Sumerians

SUMERIANS. - The first people of the ancient Middle East of whom written documents have survived to us. They had a very high culture, born in the temples, which left a decisive imprint on universal history. Their great power of radiation survived them for millennia in the language, theology, science, and myths of the peoples who supplanted them.

I. ORIGIN

The name was coined by modern orientalists, on the basis of Babylonian cuneiform texts, in which the formula (e.g., Code of Hammurabi, prologue) larru mât Šu-me-ri-i ü Ak-ka-di-i often occurs, which in turn translates the Sumerian formula LUGAL KI-EN-GI KI-URI and means "king of Sumer and Akkad," two regions that occupied the south of Mesopotamia. Sumer (KI-EN-GI) was the part around the mouths of the Euphrates and the Tigris, then separate; Akkad was located farther north between the two rivers. The S. called themselves the "black-headed ones" (SAG-GIG-GA). The origin of the people remains obscure, since only hypotheses are possible. In the most remote times the gods are represented as standing on the summits of mountains; but geologically the land (KALAM) belongs to the very recent alluvial terrain formed gradually as the gulf receded and, among the lagoons, the marshes became consolidated. It is therefore generally held that the most ancient cultures were farther north (at Jarmo, Hassuna, Samarra, Halaf), and established themselves in the south only beginning with the Obed (= 'Ubaid) period, unless one admits an even more ancient Eridu phase. The question of the maritime or overland immigration of the S. thus remains undecided.

The race has been determined by special studies made by Keith on the skeletons from the tombs of Queen ŠUB-AD at Ur, on that of Prince MEŠ-KALAM-DUG and others. These studies show that this race was not very different from that of present-day Arabs. Queen Šub-ad, who was probably less than 40 years old, was 1.51 m tall, had a dolichocephalic head, a brain of 1600 cm³ (250 cm³ more than the normal European woman of today); Prince Meškalam-dug measured 1.65-1.67 m, with extraordinarily strong bone structure, a long head, a narrow nose, a brain of 1550 cm³; he had a long face and was left-handed. Nevertheless, in plastic representations, the S. appear rather stocky, with a receding forehead and a very curved nose, fleshy, with good musculature, dressed in a garment of tufts, probably made of skins; this type of costume persisted until the III dynasty of Ur (ca. 2050-1950 B.C.). The type of the Akkadians is quite different, e.g., in the stele of Narām-Sîn. The Akkadian artist insisted on the somatic differences of the two peoples.

II. LANGUAGE

The language of the Sumerians is linked neither to the Indo-European nor to the Semitic family, nor to any other known family. For the most part it belongs to the structural type of the so-called agglutinative languages.

Sumerian possesses the noun, the verb, the pronoun, the numeral, an enclitic conjunction, and moreover various suffixes, by which the relations of the cases are also expressed:

The plural is formed with two suffixes: -ENE for persons, HÁ for things; but often the singular has a collective value; a plural that includes all beings of the species is made by duplication of the noun or of the adjective: LUGAL-ENE "the kings"; UDU-HÁ "the sheep"; KUN-KUR "(all) the (enemy) lands"; DINGIR-GAL-GAL-ENE "(all) the great gods". Masculine and feminine are expressed by heteronymy, rather than by grammatical forms: LUGAL "king"; NIN "queen", "princess"; A-A "father"; AMA "mother"; but DUMU "newborn" can be translated "boy" (son) and "girl" (daughter). The distinction is clear between the class of persons (gods, heroes, men and beasts, if, as happens in folk tales, they are personified) and the class of things (the rest). The adjective is placed after the noun. In the verb a transitive form, which comprises the present-future "tense" and the preterite, is distinguished from an intransitive form, in which the division according to tense is lacking; there are active and passive, infinitive, participle, imperative, as well as forms amplified with the infix -ED-. Prefixes (of conjugation) and various preformatives tone the simple narration, the interest of the speaker, negation and emphatic affirmation, the precative and the prospective. In the verb, by means of the infixes, the relation with the objects or with the preceding dimensional cases is summed up; every verb can also have a causative sense. It is surprising the great number of monosyllabic roots, especially in the verb. The root is immutable, and all modifications of meaning are expressed with prefixes or suffixes. The syntax is complex: the pairing of words, the formation of "chains", the possibility of substantivizing every word, clause, sentence and even entire periods with a simple suffix -A, give a special character to the language of Sumer.

Two stages of the Sumerian language are distinguished: ancient Sumerian and Neo-Sumerian. At the boundary of these two periods stands Gudea, prince of Lagaš. At least two dialects have manifested themselves: the main dialect (EME-KU) and the so-called "women's language" (EME-SAL), used, for example, by the gods in religious poems. Sumerian phonetics has remained a difficult field: we have the values of the syllabary of the Akkadians, but the texts are from a late stage of the language, when neither the consonants that closed the syllable (for example, the g of ŠAG "heart") nor the final syllables were pronounced any longer. Nasal consonants are ascertained, such as the n (the "prefect" of a city is written ENŠĒ and E-SĒ) and the g (GĀ and MA alternate).

III. HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY

The history of the S. is divided into three periods: 1) prehistoric; 2) protohistoric; 3) properly historical, distinguished by the invention of writing: only in the protohistoric period do written documents emerge, and still very scanty, whereas in the properly historical period they are sufficient.

1. The prehistoric period

For Mesopotamian prehistory we are at the first attempts at a relative chronology. R. J. Braidwood (Illustrated London News, 15 Dec. 1951, p. 992) gives the following scheme:

The Neolithic ends in the Hassuna period. The following periods (Samarra-Halaf) form the early Chalcolithic, those of Hāggī Muhammad and Obed I the middle Chalcolithic, that of Obed II the late Chalcolithic. In the Warka period one passes (around 3000 B.C.) to the Bronze Age, protohistoric. Interesting is the development of architecture, from the village of the first farmers up to veritable cities. One begins with walls of packed clay, then with small clay blocks; finally, in the Uruk period, the form of bricks is invented. Private houses were at first of very reduced proportions and of a very simple plan: besides rectangular forms, round forms are also found, comparable to the toloi of the Aegean or to the beehive-like houses that exist today in the region of Aleppo in Syria; palaces and temples prefer a longer rectangular plan and display all the types between the house with a hearth and the house with a courtyard. In the Warka period the first attempt at a zikurrat ("tower") is made: the ground is piled up; the side slopes are later faced with bricks; on top the "high temple" is built. From the time of Hassuna pottery flourishes, first shaped by hand, then by means of the slow-rotation potter's wheel, then (in the Warka period) by fast rotation; the technique of firing develops from scorching over an open fire up to the use of a well-controlled kiln, which transforms the clay from fine filings into very hard pottery, the prerequisite of all high-quality colored pottery. The decoration likewise evolves continuously: from simple scratched designs to incrustation with especially fine clay, up to perfect smoothing and monochrome and polychrome painting, as in the very beautiful examples of the Halaf period, classic for all times. Less developed is the plastic art: crude terracottas especially of female figures ("mother goddesses") and the eye idols of Tell Braq. Glyptic art knows the button seal and the stamp seal; the cylinder seals of the Halaf period are debated.

Thus the results of the excavations present for the last periods the image of an agricultural people, which from the nomadic existence of hunters and shepherds has progressed to stability, although in addition to agriculture it still occupies itself with hunting and fishing. From small agricultural centers (Jarmo) one has arrived at more extensive agglomerations, which toward the end of prehistoric times are surrounded by stone walls. In those villages crafts flourish to the highest degree: primitive spindles, knives, awls, needles, axes, daggers, spear points, hooks, furnishings of every kind, vessels of clay and stone are made; the whole gives the impression of a high level of life. There, monumental, the temple reigns, around which, almost supplicating, the houses cluster. The temple is important also as a center of cultural and political life; it regulates the life of the people, whose hard labor it lightens with the joyous festivals of a religion that venerates fertility; it organizes the struggle against water and for water, because agriculture is based on irrigation, and already systems of canals are being built and the distribution of waters is being regulated.

2. The protohistoric period

It is marked by such a cultural surge as to make Mesopotamia preeminent down to the time of the Seleucids, so that only Egypt, starting from its unification, will have a civilization comparable to this one. The period is represented by levels VI-IV of Uruk (Warka) and, later, by the age of Gemdet Nasr; many add the time of Mesilim, mostly attributed to the properly historical period. The age of Uruk IV is perhaps the most creative epoch of Sumerian history. Architecture continues and perfects the models already developed in prehistoric times; however, the zikurrat, the pride of all Mesopotamian religious buildings, now takes on its monumental form, to be compared with medieval cathedrals. The villages develop into veritable fortified cities. In place of the sumptuous pottery of Halaf, glyptic art prospers, which reveals the life of the people better. The cylinder seal is created, which persists until the last times of Mesopotamian culture and is characteristic of the entire ancient Near East. Such seals are small cylinders of clay, or more rarely of stones, including precious ones, and very rarely of copper, bronze, gold, on whose surface is engraved the negative of an ornament, which may be the figure of a personage, often with added cuneiform characters that mostly indicate the owner. When the seal is rolled over the damp clay, the "positive" of a band of figures is formed, which can also serve as a mark of ownership on jars. Naturally many more impressions than original seals have survived. What is surprising is the richness of the depictions. For the first time there is a true "narration" of events, by means of more extensive figures: a man hunting, protecting the livestock, struggling against wild beasts; scenes of sacrifices in the temples, celebrations and banquet scenes, solemn processions of the gods; harsh wars against enemies of the city led by the king, who was moreover high priest.

