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Akkadian literature is the
ancient literature Ancient literature comprises religious and scientific documents, tales, poetry and plays, royal edicts and declarations, and other forms of writing that were recorded on a variety of media, including stone, stone tablets, papyri, palm leaves, and ...
written in the
Akkadian language Akkadian (, Akkadian: )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages''. Ed. Roger D. Woodard (2004, Cambridge) Pages 218-280 is an extinct East Semitic language th ...
(Assyrian and Babylonian dialects) in Mesopotamia (
Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...
and Babylonia) during the period spanning the Middle Bronze Age to the Iron Age (roughly the 23rd to 6th centuries BC). Drawing on the traditions of
Sumerian literature Sumerian literature constitutes the earliest known corpus of recorded literature, including the religious writings and other traditional stories maintained by the Sumerian civilization and largely preserved by the later Akkadian and Babylonian em ...
, the Babylonians compiled a substantial textual tradition of mythological narrative, legal texts, scientific works, letters and other literary forms.


Literature in Akkadian society

Most of what we have from the Babylonians was inscribed in
cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic writing system, script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East, Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is nam ...
with a metal stylus on tablets of clay, called ''laterculae coctiles'' by Pliny the Elder; papyrus seems to have been also employed, but it has perished. There were libraries in most towns and temples; an old Sumerian proverb averred that "he who would excel in the school of the scribes must rise with the dawn." Women as well as men learned to read and write, and in Semitic times, this involved a knowledge of the extinct Sumerian language, and a complicated and extensive syllabary. The Babylonians' very advanced systems of writing, science and mathematics contributed greatly to their literary output. Many works of Akkadian literature were commissioned by kings that had scribes and scholars in their service. Some of these works served to celebrate the king or the divine, while others recorded information for religious practices or medicine. Poetry, proverbs, folktales, love lyrics, and accounts of disputes were all incorporated into Akkadian literature.


Relation to other ancient literatures

A considerable amount of Babylonian literature was translated from Sumerian originals, and the language of religion and law long continued to be the old agglutinative language of Sumer. Vocabularies, grammars, and interlinear translations were compiled for the use of students, as well as commentaries on the older texts and explanations of obscure words and phrases. The characters of the syllabary were all arranged and named, and elaborate lists of them were drawn up.
Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...
n culture and literature came from Babylonia, but even here there was a difference between the two countries. There was little in Assyrian literature that was original, and education, general in Babylonia, was mostly restricted to a single class in the northern kingdom. In Babylonia, it was of very old standing. Under the second Assyrian empire, when Nineveh had become a great centre of trade, Aramaic — the language of commerce and diplomacy — was added to the number of subjects that the educated class was required to learn. Under the Seleucids, Greek was introduced into Babylon, and fragments of tablets have been found with Sumerian and Assyrian (i.e. Semitic Babylonian) words transcribed into Greek letters.


Notable works

According to
A. Leo Oppenheim Adolf Leo Oppenheim (7 June 1904 – 21 July 1974), one of the most distinguished Assyriologists of his generation was editor-in-charge of the '' Chicago Assyrian Dictionary'' of the Oriental Institute from 1955 to 1974 and John A. Wilson Prof ...
, the corpus of cuneiform literature amounted to around 1,500 texts at any one time or place, approximately half of which, at least from the first millennium, is extant in fragmentary form, and the most common genres included (in order of predominance) are omen texts,
lexical lists The cuneiform lexical lists are a series of ancient Mesopotamian glossaries which preserve the semantics of Sumerograms, their phonetic value and their Akkadian or other language equivalents. They are the oldest literary texts from Mesopotamia ...
, ritual incantations, cathartic and apotropaic conjurations, historical and mythological epics, fables and proverbs.


