh were composed by priests and sounded in temples.
Even in the case of myths, there is no indication that they were read during worship and religious holidays; at any rate, this did not occur in the time of Sumer and in the early post-Sumerian periods. Only the hymns and laments seem to have actually been composed and edited for the temple service. But since, as we know from recent excavations in Nippur, tablets with hymns and laments, as well as other types of literary texts, were found not in temples, but in the quarter of scribes, then they, too, most likely, were composed in edubba by its staff members. and not priests; the priests are not mentioned anywhere in the staff of the edubba.
A key figure in the development and growth of Sumerian literature was the nar, or minstrel, who is sometimes mentioned in hymns alongside the dubsar, a writer, but whose relation to the edubba is unclear. In any case, it is likely that some edubba graduates specialized in religious compositions and were part of the servants of the temple, they taught singers and musicians and watched, and sometimes themselves performed cult liturgies; those who specialized in myths and epics served in the palaces, teaching court singers and actors. But we do not yet have exact and detailed information about this. Nor are they about viewers and readers, the audience to whom the literary works were addressed. Only an edubba graduate could read and write, but hardly even "educated people" practiced collecting private libraries for their own pleasure and education. Libraries most likely existed only under the Edubbi, although temples and palaces could also store copies of works that met the needs of their owners. It is unlikely that works of Sumerian literature were kept "on the shelves" solely for educational purposes; anyway, they must have been used in public gatherings, whether the meeting place was a temple, a palace, or a marketplace.
The vast majority of Sumerian literary works are written in poetic form. There was still no idea about the size and rhyme, but almost all other methods and techniques of poetic art were used quite skillfully, thoughtfully and effectively: repetition and parallelism, metaphor and comparison, chorus and chorus. Sumerian narrative poetry, such as myths and epics, is replete with constant epithets, long repetitions, fixed formulas, elaborate descriptions, and lengthy speeches.
On the whole, Sumerian writers care little about finishing the structure of the plot; the narration is rather disorderly and monotonous, almost devoid of variety in accents and mood. To top it off, Sumerian poets have absolutely no sense of climax. Myths and epic poems show little or no rise and fall of emotion as the story progresses, and often final episode turns out to be more touching and exciting than the first. There are no attempts here to give characteristics and psychological assessments; the gods and heroes of the Sumerian narratives gravitate towards general types rather than recognizable and tangible personalities.
One can list the Sumerian myths that have been completely or almost completely restored to the present: two myths where the god Enlil plays the main role (“Enlil and Ninlil: the birth of the moon god” and “Creation of the pick”); four, where the protagonist is the god Enki (“Enki and the world order: the organization of the earth and its cultural processes”, “Enki and Ninhursag: the Sumerian myth of Paradise”, “Enki and Ninmah: the creation of man” and “Enki and Eridu”); one myth about the moon god Nanna-Sin ("Nanna-Sin's Journey to Nippur"); two myths about Ninurta ("Acts and exploits of Ninurta" and "Return of Ninurta to Nippur"); five myths about the moon goddess Inanna ("Inanna and Enki: the transfer of the arts of civilization from Eridu to Erech", "Inanna and the conquest of Mount Ebih", "Inanna and Shukalletuda: the gardener's mortal sin", "Inanna's descent into the lower world" and "Inanna and Bilulu"); four myths, where the main character is Dumuzi (“Dumuzi and Enkidu: courtship of Inanna”, “The Marriage of Dumuzi and Inanna”, “Death of Dumuzi” and “Dumuzi and Gala”); one myth is dedicated to the god Martu ("The Marriage of Martu"); a flood myth in which the protagonist deity (or deities) has not yet been established.
A magnificent illustration of the Sumerian mythological fantasy is the myth of Enki and the World Order, one of the longest and best preserved of the lengthy Sumerian narratives. Its text is about 466 lines, of which about 375 have come down to us in full; the most significant gaps are at the beginning and end, and in the fragment between the 146th and 181st lines. Its text, which is published here in English translation for the first time, is compiled from twelve tablets and fragments. The most important part of the text was placed on a tablet with eight columns of text containing this myth in full. Unfortunately, during excavations in Nippur, this tablet was found split into two halves, one of which ended up in the museum of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and the second - in the Hilprecht collection, stored at the F. Schiller University in Jena. The text of the latter was discovered quite recently, and, as a result of combining two fragments far from each other in time and distance, restoration became possible.
The poet begins with a hymn of praise addressed to Enki; the text has vague and corrupted passages, but in general it exalts Enki as the god who watches over the universe and is responsible for the fertility of fields and lands, broods and herds. This is followed by a plan of self-praise, put into the mouth of Enki, which speaks, first of all, of the relationship of the supreme deities of the pantheon - Ana, Enlil and Nintu, as well as less significant deities, known collectively as the Anunaki. After a brief, five-line conversation about the submission of the Anunaki to Enki, he recites an ode in his honor for the second time. He begins by praising the power of his word and command to prosper the earth and its abundance, proceeds to describe the splendor of his abode, the Abzu, and concludes with a description of his merry journey through the swamps on the Magur canoe, "the goat (ibex) of the Abzu", after which the lands of Magan, Dilmun and Meluhha (Meluhha) send their boats to Nippur, heavily loaded with rich gifts to the god Enlil. To conclude this passage, the Anunnaki once again pay homage to Enki, especially as the god who "circles" and rules me.
The poet then proceeds to describe the various rituals and the performance of some of them by some of the famous priests and spiritual leaders of Sumer at the temple of Enki in his Abzu retreat (unfortunately, the second half of the passage is almost completely destroyed). Following the next fragment, the content of which is unclear, we again find Enki in his boat. In a universe similar to a cornucopia, among the sea creatures obedient to him, Enki is ready to "announce destinies." He begins, as one would expect, with Sumer itself: first he extols it as a chosen, blessed country with "high" and "inviolable" me, which the gods have chosen as their abode, then he blesses its herds, its temples and sanctuaries. From Sumer he moves on to Ur, which also praises in lofty, metaphorical language and which blesses with prosperity and superiority. After Ur, he speaks of Meluhha and generously blesses her with trees and reeds, oxen and birds, gold, tin and bronze. He then turns to Dilmun to meet some of his needs. He is very hostile towards Elam and Marhashi, two unfriendly states, and proceeds to destroy them and destroy their wealth. On the contrary, he “gives cattle” to nomadic Marches.
Having announced the fate of the various lands that make up Sumer, Enki carries out the entire set of actions vital to the fertility and productivity of the land. At first, he turns to her physical properties and fills the Tiger with fresh, sparkling, living water. One of the metaphors, born of our poet's fantasy, depicts Enki as a raging bull impregnating a river, represented as a wild cow. Then, to make sure that the Tigris and Euphrates behave properly, he appoints the god Enbilulu, the "master of the canals", to watch over them. Enki then "summons" the swamps and reed beds, supplies them with fish and reeds, and appoints a deity "who loves fish" (the name itself is illegible) as their curator. Then he turns to the sea; here he erects a sanctuary for himself and orders the goddess Nanshe, "the lady of Sirara", to take care of him. Finally, Enki "summons" the life-giving rain, makes it rain on the earth and entrusts it to the god of storms, Ishkur.
Now Enki turns to the needs of the earth. He attends to the plow, yoke, and furrow, and appoints Enlil's servant, a peasant named Enkimdu, as their deity. He "summons" the cultivated field, enumerates various cereals and vegetables, and appoints the grain goddess Ashnan in charge of them. He does not forget both the pickaxe and the mold for bricks, and puts over them the god of bricks named Kulla. He lays the foundation, lays the bricks, builds the "house" and entrusts it to Mushdamma, "the great architect of Enlil."
From the farm, the field and the house, Enki moves to the high plain, covers it with green vegetation, multiplies the cattle and entrusts all this to Sumugan, "the king of the mountains." Then he builds stables and sheepfolds, supplies them with the best fat and milk, and appoints the shepherd god Dumuzi as their guardian. After that, Enki establishes "borders", mainly cities and states, sets up boundary pillars and puts the sun god Utu "at the head of the whole universe." Finally, Enki pays attention to "women's duties", especially weaving, and entrusts this to Utta, the goddess of clothing.
Then the myth takes a completely unexpected turn, as the poet introduces us to the ambitious and aggressive Inanna, who considers herself bypassed and left without special powers and privileges. She bitterly laments that Enlil's sister, Aruru (otherwise Nintu) and her own sisters, the goddesses Ninisinna, Ninmug, Nidaba and Nanshe, have received power and regalia, while she, Inanna, is the only one who suffers contempt and neglect of herself. In response to the reproaches of Inanna, Enki tries to justify himself and consoles her with the fact that in fact her power is very great: she is in charge of the shepherd's staff, whip and stick, the oracle's divination about war and battles, the invention and manufacture of elegant clothes; she is even given the power to destroy the "indestructible" and to destroy the "indestructible" - this is a special favor to her. Enki's reply to Inanna is followed by four lines of a hymn in honor of Enki, where the poem probably ends.
The following is a translation of a fairly large passage of the poem (however, with the exception of the first 50 lines, which are badly damaged and indistinct).
When Father Enki goes out into the sown Field,
fertile seed grows on it,
When Nudimmud goes to my fruitful sheep,
a sheep brings a young lamb;
When he goes out to the heavy cow,
She brings a healthy calf;
When he goes out to the heavy goat,
The goat brings a healthy kid,
When you go out into the field, cultivated field,
Set up sheaves and haystacks on the high plain,
[you]… scorched(?) earth.
Enki, lord of the Abzu, who surpassed all in his power,
He began his speech with great dignity:
"My father, Lord of the universe,
Gave me life in the universe
My ancestor, lord of all lands,
Gathered together all me and put them in my hand.
From Ekur, home of Enlil,
I brought crafts to the Abzu Eredu.
I am the fertile seed of the great wild tour,
I am Ana's firstborn
I am the "great storm" coming from the "great abyss"
I am the master of the earth
I am the gugal (kugal) of all leaders, I am the father of all lands,
I am the "big brother" of the gods, the one who brings full prosperity,
I am the keeper of the annals of heaven and earth,
I am the hearing and mind (?) of all lands,
I am the one who does justice
With lord An on An's throne,
I am he who announces fate with Enlil on the "mountain of wisdom"
He put into my hand the announcement of the fates of the Limits where the sun rises,
I am the one before whom Nintu bows,
I am the one to whom the glorious name is given by Ninhursag herself,
I am the leader of the Anunaki
I am the one who was born as the firstborn of the holy An.
After the lord has exalted himself,
After the Prince praised himself,
The Anunaki stood before him with prayer and supplication:
“O God, master of crafts,
Maker of decisions, most glorious; Praise Enki!"
And the second time, filled with joy,
Enki, lord of the lofty Abzu,
He delivered his speech majestically:
“I am God, I am the one whose order is immutable, the first in everything,
By my order these stables were built, these sheepfolds were set up,
As I approached the sky, wealth-giving rain fell from heaven,
When I approached the lands, there was a high spill,
When I approached the green meadows, haystacks stood up, obedient to my word;
I built my house, a sanctuary in a clean place, I called it a glorious name,
I built my Abzu, a sanctuary, in ..., I announced to him a good lot.
My home - his shadow stretched across the "snake" swamps.
My house, its ... beards are worn among the honey plants,
Carp splashes his tail in low thickets of gizi-grass,
Sparrows chirp in their...,
Armed…,
Entered mine, Enki,
abgalya, in my ...,
Enkum (i) [ninkum] ...,
Sacred songs and speeches filled my Abzu.
Rook my magur, crown, "capricorn Abzu" -
There is great joy in the midst of it.
The country of high swamps, my favorite place,
He stretches out his arms to me, inclines (?) his neck to me.
Kara unanimously lift (?) oars,
Sweet songs are sung, thereby pleasing the river,
Nimgirsig, enzy boat of my ma (gur),
Holds my golden scepter,
I, Enki, […] the boat of the Abzu Ibex,
I am Enki...
