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Mesopotamian Literature

Notes

Notes to Chapter 32. The sacred sphere

Giorgio Buccellati – August 2023

General notes on Chapter 32
32.1 The whirl of the winds: Enlil and Ninlil
32.2 A staged parody: the tree and the Netherworld
32.3 A journey in the Netherworld: Adapa
      32.3.2 Characterization
32.4 The two worlds: Nergal and Ereshkigal
32.5 The statue as a "person": the descent of Ishtar
      32.5.1 Transposition
      32.5.2 What happens to a broken statue?
      32.5.3 Repetition attributed to different tellers
32.6 The sacred marriage
      32.6.1 Allusion

ERRORS in databases:
  • "Boson1918Assiriologia.d": duplicate bibliography "Boson1918Assiriologia" for site "Akk-lg".
  • "Bottero1992Reasoning.d": duplicate bibliography "Bottero1992Reasoning" for site "Mes-rel".
  • "Buccellati1972Teodicea.d": duplicate bibliography "Buccellati1972Teodicea" for site "Mes-lit".
  • "Cauvin2000Birth.d": duplicate bibliography "Cauvin2000Birth" for site "Mes-rel".
  • "DMB.d": duplicate bibliography "DMB" for site "Mes-rel".
  • "Edzard2003Sumerian.d": duplicate bibliography "Edzard2003Sumerian" for site "Mes-rel".
  • "Oshima2014Sufferers.d": duplicate bibliography "Oshima2014Sufferers" for site "Mes-rel".
  • "Trinkaus1983Shanidar.d": duplicate bibliography "Trinkaus1983Shanidar" for site "Mes-rel".

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General notes on Chapter 32

  1. Lexicographical notes:

    Words for “friend”*      Three key words are used to refer to each other in the dialogue:

    • ibru defines a relationship of association in a given work or job, hence "colleague." See CADI p. 7a: "The word denotes an institutionalized relationship between free persons of the same status or profession which entailed acceptance of the same code of behavior and an obligation of mutual assistance."
    • ru'u defines somebody who shares closely in somebody's life and activity, hence "friend"
    • tappū defines primarily a business partnership, hence "partner"

    Words for “reason”*

         …

    • ṭēmu
    • pakku
    • ...

    The word pakku      There are three contexts, within the poem, where this word (otherwise quite rare) is found:

    1. Qualifying a noun in the construct state:
      v. 5: bēl pakki "master of reflection"
    2. Referring to the poet, in which case the pakku can be either well ordered or not:
      v. 35: sadra pakkaka "your ordered argument"
      v. 147: iprud pakkaka "your reasoning is troubled"
    3. Qualified as pertaining to the divine sphere:
      v. 49: pakka ili "the divine plan"
      v. 264: pakka ilim-ma "the divine plan"

    Textual notes:

    1-4
    ... ...
    10-11
    ... ...
    14-15
    Na'da ṭenka
         tumaššil lē lē'iš
    namrūtim zīmīka
         ukkuliš tušēmā     		Your reputation
         you equate to that of imbeciles
    your brilliant stylishness
         your turn to grossness.
    23-26
    ... ....
    31-32
    ... ...
    34-37
    ... ...
    45-47
    ... As for myself, I have bowed down to you, my dear friend,
         I have well grasped your reasons
    willingly I praise, inestimable one,
         the word you speak

         ru'u''a from ru'-ūm-'a (locative followed by the pronominal suffix) "in front my friend". "Dear" in "my dear friend" transposes to the pronominal suffix the value of the locative which is unusual when added to a word for an animate being: "I bow down at my friend."
         «For myself», «well» and «willingly» render the reflexive value of the T-stem in the three predicates.
         "Reasons" for mēresštu, from eršu which denotes primarily intelligence and reasoning.
         FOR 46 CHECK NEW VERSION OF OSHIMA
    72-77
    ... ...
    Illigimī-ya-ma
       ṭēm ili ashur
    illabān appi u tēmiqi
         eše''ē ištartī    		 Now, as for me, I did since my very budding age
         attend to the decree of god
    and still now with outward signs of worship and reverence
         I do seek my goddess.
    ... ...
    ... ...

         «Now» is added to render the contrast of tenses in Akkadian.
         «As for me» the emphasis renders the highly unusual metrical break beteen noun and pronominal suffix, which raises the pronominal sufix to the status of metrical word.
         «Very budding age»: the emphasis renders the enclitic -ma.
         «With outward signs of worship», literally, «in the touching of the nose»: this is a typical gesture of prayer; I render it with the more generic «outward signs» because the notion of touching the nose is not otherwise clear.
    212-214
    ... ...
    237-238
    ... ...
         For the interpretation of these two verses see CADI p. 189b: "the rogue who has acquired wealth against the will of the god is persecuted by the weapon of a murderer."
    243-44
    ... ...
    šarrabu refers to a demon, but generically also to a troublemaker
    252-53
    ... ...
    ...
    275
    ... ...
    ...
    276-80
    ... ...
    286
    ... ...
    287-88
    Rēmēnāt, ibrī
         nissātum šite''ē-ma
    rēşam, namraşa
         amur, lū tīdū!    		 Now you feel with me, my colleague,
         keep on showing you care, therefore
    come to my help, look at my pain
         know it from within!