Annals, chronicles and historical epics

The Assyrian dialect of Akkadian is particularly rich in royal inscriptions from the end of the 14th century BC onward, for example the epics of Adad-nārārī, Tukulti-Ninurta, and Šulmānu-ašarēdu III and the annals which catalogued the campaigns of the neo-Assyrian monarchs. The earliest historical royal epic is, however, that of Zimri-Lim (c. 1710–1698 BC short) of Mari. Similar literature of the middle Babylonian period is rather poorly preserved with a fragmentary epic of the
Kassite The Kassites () were people of the ancient Near East, who controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire c. 1531 BC and until c. 1155 BC (short chronology). They gained control of Babylonia after the Hittite sack of Babyl ...
period, that of Adad-šuma-uṣur and of Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur I and Marduk. The chronicle traditional is first attested in the compositions of the early Iron Age which hark back to earlier times, such as the ''Chronicle of Early Kings'', the ''
Dynastic Chronicle The Dynastic Chronicle, ''"Chronicle 18"'' in Grayson's ''Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles'' or the ''"Babylonian Royal Chronicle"'' in Glassner’s ''Mesopotamian Chronicles'', is a fragmentary ancient Mesopotamian text extant in at least four k ...
'', ''
Chronicle P Chronicle P, known as ''Chronicle 22'' in Grayson’s ''Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles'' and ''Mesopotamian Chronicle 45'': "Chronicle of the Kassite Kings" in Glassner's ''Mesopotamian Chronicles'' is named for T. G. Pinches, the first edito ...
'' and the Assyrian ''Synchronistic History''. A series of fifteen neo to late
Babylonian Chronicles The Babylonian Chronicles are a series of tablets recording major events in Babylonian history. They are thus one of the first steps in the development of ancient historiography. The Babylonian Chronicles were written in Babylonian cuneiform, ...
have been recovered which narrate the period spanning Nabû-nasir (747–734 BC) to
Seleucus III Ceraunus Seleucus III Soter, called Seleucus Ceraunus ( Greek: ; c. 243 BC – April/June 223 BC, ruled December 225 – April/June 223 BC), was a ruler of the Hellenistic Seleucid Kingdom, the eldest son of Seleucus II Callinicus and Laodice II. Biog ...
(243–223 BC) and were derived from the political events described in
Babylonian astronomical diaries The Babylonian astronomical diaries are a collection of Babylonian cuneiform texts that contain systematic records of astronomical observations and political events as well as predictions, based on astronomical observations. They also include othe ...
.


Humorous literature

Exemplars of comical texts span the genres of burlesque to satire and include humorous love poems and riddles. “At the cleaners” is a tale of the dispute between an insolent scrubber and his client, a “sophomoric fop” who lectures the cleaner in ridiculous detail on how to launder his clothes, driving the exasperated cleaner to suggest that he lose no time in taking it to the river and doing it himself. The
Dialogue of Pessimism The Dialogue of Pessimism is an ancient Mesopotamian literary composition in the form of a dialogue between a master and his slave. Its interpretations have varied, but it is generally considered an unusual text which thematises the futility of huma ...
was seen as a saturnalia by Böhl, where master and servant switch roles, and as a burlesque by Speiser, where a fatuous master mouthes clichés and a servant echoes him. Lambert considered it a musing of a mercurial adolescent with suicidal tendencies. The ''Aluzinnu'' (“trickster,” a jester, clown or buffoon) text, extant in five fragments from the neo-Assyrian period concerns an individual, ''dābibu, ākil karṣi,'' “character assassin,” who made a living entertaining others with parodies, mimicry, and scatological songs. The Poor Man of Nippur provides a subversive narrative of the triumph of the underdog over his superior while
Ninurta-Pāqidāt's Dog Bite Ninurta-Pāqidāt's Dog Bite, also known as ''The Tale of the Illiterate Doctor in Nippur'', is a text in Akkadian cuneiform, recorded on clay Tablet W 23558 - IM 78552, from the reign of King Marduk-balassu-iqbi of Babylon. It includes one of the ...
is a school text of a slapstick nature.


