Position in chronology
A hymn to Ningishzida (Ningishzida C)
Translation · reference
High confidence...... to you. ...... a flood-wave in the river, sweeping over everything like a destructive flood. My king, from your ....... King, from your birth you have ...... in abundance. Ninjiczida, your praise is sweet ....... 1st kirugu. Lord Ninjiczida, ...... 1 line fragmentary Hero, ...... beloved of holy An, ...... born in the shining great mountains, lord ...... with sparkling eyes, with the attractiveness of a young man, great hero, the king's right arm on the battlefield, lord Ninjiczida, your praise is sweet. They praise you in song. 2nd kirugu. Hero, as you wander on the earth, Ninjiczida,…
Source: ETCSL c.4.19.3: A hymn to Ningishzida (Ningishzida C). 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.4.19.3
Why it matters
Transliteration
Scholarly note
Composition c.4.19.3 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.4.19.3: A hymn to Ningishzida (Ningishzida C). 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.4.19.3.
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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.