Even more important is the other means of expression invented by man: writing. For the first time in

In the ruins of Uruk, conventional signs are used to transmit a thought. Already from the earliest examples the Uruk writing (ca. 1000 tablets in still "pictographic" cuneiform), however enigmatic, presents itself, without precursors, immediately definitive, perfectly suited to the purpose for which it was invented. One writes on damp clay, a system that would remain throughout all periods of Mesopotamian culture. The clay is prepared in the form of small cushions, which the writer holds in his left hand; with the right hand the signs are impressed by means of a fine reed stylus, which gives the writing a three-dimensional character: when one wishes to draw on paper, one makes signs composed of wedges, and for this reason the writing is called "cuneiform." Such primitive writing is already more than a simple pictography, which leaves the reader free to interpret by adding the grammatical relations; it is rather a logography, that is, a writing of words, because it indicates precisely the most important grammatical relations. It is very well suited, also because of its brevity, to the so-called economic texts, that is, lists of objects, animals, workers with their respective numbers or wages. It is not sufficient, however, for the expression of abstract concepts; but for these a expedient was soon reached: certain signs were used no longer according to the meaning of the logogram, but also for their phonetic value (e.g., GA "milk," for the syllable GA; A "water" for the syllable A, etc.), and thus all abstracts and all morphological forms were expressed. To those signs of things were added special signs for numbers, which presuppose a partly sexagesimal system for counting (series 1, 10, 60, 600, 3600) and a partly trigesimal one for measuring (series 1, 10, 100, 300, 3000).

The very ancient economic texts of Uruk reveal the economy of the temple of the principal goddess Inanna. Indeed the figures are too high for a private enterprise. To the temples belonged the entire landed property, although later a property of the house and of the adjacent garden was possible. One understands the special social organization that already the prehistoric temples, with the small houses huddled around them, allowed one to guess; the entire population stood at the service of the temple, and the temple organized the entire life. The population was governed by a hierarchy of priests, headed by the ENSI, who was independent or was a prefect representing another chief, then called LUGAL, "great man" or king. This hierarchy exercised an uncontested and beneficent authority. Always accompanying life with the necessary rituals, it organized the digging of canals and the construction of dikes; it regulated the distribution of water in the fields; it divided the land according to criteria of utility: land for fields of barley and grains, for date-palm plantations and for vineyards, land suitable only for pastures, especially for flocks of sheep and goats, and for cattle and donkeys (rarer); it also organized and perfected the crafts: all the tools for the use of the population were made, such as plows, four-wheeled carts, sledges, nets, boats and ships. The temple organized commerce even in distant regions, in order to obtain timber, limestone, metals, precious stones, sun-dried tiles. Still more: it regulated the entire religious culture of the people, with moving rituals and festivals that went as far as licentious excesses, as in all religions that venerate fertilizing water. It organized the study for priests and scribes, who had to keep the rigid accounting of all production. More than anything else, it gave inspiration to art, having all the furnishings, the symbols and the images of the gods made, their magnificent houses, the pride and joy of all, and their statues of the gods, signs of the divine presence, that is, objects of continuous prayer for them; moreover the divine chariots, the musical instruments, the ritual garments, the necessities for the splendid processions. Worthy of note is the religious conception: man is the servant of the gods, therefore he must provide them with dwellings, clothing, and nourishment worthy of them; in doing so the gods give abundance; the king is nothing but the first among the other servants.

As gods, in those prehistoric times, there are found venerated more than the others Inanna (from NIN-AN-A[k]), the "Lady of the heavens," and the god of Heaven An, sovereign king of the gods. Inanna is recognized by her sign, the bundle of reeds; she seems to be a goddess of love, of war and of culture, to judge from the more recent myths. There existed local gods in every temple of the Sumerians, e.g., Nin-girsu in Lagash, Nin-mara in Mara, Nin-giz-zida, Nin-hur-saga, Nisaba and (later they reveal themselves as of the highest influence) Enlil, king of all the lands and ruling god of the pantheon in Nippur, Enki (Akkadian Ea), god of fresh water and of wisdom in Eridu, Utu, the Sun-god in Larsa, Nanna, the moon god in Ur.

The Jemdet Nasr period, the second part of protohistoric time, continues the time of Uruk IV. It is an age of expansion and radiation of Sumerian culture. The name is derived from the excavated site of Jemdet Nasr, 84 km northeast of Kish, where a colored pottery of a new type was found. The neck and shoulders of the vase are divided into parts, to be compared to the Greek metopes, also adorned with figures; it may be that this new manner of decoration is due to Iranian influences. Thus the apogee of creativity and mastery of forms is reached. Even more magnificent become the temples and the zikurrat, surrounded by the sacred area of the KISAL, which is the temenos. Commercial relations develop, as the jewels and metals found show. Among the rare statues stands out a female one from Uruk, called "the beautiful woman of the Jemdet Nasr period," which can be compared to the most perfect Greek statues.

In that time also Elam (v.), or "high land," undergoes the influence of Sumerian culture. The "proto-Elamites" develop for a short time a system of writing (attested by the tablets of Susa and of Tepe Sialk) that adapts the Sumerian one to their entirely different language. At the end of the Jemdet Nasr period there is, for unknown causes, a certain decline: the forms become more rudimentary.