Laws

The earliest Akkadian laws are the “Old Assyrian Laws” relating to the conduct of the commercial court of a trading colony in Anatolia, c. 1900 BC. The
Laws of Eshnunna The Laws of Eshnunna (abrv. LE) are inscribed on two cuneiform tablets discovered in Tell Abū Harmal, Baghdad, Iraq. The Iraqi Directorate of Antiquities headed by Taha Baqir unearthed two parallel sets of tablets in 1945 and 1947. The two tablets ...
were a collection of sixty laws named for the city of its provenance and dating to around 1770 BC. The Code of Ḫammu-rapi, c. 1750 BC, was the longest of the Mesopotamian legal collections, extending to nearly three hundred individual laws and accompanied by a lengthy prologue and epilogue. The edict of
Ammi-Saduqa Ammi-Saduqa (or Ammisaduqa, Ammizaduga) was a king, c. 1646–1626 BC according to the Middle Chronology dating, (or c. 1582–1562 according to the Short Chronology The chronology of the ancient Near East is a framework of dates for various eve ...
, c. 1646 BC, was the last issued by one of Ḫammu-rapi’s successors. The Middle Assyrian Laws date to the fourteenth century BC, over a hundred laws are extant from
Assur Aššur (; Sumerian: AN.ŠAR2KI, Assyrian cuneiform: ''Aš-šurKI'', "City of God Aššur"; syr, ܐܫܘܪ ''Āšūr''; Old Persian ''Aθur'', fa, آشور: ''Āšūr''; he, אַשּׁוּר, ', ar, اشور), also known as Ashur and Qal ...
. The Middle Assyrian Palace Decrees, known as the “Harem Edicts,” from the reigns of Aššur-uballiṭ I, c. 1360 BC, to Tukultī-apil-Ešarra I, c. 1076 BC, concern aspects of courtly etiquette and the severe penalties (flagellation, mutilation and execution) for flouting them. The Neo-Babylonian Laws number just fifteen, c. 700 BC, probably from Sippar.


Mythology

One of the most famous of these was the '' Epic of Gilgamesh'', which first appears in Akkadian during the Old Babylonian period as a circa 1,000 line epic known by its incipit, ''šūtur eli šarrī'', ‘‘Surpassing all other kings,’’ which incorporated some of the stories from the five earlier Sumerian Gilgamesh tales. A plethora of mid to late second millennium versions give witness to its popularity. The Standard Babylonian version, ''ša naqba īmeru'', ‘‘He who saw the deep,’’ contains up to 3,000 lines on eleven tablets and a prose meditation on the fate of man on the twelfth which was virtually a word-for-word translation of the Sumerian “Bilgames and the Netherworld.” It is extant in 73 copies and was credited to a certain Sîn-lēqi-unninni and arranged upon an astronomical principle. Each division contains the story of a single adventure in the career of Gilgamesh, king of
Uruk Uruk, also known as Warka or Warkah, was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia) situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.Harm ...
. The whole story is a composite product, and it is probable that some of the stories are artificially attached to the central figure. Another epic was that of the "Creation" '' Enûma Eliš'', whose object was to glorify
Bel BEL can be an abbreviation for: * The ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code for Belgium * ''BEL'' or bell character in the C0 control code set * Belarusian language, in the ISO 639-2 and SIL country code lists * Bharat Electronics Limited, an Indian sta ...
- Marduk by describing his contest with Tiamat, the dragon of chaos. In the first book, an account is given of the creation of the world from the primeval deep, and the birth of the gods of light. Then comes the story of the struggle between the gods of light and the powers of darkness, and the final victory of Marduk, who clove Tiamat asunder, forming the heaven from half of her body and the earth from the other. Marduk next arranged the stars in order, along with the sun and moon, and gave them laws they were never to transgress. After this, the plants and animals were created, and finally man. Marduk here takes the place of Ea, who appears as the creator in the older legends, and is said to have fashioned man from clay. The legend of Adapa, the first man — a portion of which was found in the record-office of the Egyptian king
Akhenaton Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Echnaton, Akhenaton, ( egy, ꜣḫ-n-jtn ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning "Effective for the Aten"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth D ...
at Tell-el-Amarna — explains the origin of death. Adapa, while fishing, had broken the wings of the south wind, and was accordingly summoned before the tribunal of
Anu , image=Detail, upper part, Kudurru of Ritti-Marduk, from Sippar, Iraq, 1125-1104 BCE. British Museum.jpg , caption=Symbols of various deities, including Anu (bottom right corner) on a kudurru of Ritti-Marduk, from Sippar, Iraq, 1125–1104 BCE , ...
in heaven. Ea counselled him not to eat or drink anything there. He followed this advice, and thus refused the food that would have made him and his descendants immortal. Among the other legends of Babylonia may be mentioned those of Namtar, the plague-demon; of Erra, the pestilence; of Etana and of Anzu. Hades, the abode of Ereshkigal or
Allatu Allani, also known under the Akkadian name Allatu (or Allatum) was the Hurrian goddess of the underworld, incorporated into Hittite and Mesopotamian pantheons as well. Name and epithets The name Allani is derived from a Hurrian word meaning ...
, had been entered by Nergal, who, angered by a message sent to her by the gods of the upper world, ordered Namtar to strike off her head. She, however, declared that she would submit to any conditions imposed on her, and would give Nergal the sovereignty of the earth. Nergal accordingly relented, and Allatu became the queen of the infernal world. Etana conspired with the eagle to fly to the highest heaven. The first gate, that of Anu, was successfully reached; but in ascending still farther to the gate of
Ishtar Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, Divine law, divine justice, and political p ...
, the strength of the eagle gave way, and Etanna was dashed to the ground. As for the storm-god Anzu, we are told that he stole the tablets of destiny, and therewith the prerogatives of Enlil. God after god was ordered to pursue him and recover them, but it would seem that it was only by a stratagem that they were finally regained.