(About five lines missing.)
... I would look at his green cedars (?).
Lands of Magan and Dilmun
They looked at me, at Enki,
They hoisted the Dilmun-rook to land,
Loaded the Magan-rook to the skies,
Magilum boat of Meluhha
Carries gold and silver
Carries them to Nippur for Enlil, [ruler] of all lands."
To the one who has no city, to the one who has no horse, Martha -
Enki brings cattle as a gift,
To the great prince who came to his [land],
The Anunaki worship as they should:
"To the God who governs the great me, the pure me,
What reigns in the wide universe,
That he received a high "sun disk" in Eredu, a pure place, a [most precious] place,
Enki, god of the universe, praise!
For the great prince who came to his land,
All gods, all leaders,
All mage-priests of Eredu,
All the "linen wearers" in Sumer,
Perform magical rituals in the Abzu,
To the father of Enki in a sacred place he is directed by (their) feet,
In the bedchamber, the royal house, they ...,
In the halls they call out his name,
In (?) the sanctuary on top, Abzu, [they] ...,
(About thirty-six lines are badly damaged.)
Nimgirsig, Enzy of the Magur Rook,
He held the sacred scepter of God,
Sea lahams, numbering fifty, honored him,
... punishment, like ... - a bird of heaven.
For the king standing proudly, the father of Enki of that Land,
The great prince, returned to his kingdom,
Prosperity bestows on the universe.
Enki announces fate:
"Sumer "Great Mountain", "Refuge of the Universe",
Filled with lasting light, from sunrise to sunset, scattering me to the people of Sumer,
Your me - high me, unattainable.
Your heart is deep, unfathomable
Steadfast..., your place where the gods give birth is as inviolable as heaven.
Born to be a king, wearing a strong diadem,
Born to command, placing a crown on his forehead,
Your god is a revered god, he sits with the lord An on An's throne,
Your king is the "Great Mountain"
Father Enlil, ... his to you because ..., like a cedar, is the father of all lands.
Anunaki, great gods,
wished to live among you,
To eat food on your gigoon, planted with trees.
Home, Sumer, may your stalls be built, may your cows multiply,
Let the sheepfolds rise, let there be myriad sheep,
Let the gigoons touch the sky,
Let the steadfast ones raise their hands to heaven.
May the Anunnaki proclaim their fate as they dwell among you."
He went to the sanctuary of Ur,
Enki, lord of the Abzu, announces (his) fate:
"A city that has everything that is appropriate to have,
washed by the waters, standing firm bull,
Abundant highland throne, knees open, green like a mountain,
Where the groves of khashur cast a wide shadow, - he whose greatness is in his strength (?),
Appointed you perfect me,
Enlil, the "Great Mountain," uttered a high name in the universe.
The city whose fate Enlil announced,
Sanctuary of Ur, may you ascend to heaven."
He marched into the land of Meluhha,
Enki, lord of the Abzu, [announces] (her) fate:
“Black earth, may your trees be great, [may they be] trees [of the highlands],
May their thrones rise in the royal palace,
May your reeds be great, [let there be] herbs [highlands],
Yes, the heroes [own] weapons at the battlefield,
Let your bulls be big bulls, let them be bulls of the highlands,
Let their roar be the roar of the wild bulls of the highlands,
May the great gods perfect me for you,
Yes [carry] all the gift-birds of the highlands [carnelian] beards,
May the haka bird be your bird,
Let your silver become gold
Copper - bronze and tin,
O Earth, may all that you have be multiplied,
Let your people multiply
Yes, yours is moving, like a bull to ... "
… city…
He addressed (?) as ...,
He washed and cleansed [the land of Di]lmun,
He entrusted Ninsikilla with guardianship of him,
He gave ... (like) a cultivated field (?), he eats
[his fins]ki.
… Elam and Marhashi…
Doomed to be devoured like... - fish;
The king (probably Enki) whom Enlil bestowed with power,
He destroyed their houses, destroyed their walls.
Their (precious) metal (and) lapis lazuli (and contents) of their vaults
He delivered to Nippur Enlil, the lord of all lands.
That which does not build a city, does not build a [house],
Martu - Enki brought a gift of cattle.
When he averted his gaze from that place,
When Enki's father raised him over the Euphrates,
He stood up proudly, like an unbridled bull,
He lifts his penis, he ejaculates
The Tiger was filled with sparkling water.
Like a wild cow mooing on its calf in the meadows,
In a scorpion-infested stall
So the Tiger surrenders to him like a raging bull.
He lifted the penis, brought the wedding gift,
He gave joy to the Tiger, like a big wild bull, [pleased] that he gave birth.
The water that he brought, sparkling water, its "wine" is sweet,
The grain that he brought, perfect grain, his people eat,
Together with Enki, Enlil rejoices, Nippur [delighted].
God, crowned with a diadem to the kingdom,
He placed the enduring tiara of the kingdom,
He stepped on the ground on the left side,
The earth flourished for him.
As he took the scepter in his right hand,
For the Tigris and Euphrates to "eat together"
He that speaks... the word, according to his...,
What removes, like fat, from the palace his “royal knee”,
The god who announces fate, Enki, lord of the Abzu,
Enbilulu, channel keeper,
He calls out the swamps by placing carp and ... - fish,
He calls out the thicket, placing there ... - reeds and green reeds,
(Two lines are missing.)
[He throws] a challenge.
The one from whose nets the fish do not leave,
From whose traps does not leave ...,
From whose snares the bird does not leave,
(god) who loves fish,
Enki put them in charge.
God erected a sanctuary (?), a sacred canopy - his heart is deep,
He erected a sanctuary in the sea, a sacred canopy - his heart is deep,
The sanctuary, its center is ..., hidden from all,
[Sanctuary], its place is in the constellation ... Iku,
High [canopy], at the top (?) -
its place is near the constellation "chariots",
... from the trembling ... his melam ...,
The Anunnaki came with prayer and supplication,
For Enki in E[ngurr] they set up a high throne.
For the master...
Grand Prince… born…
W-bird...,
(About three lines missing.)
Her great abyss of depths,
What ... easy bird and lil fish, what ...,
What came out of the zipag, what ...,
Lady Sirar[s, Mother Nansh]e,
Over the seas, his ... places,
Enki put in charge.
It causes two rains, the water of heaven,
Aligns them like floating clouds,
Instills (?) in them (life) breath to the horizon,
Turns hilly lands into fields.
The one who rules the great storms, strikes with lightning (?),
What closes the sacred fortress "heart" of heaven,
Son of An, googal of the universe,
Ishkur, son of An,
Puts Enki in charge of them.
He sent the plow and ... the yoke,
The great prince Enki placed "horned bulls" in...,
Opened sacred furrows
He made grain grow in a cultivated field.
God who wears the crown, the beauty of the high plain,
Stocky, the plowman of the god Enlil,
Enkimdu, the man of ditches and dams,
Enki puts them in charge.
God calls out the arable land, sows with selected grain,
Collects grain, selected grain, innub grain in heaps,
Enki multiplies sheaves and heaps,
Together with Enlil he gives abundance to the earth,
She whose head and side are variegated, whose face is covered with honey,
Mistress, foremother, the power of the earth, the "life" of the blackheads,
Ashnan, who nourishes the bread, the bread of all,
The great king threw a net over a pickaxe, he arranged a mold,
Flavored agarin, like good oil,
The one whose pickaxe crushing tooth is a serpent that devours corpses,
Whose ... mold rules ...,
Kullu, the brick-maker of that land,
Enki puts them in charge.
He built stables, pointed out purification rites,
Sheepfolds built, filled them with the best fat and milk,
Joy brought to the refectory of the gods,
Contentment prevailed on the overgrown plain.
Faithful supplier of Eanna, "friend of An",
Beloved son-in-law of the brave Sin, wife of holy Inanna,
Ladies, queens of all great me,
Which from time to time directs the reconstruction ... Kullaba,
Dumuzi, the divine "ushumgal of heaven", "friend of An",
Enki puts them in charge.
He filled Ekur, the house of Enlil, with goodness,
With Enki Enlil rejoices, Nippur rejoices,
He marked the borders, approved the boundary stones,
For the Anunaki Enki
Built housing in cities
Built housing in the villages.
A hero, a bull that comes out of the (forest) hashur, that roars, (for sure) a lion,
Brave Utu, the bull that is invulnerable, that proudly shows strength,
Father of the great city, the place where the sun rises,
Great herald sacred An,
The judge who makes judgment of the gods,
Who wears a beard the color of lapis lazuli, who descends from sacred heaven, ... heaven,
Utu, son, [Ningal] begotten,
Enki puts him in charge of the entire universe.
He spun the magician's yarn, gave the temenos,
Enki perfected what is feminine is a craft,
For Enki, for people ... - vestments.
Palace Tiara, Lord's Jewel,
Utta, a worthy woman, full of joy (?),
Enki placed them in charge.
Then by itself, throwing away the royal scepter,
Woman, ..., the maiden Inanna, throwing away the royal scepter,
Inanna, to her father Enki
Enters the house and, (humiliatedly) weeping, complains (?) utters:
"Anunaki, great gods, their destinies
I gave Enlil confidently into your hands,
With the maiden, with me, why did you treat it differently?
I, holy Inanna, where is my seniority?
Aruru, Enlil's sister,
Nintu, queen of the mountains,
Took upon herself the sacred... rule,
I took myself ... (and) onions,
I took myself with inlaid power-cup of lapis lazuli,
She took with her a clean, sacred hell-cup,
The midwife became the earth,
You entrusted to her the one born to be a king, the lord of the one born to be.
My sister, Saint Ninisinna,
I took a bright una, became a priestess of Ana,
She placed herself next to An, pronounces the word that fills the heavens (?);
My sister, holy Ninmug,
Took the golden chisel(s) silver hammer(s) (?),
Became a senior in the craft of metal,
[Born] to be a king who wears a strong diadem,
Born to command, crowned with a crown, you gave [into her hands].
My sister, holy Nidaba,
I took myself a measuring stick,
Attached a lapis lazuli ribbon (?) to her forearm,
Announces great me,
Marks boundaries, sets boundaries, - became a clerk in these lands,
You gave the food of the gods into her hands.
Nanshe, mistress, lord - righteous ... fell at her feet -
Became in charge of fish in the seas (?),
Fish, tasty (and) ...,
She delivers to her [father] Enlil.
With me, [a woman], why did you treat me differently?
I am holy Inanna, what is my seniority?
(About three lines are missing.)
“Enlil (?)…,
Decorated (?) for you...,
You are now dressed in clothes (?) "strength of a youth",
You approved the words that the "young man" pronounces,
You are responsible for the staff, stick and whip of the sheepdog,
Maiden Inanna, what else can we give you?
Battles, raids - you will put an answer to the oracles (?),
You among them, not being a bird to an Arab, will give an unfavorable answer,
You're spinning a straight thread
Virgin Inanna, you straighten the steeper thread,
You came up with the shape of clothes, you wear smart clothes,
You spun the yarn magician, threaded the thread into a spindle,
In ... you dyed (?) a multi-colored ... thread.
Inanna, you...
Inanna, you destroyed the indestructible, destroyed the indestructible,
You silenced (?) ... "tambourine (?) crying"
Maiden Inanna, you have returned the hymns of tigi and adab to their home.
You, whose admirers never tire of admiring you,
Maiden Inanna, you that you know distant wells, ropes (?) fastening;
Take a look! The flood came, the earth came to life,
The flood of Enlil has come, the earth has revived.
(The remaining nineteen lines are destroyed.)
