trans. D. D. Luckenbill
1921
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NOTE |
The text below is one of several Mesopotamian accounts of the creation, though certainly less famous that the Enuma Elish or the Eridu Genesis. This account is written in Sumerian on a clay tablet excavated at Nippur and currently resides in the Penn Museum in Philadelphia. It dates to the Old Babylonian period (1900-1600 BCE), and it was first published in translation by George Barton in a 1917 journal article and then his 1918 book Miscellaneous Babylonian Inscriptions. In 1921, D. D. Luckenbill published a revised translation as an appendix to his study of the Enuma Elish. I reproduce that translation below with the translator’s preface.
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A SUMERIAN STORY OF BEGINNINGS
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TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE
As an appendix I have added a translation of a Sumerian “creation” text, published by Barton in Miscellaneous Babylonian Inscriptions, No. 8. A new copy of the text (it cried to heaven for one) was given by Langdon in Le poème sumérien, Plates VII and VIII. My translation, made from the photograph, had practically the same shape it has now before Langdon's work appeared, but the delay in publication, occasioned by a visit to the scenes of the exploits of the Sumerian and Babylonian heroes, allowed me to profit by Langdon’s study of the text. |
OBVERSE
In the mountain of heaven and earth,
when, above(?), the gods, the Anunna, were born,
green and the grain-god had not (yet) sprouted, had not (yet) become green;
his people, with Takku, had not (yet) been formed,
5 for Takku they (his people) had not (yet) heaped up a temple platform.
A ewe had not (yet) bleated, a lamb had not yet been dropped,
a she-goat had not (yet) baaed, a kid had not (yet) been dropped.
The ewe had not (yet) borne her lamb,
the she-goat had not (yet) borne her kid.
10 The grain of the grain-god and the fold (flocks)
the Anunna-the great gods are they knew not (yet);
shesh-grain of thirty days there was none,
shesh-grain of sixty days there was none,
turtur-grain, kurra-grain, shining adam-grain, there was none.
15 There was no living in dwellings.
Takku had not (yet) been born, had not (yet) worn the crown,
the lord, the god of the horned tiara, the all-powerful lord, had not (yet) been born,
the sun-god, brightness bringing, had not (yet) gone forth.
Mankind, when they were created (on the day of their begetting),
20 food and sleep they knew not of,
garments for their covering they knew not of.
The people brought all kinds(?) of reeds from the marshes(?),
like sheep they ate grass with their mouths(?),
water of the gardens [from the ditches] they drank.
(Rest of obverse too broken to allow of any translation.)
when, above(?), the gods, the Anunna, were born,
green and the grain-god had not (yet) sprouted, had not (yet) become green;
his people, with Takku, had not (yet) been formed,
5 for Takku they (his people) had not (yet) heaped up a temple platform.
A ewe had not (yet) bleated, a lamb had not yet been dropped,
a she-goat had not (yet) baaed, a kid had not (yet) been dropped.
The ewe had not (yet) borne her lamb,
the she-goat had not (yet) borne her kid.
10 The grain of the grain-god and the fold (flocks)
the Anunna-the great gods are they knew not (yet);
shesh-grain of thirty days there was none,
shesh-grain of sixty days there was none,
turtur-grain, kurra-grain, shining adam-grain, there was none.
15 There was no living in dwellings.
Takku had not (yet) been born, had not (yet) worn the crown,
the lord, the god of the horned tiara, the all-powerful lord, had not (yet) been born,
the sun-god, brightness bringing, had not (yet) gone forth.
Mankind, when they were created (on the day of their begetting),
20 food and sleep they knew not of,
garments for their covering they knew not of.
The people brought all kinds(?) of reeds from the marshes(?),
like sheep they ate grass with their mouths(?),
water of the gardens [from the ditches] they drank.
(Rest of obverse too broken to allow of any translation.)
REVERSE
The opening lines, of which there may have been one or two more than the numbering shows, are too fragmentary to permit of any attempts at restoration. Mankind (l. 3) and the gods Enki and “Father” Enlil (ll. 4 and 5), representing the “great gods, the Anunna,” are the dramatis personae.
In a favorable month a tablet was . . . . . . .
(in) a favorable month—it was a joyous one—the . . . . for . . . . . .
Enki and Enlil uttered an incantation . . . .
flocks and grain (the grain-god) in the favorable month they . . . . for . . . .
10 The flocks . . . . the fold . . . .
Grass of the plain in abundance they gave them,
grain . . . . they put before them,
shepherds (?) and under-shepherds they gave them.
The flocks stood in their fold,
15 the shepherd brought abundance to the fold.
The grain stood in the ear,
the “green maiden” brought abundance.
In the fields the head was lifted on high,
abundance (of rain) came from heaven,
20 flocks and grain “blossomed forth.”
The gatherings (of people) were blessed with abundance,
the (whole) land was blessed with renewal of life.
The law of their gods they promulgated,
the storehouses of the land they filled with food,
25 the mercy (favors) shown the land was abundant (heavy).
The prostrate, trampled in the dust,
lords they became (?), rich abundance was theirs.
Both of them in———stood.
In a favorable month a tablet was . . . . . . .
(in) a favorable month—it was a joyous one—the . . . . for . . . . . .
Enki and Enlil uttered an incantation . . . .
flocks and grain (the grain-god) in the favorable month they . . . . for . . . .
10 The flocks . . . . the fold . . . .
Grass of the plain in abundance they gave them,
grain . . . . they put before them,
shepherds (?) and under-shepherds they gave them.
The flocks stood in their fold,
15 the shepherd brought abundance to the fold.
The grain stood in the ear,
the “green maiden” brought abundance.
In the fields the head was lifted on high,
abundance (of rain) came from heaven,
20 flocks and grain “blossomed forth.”
The gatherings (of people) were blessed with abundance,
the (whole) land was blessed with renewal of life.
The law of their gods they promulgated,
the storehouses of the land they filled with food,
25 the mercy (favors) shown the land was abundant (heavy).
The prostrate, trampled in the dust,
lords they became (?), rich abundance was theirs.
Both of them in———stood.
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Source: D. D. Luckenbill, “The Ashur Version of the Seven Tablets of Creation,” American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures 38, no. 1 (October 1921): 13, 32-35.
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