Omens, divination and incantation texts

The magnitude of omen literature within the Akkadian corpus is one of the peculiar distinguishing features of this language’s legacy. According to Oppenheim, 30% of all documents of this tradition are of this genre. Exemplars of omen text appear during the earliest periods of Akkadian literature but come to their maturity early in the first millennium with the formation of canonical versions. Notable among these is the
Enuma Anu Enlil Enuma Anu Enlil ( ,'' The Assyrian Dictionary'', volume 7 (I/J) – ''inūma'', The Oriental Institute, Chicago 1960, s. 160. ''When he godsAnu and Enlil'' .., abbreviated EAE, is a major series of 68 or 70 tablets (depending on the recension) ...
(astrological omens),
Šumma ālu Šumma ālu ina mēlê šakin is the title for a series of a collected number of cuneiform texts of ancient Mesopotamia amounting to one hundred and twenty clay tablets. The title translates as ''If a City is Situated on a Height'', and it lists ...
(terrestrial omens), Šumma izbu (anomalous births), Alamdimmû (physiognomic omens), and Iškar Zaqīqu (dream omens). It is among this genre, also, that the Sakikkū (SA.GIG) “Diagnostic Handbook” belongs. The practice of extispicy, divination through the entrails of animals, was perfected into a science over the millennia by the Babylonians and supporting texts were eventually gathered into a monumental handbook, the Bārûtu, extending over a hundred tablets and divided into ten chapters. Divination, however, extended into other fields with, for example, the old Babylonian
libanomancy Libanomancy (also known as livanomancy and knissomancy) is a divination primarily through observing and interpreting burning incense smoke, but which may include the way incense ash falls as well. Del Rio, Martín Anton''Investigations Into Magic.'' ...
texts, concerning interpreting portents from incense smoke, being one and Bēl-nadin-šumi’s omen text on the flight paths of birds, composed during the reign of
Kassite The Kassites () were people of the ancient Near East, who controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire c. 1531 BC and until c. 1155 BC (short chronology). They gained control of Babylonia after the Hittite sack of Babyl ...
king Meli-Šipak, being another exemplar. Incantations form an important part of this literary heritage, covering a range of rituals from the sacred,
Maqlû The Maqlû, “burning,” series is an Akkadian incantation text which concerns the performance of a rather lengthy anti-witchcraft, or ''kišpū'', ritual. In its mature form, probably composed in the early first millennium BC, it comprises eigh ...
, "burning" to counter witchcraft,
Šurpu The ancient Mesopotamian incantation series Šurpu begins ''enūma nēpešē ša šur-pu t'' 'eppušu'', “when you perform the rituals for (the series) ‘Burning,’” and was probably compiled in the middle Babylonian period, ca. 1350–105 ...
, “incineration” to counter curses,
Namburbi The NAM-BÚR-BI are magical texts which take the form of incantations ( Akkadian: ''namburbȗ''). They were named for a series of prophylactic Babylonian and Assyrian rituals to avert inauspicious portents before they took on tangible form. At th ...
, to preempt inauspicious omens, Utukkū Lemnūtu (actually bilingual), to exorcise “Evil Demons,” and Bīt rimki, or “bath house,” the purification and substitution ceremony, to the mundane, Šà.zi.ga, “the rising of the heart,” potency spells, and
Zu-buru-dabbeda Zu-buru-dabbeda, inscribed ''zú-buru''5''-dib-bé-da'', is the most complete exemplar of a small body of similarly themed texts from ancient Mesopotamia. Composed in Akkadian, it is a compendium of incantations against field pests such as locusts, ...
, “to seize the ‘locust tooth’,” a compendium of incantations against field pests.