Passing from mythology to epic, let us say that the Sumerians were undoubtedly the first creators and developers of epic literature, consisting of narrative heroic tales, clothed in poetic form. Like the ancient Greeks, Hindus, and Teutons, the Sumerians in the early stages of their history passed through a heroic age, the spirit and atmosphere of which are reproduced in their epic memory. Motivated by the desire for fame and name so characteristic of ruling class heroic age, kings and princes kept bards and minstrels in their courts to compose narrative poems or hymns to celebrate their adventures and achievements. These epic hymns, primarily aimed at entertaining the public during frequent court holidays and feasts, were probably recited to the accompaniment of a harp or lyre.
None of the early heroic hymns have come down to us in their original form, because they were created at a time when writing was either completely unknown, or, if known, had little to do with illiterate minstrels. The written monuments of the epic of Greece, India and Teutonia belong to much later periods and represent very complex literary editions, among which only a small part contains early hymns, and then in a very modified and expanded form. In Sumer, there is every reason to believe that some of the early heroic songs were first written on clay five or six centuries after the end of the heroic age, and by that time had undergone significant changes in the hands of priests and scribes.
The written epic of the three Indo-European heroic ages reveals a number of striking similarities in form and content. All poems concern mainly personalities. It is the deeds and deeds individual heroes, and not the fate and glory of the state or community, become the subject of the poet's attention. While the adventurers themselves are most likely historical figures, the poet does not hesitate to introduce non-historical motifs and statements, such as exaggeration of the hero's abilities, prophetic dreams, and the presence of unearthly beings. Stylistically, the epic poem is replete with stable epithets, long repetitions, repetitive formulas and descriptions, gravitating towards excessive detailing that we are not used to. It is especially characteristic that in all epic works a significant place is given to monologues. All this applies to the Sumerian epic to the same extent as to the Greek, Indian and Teutonic.
In fairness, it should be said that there are also many significant differences between the Sumerian epic material and the Greek, Indian and Teutonic ones. For example, the Sumerian epic poem consists of several independent stories, unrelated by plot and unequal in length, each of which is limited to a single episode. The task of uniting these episodes and integrating them into a single whole is not set. Sumerian literary material practically does not characterize the hero and does not try to penetrate into his psychology. Heroes represent, rather, a generalized type, undifferentiated, rather than personified.
Moreover, individual events and plot relate to each other in a rather static and conditional way; there is not that plastic, expressive movement so characteristic of poems like Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Mortal women in Sumerian literature hardly play any noticeable role, while in Indo-European epic literature they are given a very significant role. Finally, with regard to technique, the Sumerian poet achieves rhythmic effect mainly through variation and repetition. He is absolutely unaware of the concept of meter and size, which the Indo-European epic uses in full force. Despite all these differences, it is hardly possible that a literary form as individual in style and medium as narrative poetry was created and developed independently and in different time periods in Sumer, Greece, India and Northern Europe. Since the narrative poetry of the Sumerians is still the oldest of the four, there is a possibility that epic genre originates precisely in Sumer, from where it then spread to neighboring lands.
Today we can name nine Sumerian epic tales, ranging in length from just over a hundred to over six hundred lines. Two of them revolve around the hero Enmerkar and may be called "Enmerkar in the land of Aratta" and "Enmerkar and Ensukushsiranna". The other two are centered around a hero named Lugalbanda, although here we meet with Enmerkar. They can be titled: "Lugalbanda and Enmerkar" and "Lugalbanda and Mount Khurrum". The remaining five revolve around the most famous of the Sumerian heroes, who has no equal in the entire Ancient Near East - Gilgamesh. Two of them, Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven and The Death of Gilgamesh, have come down to us in fragments. The other three are almost completely preserved. These are "Gilgamesh and Agga Kisha", glorifying Gilgamesh as a patriot and "defender of the kingdom"; "Gilgamesh and the Country of Life", where he plays the role of the brave dragon-slayer, the first Saint George; and "Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Underworld (the Underworld)", in which he appears as an unusually complex personality: courteous, courageous, despotic, generous, sincere, prescient and inquisitive.
The poem "Gilgamesh and Agga" is the shortest of all the Sumerian epic poems. However, despite its brevity, it is of rather unusual interest. The plot is exclusively about people; unlike other Sumerian epic poems, it does not contain mythological motifs involving any Sumerian deities. The poem is historically significant; it sheds new light on the early hostility of the Sumerian city-states. Finally, it testifies to the first political assembly, the "bicameral congress", which took place almost five thousand years ago.
From the chapter on a brief history of the Sumerians, it is clear that Sumer, like Greece in a later era, consisted of several city-states that sought to dominate the country as a whole. One of the most important was Kish, a city that, according to Sumerian legend, received the "right to reign" from above immediately after the flood. But over time, another city-state, Erech, began to surpass him in strength and influence, finally becoming a real threat to the supremacy of Kish in Sumer. Agga, the last ruler of the Kish dynasty, recognized the danger and sent an ultimatum to Erech, where Gilgamesh ruled, demanding that he either submit or suffer the consequences of disobedience. The poem begins with the arrival of Aggi's messengers with an ultimatum to Gilgamesh and the inhabitants of Erech.
Gilgamesh is determined to fight rather than submit to Agga, but first he needs to get the approval of the citizens of Erech. Therefore, he appears before the “high assembly of the elders of his city” with an urgent request not to obey Kish, but to take up arms and achieve victory. "Senators", however, are in a different mood; they prefer to recognize Kish and enjoy the world. Gilgamesh is disappointed with this decision. Therefore, he goes with the same request to the "meeting of young citizens of the city." After a long meeting, which ended with Gilgamesh's eulogy and an ardent call for victory, the assembly of "men" proclaims war and independence. Gilgamesh is now quite satisfied, and, turning to his faithful servant and comrade-in-arms Enkidu, expresses confidence in the victory over Agga.
Soon, however - or, as the poet says, "it was not five days, it was not ten" - Agga besieges Erech, and, despite brave speeches, the citizens of the city were seized with fear. Then Gilgamesh turns to the "heroes" of Erech and asks the volunteers to fight Agga. One of them, named Birhurturre, willingly agrees; he is sure he can sway Aggie's decision.
But as soon as Birhurturre passes through the gates of Erech, he is seized, beaten and taken to Agga. He starts a conversation with Agga, but before that conversation is complete, another hero, Zabardibunugga, climbs the wall. Seeing him, Agga asks Birhurturre if this is King Gilgamesh. When he gives a negative answer, Agga and his people lose interest in him and continue to besiege Erech and torment Birhurturre.
Now Gilgamesh himself climbs the wall to face Agga; the inhabitants of Erech freeze in horror. Having learned from Birhurturre that this, finally, is his master, Agga, under the proper impression, lifts the siege, in connection with which Gilgamesh expresses gratitude to Agga for his generous attitude. The poem ends with the praise of Gilgamesh as the savior of Erech.
Below is a trial translation of the epic poem; much of it is still unclear and vague, but for today it is the best that can be done.
Messengers of Aggi, son of Enmebaraggezi,
They came from Kish to Gilgamesh in Erech,
Lord Gilgamesh to the elders of the city
He told about the case, asks for their words:
Assembly of city elders
replies to Gilgamesh:
“To complete the wells, to complete all the wells of the country,
Complete wells, small cups of the country,
Dig wells, complete the ropes,
We will submit to the house of Kish, we will not go against him with weapons.
What feats he accomplishes in the name of Inanna,
He did not accept the words of the elders in his heart.
The second time Gilgamesh, lord of Kullab,
He told the men of the city about the case, asks for their words:
“To complete the wells, to complete all the wells of the country,
Complete wells, small cups of the country,
Dig wells, complete the ropes,
We will not bow to the house of Kish, we will strike him with weapons.
Meeting of the men of the city
replies to Gilgamesh:
"Of those who stand, those who sit,
Of those raised with the sons of kings,
Of those who press on the donkey's thigh,
Who is alive in spirit!
We will not bow to the house of Kish, we will strike him with weapons.
Eanna, heaven-given home,
The great gods conceived parts of it -
You took care of them - you, the king and the hero!
Are you afraid of his coming?
That army is small, its rear is staggering,
Men do not raise their eyes high.
Then Gilgamesh, lord of Kullab,
At the word of the men of their city
rejoiced in the heart, became clear in spirit,
He said to his servant Enkidu:
"Well, let's lay aside the tools of labor for the sake of fierce battles,
Let military weapon back on your hip
And everything around will plunge into horror and fear,
When he approaches, great fear will fall on him from me,
There were not five days, there were not ten days,
Agga son of Enmebaraggezi laid siege to Erech;
Erech - his resolve is shaken.
Gilgamesh, lord of Kullab,
Says to his heroes: "My heroes with darkened faces,
Let him rise who has a heart
I command him to go to Agga!”
Birhurturre, who was the head, to his king,
Praised his king:
"I will go to Agga,
His resolve will be shaken, his advice will be scattered.”
Birhurturre went out of the city gates,
He was seized at the door of the city gates,
Birhurturre - and the flesh tormented him,
They delivered him to Agga,
Agga speaks to him.
He did not finish his words, Zabardibunugga climbed the wall.
Agga saw him, he says to Birhurturra:
That man is not my king,
Oh, that he were my king!
If it were his high forehead,
His face is like a buffalo,
Lapis lazuli like his beard,
Oh, if it were his graceful fingers!
The great army did not rise, the great army did not move,
A huge army did not roll in the dust,
Foreigners, whom darkness, did not know defeat,
The townspeople did not swallow the dust,
They didn’t cut the noses of the boats,
Agga, king of Kish, did not hold back the troops;
They beat him, kicked him,
Birhurturre, - the flesh tormented him.
Following Zabaradibunugga, Gilgamesh ascended the wall,
Terror seized the young and old people of Kullab,
The gates of the city froze at their approach,
Enkidu went outside the city gates,
Gilgamesh looked down from the wall
Agga saw him:
“Slave, is that man not your king?”
"That man is my king."
As soon as he said it,
A huge army rose, a huge army rushed,
A huge army rolled in the dust.
Foreigners, whom darkness knows defeat,
The townspeople swallowed the dust
They cut the noses of the boats,
Agga, king of Kish, held back the troops.
Gilgamesh, lord of Kullab,
Agge says:
Agga my lieutenant Agga my captain
Agga, general of my armies,
Agga, you saturate the flying bird with grain,
Agga, you gave me breath, gave me life
Agga, you got your fugitive back."
Erech, made by the hands of the gods,
Huge walls touch the clouds
The lofty chambers An himself prepared,
About whom you cared - you, the king and the hero!
Conqueror, beloved Ana Prince,
Agga gave you freedom for the good of Kish,
Before Utu returned to you the favor of the old days,
Gilgamesh, lord of Kullab,
Good praise for you.
The main theme of another epic poem about Gilgamesh, "Gilgamesh and the Land of Life", is man's preoccupation with death and its sublimation in the concept of an immortal name. The plot of the story is built on motives and actions imbued with the sharpness of these moods. Stylistically, her sober tone is supported and enhanced by a skillful choice of various repetitions and parallels. Several significant fragments are not yet clear. Today, this story can be recreated as follows.
Lord Gilgamesh is dejected and overwhelmed by the thought of death. His heart hurts and his spirit darkens as soon as he sees how one of the inhabitants of Erech is dying, and "dead bodies are swaying on the waves of the river." Bitterly realizing that he, like all mortals, is destined to die sooner or later, he decides to at least exalt his name before the inevitable fate befalls him. Therefore, he intends to go to the distant "Land of Life" to cut down its famous cedars and deliver them to Erech.
Deciding so, Gilgamesh informs Enkidu, his faithful servant, of his intention. Enkidu advises him to first acquaint the sun god Utu with his intention, since it is to him that the “Land of Life” is entrusted. Heeding this advice, Gilgamesh brings gifts to Utu and asks for his support in this journey.
