The Poor Man of Nippur

The Poor Man of Nippur is a Babylonian story about a poor man who conceives of a plan to get himself invited to a feast by offering the mayor his only possession - a goat. But the mayor instead gives him but gristle, and throws him from his house.

The Poor Man then conceives of an even better plan to get his revenge, earning (and spending) a considerable amount of wealth to sneak into the house of the mayor and give him thrice his comeuppance. One moral of the story is that one should always adhere to the conventions of hospitality. Another, perhaps, is that that pride can drive us to greater heights than hunger.

Here's the story told on film - the first Babylonian Language film ever made, apparently.

The Pantheon of Lagash

The Sumerians and later Babylonians were great list makers. They made lists of animals, plants, tools, words, and, of course, gods. There was power in lists, and in making a list a Babylonian scribe could share in that power. There's a learning process involved in compiling a list - one has to research and collect information, then make choices about how to present it. Any scribe who made a list was therefore empowered by knowledge. And then there's the magical power associated with the writing of lists. Writing was handed down by the gods, which meant that the act of writing was, in a way, divine. Babylonians believed that if the gods ordained that something could be written, it must therefore have existed. And so the act of writing as list what akin to revealing what the gods thought was possible. I wonder what they would have made of electronic text?

The naming of gods was a field of study that grew over time because Babylonians were great accumulators of ideas. Babylonian scribes would eventually list over 3000 unique divine names, many of them obscure to us today. We tend to think of a single Babylonian pantheon, but in fact each city had it's own pantheon, and the names and spouses of many gods varied from place to place.

Here are just some of the gods in the cult of the Sumerian cities of Girsu and Lagaš.

The underlined names are unique to region of Lagaš. 

Depiction of a goddess from Girsu 

(photo: Marie-Lan Nguyen via Wikipedia)

THE DIVINE FAMILY

Ningirsu: ('Lord of Girsu'), warrior god and Lord of the City. Similar to the more famous god Ninurta, who is the city god of Nippur.

Baba: (also Ba'u) Wife of Ningirsu and daughter of An, a healing goddess. Elsewhere, she's called Gula, or Ninisina, or Nintinugga.

Nanše: Sister of Ningirsu and daughter of Enki, a goddess of fishermen and justice.

Nindara: consort of the goddess Nanše

Ninmarki: daughter of Nanše

Nisaba: sister of Ningirsu, goddess of grain, reeds, and scribes. Protector of the city of Ereš in Sumer.

Šulšagana: Ningirsu's eldest son and steward, who supervised the mean and carried the washing basin.

Damu: son of Ningirsu and Baba, another healing god.

Igalima: another son of Ningirsu, and also a healing god.

An: father of Ningirsu, father of a great many gods.

Gatumdug: mother of Ningirsu, protective goddess, Mother of Lagaš, controls Udug and Lama demons.

THE DIVINE SERVANTS

Endursaga: the herald.

Kindazi: Ningirsu's chamber maid, who draws the bath and freshens the bed with new straw.

Ušumgalkalama: Ningirsu's singer, bringer of gaiety.

Lugaligihušam: Ningirsu's lamentation singer, who brings solace in dark moments.

Lugalsisa: Ningirsu's counselor and regent when he;s away.

Šakan-šabar: Ningirsu's secretary.

Lugakurdub and Kuršunaburuam: Ningirsu's generals.

Ensignum: Ningirsu's stabler, who tends the onagers who pull the chariot.

Enlulim: Ningirsu's shepherd.

Lamar: Ningirsu's tax-gatherer of the fisheries.

Iminšattam: Ningirsu's courier.

Dimgalabzu: Ningirsu'a ranger, who tends the steppes.

Nindar: an unknown god in Ningirsu's service.

Gišbane: Ningirsu's ploughman


ASSOCIATED GODS

Enlil (King of the gods) and his wife Ninhursaga (wife and intercessory goddess)

Enki and his wife Damkina, gods of fresh water, gods of the city of Eridu.

Asalluhi, son of Enki and the god of magic.

Utu, the Sun god, city god of Larsa.

Ištaran, who fixed the border with Umma, ending the war.

Lama, Protective and intercessory goddess in Lagaš.

Ninazu, a god of grain and healing, and a judge of the underworld. City god of Ešnunna

Ningišzida and Geštinanna Underworld gods associated with wild places and snakes/vines

Ninsumun, cattle goddess and mother of the hero, Gilgameš.

Nungal, daughter of Ereškigal.

Nusku, god of fire, bringer of light. 

Pabilsag, warrior god, similar to Ningirsu and Ninurta, but city god of Larak.

Inanna, goddess of sex and battle, city goddess of Uruk. who has her own temple and cult in Lagaš.

Review: Prophets and Prophecy in the Ancient Near East

Prophets and Prophecy in the Ancient Near East by Martti Nissinen, 2003, 273 pp

This book is published by the Society of Biblical Literature in their Writing From The Ancient World series, which contains quite a few interesting books.

This book consists mainly of translations and transliterations of cuneiform texts concerning prophecy in a few series. It contains all the known texts from the cities of Mari (c.1700-1750 BC), Eshnunna (same period, roughly), Nineveh (681-627 BC) and a few others from Syria/Canaan and one from Egypt. These come with a few explanatory notes and there's an interesting introduction.