3. The historical period

a) The period of Mesilim. - This phase, which many still include in protohistoric time, is named after the first known Mesopotamian name: on the pommel of a mace is written "Mesilim, king of Kish" (or "of the totality," a title handed down to the Neo-Assyrian kings?); he is the first king who presents himself with his name. A radical change takes place in art: everything becomes schematic, abstract, more in the manner of drawing than of sculpture, often down to mere outlining; but architecture presents the first wonder of a city: Uruk is surrounded by high walls pierced by gates, two of which have so far been excavated, with a perimeter of 9.5 km, surmounted by 900 towers. It is understandable that the construction of such walls was later attributed to the mythical hero Gilgamesh.

b) The First Dynasty of Ur. - With the First period of Ur, besides the various archaeological finds and the names, there are royal inscriptions. There is also another historical source, which however is delicate to handle: the king lists, composed around 2000 B.C., which extend from the present back to the most remote times. In some sense they can be compared with Gen 4-5. 11, because to the antediluvian kings they attribute lengths of reigns that exceed the ages of the biblical patriarchs; they are not very useful for the times preceding Ur I, and even afterward they must be used with caution. They are comprehensive lists of kings, but without distinction between the most important ones and the irrelevant dynasties subject to others; sometimes contemporary dynasties are placed after one another; moreover, some king may be omitted. Given this state of affairs, modern historiography must sift and combine all the elements from multiple sources, and must also obtain synchronisms, in order to arrive at a probable relative and absolute chronology — a field that has been extremely debated in recent years; with some caution a rather low chronology has been chosen here, because it seems more probable, although all the controversies are not yet settled. Thus, alongside the First Dynasty of Ur, there was a dynasty of Lagash, a much less important city, but about which we are better informed thanks to richer inscriptions. Here is the picture of the kings:

ca. 2350: Lugalzaggisi of Uruk, "emperor."

For Mesannepadda of Ur the name of his consort Ninturnin and of his successor, his son Aannepadda, are also known; the latter erected a temple at Obed. About Urnanshe the tablets relate that for his god Ningirsu, patron of Lagash, he built temples and canals, a wholly traditional thing in Sumer. From Eannatum there remains the famous "Stele of the Vultures," a limestone slab divided horizontally, which depicts and narrates his battle against Umma, a neighboring city. Unfortunately a large part of the slab is destroyed; what remains relates the invasion of the people of Umma and narrates how Eannatum charged them like a whirlwind and with a great victory drove them from his land, by virtue of Ningirsu, the warlike hero. But Eannatum also measured himself in war against the kings of Elam, Uruk, Ur and Kish. After him reigned his brother Enannatum I, who was succeeded by Entemena, son of Eannatum, who conquered Umma; with his son Enannatum II the dynasty founded by Urnanshe died out. There followed Enitarzi, Enlitarzi and Lugalanda, priests under Entemena. From those times there remains a strange document of belief in another life in the royal tombs of Ur. When the prince died (then the lady Shub-ad), the whole retinue, servants and court ladies, accompanied him into the tomb, where it is thought they freely poisoned themselves, falling to the ground together with the horses that drew the funeral cart, to keep the prince company in the kingdom of the dead. At Lagash, however, things were getting worse. Once the state structure had dissolved, the classes asserted themselves as independent and selfish; a regime obedient to private interests was reached, the battle for power and the exploitation of the weakest was kindled; Urukagina successfully carried out a revolution, which was followed by social reforms, the first that are reported to us in Asia, and he restored "freedom," justice and social peace, willed by the gods, to the beloved servants. Then the hereditary enemy rose up once more: Lugalzaggisi, son of Ukuš, enš of Umma, defeated Urukagina and attempted by cruel methods to establish a united Sumerian empire, with Uruk as its capital; but the attempt failed.

c) The time of Akkad. - Of it the kings Sargon (Šarrū-hēnū, the "true king", ca. 2350), Rimuš, Maništušu, Narām-Sin, Šarkališarri and 6 others are known.

The Semitic king of Akkad, Sargon, did what the S. had not succeeded in doing: he united the two southern parts of Mesopotamia. The Akkadians had been in the country from time immemorial, mingled with the S. who surpassed them in culture, and they continually received new reinforcements from the Semitic population of the Arabian peninsula. Under Sargon they rose to the command of all Mesopotamia, and they exercised it with force, after defeating numerous enemies; for ca. 150 years they protected the country from the barbarians; but finally they succumbed to the foreign regime of the Guteans (ca. 2200 B.C.). The Semitic regime completely transformed Sumerian culture, so as to cause even a linguistic difference between ancient Sumerian and Neo-Sumerian. Sumerian custom and strategy, besides the language, were suppressed. The theocracy of the temples was transformed into a State of officials controlled by the king, which in the end gave rise to the State of classes. The king began to add to his name the determinative of "god", as in imperial Rome he receives liturgical adoration in the temples, and temples were built for him, as for the ancient Sumerian gods. In the pantheon, moreover, the astral gods venerated by the Akkadians were placed in the front rank; but a fusion was made with the ancient Sumerian gods.

d) The III dynasty of Ur (ca. 2050 or 2070 - ca. 1950 B.C.). - Sovereigns: Ur-Nammu (ca. 2050); Šulgi; Bur-Sin; Šu-Sin; Ibi-Sin. Toward the end of the dominion of the Guteans, little fruitful in works of art, the Sumerian cities recovered. Utu-ḫegal of Uruk succeeded in driving out the Guteans and in taking prisoner and killing their last king, Tirigan. He, however, succumbed in the attempt to concentrate in himself the empire of all the Sumerian land: he was defeated by Ur-Nammu his vassal, who, a brilliant politician, knew how to reconcile S. and Akkadians, and was more welcome to the Sumerian cities. Having defeated the enš Namḫani of Lagaš and that of Kiš, traversing the whole country under arms, he founded the last and perhaps the most prosperous kingdom of Sumer, contemporary with the flowering of Sumerian literature. Important in this is also his contemporary Gudea of Lagaš, who like Namḫani (killed by Ur-Nammu) had likewise married a daughter of Ur-Bau, enš of Lagaš.