At first, Utu was skeptical of Gilgamesh's abilities, but Gilgamesh insists and repeats his request in a more persuasive manner. Utu then becomes sympathetic to him and promises to neutralize the seven natural weather demons that pose a potential threat to Gilgamesh on his journey. Filled with joy, Gilgamesh gathers 50 volunteers from Erech, free people, not burdened by either "home" or "mother" and ready to follow him wherever he goes. Armed with weapons of bronze and wood, made by him for himself and his companions, Gilgamesh of Erech sets off for the "Land of Life".
Along the way, they overcome seven mountains, and only after crossing the seventh, Gilgamesh finds "the cedar of his heart." He fells it with an axe, Enkidu cuts off all the branches, and their comrades drag the branches to the top of the hill. However, such an act raised and agitated Huwawa, the monster guarding the "Land of Life", and he manages to plunge Gilgamesh into a heavy sleep, from which he awakens with great difficulty only after a long time.
Frustrated by this unexpected delay, Gilgamesh swears by his mother, the goddess Ninsun, and by his father, divine hero Lugalbanda, who will not return to Erech until he destroys the monster Huwawa, be it a god or a man. Enkidu begs him to return, as he has seen this terrible monster and is sure that it is impossible to resist him. But that doesn't stop Gilgamesh. Confident that no evil is to be feared together, he urges Enkidu to put aside his fears and move forward.
The monster, however, sitting in his cedar house, watches them and makes desperate attempts to get rid of Gilgamesh. But he is fearless and even tries to convince Huwawa with a false assurance that he brought him gifts. Be that as it may, we see how Gilgamesh cuts down seven trees, blocking their access to the inner chambers of Huwawa, and his companions cut off the branches, knit them and lay them at the foot of the mountain.
Now Gilgamesh meets face to face with Huwawa. He lightly strikes him on the cheek, puts a ring on him and ties it with a rope. Then Huwawa tearfully calls out to the sun god Utu and humbly begs Gilgamesh to let him go. Gilgamesh feels sorry for him, and he allegorically suggests to Enkidu that he release the monster. But Enkidu is against such generous acts, considering them stupid and dangerous. When the indignant Huwawa makes an insulting attack on Enkidu, he cuts off his head.
Both heroes bring the severed head of Huwawa to Enlil, the king of the gods, no doubt eager to express his divine approval and reward to them. But as soon as Enlil sees her, he breaks out with a curse that seems to doom the heroes to eternal wandering through the mountains and plains, scorched by the sun. Then, nevertheless, Enlil gives Gilgamesh something like the seven divine rays, called melam in Sumer, perhaps as a protection from wild animals that teem with mountains and forests. And on this vague and ambiguous note, the poem ends. The translation of the poem is as follows:
Vladyka decided to go to the "Country of Life",
Lord Gilgamesh decided to go to the "Land of Life",
He says to Enkidu:
"Enkidu, brick and seal still do not know the fatal outcome,
His servant Enkidu answers him:
“My lord, if you want to enter the “country”, bring out Utu,
To inform Utu, fearless Utu,
That "country" under his command,
The country of the fallen cedar, it is under the rule of Utu,
Let Utu know."
Gilgamesh laid his hands on the goat that was all white,
He pressed a spotted goat to his chest as an offering,
In his hand he took the silver scepter of his power,
Says to heavenly Utu:
Utu, I want to enter the "country", help me,
I want to enter the country of fallen cedars, be my help.
Heavenly Utu says to him:
“Indeed, you are a royal warrior, but why are you a “country”?”
“Utu, I would like to say a word, turn your ear to the word!”
I would like it to reach you, hear it!
In my city people are dying, my heart is crushed,
People are dying, the heart is crushed,
I looked from the wall
The dead saw the bodies floating along the rivers,
As for me, they will do the same to me, truly so!
A man, even the highest, cannot reach heaven,
A man, even the widest one, cannot cover the earth.
Brick and seal still do not know the fatal outcome,
I will enter the "country", I will raise my name there,
Within the limits where names are exalted, I will exalt my name,
Within the limits where names are not exalted, I will exalt the names of the gods.
Utu accepted his tears as an offering,
Being merciful, showed mercy to him,
Seven heroes of the weather, one mother of sons,
He took me to the caves in the mountains.
The one who cut down the cedar was filled with joy,
Lord Gilgamesh was full of joy,
Gathered his city to one man,
Review inflicted on people, as close comrades-in-arms,
“Whoever has a house, return to the house!
Who has a mother, return to mother!
Let the lonely men who will do as I do stand by my side!”
Who had a house, returned to the house,
Who had a mother, returns to his mother!
Lonely men who had done as he did, fifty in number, stood by his side.
He directed his steps to the house of the blacksmiths,
Forged a sword and a battle axe, "the power of the gods",
He directed his steps to black forests and fields,
He cut down the willow, apple tree and boxwood,
The sons of the city who accompanied him took them into their arms,
Seven weather demons are ordered to hide in mountain caves.
They pass the first mountain,
But he does not find the cedar of his heart,
They pass the seventh mountain,
He found the cedar of his heart.
(At this point, several lines are broken, and it is not entirely clear what happened. Perhaps Huwawa learned about the fall of the cedar and sent a deep sleep to Gilgamesh. In any case, when the text becomes legible again, we learn that a certain person, perhaps Enkidu is trying to awaken Gilgamesh.)
He touched him, he does not get up,
He speaks to him, he does not answer,
"The one who sleeps, the one who sleeps,
Gilgamesh, lord, son of Kullab,
How long will your sleep last?
The country has darkened, it is full of shadows,
Twilight brought this dim light
Utu went with his head up to his mother Ningal,
O Gilgamesh, how long will your sleep last?
May the sons of your city who accompanied you
Do not stand, waiting for you, at the foot of the mountain,
Let the mother who gave birth to you not have to be taken to the square.
He looked carefully
He covered himself with the “heroic word”, like clothes,
He pulled on his chest in thirty shekels a robe that he wore on his arm,
Rising on the "great land", like a bull,
Dust swallowed, teeth blackened with earth:
Holy Lugalbanda, my father, [I swear]
Until I destroy that "adversary", be he a man,
Until I destroy him, be he a god
I will not turn back to the city the feet that I sent to the “country”.”
The faithful servant cried out, clutching at life,
Says to his master:
"Master, you haven't seen him, you're not scared,
I, who saw him, was frightened,
Warrior, his dragon teeth,
His face is the face of a lion,
His roar is a stormy waterfall,
No one left his devouring thickets of mouth,
My lord, go to the country
I'm heading to the city
I'll tell your mother about your glory,
Let her laugh
Tell her about your death
Let bitter tears shed.
“For me, let no other die,
A laden boat will not sink,
In three folds there will be a whole cut,
They won't throw anyone off the walls
The house and the shack will not be burned down,
So help me, I help you
What can happen to us?
When I drowned, when I drowned
When the Magan boat sank,
When the boat "Strength Magilum" sank,
All living things moved into the "ark of life",
Let's go ahead, we won't look at him,
If, when we go ahead,
There will be fear, there will be fear, drive it away!
There will be horror, there will be horror, drive him away!”
“As your heart desires! Well, let's hit the road!"
They had not yet come within a quarter of a mile,
Huwawa stood at his cedar house,
Eye riveted to him, the eye of death,
shook his gilded head at him,
He let out a terrifying cry against him.
Gilgamesh - his hamstrings and his legs trembled,
He got scared
He did not deviate from the intended path.
He (Huvava) rose on huge paws in claws,
He darted back and forth
“Thick-maned one who wears the clothes of an ulukhha,
Regal, admiration of the gods,
An angry bull, relentless in battle,
Who is proud of the mother that gave birth to you,
Who is proud of the nanny who fed you on her lap,
Don't be afraid, touch the ground with your hand."
Gilgamesh did not touch the earth with his hand, saying:
"The life of Ninsun, the life of the mother who gave me life,
Holy Lugalbanda, my father,
You know pretty well who lives in the "country"
For your little feet I sewed little boots,
For your big legs I sewed big boots.
He (Gilgamesh) himself knocked down the first (trunk),
The sons of the city who accompanied him,
They cut down the branches, tied them together,
Laid down at the foot of the mountain
Having dealt with the seventh (cedar) himself, he approached the mansions,
He pressed him against the wall, like a snake in wine,
He gave a slap in the face, as if kissed,
I put a ring in his snout, like a captured ox,
He tied his hands with a rope, like a captive warrior.
Huwawa - teeth chattering,
Grabbed Gilgamesh the lord by the hand.
"I would like to say a word to Utu."
“Utu, I don’t know the mother that gave birth to me,
I don't know my father who conceived me,
"Country" gave birth to me, you conceived me.
He conjured Gilgamesh with Heaven, Earth, World
Afterlife, I took him by the hand, humiliated myself in front of him.
Regal Gilgamesh - pity penetrated the heart,
Said to Enkidu, his servant:
"Enkidu, let the captured bird fly home,
Let the captive warrior return to his mother's breast.
Enkidu answered Gilgamesh:
"The highest, who are not judged,
Rock will swallow, Rock that knows the difference.
If the bird that is caught returns home,
If a captive warrior returns to his mother's breast,
You will no longer return to the city of your mother, who gave birth to you.
Huwawa says to Enkidu:
"The mercenary, hungry, thirsty,
obsequious, Why do you speak ill of me to him!”
And he just said it
Enkidu, in anger, cut off his neck,
Threw it into a travel bag
They brought it to Enlil,
They opened the travel bag, took out the dead head,
Enlil was laid at his feet.
Enlil looked at Huvava dead head,
Angry at the words of Gilgamesh:
“Why did you behave like this?
Since you raised your hand to him,
Since his name was destroyed,
Let the fire burn your faces,
May the fire consume your food,
May the fire drink your water!”
(Then follows the episode when Enlil gives Gilgamesh the seven melams, and an unintelligible passage of three lines that concludes the poem.)
In the third of these epic tales, Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Underworld, the hero is portrayed alternately as a gallant knight, an assertive bull, a desperate whiner, an instructive sage, an indulgent master, and a saddened mortal, eager to find out about life in the afterlife. His servant Enkidu plays the role of a faithful and brave friend, who, however, at a critical moment did not heed the warning of his master and therefore died. Behind all this stands Inanna, the Sumerian Aphrodite, with her constant tears and fateful gifts tinged with death.
The poem begins with a prologue consisting of two small paragraphs that have nothing to do with Gilgamesh and the plot of the story. In the first passage we are talking about the divine act of creation up to the separation of heaven from earth, therefore it is of particular importance in Sumerian cosmogony and cosmology. The second part of the prologue depicts the battle of Enki, the Sumerian Poseidon, with the underworld, embodied in a monster dragon. It seems that it took place shortly after the separation of heaven from earth, after the goddess Ereshkigal was forcibly cast down into the lower world; all this reminds me a little Greek myth about the forced abduction of Persephone. As to the outcome of this battle, we remain in the dark, as the poet was in a hurry to begin the story of Gilgamesh, which, as far as it can be understood today, is as follows.
Once a khuluppu tree (probably a willow), growing on the banks of the Euphrates and watered by its waters, was uprooted by the south wind and carried away along the waters of the Euphrates. This was seen by the goddess Inanna, who wandered nearby and, for some obscure reason, was frightened by the "word" of An and Enlil, the two supreme deities of the Sumerian pantheon. Inanna caught the tree and carried it to her city of Erech, where she planted it in her fertile garden. She carefully looked after him in the hope that, when he grew up, she could make herself a throne and a bed out of him.
Years passed. The tree got stronger and became large, but its trunk was completely bare, not a twig, not a leaf. Because at its foot a snake nested, which knows no pity; the bird Imdugud settled its chicks on its top; and inside the vampire Lilith built herself a home. Therefore, Inanna, at first carefree and cheerful, now shed bitter tears.
When dawn came and her brother, the sun god Utu, went out into his "royal domain", Inanna in tears told him everything that had happened to her huluppu tree. But Utu could do nothing to help her.
