Letter from Gudea to his god imploring support

Translation · reference

High confidence

Speak to my god: this is what Gudea, your servant, says: I am like a sheep who has no reliable shepherd; there is no reliable herdsman to lead me on. An unintelligent merchant transported me (?) for trading purposes. With a vicious whip he ...... me cruelly like a donkey. I am noble (?) but do not utter a word, being vigilantly (?) ....... Seven times ...... has not ...... my accomplishments. Seven times my god (?) has not been able to find out about their extent. My god, I am not one to be hostile. May you show sympathy towards me once again.

Source: ETCSL c.3.3.20: Letter from Gudea to his god imploring support. 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.3.3.20

Why it matters

Transliteration

Scholarly note

Composition c.3.3.20 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.3.3.20: Letter from Gudea to his god imploring support. 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.3.3.20.

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