Whether all the "Neo-Sumerian" kings were really Sumerians, given the names of the last ones, is not certain. However, they felt themselves Sumerians and wished, without clashing with the Akkadian elements, to realize the ancient empire of Sumer and Akkad. The political scene changes: Elam asserts itself more and more, and from the west, from Amurru, the infiltration, the invasion of the Amorites (v.) begins. When the Elamites destroyed the capital Ur, several cities, such as Isin and Larsa, disputed the primacy, until one of them formed the first kingdom of Babylon (v. BAMMURABI). Especially precious are the numerous and extensive inscriptions of Gudea of Lagaš, which show the Sumerian restoration. The kings, like Gudea, feel themselves faithful shepherds of their peoples, vicars of the tutelary gods of the city; they are rather builders of temples, of cities, of canals. Literature flourishes. The mythical poems now and in the time of Isin and Larsa receive their final Sumerian redaction, before being reworked, with characteristic changes, by the Babylonians. Art also flourishes again, as can be seen in the numerous statues of Gudea; but in it, as also in literature, a certain Akkadian infiltration is noticeable.

The "house of the tablets", that is the school of the temples, prospers. It is at the same time an elementary school for beginners, a royal academy and a central library. There are taught the simple art of writing and the use of the various formularies for commercial life and for legal documents; priests and priestesses especially are initiated into the mysteries of their rites, into the stylistic refinements of hymns and lamentations; there are handed down with explanations the lists of the most diverse kinds of things, lands, stones, fish and other animals, but even more of gods and kings: all the science of those times; the paragraphs of the laws are learned. Ur-Nammu (v.) is the first of whom it is known that he composed a code of laws, humane and without the use of the law of retaliation. Another code, but 75 years later, is the one drafted by Lipit-Ištar king of Isin, published in 1947.

At Lagaš there was even a court of cassation, of which the archive of the DITILLA, that is of the concluded legal proceedings, has remained. These DITILLA allow a glimpse of the social structure. The institution of slavery existed, but the slaves were treated more humanely than later among the Semites. If the slave wished to appeal for his liberation, the praesumptio iuris was in his favor and he had the full right to sue. The "tablet" was the common means of legal proof, sealed with the seals of both parties and of the scribes. Moreover the oath (NAM-ERIM-DAM) and, naturally, the witnesses had the value of proof. There existed two forms of oath: the assertory one already mentioned and the promissory one, which had the name MU-LUGALA "name of the king" and which, it seems, was moreover the decisive element in marriage contracts. Marriages without the consent of the parents were invalid. But if the bridegroom had, with the consent of both parents, promised the marriage under MU-LUGALA, proceedings could be brought over the unfulfilled promise of marriage, and the bridegroom could be "condemned" to the marriage. Women were also capable of legal actions and, within certain limits, slaves. Divorce was permitted, especially when the "price" of the bride had not been paid. Moreover there are found contracts of lease, proceedings for unpaid rents, compensations of the timni on the occasion of naval accidents, divisions of the patrimony among the heirs, renunciations; the whole has a modern appearance. At the end of those documents there is not lacking the signature of the MAŠKIM (representative of the king for control), of the DIRUD (judges), and in trials of the gravest importance also of the ENŠI (prefect of the city); there is finally the date taken from a notable event of the preceding year.

Celebrated by a moving lamentation, the destruction of Ur occurred ca. 1950 B.C. From that time Sumerian recedes as the language of the people. However, in the time of Isin and Larsa many royal hymns are still composed in that language. Similar in this to Latin, Sumerian remains the language of priests and of learned persons. Even in the temples of the Kassites (14th century B.C.) poems were composed in Sumerian, but already by people who spoke Akkadian, so that those poems can even be dated by means of the grammatical errors they contain.

IV. LITERATURE

The Sumerian tablets found number in the tens of thousands. For the most part they are economic texts. Next come historical inscriptions (a few hundred), lists of things, and various classes of administrative documents. More precious are the literary tablets, to be compared to literary papyri as opposed to other kinds of papyri; they display the poetry of Sumer and greatly illustrate its religion. But from the several thousand such tablets only a limited number of poems can be reconstructed; these are moreover difficult to interpret, since the tablets are mutilated. Even if, with very recent methods, the grammatical difficulties can almost always be overcome, the lexical ones remain, because many words are unknown or do not fit the context according to their known meaning. It is also necessary to situate the poems within life, to guess many circumstances well known to the poets and listeners but now unknown; yet here too sensible progress is made day by day.

The following literary genres are distinguished: 1) myths; 2) epic poems; 3) hymns; 4) wisdom literature; 5) magical oracles or incantations.