Wisdom and didactic literature

A particularly rich genre of Akkadian texts was that represented by the moniker of “wisdom literature,” although there are differences in opinion concerning which works qualify for inclusion. One of the earliest exemplars was the '' Dialogue between a Man and His God'' from the late Old Babylonian period. Perhaps the most notable were the ''Poem of the Righteous Sufferer'' (
Ludlul bēl nēmeqi ("''I Will Praise the Lord of Wisdom''"), also sometimes known in English as ''The Poem of the Righteous Sufferer'', is a Mesopotamian poem (ANET, pp. 434–437) written in Akkadian that concerns itself with the problem of the unjust suff ...
) and the '' Babylonian Theodicy''. Included in this group are a number of fables or contest literature, in varying states of preservation, such as the ''Tamarisk and the Palm'', the ''Fable of the Willow'', ''Nisaba and Wheat'' (kibtu), the ''Ox and the Horse'' (Inum Ištar šurbutum, “When exalted Ishtar”), the ''Fable of the Fox'', and the ''Fable of the Riding-donkey''. W. G. Lambert and others include several popular sayings, and proverbs (both bilingual and Babylonian) together with the ''Lament of a Sufferer with a Prayer to Marduk'', ''Counsels of Wisdom'', ''Counsels of a Pessimist'', and ''Advice to a Prince'' in this genre. “A Dialogue between Šūpê-amēli and His Father” (Šimâ milka) is a piece of wisdom literature in the manner of a deathbed debate from the Akkadian hinterland. There are also Akkadian translations of earlier Sumerian works such as the
Instructions of Shuruppak __NOTOC__ The Instructions of Shuruppak (or, ''Instructions of Šuruppak son of Ubara-tutu'') are a significant example of Sumerian wisdom literature. Wisdom literature, intended to teach proper piety, inculcate virtue, and preserve community st ...
which are often considered belonging to this tradition.


Other genres

Besides the purely literary works, there were others of varied nature, including collections of letters, partly official, partly private. Among them the most interesting are the letters of Hammurabi, which have been edited by
Leonard William King Leonard William King, FSA (8 December 1869 – 20 August 1919) was an English archaeologist and Assyriologist educated at Rugby School and King's College, Cambridge. He collected stone inscriptions widely in the Near East, taught Assyrian and Baby ...
.