         «Now» at the beginning is added for the sake of transition.
         Rēmēnāt refers primarily to "compassion"; here I take it as referring to the empathetic moment, expressing the capacity to "feel with" somebody. Not therefore a "compassion" in the sense of mercy shown from a position of superiority, but in the sense of identifying and sahring, close, as it were, to the etymological base of the word, the rēmu in the sense of «womb».
         «Keep on showing you care» transfers to the verb (šite''ē) the meaning of the object (nissātum) in the original: «keep on searching my troubles».
         «Know it from within»: the addition «from within» renders the enphatic lū.
    ...
    ... ...
    colophon
    of a commentary
    (    Lambert 1960 Wisdom, p. 88
    [ş]ātu (These are) the excerpted ( words, i. e., a glossary of difficult terms)
    u šūt pī and the things of the mouth (oral comments, i. e., traditional explanations)
    maš'altu ummāni (which are) the question of a scholar (a critical analysis)
    ša ašiš [...] regarding (the text entitled) «Oh wise man» [...]

    – [ Giorgio Buccellati, January 2022]

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32.1 The whirl of the winds: Enlil and Ninlil

  1. See Landsberger 1963 Theodizee.

    The original title given in antiquity was, as customary, the first line of the text, of which the central part is missing: ašiš […] gana luqbikka. That this line was used as the title is shown by a citation in a Late Assyrian catalog of literary texts (Lambert 1960 Wisdom, p. 63), where the last word (luqbikka) appears after a break, and in the colophon to a commentary, where the first word occurs (ašiš), followed by a break.

    A very negative judgemtn in Oppenheim, Anc. Mes., p. 273.

    – [ Giorgio Buccellati, January 2022]

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32.2 A staged parody: the tree and the Netherworld

    1. For a recent discussion about the author see Oshima 2013 Theodicy, p. xiv-xvii.
    2. Here is a list of initial signs with different reading:
      • ak, ag, aq, strophe 5
      • gi, git, gé, strophe 6
      • ki, qí, qé, strophe 8
      • ub, up, strophe 12 (Lambert 1960 Wisdom, p. 66, probably thinks of this alternation, since the alternation *bu/pu* to which he refers does not exist)
      • bi, pí, pé, strophe 13
      • li, le, strophe 24
      • ri, re, strophe 27

    [To be later moved to section 32.2.3.]

    – [ Giorgio Buccellati, January 2022]

  2. For the identification of an incantation technician (mašmaššu) with a scribe (ummānu), see Oshima 2013 Theodicy, p. xvi.

    For the meta-linguistic aspect of šummē, an insight I owe Vyacheslav Ivanov, see Buccellati 2003 Cimento.

    [To be later moved to section 32.2.4.]

    – [ Giorgio Buccellati, January 2022]

  3. Lambert 1960 Wisdom, p. 66, calls attention to a very interesting technical term used to describe the graphic division of a verse in hemistichs: şullupu, which literally means «to cause to be marked diagonally». The term is not used in the Theodicy, but its existence attests to a keen awareness, in scribal circles, for metrics and its formulation and representation.

    For the different phonological realization of the same initial sign in the acrostic see 32.2 [to be later changed as section 32.2.3]).

    The problem posed by verse 238, where only three metric words occurs, has been pointd out by Lambert 1960 Wisdom, p. 66.

    [To be later moved to section 32.2.5.]

    – [ Giorgio Buccellati, January 2022]

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32.3 A journey in the Netherworld: Adapa

  1. Regarding Tityrus in Dante, see Ferrante 2014 Lauro who, on p. 408, describes Dante’s irony as such: «Prendendo in prestito dalle Bucoliche virgiliane ambientazione, temi e nomi di personaggi, Titiro-Dante mette in atto un’appassionata difesa della sua poesia, non lesinando frecciate di beffarda considerazione sul ruolo di giudice che il letterato bolognese presume di incarnare. Giovanni del Virgilio, nella mise en scene bucolica, è il pastore Mopso … ed è raffigurato, con una metafora iperbolica che rasenta la presa in giro, come un “vate-bebé” che rigurgita di latte poetico (Ecl., ii28­33)».

    Regarding the personality of Saggil-kīnam-ubbib see Oshima 2013 Theodicy.

    Oshima 2013 Theodicy, p. … argues for the “wise” man being the protagonist.

    [To be later moved to section 32.2.3.]

    – [ Giorgio Buccellati, January 2022]