Praise of Uruk-agina

Praise of the Beneficient Kings

Introduction

Source

Praise of Urukagina

Praise of Gudea

Praise of Ur-Nammu

Praise of Culgi

The Lament for Sumerr and Urimm

Lugalbanda in the Mountain Cave

Introduction

Our oldest written records come from the civilization of Sumer, which arose in around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in what is now southern Iraq. The chief cities such as Uruk, Nippur, Ur, and Lagash play a prominent role in the history of the region, being built and destroyed many times over, as wars developed between the city states and between them and the surrounding tribes. The Uruk period, 3,750-3150 BC, saw the emergence of warrior kings, magnificent temples, intensive agriculture by means of irrigation, and the first pictographic writing in 3300 BC. The early kings gained mythical status, most notably in the case of Lugualbanda and Gilgamesh, whose myths have survived.

Pictographic writing evolved into the cueiform script, made with a reed pressed into soft clay. As clay lasts far longer than vegetable materials, Sumerian cuneiform documents dating as far back as 3100 BC have been found. A flourishing cuneiform literature in the Sumerian language developed, reaching its peak in the centuries around 2000 BC. The Sumerian language is not part of the Indo-European group and was replaced in the second millenium by Semitic languages as tribes from the Western deserts and elsewhere moved into the fertile crescent and conquered the area, giving rise to the civilizations of Babylon and Assyria.

Some insight into Sumerian values can be gained from praise poems written for kings. While the kings may not always live up to this praise they show the type of achievments that they wished to be remembered by. The ones used here to provide characteristic extracts praise Urukagina (or, Uruinimagina, circa 2350 BC) and Gudea (2141-2122 BC), who ruled from Lagash, and, Ur-Nammu (2112-2095 BC) and Shulgi/Culgi (2094-2047 BC), who ruled from Ur.

Urukagina appears as a social reformer, getting rid of gross abuses of power that had taken hold in Lagash. He ruled for only eight years, after which the abuses must have returned, because Gudea, a few centuries later, instituted similar reforms. Gudea was also an energetic builder of temples, the most elaborate being at Girsu. The surviving text describing its construction provides insight into the richness of his city state and the dispersed regions from which Sumer acquired resources. As he is not recorded as a constant warrior, many of these materials were probably acquired in trading.

Ur-Nammu is famous for the Ziggurats he built, predecessors perhaps of the pyramids of Egypt, but without a tomb chamber. He also actively developed canals and irrigation systems and promulgated the earliest written legal code that has been discovered (an alternative view is that it was set down by his son Shulgi). The fragment found shows some humaness in the Summerian king, in that did not adhere to the eye-for-an-eye type of retribution found in the later law code of the Semitic king, Hammurabi. For his son, Shulgi we have a very elaborate praise poem, showing him taking pride in leadership, good government, public works (canals, irrigation, gardens, lodges), fairness, humanity, writing skills, ability with languages, and musicianship.

The splendid cities of these kings were continually destroyed, either by other city states or by invaders. Laments for the fall of cities against the onslaught of attackers, often described as a storm, show recognition of the horrors of war and of the great loss that occurs when a civilization collapses. It also gives us a sense of the level of civilization achieved at Sumer.

The lament for the downfall of Sumer and Urim (2004 BC) records the disastrous fall of the gifted Third Dynasty of Sumer. The attack was from the people of Elam and Sua, who invaded Sumer from mountainous regions to the north. Ur itself fell after a long and bloody siege, which is described within the lament.

Epics, like that of Lugalbanda in the Mountain Cave, show compassion towards the sick and give insight into individual resourcefulness, as well as proving some understanding of how related myths of resurrection may have arisen later. The myth of Gilgamesh is described in the chapter on the Babylonian scribe Sin-leq-unnini.

The extracts below cover these various topics. In addition to the material that has been excluded as a result of selecting specific extracts, gaps remain in the original cuneiform records. These gaps are indicated by ellipsis dots. In these extracts, Enlil is the chief god of Sumer; Utu is the sun or the sun god.

Praise of Uruk-agina

1.

Since time immemorial, since life began, in those days,

the head boatman appropriated boats, the livestock official appropriated asses,

the livestock official appropriated sheep, and the fisheries inspector appropriated [fish].

2.

The shepherds of wool sheep paid a duty in silver on account of white sheep,

and the surveyor, chief lamentation-singer, supervisor, brewer and foremen

paid a duty in silver on account of young lambs.

3.

These were the conventions of former times!

4.

When Ningirsu, warrior of Enlil, granted the kingship of Lagash to Urukagina,

selecting him from among the myriad people,

he replaced the customs of former times,

carrying out the command that Ningirsu, his master, had given him.

