Position in chronology
A hymn to Nanna (Nanna G)
Translation · reference
High confidenceNanna, ......, lord, son of Enlil, ......, Nanna, lord, ......, lord, son of Enlil, ......! Lord, sweet wonder ......! The woman perfect in beauty ....... Nanna, lord, sweet wonder ......! The woman perfect in beauty ....... Ninhursaja ......, the great mother Ninhursaja ....... Nanna, ......, the great mother Ninhursaja ....... 1 line fragmentary you ....... Nanna, ......, you ....... 1 line fragmentary unknown no. of lines missing 1 line fragmentary ...... you have shown your attractiveness to me. May your beauty cover my body like a ...... garment. Nanna, ...... you have shown your attractiveness to me. May your beauty cover my body like a ...... garment.
Source: ETCSL c.4.13.07: A hymn to Nanna (Nanna G). Black, J.A., Cunningham, G., Robson, E. & Zólyomi, G. (eds.), The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford. https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=c.4.13.07
Why it matters
Transliteration
Scholarly note
Composition c.4.13.07 in the ETCSL catalogue. Sumerian literary text reconstructed from multiple cuneiform manuscripts, the great majority Old Babylonian (c. 1900–1600 BCE). Translation reproduced from the ETCSL edition.
Attribution
Image: .
Translation excerpted from ETCSL c.4.13.07: A hymn to Nanna (Nanna G). Black, J.A., Cunningham, G., Robson, E. & Zólyomi, G. (eds.), The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford. https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=c.4.13.07.
Related tablets
Related sources
The single most important literary discovery of the 19th century. It rewired the understanding of the Bible's literary context and proved that the Mesopotamian flood tradition is older. It is the oldest surviving epic poetry in human history.
The literary tradition is no longer anonymous from this point. Authorship — the idea that a specific human voice composes a specific work — enters the historical record with her.
The single most influential Mesopotamian king list — the model for every later attempt to chronicle the deep history of the region. It transmits the political theology of divinely granted kingship, an idea that would echo through Babylon, Assyria, and into the Hebrew Bible. The Weld-Blundell prism (WB 444) at the Ashmolean is the most complete surviving copy.