1. Myths

Seventeen more notable myths are now known, apart from the too fragmentary remnants and those of very recent decipherment (cf. Orientalia, 22 [1953], pp. 190-93, pls. 49-56), from which it appears that the usable texts will increase day by day. It is useful to list the titles that modern scholars have given to these myths (the ancient Sumerians cited them by their openings). Ten deal with the origins of the universe, of the gods, of man, of Sumerian culture. The word "myth" is used only for myths properly so called and for "etiological" or explanatory ones; "heroic" myths and the subspecies of "chivalric" myths fall within the "epic" poems.

a) Enlil and Ninlil or The generation of Nanna, god of the moon, and of three infernal deities. b) Nanna's journey from his father Enlil in Nippur, to obtain in Ur "abundance" in every sense: the water of the river, grain, grasses, reeds, trees, products of the steppe, honey, wine and a long life. c) Enten and Emeš, or How Enlil took Enten as the giver of abundance, because Enten, unlike Emeš, was the "expert of the living waters" (also of animal insemination), thereby producing supreme abundance in all livestock and all plants; according to Falkenstein, Enten would personify the rainy season, winter. d) The creation of the hoe, an explanatory myth: there existed, at Nippur, a hoe of gold and lapis lazuli, kept in the temple Duranki ("bond of Heaven and Earth"); the myth recounts how Enlil determined the fate of that hoe, a useful invention full of power, and gave it to the black-headed people, together with the basket, to build temples, cities and houses, to fight enemies, to hoe away the bad weeds. The gods give agricultural tools to the people, as if they were zealous even for land reclamation or agrarian "settlements"; each god inspects with zeal and diligence through his black-headed people in his sphere; men must respond as good servants, carrying out even with the hard labor of canals, fields and buildings the respective decrees of the gods, which are a living force. Thus the very height of Sumerian culture and its will to subdue the earth and make it fertile are due to Sumerian religion. e) Labar and Ašnan, or The dispute between the god who raises livestock and the goddess who cultivates grain, of great importance also for the creation of man. f) Enki and Ninšursag or The creation of medicinal plants. g) Enki and Sumer or How Enki creates and organizes Sumer and the whole environment of its life. The poem is full of patriotism:

"O Sumer, great land! Among the lands of the universe (you are) the one full of stable splendor, (you are) the people, from the rising of the Sun to its setting, obedient to the divine decrees! Your decrees are lofty decrees, unattainable, your heart is deep, its bottom is not found, your... is like the sky, which no man will ever be able to touch."

Thus Enki "blesses" Sumer and Ur, its capital, "the ox standing firm," Melubba, the "black mountain" (perhaps the eastern coast of Africa, as far as the ships of Sumer went), and he blesses especially its parts, the Euphrates and the Tigris, which he fills with waters, over which he makes Enbibulu prefect; he makes them teem with fish, which receive as prefect Dumu-Keš; he gives law to the Sea (Persian Gulf), under the charge of the god Sirara; he summons the winds before him, makes Iškur, god of the "hedgehog of the interior of the sky," their lord; he wishes to make the fields cultivated, directs toward them the plow, the yoke and the seeds, and makes Enkimdu, god of the canals and dikes, their master; he wishes to see them full of grain, and gives their care to Ašnan, the goddess of grain; but he also wishes the region to be full of houses, villages, cities and temples, as "land proper to the gods," and therefore he determines the decrees for the hoe and the shape of the bricks, and Kabta, god of the bricks, is appointed for their inspection; with the instrument GUNGUN the foundations of the houses must be made, and therefore these will be supervised by Mušdamma, great architect of Enlil. Of the stables and sheepfolds, rich in milk and fat, the god-shepherd Dumuzi assumes the charge. h) Enki and Eridu or The journey of the god of water from his father Enlil in Nippur, to obtain decrees of blessing for the city of Eridu and the temple E-engur, the "house of the spring" (others "of the sea"), of his recent construction. i) Inanna and Enki, or How the goddess Inanna transfers the civilizing arts from Eridu to Uruk, a myth of great interest for understanding what the Sumerians called culture. Inanna, goddess of love and war, visits her father Enki at Eridu, and gets him drunk at the banquets. Then Enki lets himself be stripped of more than a hundred ME ("models"), forces and competences according to the divine decrees, which constitute the whole civilization of that time, with its good and bad sides. Having come out of his drunkenness, Enki sends his messenger Isimud to bring those ME back to Eridu; he stops Inanna's "celestial ship" at every intermediate port; but always Isimud must yield to Ninšubur, messenger and protector of Inanna. Among these ME are found all the elements of the culture of the time, with the social and religious hierarchy, the arts, the crafts, personal and family, artisan and agricultural affairs. l) The creation of man (v. below under religion). Two heroic myths follow: m) The deeds of Ninurta, god warrior, who conquers, with his marvelous weapon ŠARUR, the land of the mountains KUR and changes its name to HURSAG, subjecting it to a benevolent goddess. n) Inanna and Mount Ebih, or How the warrior Inanna destroys an arrogant and impious country. Among the various myths may be counted: o) The descent of Inanna into hell, whence she comes up leading demons with her. p) Inanna and Šukallituda: the latter is punished for having despised Inanna; q) Inanna prefers Enkimdu to Dumuzi; r) The marriage of Martu with the daughter of Numušda, tutelary god of Ninab; Martu is the free man of the heroic steppe, his spouse perhaps symbolizes the culture of the Sumerian cities. s) The flood and Ziusudra, the Sumerian Noah.