Then Inanna repeated her grief to her "brother" Gilgamesh, and he decided to intercede for her. He put on armor weighing fifty minutes, took a "road ax" and killed a snake sitting at the base of a tree. Seeing this, the bird Imdugud carried away the chicks towards the mountains, and Lilith destroyed her dwelling in the core of the tree and ran to pursue her lonely victims. Gilgamesh and the people of Erech who accompanied him cut down the tree, and Inanna could now make a throne and a bed out of it.
And what did Inanna do? From the base of the tree she created a pukka (perhaps a drum); from his crown - mikku (drumsticks) and gave all this to Gilgamesh. But Gilgamesh used them to suppress the inhabitants of Erech, especially when he condemned young people to war and thus turned their wives into widows. In any case, it is precisely “because of the weeping of young maidens” that pukku and mikku fall into the “great abyss,” that is, into the lower world. Gilgamesh does his best to get them back, but in vain. And so he sits down at the ganzir, the "eye" of the underworld, and mourns his loss.
When Enkidu, Gilgamesh's servant, saw his master in grief, he bravely volunteered to descend into the nether world to retrieve pukka and mikka. Gilgamesh warned him about the taboos of the nether world that must be observed in order to "cry from the nether world", especially the cry of the mother of the god of healing Ninazu, who lies in deep sleep, naked and uncovered, couldn't keep him there forever. But Enkidu disregarded his master's advice and was captured by the underworld, unable to rise to the surface of the earth again.
Gilgamesh, dejected by the new misfortune, went to Nippur, the home of Enlil, the king of the gods. In tears he told him what had happened to Enkidu. But Enlil showed no compassion and refused to help him.
Then Gilgamesh goes to Eredu, the home of Enki, the god of wisdom, with the same sorrow. Enki decides to help Gilgamesh as much as possible under the circumstances. By his order, the sun god Utu opened the entrance to the lower world, through which the ghost of Enkidu - for this is all that was left of him - rose to the surface of the earth. Master and servant, more precisely, the ghost of the servant, embraced, and Gilgamesh began to question Enkidu about what he had seen in the lower realms. In this depressing conversation, the poem that began happy days creation, comes to a far from happy end. We present the text of the poem in the form in which it appears before us today.
After the old nights, after the old nights,
Following the days of old, following the distant days of old,
Following the days of bygone, all things needed came into being,
Following the days of the past, all the things needed were announced,
When the bread was tasted in the temples of the "country",
When the bread was baked in the ovens of the "country"
When earth and sky were separated
When people's names were established,
When An took the sky
When Enlil took the land
When Ereshkigal took the nether world as his trophy,
When the father set sail against the lower world,
He rolled small ones at the king,
On Enki he rolled big ones,
Small stones from the hands
Large stones from dancing thickets,
Keel of Enki's boat
Crushing in battle, like a raging storm;
Hostile to the king, water at the bow of the boat
Eating like a wolf
Enki hostile, waters at the stern of the boat
They fly like a lion.
Once upon a time there was a tree, huluppu, tree,
It was planted on the banks of the Euphrates,
The Euphrates nourished him with waters,
But the fury of the south wind uprooted him,
Took off his crown
The Euphrates drew him on his waters.
The woman who, fearful of the word Ana, roamed by,
In fear of Enlil's word, wandering beside,
She caught this tree, brought it to Erech,
"I will bring it to Inanna's pure fruitful garden."
The woman groomed the tree with her hand, placed it at her feet,
Inanna groomed the tree with her hand, placed it at her feet,
"It will be my throne on which I will sit," she said,
“It will become my bed, on which I will lie down,” she said.
A large tree has grown, but with a bare, leafless crown,
At the root of the snake that knows no pity made a hole,
Imdugud-bird settled in the crown of chicks,
In the center, the maiden Lilith looked after herself a house, -
Forever laughing, forever cheerful maiden,
Virgin Inanna - how she cries now!
Says to his brother Utu:
When An took the sky,
When Enlil took the land,
When he set the sail, when he set the sail,
Her brother, hero, Utu the brave
Didn't stand next to her in this case.
As soon as the light started, the horizon cleared up,
Only Utu ascended from "the fields of his royal",
Like his sister, the sacred virgin Inanna,
Then he says to the hero Gilgamesh:
“My brother, when, after the days of bygone, the fates were already announced,
When abundance saturates the earth,
When An took the sky, When Enlil took the earth,
When Ereshkigal took the nether world as his trophy,
When he set the sail, when he set the sail,
When my father set sail against the lower world ... "
Inanna again repeats the entire passage, which ends with the lines:
"Eternally laughing, forever cheerful maiden,
Virgin Inanna - how am I crying now!
Her brother, the hero Gilgamesh,
Stood next to her in this case,
A weapon weighing fifty minutes is attached to the belt -
Fifty minutes is the same to him as thirty shekels -
"Road Ax" -
Seven talents and seven mines - took in hand,
At the root he killed the snake that knows no pity,
From the top of Imdugud, the bird took away the chicks, hid in the mountains,
In the center, the maiden Lilith destroyed her house, disappeared into the wastelands.
The tree turned upside down, raked at the top,
City people who accompanied him cut off the branches,
He gave it to Inanna on the throne and on the couch,
She turned that root into a pukka [drum] for him,
She turned the top into mikka [drumsticks] for him.
Calling pukku - the streets and alleys made him fill with the sounds of pukku,
With a drum beat - he made the streets and alleys fill with battle,
The youths of the city, condemned to pukku,
Pain and resentment - he (pukku) the suffering of their widows,
“My husband, my husband!” they cry,
Who had a mother - she brings bread to her son,
Whoever had a sister - she brings water to her brother.
After the evening star has gone out,
And he noticed the place where pukku was,
Pukku delivered to him, brought to his house,
At dawn in the places that he marked - pain and resentment!
Captured! Dead! Widows!
And because the young wives wept,
Pukku and Mikku fell into the "great abyss",
He put his hand there, but he did not reach them,
He put his foot in there, but he did not reach them,
He sat at the gate of the ganzira, the "eye" of the lower world,
And Gilgamesh wept, his face pale:
"Oh my pukku, oh my mikku,
Pukku with an impeccable call, unrestrained rhythm -
If pukku ever visited a carpenter in the house,
If he had a carpenter's wife, that as a mother to me, who gave life,
If at least once the child of that carpenter had, that she is similar to my little sister, -
Pukku is mine, who will get it to me from the lower world!
My Mikku, who will get them to me from the lower world!
Enkidu, his servant, says:
“My lord, why are you crying?
Why is your heart so sadly weak?
I will return your pukka from the underworld,
I will return your mikka from the "eye" of the nether world!"
Gilgamesh says to Enkidu:
“If you now intend to descend into the lower world,
I'll tell you my word, take my word
I will give you guidance, you follow it:
Do not wear clean clothes, otherwise
The guards, like enemies, will take up arms against you,
Do not anoint yourself with sweet oil from a bottle,
For at the smell they will crowd around you tightly,
And don't throw a boomerang in the underworld or else
Those that get hit by the boomerang will gather around
Do not hold the staff in your hands, otherwise
Ghosts will circle around you everywhere.
Don't tie sandals to your feet
Do not let out a single cry in the afterlife,
Don't kiss the wife you love
And don't hit the wife you hate
Don't kiss the child you love
And don't hit the child that you hate
For the groaning of the lower world will not let you go,
Crying for that one, sleeping, sleeping,
About mother Ninzu, about sleeping,
Whose sacred chest is not covered with covers.
Here Enkidu descended into the lower world,
But he did not listen to the words of his master -
He puts on clean clothes, and immediately
The guards, like enemies, took up arms against him,
He anointed himself with sweet oil from a bottle,
Immediately, they crowded around him tightly at the smell,
He threw a boomerang into the lower world, and immediately
Those who received the blow surrounded him,
He held a staff in his hands,
Ghosts began to circle around him everywhere.
He tied sandals to his feet,
He raised a cry in the afterlife,
Kissed the wife that he loved
He hit the wife that he hates,
Kissed the child that he loved,
Then he hit the child, which he hates,
The groaning of the lower world seized him,
Crying for the sleeping one, for the sleeping one,
About Ninzu's mother, about the sleeping one,
Whose sacred body is not covered with clothes,
Whose sacred chest is not covered with veils.
Enkidu could not rise from the underworld -
Not fate keeps him there tightly,
The underworld holds him tight.
The underworld holds him tight.
The underworld holds him tight.
Then Gilgamesh went to Nippur,
He stepped, alone, to Enlil in Nippur, weeping:
"Father Enlil, my pukku fell into the nether world,
My mikku fell into the ganzir
The underworld holds him tight.
It is not weakness that holds him there tightly,
The underworld holds him tight.
It is not the demon Nergal who holds the defenseless tightly,
The underworld holds him tight.
In the battle, in the "place of courage", he did not die,
Father Enlil did not stand by his side in this matter,
He went to Eredu,
He stepped, alone, to Enki in Ered, crying:
"Father Enki, my pukku fell into the nether world,
My mikku fell into the ganzir
I sent Enkidu to bring them back,
The underworld holds him tight.
It is not weakness that holds him there tightly,
The underworld holds him tight.
It is not the demon Nergal who holds the defenseless tightly,
The underworld holds him tight.
In the battle, in the "place of courage", he did not die,
The underworld holds him tight."
Enki's father stood by his side in this matter,
He says to the hero, the fearless Utu,
To a son born to Ningal:
"Open now the womb of the lower world,
Raise the ghost of Enkidu from the underworld."
He opened the womb of the lower world,
Raised the ghost of Enkidu from the underworld,
They hugged, they kissed
Sigh and hold advice:
"Tell me, what did you see in the lower world?"
"I'll tell you, my friend, I'll tell you everything."
The poem ends with a rather poorly preserved dialogue between two friends about the attitude towards the dead in the afterlife.
Let's move on from the epic to the hymns. Hymnography was an elaborate, extremely complex art in Sumer. Collections of hymns have come down to us, ranging in length from less than fifty to almost four hundred lines, and there is every reason to believe that this is only a part of the hymns written in Sumer over the centuries. Judging by their content, existing hymns can be divided into four main categories: 1) hymns praising the gods, 2) hymns praising kings, 3) hymnal prayers, in which praise of the gods is interspersed with blessings and prayers for kings, 4) hymns in honor of Sumerian temples.
Divine hymns are written in the form of either the poet's address to the deity, or the glorification of the deity and his deeds in the third person. Among the longest and most significant are the following hymns:
1) a hymn to Enlil, remarkable for the poetic summary of what civilization owes to its benefactor;
2) a hymn to the god Ninurta, where he is addressed not only under this name, but also called Pagibilsag and Ningirsu;
3) the hymn of Egheduanna, long known as the daughter of Sargon the Great, to the goddess Inanna;
4) a hymn to Inanna as the star of Venus, notable for the description of the hierogamic ceremony of the ritual union of the goddess with King Iddin-Dagan of Isin on New Year's Day;
5) a hymn to Inanna as the goddess of war and wrath;
6) a hymn to Utu as the god of justice, who regulates and protects the world order;
7) a hymn to the goddess Nanshe as the curator of human ethics and morality;
8) a hymn to Hendursag, a specially chosen vizier of the goddess Nanshe, who is responsible for the judgment of human deeds and misdeeds;
9) a hymn to the goddess Ninisinna as “the great healer of blackheads”, the patroness of the art of medicine and healing;
10) a hymn to Ninkasi as the goddess of intoxicating drinks;
11) a hymn to Nidaba as the goddess of writing, counting and wisdom;
12) a hymn to the goddess Nungal, daughter of Ereshkigal, as a judge and patroness of the "black-headed".
Of the hymns of praise to kings, the most important group belongs to Shulgi, the second ruler of the Third Dynasty of Ur; five of them have been completely or almost completely restored. Two hymns sing of Shulgi's father, Ur-Nammu. There are a number of hymns dedicated to the Isin dynasty, which succeeded the Third Dynasty, among them Iddin-Dagan, Ishme-Dagan and Lipit-Ishtar stand out.