5.

He removed the head boatman from control over the boats,

he removed the livestock official from control over asses and sheep,

he removed the fisheries inspector from control [over the fisheries]

6.

He removed the silo supervisor from control over the grain taxes of the guda-priests,

he removed the bureaucrat responsible for the paying of duties in silver on account of white sheep and young lambs,

and he removed the bureaucrat responsible for the delivery of duties by the temple administrators to the palace.

7.

The administrators no longer plunder the orchards of the poor.

8.

When a high quality ass is born to a shublugal, and his foreman says to him,

"I want to buy it from you";

whether he lets him buy it from him and says to him "Pay me the price I want!,"

or whether he does not let him buy it from him,

the foreman must not strike at him in anger.

9.

When the house of an aristocrat adjoins the house of a shublugal, and the aristocrat says to him,

"I want to buy it from you";

whether he lets him buy it from him, having said to him, "Pay me the price I want!

My house is a large container, fill it with barley for me!,"

or whether he does not let him buy it from him,

that aristocrat must not strike at him in anger.

10.

He cleared and cancelled obligations for those indentured families,

citizens of Lagash living as debtors because of grain taxes, barley payments, theft or murder.

Urukagina solemnly promised Ningirsu

that he would never subjugate the waif [orphan] and the widow to the powerful.

Praise of Gudea

11.

I had debts remitted and washed all hands.

For seven days no grain was ground.

12.

The slave-woman was allowed to be equal to her mistress,

the slave was allowed to walk side by side with his master.

In my city, the one [that was] unclean to someone was permitted to sleep outside.

13.

I paid attention to the justice ordained by Nanse and Ningirsu;

I did not expose the orphan to the wealthy person

nor did I expose the widow to the influential one.

In a house having no male child, I let the daughter become its heir.

14.

He purified the holy city and encircled it with fires.

He collected clay in a very pure place;

in a pure place he made silt into the bricks and put the bricks into the mould.

15.

He followed the rites in all their splendor:

he purified the foundations of the temple,

surrounded it with fires, anointed the platforms with an aromatic balm.

16.

From Elam came the Elamites, from Susa the Susians.

Magan and Muluhha collected timber from their mountains,

and Gudea brought them together in his town Girsu.

17.

Gudea, the great en-priest of Ningirsu,

made a path into the Cedar mountains which nobody had entered before;

he cut its cedars with great axes.

Like giant snakes, cedars were floating down the river

18.

In the quarries that nobody had entered before, Gudea, the great en-priest of Ningirsu,

made a path and then the stones were delivered in large blocks.

19.

Many other precious metals were carried to the ensi.

From the copper mountians of Kimash, its mountains as dust.

20.

For Gudea, the mined silver from its mountains delivered red stone from Meluhha in great amount.

Praise of Ur-Nammu

21.

Enlil has given me the task of keeping the Land secure, with unscathed troops.

22.

I am clad in linen in the [holy place of the] jipar [shrine].

I lie down on the splendid bed in its delightful bedchamber.

23.

I cause the people to eat splendid food;

I am their Enkimdu, (the god of irrigation and cultivation)

24.

I am the good shepherd whose sheep multiply greatly.

25.

Since I have been adorned with their rulership,

no one imposes taxes on my abundant crops which grow tall.

My commands bring about joy in the great fortresses of the mountains.

26.

The joy of my city and the territory of Sumer delights me.

I release water into the watercourse of Sumer,

making the trees grow tall on their banks.

27.

In my city I dug a watercourse of abundance, and named it the Kec-kug watercourse;

In Urim, I dug an watercourse of abundance, and named it the Kec-kug watercourse.

28.

I named it the Pabi-luh watercourse, a lasting name worthy to be praised.

29.

The watercourse of my city is full of fish, and the air above it is full of birds.

The watercourse of Urim is full of fish, and the air above it is full of birds.

30.

In my city honey-plants are planted, and the carp grow fat.

In Urim honey-plants are planted, and the carp grow fat.

31.

The gizi reed of my city is so sweet that the cows eat them.

The gizi reed of Urim is so sweet that the cows eat them.

32.

Since my [city is [delightful ], it is teeming with fish and birds.

In Urim [it is delightful, is teeming with fish and birds.]

33.

May the watercourse bring them (the fish [and birds]) into my watercourse,

may they be carried in baskets to him [(the city)].

May the watercourse bring them into Urim, into my canal,

may they be carried in baskets to him.

34.

I freed the land from thieves, robbers, and rebels.

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