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A Sumerian Hymn to Ishtar (Innini) and the Deified Ishme-Dagan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Extract

Ishme-Dagan, fourth king of the Isin dynasty, reigned twenty years (2237–18), but concerning the history of his reign little is known. He appears in all known references to him as “the god Ishme-Dagan”, in accordance with the prevalent custom of emperor-worship in the periods of the third dynasty of Ur and the succeeding dynasties of Isin and Ellasar. Although all the fifteen kings of Isin and the fourteen kings of Ellasar have Semitic names, and both dynasties are certainly Semitic, their religion was Sumerian; the deification and worship of kings are characteristic of Sumerian religion, and fundamentally opposed to Semitic religious conceptions.

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Articles
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Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1931

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References

page 367 note 1 Also edited by Witzel, P. Maurus, Keilinschriftliche Studien, Heft 6 (1929), pp. 147Google Scholar. His reading nu-'u-gig = ḳadištu “hierodule” is undoubtedly correct.

page 368 note 1 zirru, zir alti dSin, Langdon, SBP. 152, 13.

page 369 note 1 Genouillac does not note that Chiera, Crozer, No. 40, restores my PBS. x2, No. 1, Col. I, 13–33, with three more fragmentary lines, end of the first kiŝub. I have not seen Genouillac's second volume of Textes religieux sumériens, containing AO. 9075, invocation to Ishme-Dagan.

page 372 note 1 nig-nam-e sa-di, PBS. v, 66, vi, 11. For si-di = mušteširu ? Or sá-sá = mušaršidu ? mušakšidu ?

page 372 note 2 The same word on a Nippur text in Constantinople, il-la-lu tūr-ra-ám a-rá maǵ-am. Witzel reads il-la-dib, “hoch schreitend.”

page 372 note 3 ṭiparu, BA. v, 708, 4; OECT. vi, 19, K. 5001, 2.

page 372 note 4 The root ed, en = aṣû, has a variant im, imma, see JRAS. 1926, p. 25, note 11; UD-DU-me-a, UD-DU-me-a-zu, RA. 23,42, No. 12, 4–5. im-ma = ṣit šamši, King, , Magic, 9, 43Google Scholar.

page 373 note 1 The meaning of the last five signs is difficult. In CT. 11, 3 A 29, TUM has the value [di-]ib, restored from 46506, 5. Hence dib-bi = aggiš. á-dú-dú = nakāpu ša ḳarni?

page 373 note 2 Wholly uncertain.

page 373 note 3 The verb ki-bal in the sense šupêlu, “to change,” overthrow, occurs apparently in Langdon, , Paradis, 252Google Scholar, 61. Cf. me-ri-zu ki-da-ba-al-la, Zimmern, , Kultlieder, 3Google Scholar, Rev. I, 5 and 8.

page 373 note 4 tu-dib = rummú, “to loosen,” Br. 1096; tu-tu-dib-bi = urtammu, Shurpu, vii, 33, for which Ebeling, KAR. 371, 15, has UD-dib-bi = irtammi, i.e., tū-dib-bi. Perhaps same word here. A meaning munammirat is expected here.

page 373 note 5 See Langdon, , Paradis, 42Google Scholar, 3 = KAR. 4.

page 373 note 6 Cf. Haupt, ASKT. 104, 7, and for ku = rabû, AJSL. 39, 171, n. 9.

page 374 note 1 Cf. bal = šupîlu ša zinništi, CT. 19, 42, 17.

page 374 note 2 For KU, REC. 468 = mu-ud, v. PBS. v, 102, iii, 6. The only combination possible seems to be túg-mud-mud = ṣubata labāšu. Cf. RA. 17, 61, 14, túg láǵ-láǵ mûd-mûd-(aš), ṣubata ibba iltabaš; see also CT. 16, 11 A 51; mašak amēli mûd-mûd-(aš), Virolleaud, , Astrol. Sin., 17, 36Google Scholar. But what is the meaning here?

page 374 note 3 The sign is REC. 302, but here apparently for ǵub = šumēlu, REC. 116; for it is contrasted with zid-da = imnu, 1. 22. Cf. the Ishme-Dagan hymns, PSBA. 1918, 56, 35; PBS. x, 180, 15.

