Position in chronology
A hymn to Bau's Beneficent Protective Goddess (Bau A)
Written in modern English
The opening three lines are too damaged to read, but the hymn then addresses the Beneficent Protective Goddess of Bau directly, comparing her beauty to Suen's barge moving across the sky and her attractiveness to Inana's joyous emblem. A refrain — 'Let us praise you, the Beneficent Protective Goddess of Bau' — punctuates each section. Eight more lines are missing or broken beyond recovery, then the text resumes with the goddess standing at her lady Bau's right side, tending to her daily, full of glory and magnificence throughout the land, before the refrain returns once more.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSL3 lines fragmentary Let us ...... praise (?) you, the Beneficent Protective Goddess of Bau. 3 lines fragmentary She does not ....... She does not go to the rich ...... nor ....... She does not ....... The barge of Suen as it proceeds -- lady, is not yours as beautiful? The joyous symbol of Inana -- Protective Goddess, is not yours as attractive? Let us ...... praise (?) you, the Beneficent Protective Goddess of Bau. 8 lines missing or fragmentary ......, daily ...... at her feet. My lady, at his right side you ...... your good ...... towards him. ...... full of glory -- lady, is not yours as beautiful? ...... magnificently in the Land -- Protective Goddess, is not yours as attractive? Let us ...... praise (?) you, the Beneficent Protective Goddess of Bau.
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
Scholarly note
Composition c.4.02.1 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.4.02.1: A hymn to Bau's Beneficent Protective Goddess (Bau A). 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.4.02.1.
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