Most of the royal hymns are characterized by extravagant self-praise; meant that the kings themselves gave pompous, pompous and conceited praises own glory without any hesitation or embarrassment. Such unusual and, from our point of view, rather unworthy behavior of kings contains a certain psychological meaning; he fully answers general trend to the arrogance and superiority characteristic of Sumerian behavior in general.
A favorite type of composition among Sumerian hymnographers was when praises to the gods alternated with blessings to the kings and prayers for them. Except, perhaps rather surprisingly, the mother goddess Ninhursag, practically all the major deities are represented in this category of hymns: An, Enlil, Enki, Nanna, Utu, Ninurta, Nergal, Inanna, Bau and Ninisinna. As for the kings who were blessed and prayed for, all the rulers of the Third Dynasty of Ur are present here, as well as the earlier rulers of the First Dynasty of Isin. One of these hymns is addressed to the goddess Bau as a friend and helper of Eannatum in Lagash, which clearly indicates the existence of this type of hymn in Sumer in pre-Sargonic times.
Finally, the temple hymns are represented by a song of praise to Ekuru, to the temple of Enlil in Nippur, a hymn to the temple of the goddess Ninhursag in Kish, and a most striking composition of over four hundred lines containing brief hymns to all the most significant temples of Sumer and Akkad. One of the most remarkable temple hymns is that written on the now well-known Gudea cylinders; it is calculated in the number of lines close to fourteen hundred, and is dedicated to the rebuilding of the temple of Enin-nu in Lagash.
Turning to the formal aspects of Sumerian hymnography, it should be noted that the composition of hymns has become such a sophisticated form literary creativity in Sumer, which was divided into different categories by the ancient poets themselves, and many lengthy hymns fall under the corresponding category, indicated by a special note at the end of the work. The hymns in Sumer were usually called sir, possibly having something to do with the Hebrew shir. Here are some of their types: sir-khamun, probably hymns of harmony; sir-namnar, musical hymns; sir-namgala, Galaic hymns; sir-namursagga, heroic hymns; and sir-namsipad-inannaka, hymns of the shepherd (goddess) Inanna, where the shepherd, of course, means the god Dumuzi. There is a category of hymns that were named, apparently, according to the instrument under which they were performed: tigi - under the lyre, irshemma, probably under the drums and adab - under some string instrument unknown to us. The tigi and adab hymns are divided by the ancient poets into parts called sagarra and sagidda, which apparently literally means "set of strings" and "long strings" respectively; this is another indication that the hymns were sung to musical instruments. The adab hymns also contain special sections of barsoud and shabatuku, the meaning of which is unclear. Both adab and tigi use an antiphon consisting of one to four lines, this is something like a choral refrain, the name of which does not yet have a clear reading, but sounds approximately from kig. Finally, there are a few hymns that are divided into stanzas marked kirugu, "kneeling" (?), often followed by a refrain-like section of the text, denoted by the word izkig.
Sumerian laments are of two types: laments for the destruction of Sumerian cities and city-states, and laments for the death of the god Dumuzi or someone close to him. two the best representatives The first type can be considered lamentations about the destruction of Ur. The third concerns the destruction of Nippur; it begins with a complaint, but ends on a joyful note in connection with the restoration of the city by Ishme-Dagan of Isin. As for the lamentations for Dumuzi, they vary greatly in length, ranging from long compositions in excess of 200 lines to lamentations less than 50 lines in length. Most of the texts about Dumuzi have now been published. However, there is still no convincing translation of many of them, especially those written in phonetic rather than historical writing, which makes it difficult to divide the text into words, not to mention their interpretation.
Lamentations (lamentations) also include an elegy, or funeral song. This genre of Sumerian literature was completely unknown until 1957, when, during a visit to the Soviet Union, I accidentally saw a tablet with two such elegies in the Pushkin Museum. Together with the museum staff, a detailed edition of the text was prepared and published, which appeared in 1960. Based on this work, we propose here summary and translation of two poems.
A tablet no doubt written in ancient Nippur around 1700 BC. e. (although the essay itself could have appeared much earlier), divided by ancient scribes into four columns. It contains two works of unequal length, separated from each other by a straight line. The first, longer, contains 112 lines of text, the second - only 66. After the texts under the double line, there are three more lines indicating the titles of each work and the number of lines, both together and each of them separately. Both works represent the funeral lament of a certain Ludingirra. In the first, Ludingirra mourns the death of her father, Nanna, who, if I understand the relevant passage correctly, died of wounds received in some duel. In the second song, the same Ludingirra mourns the death of his kindly beloved wife Navirtum, who apparently died of natural causes.
In both compositions, the lamentation is preceded by prologues designed to preface the scene. The prologue of the first song contains 20 lines and is therefore much shorter than the main body of the piece. The prologue of the second song, however, contains 47 lines and is about two and a half times longer than the text itself. Stylistically, both works use a high poetic style, which is characterized by various repetitions, parallels, choral refrains, comparisons and metaphors. The deeds and virtues of the dead, as well as the sorrow and suffering of those who remained alive, are sung in an upbeat, stilted style, but this well-known feature of funeral songs and lamentations has existed all over the world at all times.
The prologue to the first work begins with a rather prosaic two lines that the son, who once departed for a distant country, is called to Nippur, where his father is dying. The next six lines are dedicated to his father, each containing high praise, and the last saying that "he fell ill." This is followed by a fragment describing the strength of the disease, the suffering of the father and his inevitable death. The news of the tragedy finds the son "on a long journey", after which, we dare to assume, he returns to Nippur and, overwhelmed by grief, writes the text of lamentation.
Actually, the lamentation begins with a description of the desperate grief of the wife of the deceased, apparently the mother of Ludingirra, the nameless priestess of the lukur of the god Ninurta, the nameless priestess en of the god Nusku, as well as the sons of the deceased and their brides. After a brief prayer for Nanni's well-being, the song resumes with a description of the weeping of the daughters of the deceased, the elders and matrons of Nippur and his slaves. At this place, quite unexpectedly, a single line appears with the prayer of the eldest son of the deceased. It is followed by a fragment with curses against the murderer of Nanna and his descendant. The mourning ends with a series of prayers: for the well-being of the deceased in the lower world, for his personal god and the god of his city to be baked for him, and for the well-being of his wife, children and relatives.
In the second elegy, the prologue makes up the bulk of the work. It begins with the announcement of Navirtum's death in a series of parallel comparisons and metaphors, followed by a description of the genuine grief of all the inhabitants of Nippur. The next two fragments are not entirely clear, the first of which seems to refer to the forced cessation of important religious rites in connection with the death of Navirtum; Ludingirra, husband of Navirtum, utters words of sorrow. In general, the elegy can be divided into two parts: bitterness over the loss suffered by Ludingirra, set out in a series of parallel sentences, each of which is followed by the same refrain; and a few prayers for the deceased and her husband, children and household.
As to the importance and significance of the two elegies, there is no need to speak of their undoubted literary merit; there is an attempt to convey in a highly poetic form deep human experiences and emotions inspired by the tragic loss, the inevitable death of the closest and dearest of relatives. From the point of view of literature and history, these are the first precious examples of the elegiac genre; for many centuries they precede David's lamentations for Saul and Homeric laments for Hector, ending the Iliad on a mournful note, and therefore are invaluable material for comparative studies. The first of the two elegies is also of particular interest to the eminent Sumerian cosmology, since from it we learn that the Sumerian holy fathers, at least some of them, were of the opinion that the sun, after sunset, continues its journey in the afterlife at night and that the moon-god Nanna spent his “day of sleep,” that is, the last day of each month, in the lower world. So, for example, we learn for the first time about the "judgment of the dead" and that, as expected, it was the sun god Utu - the judge of mankind - who made decisions; we also learn that the god of the moon Nanna, in a certain way, participated in the "announcement of the fates" of the dead on the day of his stay in the lower world.
As regards the authorship of these elegies and the motives for their creation, we have little doubt that the composer of the verses was one of the ummi who worked and taught in the Sumerian edubba, and that these compositions were used as educational texts intended to be copied by edubba students. In fact, one of the lines of the first elegy was found on a small educational tablet during excavations in Nippur and contained the handwriting of both the teacher and the student. Outwardly, the poet appears only as the author of the prologues, while the funeral laments themselves come directly from the lips of Ludingirra. Moreover, at least in the first elegy, the author emphasizes that Ludingirra himself wrote this lament, and this suggests that the poet really held the texts of Ludin-hirra in front of him. But all this is unlikely, especially from the point of view of a single style, characteristic of both the prologues and the laments themselves. On the whole, one gets the impression that both elegies are the pure fruit of the poet's imagination, driven by the aesthetic impulse to create a sublime and touching funeral song, just like the inspiration for writing, for example, a mythological or epic poem.
Below we provide a literal translation of the two elegies, with all, albeit uncomfortable, questions and brackets. Some parts of the text present significant difficulties for translation and understanding.
FIRST ELEGY
(Father) sent to a distant place for his son,
The son who went to a distant place did not (neglect) the instructions of "those days."
The father who lived in the city fell ill,
A precious diamond that is found only in remote mountains, fell ill,
Who was honest (and) pleasant in speech (?), who ... fell ill,
Who was also handsome in figure, (handsome) in head, fell ill,
Who was wise in plans, very tempted in meetings,
fell ill, Who was a man of truth, God-fearing, fell ill,
Ill - and did not eat - faded away (?),
With lips (?) closed tightly (?), did not taste food, lay hungry,
Like a tablet, like a child (?), he ...,
Hero, leader (?), not (moves?) foot,
From (?) his weak ... he was devoured by groaning (eating?) About his children,
The heart is exhausted, (shaking?) in moaning,
The scientist died in Nippur (from his wounds) in battle (?).
This news reached his son on a distant campaign,
Like a son who was not separated (?) from his father,
He did not reject (?) the garments (?) that were sent to him,
The son shed tears, rolled in the dust, said to him "the anthem of the song"
Ludingirra from a burning heart writes a lament:
“O father, who died in the attack (?),
O Nanna, who, through the evil that was planned against him, was carried away to the lower world,
Your wife - alas, that she was his wife, (but) now a widow -
Rushing (?) around you, like a tornado, ... joy ...,
As if ... does for you, (yes) you - the meaning is gone for her,
She sobbed (with a cry of pain), as if about to give birth,
Rotates ..., groans (?), like a cow,
... let out a cry (of pain), sheds tears,
Covered ..., and (?) took (?), that only (?),
… in the dark (?)…,
Who collects (?)…,
Concerns you, (?) heart ... heavy (?).
“What (?)… gets up (?)… at dawn (?),
From ... that lives in ..., lukur-zhrtscha. Ninurta (?)
from ... she threw herself (into the dust?),
Like a moaning (?) god (?), she ...,
Her screams (?) (torments) ... evil,
In (?) the middle (?) of chambers (?) she (?)…,…,
Made (?) a wide (tablecloth) (people?) ... grain, water (?).
Confusion (?) (?) of battle (?), en-priestess Nusku (?)…,
… tears away (?) to you (?), to you her (?)…,
... from your knees ...,
Your sons who (?) were treated (?) as
with the king's sons,
Whatever they (?) eat...,
Whatever they (?) or pi (whether) ...,
Honey and ghee they (?)…,
The table that (?) they (?) set with oil (for) you,
The tears they shed for him are tears of pity(?)
Their lamentations (?) for him - loving (and) sincere,
Like a shriveled grain, they...,
Chicks come back (?) raise (?)…,
Brides of your sons who said:
"Where, (oh) where is he now?" —
Above them fell (?) your (?) ...,
In their... fell silent (?)... because of you,
On the knees of the Domo (Chadians) (?) ... because of you,
Your... sweet sounds... sleep...,
Like... was...,
... crying for you (?) ... does not (?) stop.