2. The epic poems

Those remaining are 9 more notable; they constitute the cycle of Lugalbanda, Enmerkar and Gilgameš (son of Lugalbanda). However, a unified cycle does not emerge, as in the Akkadian Gilgameš: a) Gilgameš, Enkidu and hell; b) Gilgameš and Agga of Kiš; c) Gilgameš and the Land of Life (monster Humbaba); d) Gilgameš and the Celestial Bull; e) The death of Gilgameš; f) Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta; g) Enmerkar and Enzukuširanna; h) Lugalbanda and Enmerkar; i) Lugalbanda and Mount Hurrum.

There is a difference of style between the Akkadian and the Sumerian epics. As Semites, the Akkadians are more active and love dramatic scenes. The Sumerian, more contemplative, lists a successive series of vivid images, and therefore it is not parallelism that expresses the rhythm of his thought, but rather repetition with only slight variations. He also loves order and a grave pace, as already in the simple grammatical sentence. Hence refrains and many hymnic elements are often found in the epics. The Sumerian cycle of Gilgamesh, his father Lugalbanda and Enmerkar is closer to the mythical and the legendary than the Akkadian cycle.

3. The hymns

The most notable hymns that survive number about a hundred: they constitute the most extensive field of Sumerian literature, apart from the hymnic passages in mythical and epic poems, and even in historical inscriptions (for example, the cylinders A and B of Gudea, which are the greatest Sumerian works that we possess). Some compositions do not reach 50 lines, others exceed 300. To the poetic technique belong short antiphons and more extended refrains. Some show a regular strophic arrangement, for example in three verses. Important for the embedding of the hymns in life is that there are not infrequently rubrics for their liturgical action. In other cases the text often alludes to actions of the singers of those hymns, or to a scenic representation of the content. There have even survived, as for the Hebrew Psalms, classifications of them, made by the Sumerians, especially according to the musical instruments, and such indications can be drawn from the colophons written at the end of the tablets.

The first hymnic genre is the ritual praise of the gods, the temples, the cities, the kings, among whom, starting from the empire of Sargon, there must not have been great difference, given the fact that many kings were then deified. Thus hymns of praise are found for almost all the Neo-Sumerian kings of Ur III and the post-Sumerian kings of Isin. It was a common fact that a god was the representative of a greater god (v. Enki and Sumer). More solemn are naturally the hymns to the gods, especially the primordial ones, and they can contain precious indications for Sumerian theology.

A somewhat altered species of those praises is prayer properly so called. The Sumerian in the myths and in the hymns sets himself to meditate and contemplate the wondrous working of the gods, and inserts only brief prayers, for example, he implores that the god look with a benign eye upon his city and bring it like a flood all the light of heaven and abundance, itself also born in heaven (UÈ-GAL). Supremely moving is the genre of lamentations, of which four are more notable: that of Ur destroyed; that of Nippur and of Agade (Akkad); that finally which deplores the destruction of the whole land of Sumer. An element of great effect is that all the temples of Sumer are made to lament, because the gods have departed from them, and even the walls and the bricks. Those temples too have a "living" function and meaning, they protect the black-headed ones, inspiring fear from afar even in the monsters of the mountains and of the underworld. On the other hand they are the work of prayer and the work of human magic: they continually implore the pure abundance of the gods, for example, in the most solemn rite of the hieros gamos, which seeks to compel the gods to pour out that water of abundance and fertility. Another profound effect is produced by the songs and supplications of the gods before the gods assembled in council; but An and Enlil reject the intercession of the tutelary gods; they have a word that no one will ever be able to change. And behold the atrocious winds and the infernal powers, together with political enemies, who massacre with clubs like gazelles the people of the black-headed ones, and behold the Celestial Bull bellowing from the sky. But although the people scatter and fly away like disturbed birds, although the cities are reduced to being inhabited by flints and no longer by men, everything can end well: the tutelary gods re-enter the favor of An and Enlil, the ritual is performed for the new foundations of the city, and everything ends with a hymn of joy and praise to them, and also to An and Enlil, who have given the decree of reconstruction (the XI-BI-GI-A). To such lamentations those over Tammuz carried off by the demons into the underworld draw near, and other laments of the mother and tutelary divinities.

4. Wisdom literature

The last genre is wisdom literature, apart from the magical texts and those in a stricter sense didactic, such as the exhortation of the peasant father to his son to teach him agriculture. Several species of it are found: the most elementary are the proverbs and aphorisms, brief profound sayings and often also of a spiritual wisdom. Another genre are the fables, in which animals or personified objects contend, such as the bird and the fish, the tree and the reed, the hoe and the cart, silver and bronze.

