The Literature of Ancient Sumer: Heroes and Kings
This section starts out by explaining how difficult it is to determine the difference between heroes and gods, as both are usually written with the determinative signs that distinguish deities. Likewise there is trouble differentiating historical figures from gods as many historical figures deified themselves in their rule.
Enmerkar and En-suhgir-ana
The first story we read in this section is: Enmerkar and En-suhgir-ana. My first thought, before even getting into this story is that I had originally intended, for the sake of itself, to assume that all characters were in-fact historical beings that did actually exist. And also I wanted to assume that the timeframes of these tablets had been dated accurately. I am not sure of the date when this tablet was discovered, or at least assembled from fragmentary parts, or to when scholars assert this to have been originally written, but it is safe to say that it was originally written sometime in-between 3000 BC and 1800 BC. I think most every Sumerian work falls into that time frame.
Firstly, I want to note that this story is an account of two prominent kings of neighboring cities who engage in a three part competition to determine who is the favored sexual partner of the Goddess Innana. Now, I don't think that this is too uncommon a thing to occur between male competitors, but I can't help but find humor in that this is what the ancient Sumerians felt was pertinent to write about. The reason I chuckle so much about this is because writing was kind of a huge deal back then. First, you had to go to the river and collect mud, then you had to levigate it, then before it dried, you had to get a reed and write your story, afterwards baking it so it would harden and last the test of time! There wasn't much stream of conscious writing here, this was well thought out before hand, possibly, more likely probably the outcome of political pressure to show supremacy.
I thankfully acknowledge an easy to understand summery of the story before it goes into the translation from the actual tablet. You can comprehend what is happening should skip the summary but sometimes it is quite difficult and often times repetitive. Several times I've already noticed that whole paragraphs are repeated, once while a king is telling a messenger what to say to the neighboring King and another when the messenger is rehearsing his message to the neighboring king. This is word for word.
There is a part of me that wants to delve deep because I want to comment on nearly every line but there is another part that just wants to get through this--because it is a lot.
"Unug,(the city ruled by Enmerker) whose fame like the rainbow reaches up to the sky, a multicoloured sheen, as the new moon standing in the heavens" is but a portion of how these kings converse to each other in texts sent by their messengers to show their eminence.
Then a sorcerer of En-suhgir-ana in an attack on Enmerker inverts the fertility of one of Sumer's prominent cities Eres. He is caught up in a battle of magical powers with a wise woman named Sag-buru, a defender of Enmerker. The war of magical prowess takes place next to a river where they begin to cause animals to arise out of the water. However, the sorcerer's animals are all eaten up and carried away to the mountains by the animals that Sag-buru conjures from the river. The sorcerer is defeated and pleads for his life. The wise woman, Sag-buru says "Sorcerer, you do have magical powers, but where is your sense? How on earth could you think of going to do sorcery at Eres, which is the city of Nisaba, a city whose destiny was decreed by An and Enlil, the primeval city, the beloved city of Ninlil?" The sorcerer says he didn't known what he he had done, and then Sag-buru seizes his life-force, which I'm assuming means she killed him.
Enmerkar wins this dual of kings while En-suhgir-Ana is shamed. The text ends "Praise be to Nisaba!" Nisaba is the goddess of writing, of whose city was inverted in fertility by the sorcerer of En-suhgir-ana.
Note: I am still computerless. Typing on my phone.