Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

A hymn to Ninshubur (Ninshubur B)

~1800 BCE·Old Babylonian

Written in modern English

Ninshubur — the wise suppliant, the faithful servant — has taken her seat in her city of Akkil. Several lines are too damaged to read, but the hymn names her alongside Nintud and links her to An. It then lists the great gods she serves or intercedes before: Enlil, lord of all lands; Ninlil, lady of Ki-ur; Enki, the bull of Eridu; Damgalnuna; Nanna at Ur; Ningal in her holy chamber; Ninurta; Ninhursaja; the young sun-god Utu at the E-babbar shrine; Nergal; and Inana at Zabalam. The passage closes with a reference to Enlil and the great gods, but the final lines are broken.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — scholar edition

ETCSL
High confidence
The servant (cubur), the wise suppliant, ...... the servant, the wise suppliant, the ...... of Akkil, the wise suppliant has taken her seat in her city Akkil. The servant has taken her seat in Akkil. The servant ......, Nincubur, ...... Nintud, the servant ......, Nincubur ...... to An. For father Enlil, lord of all the lands; for Ninlil, lady of Ki-ur, the majestic place; for Enki, the bull of Eridug; for the good woman, ...... Damgalnuna; for Acimbabbar in Urim; for Ningal in her holy chamber; ...... the Great Mountain, Enlil; for ......, Ninurta, for ...... Ninhursaja, for youthful Utu in the shrine of E-babbar ......, for ...... Nergal, for Inana in Zabalam, Enlil ...... the great gods .......

Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).

Scholarly note

Composition c.4.25.2 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.4.25.2: A hymn to Ninshubur (Ninshubur B). 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.4.25.2.

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