Position in chronology
A hymn to Inana (Inana F)
Translation · reference
High confidenceMy father gave me the heavens and he gave me the earth. I am Inana! Which god compares with me? Enlil gave me the heavens and he gave me the earth. I am Inana! He gave me lordship, and he gave me queenship. He gave me battles and he gave me fighting. He gave me the stormwind and he gave me the dust cloud. He placed the heavens on my head as a crown. He put the earth at my feet as sandals. He wrapped the holy ma garment around my body. He put the holy sceptre in my hand. The gods are small birds, but I am the falcon. The Anuna mill about, but I am the good wild cow, I am the good wild cow of father Enlil, his good wild cow which walks in front.
Source: ETCSL c.4.07.6: A hymn to Inana (Inana F). 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.4.07.6
Why it matters
Transliteration
Scholarly note
Composition c.4.07.6 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.4.07.6: A hymn to Inana (Inana F). 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.4.07.6.
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.