Origin/Historian/Author: Sumerian (ca. 2100 BCE)
Source: Sumerian Liturgies and Psalms, By Stephen Langdon, 1919
Introduction
This psalm featuring Enlil was recorded during the Neo-Sumerian period. It was composed on a small clay tablet, in a single column which is slightly fragmented. It alludes to Enlil’s expectations of mankind towards their immediate family, mainly their mother, father, and children. Here we see an example of a Sumerian citizen acknowledging that they decline to show any praise for another. However when it is in regards to Enlil, praise is readily given and without question. Some fragmented or missing lines may have offered information as to what causes this citizen to change their ways, but the result is praise being given to mother, father, and also from parent to child. This text shows that even 4000 years ago, the importance of faith should not supersede the importance of your own family.
Full Text Below
1. Oh bird arabu, arabu’, thou art he whose name is proclaimed in the world.
2. …..
3. Oh Enlil, arabu-bird, thou art he whose name is proclaimed in the world.
4. …..
5. Enlil of unsearchable heart, of faithful word.
6. He that bends the neck, that speaks the word.
7. Thou art he whose name is proclaimed in the world.
8. At thy name which is proclaimed in the world,
9. At thy discourse which is proclaimed in the world,
10. At thy aid which is wrought in the world,
11. In my city heaven trembles of itself, earth quakes of itself.
12. In Nippur the heaven trembles of itself, earth quakes of itself.
13. The mother virgin, the mother courtesan, my mother began discourse.
14. She the divine ….. queen of the villages,
15. ….. discoursed.
16. When in ….. thou dwellest,
17. When in ….. thou makest thy abode,
18. With Ninlil (?) queen of Kesh
19. ….. thou decreest.
20. “[AS I was ….. ] my foot I lifted not.
21. To my father, my benefactor, as a rudin-bird of the sea,
22. My foot I lifted not.
23. [To Enlil of] unsearchable heart,
24. [Lord] of faithful word,
25. That bends the neck, that speaks the word,
26. [As I was.. …. .] my foot I lifted not.
27. [But unto Enlil] I would lift my foot.
28. Unto ….. verily I will go;
29. My foot I will lift.
30. To my father, my benefactor, verily I will go;
31. My foot I will lift.
32. Unto Enlil my hand I will raise;
33. my foot I will lift.
34. I unto Enlil will say, “May the mother live.”
35. …..
36. Unto my father, my benefactor, I will say, “May the father live.”
37. …..
38. Words which set aright all things I will say.
39. In my city may the mother hail her son, may the son hail his mother.~
40. …..
41. In Nippur may the mother hail her son,
42. may the son hail his mother.
43. To ewe and her lamb may he be propitious.
44. May the word of Enlil be propitious to the she-goat and her kid.
45. …..
46. For Enlil, his city, brick-walled
47. Nippur, unto its place I will restore.”
48. She offers devotion, she offers devotion, my mother offers devotion.