Oh my father, (yeah) (rest in peace) your heart,
O Nanna, (yes) your spirit be pleased, ...en (and) enzi,
(Let) those who have escaped the hand of death...
The hand of death was… in (?) their(?)…, (neither) one…,
Death is the mercy (?) of the gods, a place where destinies are announced ... -
Let your offspring... your knee (?).
Your daughters… for you in their (?)…,
The elders of your city (already started?) mourn (?)
(you), Matrons of your city ... you / you,
Slaves (near?) millstone ... (shed?) tears for you,
Domo (Chadians), where (?) it is placed (?),
He has ... silver (?), he acquired (?) grain, he (increased?) wealth.
“Let your eldest son (establish?) for your sake your ... strong foundations.
“The person who killed you, (who?) is like the one who… the heart…,
What attacked (?) you, (huh?) you, with evil forces -
Righteous (?) revenge is given to the king (?), the shepherd, your (personal) god,
Right (?) court given to Utu -
That person (let) (bury?),
His offspring, (let) their names (be erased?),
Let their property, like flying (?) sparrows (?) ...
Let ... countries (?) ...
Bring (?) your favorable... words, let them satisfy you,
O Nanna, may your spirit (?) be pleased, may your heart rest in peace,
Utu, the great god of vengeance,
Having illuminated dark places, he will judge your case (favorably),
Let Nanna announce your fate (favorably) on the "day of dormition",
(Let) Nergal, Enlil of the lower world, ... before (?) that (?),
Let the heroes (?), eating bread, pronounce your name, ... food,
(Let)… the lower world… pity…,
Let (?) ... drinkers (quench?) your thirst with fresh water,
Let (?)…,
In the power (let?) Gilgamesh... your (?) heart (?),
(Let) Nedu and Etana (be) your allies,
Let the gods of the lower world pray (?) for you,
Let your (personal) god say "Enough!"
Let him (?) announce (favorably) your fate,
May the god of your city ... for you ... heart,
Let him (write off) from you (your) promises (?) (and) debts,
May he (wipe) the guilt of the household from all accounts (?),
(Let him nullify) insidious designs against you ...,
May those whom you leave be happy, (let) ...,
Let… receive (?)…,
May (good) spirits (and) geniuses (protect?) yours ...,
May your children be destined (?) for leadership (?),
May (all) your daughters marry,
May your wife live, may your relatives multiply,
May wealth (and) prosperity (?) surround them day by day,
In your... may beer, wine (and all) good things not run out,
May the appeal (?) of your (?) households (children) always be an appeal (?) to your (personal) (?) god!”
SECOND ELEGY
An evil day (fell?) on the mistress in (?) her (?)…,
On beautiful lady, revered mistress, evil eye
(got off?), On a chick that fell (?) from the nest, a net (fell?),
Fertile mother, mother of (many) children, fell into the trap (?),
Deer-coloured cow, prolific wild cow, (lying? broken?), like a vessel of gakkul,
Navitrum, fertile (?) wild cow (lying? broken?), like a vessel of gakkul,
The one who never said "I'm sick!", did not know care,
Which never... never... place divine(?),
How was their (?) place of rest, their (?) abandoned ... was not ...
Clouds (?) gathered over Nippur, in the city ...,
Many are engulfed in a cry (?) of grief (?)…,
Pity for her, whose life had come to an end, seized them,
At the sight of her lying (?) like a golden statue, they experienced anguish
He, who looks at her, (how) does not weep (?) he?
Crying women...
The best (?) songs of singers (?) with tender words
Turned everywhere into weeping (and) weeping (?),
Because (?)… came back (?), they (?) pronounce (?) this (?) like a song in her honor,
Because (?) from her small…… stone…,
Because (?) his beloved priestess en entered the gipar,
The donkey that was chosen (?) as a wife (?) is not accepted (?) as a sacrifice (?).
Because (?)… finished (?) next to him,
He (?) rises (?) in (?) greatness (and?) reverence, utters a lament for her,
Their (?) common (concerns?), them (?), he embodies in (?) ...,
Their souls (?) stood before (?) her, their evil (?) bodies (?)
separated (?), Their (?) ..., workers (?), (and?) relatives ..., their (?) ... (?) ...
Because of (?)… from knees (?)…,
They don't (?) stand...,
(All) their nannies were…,
Like angry men, stones... are sick (?),
From her city, the light above... did not increase (?).
Then her beloved husband (?) is lonely ...,
In his city, in Nippur, the city (?) ...,
Ludingirra, her beloved husband, alone
Approached her with (?) suffering (?) heart (?) in (?) ... great dwelling,
They (?) took (?) his hand, their hearts were full (?) were,
His... recoiled (?) from the food, he caught (?) his breath,
(Moaning?), like a cow, he uttered, he, who has no ... robe (?),
They (?) ... he wears, he cries over her:
“Oh, where is now…! I would call on you
Where is now (goddess) Meme (and) geniuses, enticing (?)! I would call on you
Where are now the sweet (?) lips (?), alluring (?) lips, lovely lips (?)! I would call on you
Where is now my alluring (?) weapon (?), victorious (?) threat (?)! I would call on you
Where is now that which illuminated the face (?), my royal adviser! I would call on you
Where is now my ..., my precious diamond! I would call on you
Where are now my sweet songs that please the heart! I would call on you
Where is now my alluring (?) weapon (?), the golden menace that enlightens the spirit! I would call on you
Where are my dances now, "waves of hands" (and) pranks (?)! I would call on you."
“May your life path not disappear (from memory), may your name be pronounced (in the days to come),
May the guilt of your household be erased, your debts forgiven,
May your husband be in good health, may he be (and) a valiant husband, (and) an elder (?),
May the fates of your children be favorable, their prosperity will be in abundance,
Let your household go forward, may their future be full,
May Utu give you light in the lower world, he who...,
Let Nincurra... beside (?) with you, let her take you high,
'Cause a violent storm has hit (?) you, let the horizon unfold (?)
The demon that raised his hand against you - let an evil curse be said (?) Against him,
Because the good lady lies like a buffalo in her beauty (?) - (ho) weeping for you!
Historiography was hardly the favored literary form in Sumerian literary circles, and writings that can conditionally be considered as such are "historiographic" only in the most general sense of the word. The longest and best preserved Sumerian historiographical work is The Curse of the Haggadah: Revenge of the Ekur, which attempts to explain the catastrophic destruction of the city by the barbarian hordes of the Guts. Another well-preserved document tells of the defeat of the same Guts at the hands of the Sumerian "savior", Utuhegal. The third is relatively small, but is of some historical interest; this document deals mainly with the gradual restoration of Tummal, the shrine of Ninlil in the city of Nippur. There are also tablets and fragments that speak of the existence of a series of legendary tales about Sargon the Great and his exploits, especially those associated with his contemporaries Ur-Zababa and Lugalzaggesi; however, not enough material has yet been found to provide us with a clear picture of the entire content. Finally, there is an essay about the life of Ur-Nammu in the lower world, probably historically motivated.
The last group of Sumerian literary documents to be dealt with in this chapter are the "wisdom" writings, consisting of debates, short and long essays, and a collection of precepts and proverbs. Spore, the favorite genre of the Sumerian writers, is the prototype and forerunner of literary genre, known as the "dispute", popular in Europe in the era of late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Its main component is a debate, a verbal dispute between two protagonists, often in the allegorical form of a pair of animals, plants, stones, professions, seasons, and even man-made tools of labor that are opposite in their characteristics. The dispute, resumed in several visits by rivals, is essentially a description in the most flattering terms of one's own merits and significance, and in the most unflattering terms of the opponent's qualities. All of them are presented in poetic form, since the Sumerian writers were the direct heirs of the illiterate minstrels of earlier periods, and poetry for them was much more natural than prose. The composition of the disputes had a circular construction with a mythological plot in the introduction, which tells about the creation of the protagonists, and with an ending, in which the dispute ended with the gods awarding victory to one side or another.
Today we know of seven such works: 1) "The Dispute of Summer and Winter"; 2) "Dispute between Cattle and Grain"; 3) "Dispute between Bird and Fish"; 4) "Dispute of Tree and Reed"; 5) "Dispute of Silver and Mighty Copper"; 6) "Dispute of Pickaxe and Plow" and 7) "Dispute of Millstone and Gulgul Stone". Except for the last one mentioned, all compositions are from two hundred to three hundred lines in length. The two longest and best preserved are the “Summer and Winter Dispute” and the “Cattle and Grain Dispute”. Their summary below will give an idea of the style and structure, mood and character of the genre as a whole.
"The Dispute of Summer and Winter" begins with a mythological introduction that tells that Enlil, the supreme deity of the Sumerian pantheon, planned to create all kinds of trees and cereals for the sake of abundance and prosperity of the country. For this purpose, he created two semi-divine beings, the brothers Emea - Summer and Enten - Winter, and Enlil gives each of them special duties, which they perform as follows:
Enten made a sheep give birth to a lamb, a goat to a kid,
Cow and calves multiply, fat and milk increase,
On the plain he gave joy to the heart of the wild goat, sheep and donkey,
Birds of heaven - on the wide earth he made them nest,
Fish in the sea - in the grasses he made them spawn,
Palm grove and vineyard he gave an abundance of honey and wine,
Trees, wherever they were planted, he made them bear fruit,
He dressed the gardens in greenery, he made the plants in them luxurious,
Cereals forced to grow in the furrows,
As Ashnan (goddess of cereals), a kind maiden, he hastened their growth.
Emesh gave life to trees and fields, made spacious stalls and sheepfolds,
He increased the harvest on the lands, covered the land ...,
He gave a plentiful harvest to endow houses, fill barns with grain,
So that cities and villages grow, houses are built around the country,
Mountain high temples.
Having completed their assigned mission, the two brothers decided to go to Nippur to the "house of life" and bring gifts of thanksgiving to their father, Enlil. Emesh brought various wild and domestic animals, birds and plants, while Enten chose precious metals and stones, trees and fish as offerings. But at the door of the "house of life" jealous Anten quarreled with his brother. Their dispute then subsides, then flares up again, until, finally, their mutual claims to the title of "farmer of the gods" arise. And so they both go to the great temple of Enlil, Ekur, where each gives his arguments. Thus, Enten complains to Enlil:
Father Enlil, you gave me power over the channels,
I brought water in abundance
I put land on land, filled barns to the brim,
I made the grain grow in the furrows
Like Ashnan, the good maiden, I hastened their growth,
Now Emesh, ... who does not understand the fields,
Rested ... hand and ... shoulder
To the royal palace...
Emesh begins his version of the quarrel with his brother with a few laudatory phrases, cunningly planned to ingratiate himself with Enlil; His speech is short but indistinct. Then
Answers Enlil Emesh with Enten:
“The waters that bring life to all lands are responsible for them
Anten. Farmer of the gods - he gives everything
My son Emesh, how can you equal your brother Anten!
A word of praise from Enlil, with deep meaning,
Whose word is irreversible - who dares to challenge it!
Emesh knelt before Enten, repaid him with a prayer,
He brought nectar, wine and beer to his house,
They ate heart-invigorating nectar, wine and beer,
Emesh offered Enten gold, silver and lapis lazuli,
In a brotherly and friendly way they make a merry libation ...
In the dispute between Emesh and Anten
Enten, the faithful farmer of the gods, having won a victory over Emesh,
… Father Enlil, praise!
