An adab to An for Lipit-Eshtar (Lipit-Eshtar C)

Translation · reference

High confidence

The august lord, pre-eminent, with the most complex divine powers, almighty grandfather of all the lords -- barsud. -- head high, surpassing everyone, breed-bull, who makes the seeds sprout, whose name is respected, spreading great terror, whose august commands cannot be countermanded, who is imbued with awesomeness on the mountain of pure divine powers, who has taken his seat on the great throne-dais, An, the king of the gods -- cagbatuku. -- has looked at him with long-lasting favour, has looked at prince Lipit-Ectar with favour. He has bestowed on him a long life, he has bestowed on prince Lipit-Ectar a long life. The words of what An says are firmly established; no god would oppose them. At the place of where the destinies are to be decided, all the Anuna gods gather around him.

Source: ETCSL c.2.5.5.3: An adab to An for Lipit-Eshtar (Lipit-Eshtar 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.2.5.5.3

Why it matters

Transliteration

Scholarly note

Composition c.2.5.5.3 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.2.5.5.3: An adab to An for Lipit-Eshtar (Lipit-Eshtar 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.2.5.5.3.

Related tablets

Related sources

~650 BCE

Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI (the Flood)

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.

~2300 BCE

Disk of Enheduanna

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.

~1808 BCE

Sumerian King List (Weld-Blundell Prism)

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.