page 374 note 4 E-NE-DI melūltu, Sm. 526, 22 and 24, in ki E-NE-DI-ta = ašar melulti, “place of song.” Smith, S. A., Miscellaneous Texts, 24Google Scholar. For which var. Radau, , Miscel., 15Google Scholar ii 1 has KU-HUL-SIR, i.e. ešemen, CT. 19, 31 A 19. For E-NE-DI (ešemin), see CT. 11, 50, 7. Also a reading e-ne-di proved by e-ne-dúg = râšu, etc., Delitzsch, , Glossar, 174Google Scholar, after an Assur text.

page 374 note 5 Cf. Chiera, , Crozer, No. 1, Col. i, 24Google Scholar.

page 375 note 1 Same sense in CT. 36, 28, 23 = JRAS. 1925, 489. kalam-ma … šuǵe-im-ri-ri-e “May he establish the Land”, cause it to occupy as an abode (šurmû).

page 375 note 2 Cf. Haupt Anniversary Volume, 176, 20; JRAS. 1925, 488, 1. 9.

page 375 note 3 Var. of Br. 3035. See JRAS. 1929, 372. At end mu-da-eri sud ?

page 375 note 4 nu-pad, “unseen, unfound,” not hitherto known. The sign after dam is túg not šú. Moreover the instrumental or adverbial ending am (nu pad-am = nu paddam) cannot be construed with post-fixed , as Witzel reads.

page 375 note 5 See JRAS. 1929, 368, and PBS. x, 248, 6.

page 376 note 1 Cf. Babyloniaca, ii, 244, 33, be-de-ma an-na. Cf. Hilprecht, OBI. 2, 9.

page 376 note 2 Cf. titles of Ishtar, me-nu-a-ni, CT. 25, 44, Sm. 1558, 9 = 17 ii 16, me-a-ni! me-nu-a-zu, me-nu-a-ru, me-nu-am-nu-u me-nu-i-li, ibid., 17–18, 26–7. These are, however, clearly Semitic names, me-nu-a-ni = me-nu-an-nim, CT. 24, 41, 80. “Fate of yes,” Ishtar as goddess of fate. See mi-nu-ú-an-ni, mi-nu-ú-ul-la, “Fate of yes,” “Fate of no,” JRAS. 1930, 26, n. 1. me-nu-amnû, “I have decreed fate,” verbal phrase inflected as a noun. For me-nu-a-zu, the Var. Sm. 1558, 10, has me-nu-a-du, which gives the impression that the scribe wished to use idû, “to know,” for zu! me-nu-a-ru = šāriḳat meni ? Cf. me-nu-ǵen, RA. 16, 75, No. 14, 1. 9. [In my discussion of manîtu, “fate,” JRAS. 1930, 25, it was expressly stated that ṭâbu is construed with šâru, masculine, and not with manîtu. Meissner, AOF. vi, 108, does not state my argument correctly, and injustly charges me with construing ṭâbu with manîtu. I think he did not intend to do this, but it is, as it stands, a serious misrepresentation. Moreover, the syllabary cited by him which gives manîtu = šâru in no way proves his argument, for “wind” came to mean “omen”, by its function in divination. Meissner, however, himself states, MAOG. i, 2, p. 39, “manîtu ist übrigens kein Feminin, sondern Masculin.” What then does he mean in AOF. vi, 108 ?] See Addenda.

page 376 note 3 A similar meaning for inim-gar in Langdon, OECT. i, 56, 28.

page 377 note 1 nin-gal = šarratu, “queen,” is the only possibility if the text is right. Aruru is called nin-gal d. Mullil-lá, JSOR. iii, 15, Rev. 16.

page 377 note 2 á-ki-nad, probably identical with á-nad, Gud. Cyl. B, 5, 12; JSOR. iii, 15, 18; the é-nun-kug of Ningal is called the á-nad-da of Sin, Ur Excavations, 111, 35. dug is taken for ṭâbu. Also šar = naḫāšu, possible. He that makes luxurious. Perhaps also dug = riḫû “Begotten on thy bridal couch”.

page 377 note 3 See PBS. x, 260, n. 3.