The "Cattle and Grain Dispute" involves two rivals: the cattle goddess Lahar and her sister Ashnan, the goddess of cereals. Both of them, according to the myth, were created in the "hall of creation" of the gods so that the Anunaki, the children of the god of heaven An, received food and clothing. But the Anunaki were not able to effectively use cattle and grain until man appeared. All this is discussed in the introductory part:
Once upon a mountain of heaven and earth
An (god of the sky) gave birth to the Anunaki (his descendants),
Since Ashnan was not born, was not conceived,
Since Uttu (goddess of clothes) was not conceived,
Since no temenos was created for Uttu,
There was no bright, and there was not a single lamb,
There was no goat, there was not a single kid,
Yarka did not bring two more lambs,
The goat did not bring three more kids,
Since the name Ashnan, the wise one, and Lahar Anunaki, the great gods, did not yet know,
There was no cereal shesh for thirty days,
There was no cereal shesh for forty days,
There were no small grains, mountain grains, pure living beings.
Since Uttu was not born, since the crown (vegetation) has not yet risen,
Since the lord... was not born,
Since Sumugan, the god of the plains, was not born,
How humans were first created
They (the Anunaki) have not yet tasted the bread,
They did not know how to wear clothes,
They ate plants with their mouths like sheep,
They drank water from a ditch.
In those days in the hall of creation with the gods,
In Dooku, their home, Lahar and Ashnan were created;
Lahar and Ashnan fruits
The Anunnaki ate from Dooku, but were not satisfied;
In sheep herds of their pure milk, good sham
The Anunaki drank from Dooku, but were not satisfied;
For the good clean sheep flocks
Man was endowed with breath.
The following introductory passage speaks of the descent of Lahar and Ashnan from heaven to earth and the agricultural benefits they bestowed on mankind:
In those days, Enki says to Enlil:
"Father Enlil, Lahar and Ashnan,
The ones made in Dooku
Let's let them get out of Dooku."
By the pure word of Enki and Enlil,
Lahar and Ashnan descended from Dooku,
For Lahar they (Enki and Enlil) created for the flocks of sheep,
Plants and herbs endowed her in abundance.
They built a house for Ashnan, They gave her a plow and a yoke.
Lahar abides among the herds,
The shepherdess multiplies herds generously;
Ashnan dwells among the fields,
Virgo is kind and generous.
Abundance that descended from heaven
With Lahar and Ashnan appeared (on earth),
They brought abundance to the community,
They brought the breath of life into the country,
They guide the gods,
The contents of warehouses are multiplied,
Fill the barns to the top.
In the house of the poor that embrace the dust,
Entering, they fill with prosperity;
Together, wherever they are,
Bring high profits to the house;
The places where they stand, they saturate,
Where they sit they bestow
And from them well the hearts of An and Enlil.
But then Lahar and Ashnan drank a lot of wine and began to quarrel while sitting in the field. A dispute broke out, in which each goddess extolled her own merits and belittled others. Finally, Enlil and Enki intervened in the dispute and gave the primacy to Ashnan.
Four works of this genre deal in one way or another with the Sumerian school and its staff and graduates. Two of them, "The Dispute Between Enkimansi and Girnishag" and "The Conversation Between the Corner and the Clerk", are discussed in detail in the chapter on education. They also include "The Dispute of Enkita and Enkihegal" and "The Dispute between Graduates of Two Schools".
The Enkita-Enkihegal Dispute, about 250 lines long, begins with the rather unusual statement: "Friends, we are not working today." The next about twenty paragraphs of five lines on average contain mutual reproaches and accusations of two ideological opponents. Here, for example, is one of the caustic remarks:
“Where is the one, where is the (person) who compares his lineage with my lineage! Neither in the female nor in the male line, no one can compare with my bloodline! Neither master nor slave has a bloodline like mine!”
To which the other disputant replies:
"Wait a minute, don't brag like that, you have no future."
But this only adds fuel to the fire:
“What does “no future” mean! My future is no worse than yours. Both in terms of health and in terms of pedigree, my future is as good as yours.”
Or take this venomous paragraph in which one of the disputants taunts the other as lacking any musical ability:
You have a harp but you don't know music
You, "child of water" among your colleagues, (
Your) throat (?) is not able to make a sound,
Your Sumerian (language) is lame, you are not capable of smooth speech,
Can't sing the anthem, can't open your mouth
And also an educated friend!
Finally, after one of the debaters throws an insult at his opponent's family members, they decide to go to their "city" and ask their colleagues to judge them. But, if I correctly understood their rather vague and ambiguous text, they were advised to go to the ugul, "mentor" (?), in edubba, and u gula decided that both of them were wrong, scolding them for wasting time in quarrels and disputes .
"A dispute between graduates of two schools" is a composition of approximately one hundred and forty lines. It begins with the boast of one of the disputants with the words: "Old braggart, let's bet." The opponent reacts accordingly, and insults fly back and forth until the very end of the composition. It ends with scolding one of the antagonists, twenty-eight lines of caustic insults.
Finally, a dispute between two nameless ladies should be mentioned. (It is not written in the mainstream Sumerian dialect, but in the Emesal dialect, a kind of female literary language.) This dialogue is as venomous and caustic as an argument between two schoolchildren. The text contains over a hundred lines and is divided into twenty-five paragraphs, full of sophisticated caustics and rude, sarcastic mockery.
Unlike debate works, essays do not seem to be such a favorite genre among Sumerian writers. At the moment, we know of only a few texts that can be attributed to this genre. A poetic document like the Book of Job is known, about human suffering and a dependent position. Two essays, partly in the form of a dialogue, deal with edubba and education. Finally, a small essay from a tablet in the Hilprecht collection in Jena describes an evil, hateful man named Tani, who resorted to violence, hated righteousness and truth, stirred controversy in the congregation, and was generally disgusting in everything. We are also aware of several very short mini-essays on various topics, but at present there is little to say about their content.
There are three collections of Sumerian prescriptions and instructions. This is the Farmer's Almanac; "Shuruppak's Instructions to his son Ziusudra", which is practical advice on wise and effective behavior; the third collection includes moral and ethical norms, but it has survived only in fragments. Of these works, the second one is of interest, because it uses the stylistic device of assigning the authorship of the entire collection of wisdom to the wisest rulers of the past, a feature that is also characteristic of the biblical Books of Wisdom. Despite the fact that the texts were compiled around 2000 BC. BC, they are attributed to King Shuruppak, father of Ziusudra, the Sumerian Noah, clearly a suitable candidate for sainthood. The biblical flavor of this work is evident already in the first lines:
Shuruppak gave instructions to his son,
Shuruppak, son of Ubartutu,
He gave instructions to his son Ziusudra:
"My son, I will give you instructions, you take them,
Ziusudra, I give you a word, listen to it;
Do not reject my instructions
Don't twist the words that I have spoken
The advice of the father, precious, carry it out with care.
We have come to the last type of works of the genre of wisdom - the proverb. The total volume of this material includes about seven hundred tablets and fragments, most of which were deciphered after 1953. A significant part of the tablets initially contained either a complete collection of proverbs or lengthy excerpts from such codes. The rest were school practice material, student tablets with brief excerpts, and sometimes with a single proverb. Edmund Gordon, my former student and assistant, is currently busy with a thorough study of the collection of proverbs. He concluded that the ancient Sumerian scribes compiled at least fifteen or twenty different standard proverb codes, of which ten to twelve are subject to more or less complete reconstruction. In general, this will amount to over a thousand proverbs. In almost half of such collections, proverbs were arranged in groups, in accordance with the first signs. In other codes, the principle of the keyword was not used, and although proverbs close in theme are sometimes found side by side, the general criterion for ordering is unclear. In general, Sumerian proverbs reflect an interested, if not flattering, assessment human life, motives and motivations, hopes and aspirations, as well as paradoxes and contradictions that permeate life. Here are a few proverbs from among the most understandable, read mainly by Edmund Gordon.
1. Let mine remain intact; I will use yours - it is unlikely that such a person will be loved by a friend's household.
2. Be silent about what you have found; just tell me what you lost.
3. Possessions are like birds in the air, they don't know where to land.
4. Don't pluck now; will bear fruit later.
5. Who eats a lot, he does not sleep well.
6. It is not the heart that leads to enmity, it is the tongue that leads to enmity.
7. Lie, and when you tell the truth, it will be considered a lie.
8. A fly flies into an open mouth.
9. A distant wanderer is an eternal liar.
10. Build like a king - live like a slave, build like a slave - live like a king.
11. Hand to hand - a house is built, belly to belly - the house is destroyed.
12. I ate badly - I lived gloriously!
13. When walking, do not forget to rest your feet on the ground.
14. Friendship - for a day, kinship - for centuries.
15. He who has a lot of silver may be happy;
He who has a lot of grain may be satisfied;
But sound sleep is for the one who has nothing.
16. An affectionate word is a friend to everyone.
17. A loving heart builds a house, a hating heart destroys a house.
18. A person's life is an empty chest, a shoe is a person's eye, a wife is a person's future, a son is a person's refuge, a daughter is a person's salvation, a daughter-in-law is a person's curse.
19. Take a wife of your choice, give birth to a child after your own heart.
20. A criminal - it would be better if the mother did not give birth, it would be better if God did not plan him.
21. Literate, that does not know the Sumerian language, what kind of literate?
22. A clerk whose hand keeps up with his mouth, this is what you need.
24. The city where the (watch) dogs have died out is under the control of the foxes.
25. The fox stepped on the bull's hoof and asked if it hurt.
26. Cat - for his thoughts! Mongoose - for his deeds!
In conclusion, a few words should be said about the ancient Sumerian literary catalogs, which undoubtedly appeared for the purpose of using, archiving and recording thousands of tablets of various shapes and sizes with hundreds of literary works. To date, seven catalogs from the 2nd millennium BC have been excavated. e. Now they are: one in Iraq, one in the Louvre, one in the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, one in the Berlin Museum, two catalogs in the Hilprecht collection at the F. Schiller University in Jena and one temporarily in the British Museum. All seven catalogs together contain a list of over two hundred titles of Sumerian writings, or "books", with the title usually being the first half of the first line of the work. The two catalogs are reduced to a list of hymns. The remaining five are not so limited and contain titles of works from different genres. The principles that guided the compilers are incomprehensible. A priori, it can be assumed that the main criterion is the content of the texts, but such cases are rare. One of the catalogs, the one in the Iraq Museum, specifically notes that this is a list of tablets collected in specific containers, which may be applicable to some other catalogs.
More recently, the editors of the Assyrian Institute of Oriental Studies at the University of Chicago reported the existence of an eighth literary catalog, quite different from the previous seven; the staff also managed to translate a few lines from it. This text is of particular interest, because, judging by the letter, it refers to the time of the Third Dynasty of Ur, the oldest period from which practically nothing has survived from among the documents that have come down to us. Unfortunately, this text, in the absence of later copies, is difficult to recognize, and we owe the translation that is given here mainly to my former assistant, Miguel Civil; Let us treat the text as a first preliminary attempt.
Between the first tablet (of the work, entitled) "Enki Entered the Dining Hall" and (tablet beginning with words) "Zenith of the Heavens" (there are the following four tablets which begin with words):
Who knows the eclipse, mother of the one who knows incarnations,
In the nodding thickets,
... the gods of battle,
Hostile, warring twins.
(All of these tablets contain) successive fragments of the (named work under the title) "Enki entered the dining room" (and found) in one "well".
Between the first tablet (composition titled) "God Lilia" and (tablet beginning with the words) "... (from) the campaign seven" (there are three tablets starting with the words):
At seven ... I forced to enter,
Let the youth fasten (his) weapon,
... great ...
(All these tablets contain) successive fragments of a work called) "God Lilia" (and found) in one "well".
(As for the work entitled “The Feet of a Man of Truthful Words Who…”, (tablets containing) its successive fragments have not been found.
(Plates containing) successive fragments (works titled) "Who goes to a hostile city."
It is possible that this special catalog was compiled as a list of tablets taken from the wells where they were kept for some reason; an indication at the end of it that some work was not found, if the translation is correct, confirms this assumption. As for the last two lines, they hang in the air, and there is no way to know what the ancient scribes had in mind.
