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Mesopotamian Literature

Notes

Notes to Chapter 43. The hypostasis of evil: the endeavours of Erra

Giorgio Buccellati – August 2023

General notes on Chapter 43
43.1 Wisdom in a mythological guise
43.2 Background
      43.2.1 Author
      43.2.2 Interlocutors
43.3 Voice
      43.3.1 Compositional structure and narrative style
      43.3.2 First Canto: Erra in his abode
      43.3.3 Second Canto: wander in the abode of Marduk
      43.3.4 Third Canto: transition to the human sphere
      43.3.5 Fourth Canto: Erra against Babylon
      43.3.6 Fifth Canto: Erra against enemies
      43.3.7 The final stanza: a moral operetta
      43.3.8 A prose poem
      43.3.9 The lyric self
      43.3.10 Revisiting the classical themes of Mesopotamian literature
43.4 Perception
      43.4.1 The *Enūma elīš* in counterpoint
      43.4.2 The pacifist instance
      43.4.3 Irony
      43.4.4 Dualism
      43.4.5 The nature of the story
      43.4.6 The psychological dimension

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 43

  1. Main references:

    Lexicographical notes:

    şalmāt qaqqadi (as in i 3) «(people) black of head»: domesticaed ovines tend to have a black head, and one may assume that from this came the typical Sumerian and then Akkadian idiom referring to the “civilized people”.

    – [ Giorgio Buccellati, January 2022]

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43.1 Wisdom in a mythological guise

  1. Foster has some interesting notes about formal analysis on pp. 132 f., 146, 151.

    – [ Giorgio Buccellati, January 2022]

43.3.4 Third Canto: transition to the human sphere
    1. On the translation of the present see Cagni1969Epopea, pp. 208-9; Foster 1996 Muses, pp. 772, who comments: "we have here a present, first-person narrative, one of Kabti-ilani-Marduk's most interesting experiments."
    2. For Nergal and asakku see *CADA* 2, p. 326a: "7 asakki [...] (after list of same deities) KAR 142 i 42; (after a list of sacred localities in streets and gates) 7 BAR.MES KUR.DU.MES sa 7 a-sak-ki DVMU Anim kisitti Ninurta seven .... shrines of the seven a.-demons, the children of Anu, defeated by Ninurta ibid. ii 9," (assuming equation Nergal/Ninurta)
    3. For the arms tied behind the back, show example from Urkesh. Enuma elish says this not of Qingu, biut of the monsters who are defeated with him (iv 117-118)
    4. The references to the myths of Nergal, the Enūma elīš, Anzu are not exact in terms of the texts we have, but they seem plausible as generic allusions.
    5. Anzu ii 3-37 (Foster): In his the failed first attempt, Ninurta uses the winds and his glow that envelops the mountain, which may refer to a divine net:
      "My Lord hitched up the seven battles,
      The warrior hitched up the seven ill winds,
      The seven whirlwinds that make the dust dance.
      He launched a terrifjling assault, made war,
      The winds were ready at his side for battle.
      Anzu and Ninurta met on the mountainside.
      When Anzu saw him, he shook with fury at him,
      He ground his teeth like a cyclone,
      he enveloped the mountain with his horrible glow."
    6. cf. [s]a an-zi-i dQingu dAsakku; von Soden, ZA 51 154 r. 4; *CADA/2* 155: the same three manetioned here; check Von Soden.

    – [ Giorgio Buccellati, January 2022]

43.3.8 A prose poem

  1. See Giovannetti 2008 Poesia.

    – [ Giorgio Buccellati, January 2022]

43.4.4 Dualism
    1. Dualismo: Leopardi, *Inno ad Arimane*: autor del mondo, reggitor del moto
      Beaudelaire
      cf. Rella 2002.

    – [ Giorgio Buccellati, January 2022]