The book is intended for use by students and scholars of the Ancient Near East, though it is designed to be accessible to interested lay-people like me. It is definitely not the place to embark on your studies, if the subject interests you. I'd suggest reading a few more general histories, first, so you'll have more context for the contents of this book. Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia by Karen Rhea Nemet-Nejat is great introductory book.

Prophets and Prophecy is, like most of the books I've read in this series, really solid. It burrows down into the details of one interesting aspect of ancient life and gives it a thorough look. I love this kind of micro-history, but rather than spending more time on reviewing it, I thought it my be interesting to show some examples of the contents and explain why I find them interesting.

This book explores the actual incidence of ecstatic prophets in society. Ecstatic prophets are people who were possessed briefly by the will of a god and, during a dramatic fit, would pronounce that will. Some of them were also dreamers who had prophetic dreams. There are several words for these people in the Akkadian language to denote different classes of prophets, though the distinctions are not clear to us. We know, from verbs used to create these names, that an apilum is an "answerer" and a muhhum is someone "who goes into a frenzy". These are very distinct people from diviners, who were highly trained people who performed rituals to find the will of the gods through omens in nature. Prophecies come largely unbidden and spontaneously to the prophets. They are sent by the gods, rather than sought out by the people.

When a prophet went into a frenzy and spoke with the voice of a god, or when a prophet had a dream, a letter was sent to the king to report it, along with a hair from the prophet's head and a thread from the hem of their garment. This was so that a professional diviner could perform a ritual to test the truth of the prophecy. Obviously, divination was considered more reliable than prophecy. Prophets (and the people who brought them) were often rewarded with a garment, a bit of silver or bronze (sometimes in the form of spearheads - there was no coinage in the early days) or a donkey. Here's an example:

Text 16: Speak to my lord: thus Yaqqim-Addu, your servant*

A prophet of [the god] Dagan came to me and spoke as follows. This is what he said: "Verily, what shall I eat that belongs to [the king of Mari] Zimri-Lim? Give me one lamb and I shall eat it!" 

I gave him a lamb and he devoured it raw in front of the city gate. He assembled the elders in front of the gate and said "A devouring [i.e. an epidemic] will take place [in the land]! Give orders to the cities [of the land] to return the taboo material. Whoever commits an act of violence shall be expelled from the city. And for the well-being of your lord, Zimri-Lim, clothe me in a garment." 

This is what he spoke to me. For sake of the well-being of my lord I clothed him in a garment. Now, I have recorded the oracle that he spoke to me and sent it to my lord. He did not utter this oracle in private, but he delivered it in the assembly of elders.

*Note that this is a standard method of beginning a letter. Most letters were recited to a scribe who recorded it on a small clay tablet. The letter was then brought to the recipient and read out loud by another scribe. The words "speak to my lord" are the instructions to the scribe who will read the letter.

Here' another letter, also written to King Zimri-Lim of Mari (c.1760 BC).

Text 39: Speak to my lord: Thus Kibri-Dagan, your servant:

Dagan and Ikrub-El [i.e. the gods of the city of Terqa] are well: the city of Terqa as well as the district is well.**

[the next bit is broken, but the writer presumably mentions encountering a prophet] 

This is what he saw [in his dream]: "Thus says God: You people may not build this ruined house again! If this house is re-built, I will make it fall into the river." On the day he had this dream, he did not tell it to anybody. 

The next day he had the same dream again: "Thus says God: you may not rebuild this house! If you rebuild it, I will make it fall into the river." 

Now I have sent a fringe of his garment and a lock from his head to my lord. From that day on the servant has been ill.

**This bit is also customary in letters to the king, to report to them that all is well in the the sender's part of the kingdom.

This second prophecy is interesting. It claims that God (presumably Dagan, the chief god of the city of Terqa) doesn't want a house re-built or he will throw it down himself. It may be referring to a house, or to a temple (the house of a god) or to a palace (the house of a king). The possibility that it's the latter is exciting because of what really happened in history: the city of Mari and King Zimri-Lim were defeated by Hammurabi of Babylon, but allowed to remain as a part of the kingdom of Babylon. Four years later, however, Hammurabi returned to Mari for reasons unknown and flattened it, ending the city and dynasty for good. Such catastrophes were said to be caused by the gods, so in this case it is tantalizing to think that this is a prophecy which predicts that Dagan himself will cause Babylonians to throw the house of Zimri-Lim into the river if he tries to re-build it.

What is The Many Coloured House?

Welcome to The Many Coloured House, a blog about ancient and medieval history. Within these walls you'll find posts revealing the stories, myths, customs, and wisdom from the ancient world, as well as archaeological news and book reviews.

What is Egunnu: The Many Coloured House?

Egunnu is the Sumerian name for the temple of the goddess Geštinanna in the ancient city of Nippur. In English, Egunnu means: The Many Coloured House. 

Geštinanna is a mother goddess, an agricultural goddess, an underworld goddess, and a goddess of knowledge, all rolled into one. In myth, she tried to prevent her negligent brother, Dumuzi, from being dragged to the underworld, but failed in her efforts. Out of love for him, she agreed to share his time in the underworld, allowing him to spend some of the year on the surface. During the summer, she graces the hills surrounding Sumer with grape vines. In winter she descends into darkness to replace Dumuzi in the underworld. There, she is the scribe of the Queen of the Underworld, and keeps the tablet that describes the life and death of mortals. 

The Many Coloured House is also a euphemism for a library. With its walls covered by a rainbow of books, libraries are places of learning, achievement, and grace for all people, and a refuge from the noise of the world.