List of works

The following gives the better-known extant works, excluding lexical and synonym lists. Abnu šikinšuAdad-nārārī I EpicAdad-šuma-uṣur EpicAdapa and EnmerkarAdvice to a princeAgushaya HymnAlamdimmûAluzinnu textArdat-liliAsakkū marṣūtuAšipus' Almanac (or Handbook) • At the cleanersAtra-ḫasīsAutobiography of Adad-guppīAutobiography of KurigalzuAutobiography of Marduk
Babylonian Almanac The Babylonian Almanac is a source of information for predictions, i.e., an almanac, made for astronomical phenomena for the specific years contained within it. The work comes entirely from manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singul ...
Babylonian King List The king of Babylon ( Akkadian: ''šakkanakki Bābili'', later also ''šar Bābili'') was the ruler of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon and its kingdom, Babylonia, which existed as an independent realm from the 19th century BC to its fall ...
Babylonian TheodicyBārûtuBirth legend of SargonBīt mēseriBīt rimkiBīt salā’ mê
Chronicle of Early Kings The Chronicle of Early Kings, Chronicle 20 in Grayson’s ''Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles'' and Mesopotamian Chronicle 40 in Glassner’s ''Chroniques mésopotamiennes'' is preserved on two tablets, tablet ABM 26472 (98-5-14, 290) tablet A. ...
Chronicle of the Market Prices The Chronicle of Market Prices, designated "Chronicle 23" in Grayson’s ''Assyrian and Babylonian chronicles'', its first publishing, and Mesopotamian Chronicle 50: “Chronicle of Market Prices” in Glassner’s ''Mesopotamian Chronicles'' is an ...
Chronicle of reign of Šulgi
Chronicle P Chronicle P, known as ''Chronicle 22'' in Grayson’s ''Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles'' and ''Mesopotamian Chronicle 45'': "Chronicle of the Kassite Kings" in Glassner's ''Mesopotamian Chronicles'' is named for T. G. Pinches, the first edito ...
Code of Hammurabi The Code of Hammurabi is a Babylonian legal text composed 1755–1750 BC. It is the longest, best-organised, and best-preserved legal text from the ancient Near East. It is written in the Old Babylonian dialect of Akkadian, purportedly by Hamm ...
Consecration of a priestCounsels of a PessimistCounsels of Wisdom
Crimes and Sacrileges of Nabu-šuma-iškun The Crimes and Sacrileges of Nabû-šuma-iškun is an ancient Mesopotamian chronicle extant in a single late-Babylonian copyExcavation number W22660/0. from Hellenistic Uruk of the library of the exorcist, or ''āšipu'', Anu-ikṣụr. The vitriol ...
Curse of Akkad A curse (also called an imprecation, malediction, execration, malison, anathema, or commination) is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particular, ...
Cuthean Legend of Naram-Sin The Cuthean Legend of Naram-Sin is one of the few literary works whose versions are attested in both Old Babylonian, Middle Babylonian and the Standard Babylonian of the late Neo-Babylonian period, a literary life of around 1,500 years. It seems to ...
Dialogue between a Man and His God
Dialogue of Pessimism The Dialogue of Pessimism is an ancient Mesopotamian literary composition in the form of a dialogue between a master and his slave. Its interpretations have varied, but it is generally considered an unusual text which thematises the futility of huma ...
Dingir.šà.dib.baDream of Kurigalzu
Dynastic Chronicle The Dynastic Chronicle, ''"Chronicle 18"'' in Grayson's ''Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles'' or the ''"Babylonian Royal Chronicle"'' in Glassner’s ''Mesopotamian Chronicles'', is a fragmentary ancient Mesopotamian text extant in at least four k ...
Dynastic Prophecy
Dynasty of Dunnum The Dynasty of Dunnum, sometimes called the ''Theogony of Dunnum'' or ''Dunnu'' or the ''Harab Myth'', is an ancient Mesopotamian mythical tale of successive generations of gods who take power through parricide and live incestuously with their mot ...
