Position in chronology
A namerima (?) for Iddin-Dagan (Iddin-Dagan D)
Written in modern English
Nininsina, holy daughter of An, is addressed as a great lady and majestic healer of all humanity — and also a terrifying force. Her storm-like fury shakes both heaven and earth; her fierce upraised face burns like fire and tears apart enemy bodies. She moves like a dragon, her lion's paws fitted with sharpened claws constantly dripping blood, and the mere sight of her fills the body with dread. When she draws her scalpel and lancet — blades sharp as a lion's claws — through flesh, every person on earth trembles. Several phrases in the opening lines are too damaged to read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSLGreat lady, majestic physician to the black-headed, holy Nininsina, daughter of An, may you be praised! Lady whose tempest, like a raging storm, ...... the interior of heaven and the trembling earth, whose upraised fierce face, like a fire, rips the bodies of the enemy; who, like a dragon, does not bring up venom in her place where ......, paws of a lion, sharpened knives, claws constantly dripping blood, ...... which prick the body with fear! When you draw through the flesh the scalpel and the lancet, knives like lion's claws -- the bodies of the black-headed people tremble because of you!…
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
Scholarly note
Composition c.2.5.3.4 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.2.5.3.4: A namerima (?) for Iddin-Dagan (Iddin-Dagan D). 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.2.5.3.4.
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.