page 377 note 4 Some similar meaning must be assigned to this new phrase. From kar-kar = mutirru, iv, R. 40, i, 9, and ennun-mal-ni in-na-an-gur = maṣarta-šu uterri, “He restored what was in his keeping,” II Raw. 9, 2–4, a sense “to restore the safety of”, may be possible. If so, the passage may refer to Ninurta as the avenger of his father Enlil in the old Sumerian myth of creation. Harduk is the mutîr salime ša ilāni rabûti, “Restorer of the peace of the great gods,” iv, R. 40, i, 9, obviously referring to the Epio of Creation. On Ninurta the mutirru of Enlil, see also CT. 36, 29, Rev. 14, in JRAS. 1925, 493, and Ebeling, KAR. 307, Rev. 22, Ninurta ša gimilli abi-šu utirru. Hence perhaps here Ninurta “who restored the safety of thy faithful decrees”, restored the authority of Enlil after his battle with the dragons.

page 378 note 1 Cf. a-ri-a-bi an-na-ge tu-ud-da-meš = ina riḫût d-Anim ibbanû šunu, CT. 16, 15, v, 1. Also d-a-rù-ù-a = d. e-rù-ù-a, v Raw. 62, No. 2 A 7 = B 8. The augmented forms aria, arua, are from the root ru = banû.

page 378 note 2 šuddulu.

page 378 note 3 gīr= gašru is usually employed with persons, gods, but á-kalag gīr-ra, year date 23 of Samsuiluna, and RA. 9, 122, i, 2.

page 378 note 4 The only known meanings of šadugga are amšala, “yesterday,” and adannu, “fixed time.”

page 378 note 5 gig KA-BIL, Reisner, 102, 42, seems to mean “night and day”.

page 378 note 6 A-nun-na preceded by double AN, also Ur Excavations, 293, 2; 294, 2.

page 378 note 7 âl ṣiatim, Poebel, PBS. v, 101, i, 5.

page 378 note 8 ǵal-gapirštu, Ebeling, KAR. 50, 9. Read buluǵ-ǵa, buluq-qai ? Cf. buluǵ-ǵa-dam, Thureau-Dangin, RTC. 58, Rev. ii, 2; Allotte de la Fuÿe, DP. 222, Rev. iv, 2.

page 379 note 1 Text giš, error for sa ? BU has the value su, sud, as is proved by the variant writing sa-SUD-da-ám, PBS. x, 182, 31; AJSL. 39, 176, 31 et p. The full form is sa-bar-sud-da-ám, PSBA. 1918, 71, 29. sa = pidnu “choral music”; sa-bar = zamāru “song”, in ši-ù-dé sa-bar = ebir zamāram, “chant a song,” Myhrman, PBS. i, No. 11, 78, and for ebēra, “shout, chant,” see Voc. Scheil, 145–6, SIM (a-si-il-la) = rîšatum, e-be-rum, ḳûlu, and Scheil's note, p. 25. [For reading a-si-il-la, see Thureau-Dangin's copy, Uruk, pi. lxxi, B, 34, and asilal, Delitzsch, , Glossar, 16.]Google Scholar For GID, “value”, su, cf. im-GID- []-en, Langdon, , Sum. Bab. Psalms, 200, 16Google Scholar, with var. Zimmern, Kultlieder, No. 2, Rev. 1. 37, be-ib-su-de; GID-ág = sú-ud-ág, Scheil, RA. 18, 52, 19. But pabarsudda, sasudda, never occur at the end of a hymn as here; PSBA. 1918, 71, 29; 77, 34; BE. 29, 1, i, 27; ii, 31; iii, 22; iv, 10; PBS. x, 182, 31; AJSL. 39, 176, 31. It is probable, therefore, that the scribe meant to write sìr-gid-da (better sìr-sûd-da), which always occurs (as a rubric) at the end, sìr-sûd-da d Ninsianna-kam, Chiera, Crozer, i, Nos. 6, 7; sìr-sûd-da d. Amurru-kam, No. 8; sìr-sûd-da d. Ninurta, Genouillac, Texte's Cunéiformes, xv, No. 7. But never sìr-sûd-da-ám, and always followed by the name of a deity.