( Harab Myth) •
Eclectic Chronicle The Eclectic Chronicle, referred to in earlier literature as the ''New Babylonian Chronicle'', is an ancient Mesopotamian account of the highlights of Babylonian history during the post-Kassite era prior to the 689 BC fall of the city of Babylo ...
Edict of Ammi-SaduqaEgalkura spells • Elegies Mourning the Death of TammuzEnlil and Sud
Enuma Anu Enlil Enuma Anu Enlil ( ,'' The Assyrian Dictionary'', volume 7 (I/J) – ''inūma'', The Oriental Institute, Chicago 1960, s. 160. ''When he godsAnu and Enlil'' .., abbreviated EAE, is a major series of 68 or 70 tablets (depending on the recension) ...
Enûma ElišEpic of AnzuEpic of GilgamešEpic of the Kassite periodEpic of Nabû-kudurrī-uṣurEpic of the plague-god Erra (Erra and Išum) • EtanaFable of the FoxFable of the Riding-donkeyFable of the WillowGirra and ElamatumGreat Revolt Against Naram-SinHarem EdictsHemerology for Nazi-MaruttašḪulbaziziInana's AscentIqqur IpušIškar ZaqīquIštar’s hell rideKalûtu catalogue • KAR 6KataduggûKedor-laomer texts
Kettledrum rituals Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl tradition ...
King of Battle (šar tamḫāri) • Ki'utuLabbu mythLamaštuLament of a Sufferer with a Prayer to Marduk
Laws of Eshnunna The Laws of Eshnunna (abrv. LE) are inscribed on two cuneiform tablets discovered in Tell Abū Harmal, Baghdad, Iraq. The Iraqi Directorate of Antiquities headed by Taha Baqir unearthed two parallel sets of tablets in 1945 and 1947. The two tablets ...
Lipšur litanies
Ludlul bēl nēmeqi ("''I Will Praise the Lord of Wisdom''"), also sometimes known in English as ''The Poem of the Righteous Sufferer'', is a Mesopotamian poem (ANET, pp. 434–437) written in Akkadian that concerns itself with the problem of the unjust suff ...
Maqlû The Maqlû, “burning,” series is an Akkadian incantation text which concerns the performance of a rather lengthy anti-witchcraft, or ''kišpū'', ritual. In its mature form, probably composed in the early first millennium BC, it comprises eigh ...
Marduk's Address to the DemonsMarduk ProphecyMiddle Assyrian Laws
Mîs-pî Mîs-pî, inscribed KA-LUḪ.Ù.DA and meaning “washing of the mouth,” is an ancient Mesopotamian ritual and incantation series for the cultic induction or vivification of a newly manufactured divine idol. It involved around eleven stages: in th ...
Moon god and the cowMukīl rēš lemutti
MUL.APIN MUL.APIN () is the conventional title given to a Babylonian compendium that deals with many diverse aspects of Babylonian astronomy and astrology. It is in the tradition of earlier star catalogues, the so-called ''Three Stars Each'' lists, but ...
Muššu'uNa'id-Šihu Epic
Nabonidus Chronicle The Nabonidus Chronicle is an ancient Babylonian text, part of a larger series of Babylonian Chronicles inscribed in cuneiform script on clay tablets. It deals primarily with the reign of Nabonidus, the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, cove ...
Namburbi The NAM-BÚR-BI are magical texts which take the form of incantations ( Akkadian: ''namburbȗ''). They were named for a series of prophylactic Babylonian and Assyrian rituals to avert inauspicious portents before they took on tangible form. At th ...
NamerimburrudûNeo-Babylonian LawsNergal and EreškigalNew year ritual-Akitu processionNigdimdimmû
Ninurta-Pāqidāt's Dog Bite Ninurta-Pāqidāt's Dog Bite, also known as ''The Tale of the Illiterate Doctor in Nippur'', is a text in Akkadian cuneiform, recorded on clay Tablet W 23558 - IM 78552, from the reign of King Marduk-balassu-iqbi of Babylon. It includes one of the ...
Nisaba and WheatOx and the HorsePazuzuPoor Man of NippurProphecy AQutāruRecipes against Antašubba