Such wisdom literature is due in part also to the È-DUBBA (the "house of tablets"), that is, the school, which had been created to train the DUB-SAR, the scribes of tablets. In that school taught the ADDA-È-DUBBA, the "fathers of the house of tablets", that is, the professors, also called UMMA, "experts". For discipline they had a SES-GAL, "big brother", an assistant charged even with the rods. There has survived a very human tale, rich in simplicity and sincerity, of an unhappy schoolboy of those times. Awakened, he shouts to his mother to give him two little loaves, and sets off running to arrive at school still in time. Our DUMU-È-DUBBA arrives a few minutes late, for which he is penalized with blows of the rods. He does not manage well to recite the "tablet", after which another time the action occurs that Sumerian writing expresses with the sign of "stick" on "flesh". Afterwards the schoolboy eats his little loaves, and begins to write a tablet; but since his legs hurt, he gets up and leaves the hall: to this follow other punishments from the various overseers of the È-DUBBA. The tablet turns out badly for him, whence other blows from the teacher. In the evening he must learn other tablets, and prepares the writing of them, always with the result of the rods. He returns home sad, and recites to his father a tablet that he has truly learned; the latter, full of joy, cannot refuse the proposal, made by the boy, to invite the teacher to his house to placate him. This is done: the teacher, poorly paid even then, receives the place of honor, a new garment, a ring and a fine meal, and already declares that the poor disciple is full of wisdom, reassures the father that he writes well and that he is a capable devotee of the goddess Nisada, mistress of the scribes. Perhaps this goliardic poem is to be taken a little comically.

V. RELIGION

The Sumerian religion, in its fundamental ideas, is different from the Akkadian, the Canaanite and the Egyptian. Perhaps it can be understood by comparing it to the Baal religion, known in the milieu of the Old Testament.

Abundance is the central idea in the two religions; both are religions of fertility, in both the fertilizing water has primordial importance, and licentious festivals and sexual rites are not lacking. But there is much difference: the religion of Baal is a religion of the capricious rain that comes and disappears, and it entails the veneration of a principle of the cosmic order; the religion of Sumer, on the other hand, considers the fertilizing water according to a firm and established order, an order inserted into the hierarchy of the community of the gods, who make the "models" of all things, which on earth are forces and competences. Water is an element full of wisdom, which can do everything, as when it is regulated by canals and enclosed between dikes; such regulated and beneficent water, whose origin is in the heavens, where among the first things the gods did they fixed for it the splendid destiny of sweet water, and well distinct from the primordial waters, which like the marine waters have disastrous effects. The S. venerate in the gods the benevolent givers of abundance; their religion is therefore far removed from a religion of revelation and of divine spiritual charity.

The Sumerian cosmogony and theogony, as they appear in the mythical, hymnic and epic texts, place first of all the primordial Ocean, personified in NAMMU, generator of Heaven and Earth, still united as a Great Mountain above the waters. That is, she generates the god Heaven (AN) and the goddess Earth (XI), primordial divinities. From the union of An and Ki is produced the god "Air", that is ENLIL, who separates the two (cf. the Egyptian myth). But since the sky was of the blackest lapis lazuli, so to speak the roof of Enlil's house and also its walls, while the floor was Ki, light was lacking in Enlil's house. To have it he generated with Ninlil (consort of the same element) the moon-god Nanna, wayfarer of the sky. He, with a counter-principle, NINGAL (the "great lady"), generated a son more brilliant than himself, Utu, the sun-god. On the other hand, in the earth sweet water also formed, a beneficent element, distinct from the primordial waters and from the marine ones, and whose god was Enki. From those four creator gods derives the whole pantheon: there are the Annunaki, companions of An, there are the stars, little brothers of Nanna and Utu, there are infernal divinities also generated by Enlil. There is the great goddess Inanna "Lady of the Heavens", daughter of Enki, there are other terrestrial and cultural divinities, as set forth above in the myths. Such divinities are created in conformity with the order of the Universe, that is, by the convocation and decision of the assembly of the gods, in which An and Enlil, but also other divinities, fix the destinies of the model-things for becoming. However, the Sumerian pantheon is anything but primitive; it is the fruit of a long evolution. It can be affirmed that in early Sumerian times Enlil was the most active divinity, but it seems that later Enki increasingly asserted himself.

The creation of man, servant of the gods, - also not identical to the Akkadian one - is really more solemn: the gods lack worthy houses, a nourishment of taste and of culture, and garments. Then, through the intervention of Nammu, mother of Enki, from the clay that is above the abyss men are molded, born it seems also from Nammu and from Ninmah, aided by all the midwife goddesses. They further determine the destiny of man, servant of the gods. There follows a banquet of joy of the gods, in which, becoming a little exuberant, Ninmah and Enki form from that clay above the abyss six special types of men. The text is legible only as regards the last two types: the sterile woman, destined by Enki for sacred prostitution, and the man eunuch by nature, destined by Enki as servant of kings. Other myths on the origin of man relate that he grew like a plant, in a sacred place, or as produced by the hoe. There results the idea of the life of the S.: placed in a world of abundance, man must prepare with his culture, which develops, the best for the gods, in whose hands he always is; but they, benign and subject also to magic, fulfill all their duties. On life after death all the sources of the Sumerian religion are silent; the mentioned tombs of Ur indicate belief in another life.

The ideas of Sumer are always illuminating, and it is important to know Sumerian thought on a given subject. This holds especially for the first chapters of Genesis, which have relations according to literary genre with the "cultural hymns" and to some extent with the whole "cultural" literature of Sumer.

Eugenio Bergmann - Pietro Nober