sumer literature

Sumerian Literature

In Sumerian cosmology life seemed to begin in a primeval sea (goddess Nammu). The god of heaven An joined with the earth goddess Ki to produce the air god Enlil. The universe was thus known as an-ki. Enlil impregnated Ninlil, who gave birth to Nanna the moon, who begot the sun-god Utu. Humans were created out of clay in order to free the gods from working for their sustenance. This was before the gods knew of the grain-god and cattle-god.

Like mankind, when first created,
They knew not the eating of bread,
Knew not the dressing of garments,
Ate plants with their mouths like sheep,
Drank water from the ditch.¹⁰

A myth tells how the god Enlil favors the farmer Enten over his complaining brother Emesh because Enten has gained the knowledge of cultivating the soil and domesticating animals. In a poem explaining where cattle and grain come from, Enki, the god of water and wisdom, persuades Enlil to set up a sheepfold for the cattle-god Lahar and give a plow and yoke to the grain-god Ashnan. Another story honors the invention of the pickax.
A paradise is portrayed in Dilmun as a place clean and bright where Enki lays with his wife, where the lion does not kill nor does the wolf snatch the lamb, where sickness and old age do not exist, and where flows the water of the heart, which Ninhursag receives from Enki giving birth to Ninsar, who gives birth to Ninkur, who gives birth to Uttu, the goddess of plants, each having been impregnated by Enki. When Enki impregnates Uttu, she produces eight plants which Enki eats. Finally Ninhursag curses Enki, saying that she will not look upon him with the eye of life until he is dead; she then disappears. The gods don't know what to do, but the fox offers to bring back Ninhursag for a reward. Enlil promises the reward to the fox. Enki by now is hurting in eight parts of his body. Ninhursag comes back and gives birth to a god to cure each of these body parts, the Sumerian poet using puns based on the body parts for each of these healing deities. This poem shows us perhaps how important fertility and agriculture was for the Sumerians. Also their healing methods tended to be herbal and naturopathic, and they believed in magic and psychological causes of diseases and consequently magical and psychological cures.
A poem described Enki bringing the blessings of animal husbandry, agriculture, and irrigation to Ur, and another praised the blessings from Enki in the ancient city of Eridu. Enlil's city of Nippur was also a spiritual center, and his temple there, Ekur, was a place of pilgrimage to receive Enlil's blessing. One myth described Nanna's journey there with gifts on behalf of his city of Ur.
Another poem told how the queen of heaven, Inanna, went to Eridu to gain the divine decrees essential for civilization from her father Enki so that she can take them to her beloved city of Uruk. Enki instructs Isimud to greet her with barley cakes and butter, cold water, and date wine. Being relaxed, Enki then presents Inanna with more than one hundred divine decrees (me) including lordship, the crown and throne of kingship, shrines and priestly offices, truth, descent to and ascent from the underworld, sexual intercourse and prostitution, legal and illegal speech, art, music, power, enmity, straightforwardness, destruction of cities, rebellion, sorrow, rejoicing, falsehood, goodness and justice, carpentry, metal work, writing, leatherwork, masonry, basket-weaving, wisdom and understanding, purification, fear, fire, weariness, strife, peace, victory shouting, counsel, judgment and decision, and exuberance.
Inanna happily loads the gifts on her boat of heaven and starts off for Uruk. When he sobers up, Enki realizes that the decrees are gone; so he instructs Isimud to send sea monsters after her to seize the boat of heaven but allow Inanna to proceed on foot. Inanna complains that Enki has spoken falsehoods to her and instructs her messenger Ninshubar to save the boat of heaven which he does at seven stopping places along the way to Uruk, where they jubilantly unload the decrees. The text of Enki's final speech to Inanna is damaged, but it is clear that the poem is to explain the local pride of Uruk in their civilization.
Kur is a mysterious figure in Sumerian myths who seems to have been a primeval force in the underworld who abducted the goddess Ereshkigal. In one story Enki takes a boat to get her back and fights with Kur. The hero of a second story is the warrior god Ninurta, son of Enlil, whose personified weapon Sharur convinces him to attack Kur. At first Ninurta flees like a bird; but Sharur encourages him to attack again, and they destroy Kur. However, this affects the primeval waters and causes a famine. By piling up stones over the dead Kur, Ninurta is able to redirect the waters and irrigate the fields. Hearing of his heroic success, his mother, Ninmah, can't sleep and visits Ninurta, who gratefully suggests that she be queen of the mountain Hursag which is perhaps how she got called Ninhursag. Hursag is then blessed with herbs, wine, honey, trees, gold, silver, bronze, cattle, sheep, and so on.
A third myth shows how Inanna was not only the goddess of love but of battle as well. In spite of a warning from An she attacks Kur, which in this poem is the mountain Ebih northeast of Sumer and thus probably an enemy land. With numerous weapons Inanna destroys Kur, boasting of her triumph.
A long poem describes Inanna's descent into the underworld. Afraid of being killed by her elder sister Ereshkigal, she instructs Ninshubar to notify the assembly of gods if she is not back in three days. He is to go to Enlil at Nippur, that failing, then to Nanna at Ur; if that fails too, Ninshubar is to go to Eridu, where Enki, knowing the food and water of life, will restore her. Inanna, having fastened the seven divine decrees to her body, is stopped by Neti, the gatekeeper of the underworld. As an excuse to get in, the queen of heaven says that her sister, Ereshkigal's husband, has been killed. Ereshkigal tells Neti to open the seven gates; but as each gate is opened, one of the divine decrees is stripped off of Inanna's body until finally she is naked. Then the seven judges pronounce judgment and fasten upon her the eyes of death and hang her up.
After three days Ninshubar cries for her in the house of the gods. He enters Ekur, the temple of Enlil, to plead for Inanna, but Enlil does not stand by him on this matter. So he goes to the temple of Nanna in Ur, but he does not support him either. In Eridu before Enki he weeps, and her father Enki provides the water and food of life to sprinkle on the corpse. Inanna arises and ascends from the underworld. The end of the Sumerian version is lost, but in the Akkadian story Ereshkigal instructs the gatekeeper to return to Ishtar (Akkadian name for Inanna) the clothes she lost at each of the seven gates beginning with her breechcloth and ending with her crown; then the underworld goddess allows Tammuz, the lover of Ishtar's youth, to be washed, anointed, clothed, and given a flute.
A hymn praising Inanna is attributed to Encheduanna, the daughter of Sargon, whom he appointed high priestess of Nanna, the god of Ur. She calls her "radiant light" and "queen of all the me," the divine decrees of civilization. She could be terrible by destroying vegetation, bringing floods from the mountain, fire over the land, destroying foreign lands, attacking like a storm, burning down gates, causing rivers to run with blood so that people had nothing to drink, driving off adult males as captives, and in cities which were not hers she kept her distance so that its women did not speak of love with their husbands nor whisper to them nor reveal the holiness of their hearts to them. Calling Inanna a "rampant wild cow," daughter of the moon, she goes on though to praise her thus:

Queen, greater than An, who has paid you homage!
You who in accordance with the life-giving me,
great queen of queens,
have become greater than your mother
who gave birth to you,
as you came forth from the holy womb,
knowing, wise, queen of all the lands,
who multiplies living creatures and peoples—
I have uttered your holy song.
Life-giving goddess, fit for the me,
whose acclamation is exalted,
merciful, life-giving woman, radiant of heart,
I have uttered it before in accordance with the me.¹¹

This ancient feminist then declares that "the kingship of heaven has been seized by the woman."12 Encheduanna greets her in peace even though she is known by her destruction of rebel lands, her massacring of people, and her devouring of the dead like a dog as well as for her heaven-like height and earth-like breadth.
Another story depicting the conflict between farmers and shepherds has Inanna preferring to marry a farmer, but the shepherd complains so much that eventually the farmer offers him gifts including Inanna herself. Even goddesses could be treated as pawns in this mostly male-dominated society.
In exalting and praising their gods, poets could also lament their sufferings, believing that a man without a god would not obtain food. One poet complained that he has to serve a deceitful man, has a herdsman who seeks out evil forces against him who is not his enemy, and has a companion who says no word of truth to him while his friend gives the lie to his honest words. He bemoaned the bitterness of his path and in his tears, lament, anguish, and depression realized that a malignant sickness-demon was in his body. He believed that the sages were right when they said that never was a sinless child born. Now he has seen his sins and admitted them before his god, and with this prayerful confession the encompassing sickness-demon has taken flight and dissipated. His suffering turned to joy, and he exalted his tutelary god.
A piece called "The Curse of Agade" comes to us from the end of the Sumerian period. The poet gave his religious interpretation of the history of Agade. After Enlil frowned on Kish and Uruk, he gave Sargon lordship and kingship over the new city of Agade he founded, establishing a shrine there to Inanna. Overseeing the building of houses, storing up dependable food and water, and creating beautiful festivals, Inanna did not allow herself to sleep. Agade was filled with gold, silver, copper, lead, and lapis lazuli. Old women counseled; old men spoke eloquently; young men had strong weapons; children had joyous hearts and played; music was heard; boats were busy at the docks; and the people were happy.
Their shepherd king, Naram-Sin, was like the sun on his throne. Inanna opened the gates, and the Sumerians brought in their goods; the Martu brought grain, cattle, and sheep; wares came from Meluhha, Elam, and so on. Then Inanna left the shrine of Agade and went into battle against the city. The sun-god Utu carried away eloquence, Enki wisdom, An awe, and its battles were a bitter fate. Naram-Sin was prostrate, but he had a vision of which he said nothing to anyone. For seven years he remained firm.
Then Naram-Sin sought an oracle from the Ekur temple in Nippur, but there was none. So he defied Enlil, mobilized his troops, and destroyed Ekur, turning it to dust like a mountain mined for silver. Axes of destruction leveled it to its foundation. He broke down its gate of peace with a pickax. He carried away its gold, silver, and copper. As he took away the city's possessions, its counsel departed. As the boats departed, the good sense of Agade became folly.
Seeing his beloved temple Ekur in Nippur attacked, Enlil became destructive. The Gutians, who were like dogs, he brought down from the mountains like locusts covering the earth. Brigands were on the roads. Cities were struck down; the fields produced no grain, the streams no fish, the gardens no honey or wine. There was no rain. Those sleeping on the roof died there; those in the house were not buried; the people drooped helplessly from hunger.
The old men and women cried out to Enlil, but he went into his holy shrine and laid down. Then the great gods, Sin, Enki, Inanna, Ninurta, Ishkur, and Utu prayed to him that the city which destroyed his temple should become like Nippur, and so they cursed Agade. The next day the curses came to pass, and Agade was completely destroyed.
This poem expresses an early theology or philosophy of history, showing the divine retribution for violent acts against a sacred city. Apparently the city of Agade, which was founded by the conqueror of Sumeria, Sargon, was destroyed by the Gutians, and so far modern archaeologists still have not been able to find any remnant of Agade.