Religious Chronicle The Religious Chronicle is an ancient Mesopotamian register of portents such as the straying of wild animals into urban areas and extraordinary natural phenomena which presaged the disruptions which interfered with the Akītu or new year festival ...
Royal inscription of Simbar-ŠipakSag-gig-ga-meš (Muruṣ qaqqadi) • SakikkūSalmānu-ašarēdu III EpicSynchronistic HistoryȘēru šikinšuŠammu šikinšuŠar PūḫîŠà.zi.gaŠēp lemuttiŠu'ilaŠulgi Prophecy
Šumma ālu Šumma ālu ina mēlê šakin is the title for a series of a collected number of cuneiform texts of ancient Mesopotamia amounting to one hundred and twenty clay tablets. The title translates as ''If a City is Situated on a Height'', and it lists ...
Šumma amēlu kašipŠumma immeruŠumma IzbuŠumma liptuŠumma sinništu qaqqada rabât
Šurpu The ancient Mesopotamian incantation series Šurpu begins ''enūma nēpešē ša šur-pu t'' 'eppušu'', “when you perform the rituals for (the series) ‘Burning,’” and was probably compiled in the middle Babylonian period, ca. 1350–105 ...
Tākultu ritual texts • Tamarisk and the PalmTamītu OraclesTašritu hemerology
Tukulti-Ninurta Epic Tukilti-Ninurta Epic is an Assyrian epic written in Akkadian describing and glorifying the wars and conquests of the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I against the Babylonian king Kashtiliash IV during the Kassite dynasty. Though in principle succ ...
Tu-ra kìlib-ba • The therapeutic series UGU (Šumma amēlu muḫḫašu umma ukāl) • Uruhulake of GulaUruk King ListUruk ProphecyUšburrudaUtukkū Lemnūtu
Verse Account of Nabonidus The Cylinders of Nabonidus refers to cuneiform inscriptions of king Nabonidus of Babylonia (556-539 BC). These inscriptions were made on clay cylinders. They include the Nabonidus Cylinder from Sippar, and the Nabonidus Cylinders from Ur, four ...
Vision of the NetherworldWalker ChronicleWeidner ChronicleZimri-Lim EpicZi-pà incantations
Zisurrû Zisurrû, meaning “magic circle drawn with flour,” and inscribed ZÌ-SUR-RA''-a'', was an ancient Mesopotamian means of delineating, purifying and protecting from evil by the enclosing of a ritual space in a circle of flour. It involved ritua ...
(Sag-ba Sag-ba) •
Zu-buru-dabbeda Zu-buru-dabbeda, inscribed ''zú-buru''5''-dib-bé-da'', is the most complete exemplar of a small body of similarly themed texts from ancient Mesopotamia. Composed in Akkadian, it is a compendium of incantations against field pests such as locusts, ...


See also

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Ancient literature Ancient literature comprises religious and scientific documents, tales, poetry and plays, royal edicts and declarations, and other forms of writing that were recorded on a variety of media, including stone, stone tablets, papyri, palm leaves, and ...


Further reading

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Shin Shifra Shin Shifra ( he, ש. שפרה); is the pen name of Shifra Shifman Shmuelevitch (1931 – 9 February 2012), a poet, translator, writer, editor and literary academic. Shifra won multiple literature awards. Biography Shin Shifra, the fifth of ...
(2008). ''Words as Magic and the Magic in Words''. Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, The Israeli Ministry of Defence Press (in
Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
). These are transcriptions of Shifra's discourses on literature of the Ancient Near East, first broadcast as a "University on the Air" course on the Israeli
Army Radio Army Radio ( he, גלי צה"ל lit. IDF waves) or Galei Tzahal, known in Israel by its acronym Galatz ( he, גל"צ), is a nationwide Israeli radio network operated by the Israel Defense Forces. The station broadcasts news, music, traffic reports ...
.


References

{{Authority control Babylonia Assyria