Enmerkar and En-suhgir-ana (also known as Enmerkar and Ensuhkešdanna) is a text in

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 ...

appearing as a sequel to ''

Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta ''Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta'' is a legendary Sumerian language, Sumerian account, preserved in early post-Sumerian copies, composed in the Neo-Sumerian period (ca. 21st century BC). It is one of a series of accounts describing the conflicts ...

'', and is second in a series of four accounts describing the contests of

Aratta Aratta is a land that appears in Sumerian myths surrounding Enmerkar and Lugalbanda, two early and possibly mythical kings of Uruk also mentioned on the Sumerian king list. Role in Sumerian literature Aratta is described as follows in Sumer ...

against

Enmerkar Enmerkar () was an ancient Sumerian ruler to whom the construction of the city of Uruk and a 420-year reign was attributed. According to literary sources, he led various campaigns against the land of Aratta. He is credited in Sumerian legend as ...

, lord of Unug and

Kullaba Kullaba (also Kulaba, Kulab, and Kullab) was a city in the ancient Near East which was later largely absorbed into the city of Uruk. There was also a district of the city of Babylon named Kullab, known to contain a temple of Šarrat-Larsa ("Queen ...

, and his successor

Lugalbanda Lugalbanda was a deified Sumerian king of Uruk who, according to various sources of Mesopotamian literature, was the father of Gilgamesh. Early sources mention his consort Ninsun and his heroic deeds in an expedition to Aratta by King Enmerkar ...

, father of

Gilgamesh Gilgamesh (, ; ; originally ) was a hero in ancient Mesopotamian mythology and the protagonist of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'', an epic poem written in Akkadian during the late 2nd millennium BC. He was possibly a historical king of the Sumer ...

Synopsis

The name of the Lord of Aratta, which never appeared in ''Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta'', is here provided in a brief introduction. Among scholars, the earlier cuneiform reading of this name, ''Ensuhgirana'', is still used alongside the more recent reading of it as '' Ensuhkeshdanna''. The introduction also gives the name of Ensuhkeshdanna's chief minister, ''Ansigaria'', and Enmerkar's chief minister, ''Namena-tuma''. Enmerkar is the Lord of both Unug and Kulaba, described as the "city which rises from heaven to earth" ic Following this introduction, the plot opens with Ensuhkeshdanna dictating a message to his envoy, to be taken to Unug, demanding Enmerkar submit to Aratta, and boasting that his connections with the goddess

Inanna Inanna is the List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian goddess of war, love, and fertility. She is also associated with political power, divine law, sensuality, and procreation. Originally worshipped in Sumer, she was known by the Akk ...

are superior to those of Enmerkar. The envoy having traveled to Unug and delivered this message, Enmerkar responds that Inanna stays at the temple with him, and that she will not even go to Aratta for five or ten years; he responds to Ensuhkeshdanna's boasts with a number of creative sexual taunts of his own ("even though she is not a duckling, she shrieks like one"). When the messenger returns to Aratta with this message, Ensuhkeshdanna is perplexed and feels defeated. His counselors advise him to back off from confrontation with Enmerkar. However, he vows never to submit to Enmerkar, even if Aratta be utterly destroyed. At this point, a sorcerer named Urgirinuna comes to Aratta, after his homeland of

Hamazi Hamazi or Khamazi ( Sumerian: , ''ha-ma-zi''ki, or ''Ḫa-ma-zi2''ki) was an ancient kingdom or city-state which became prominent during the Early Dynastic period. Its exact location is unknown. History In the early days of archaeology two pot ...

has been vanquished. Urgirinuna promises the chief minister, Ansigaria, that he can make Enmerkar submit to Aratta. Ansigaria agrees to fund this mission, and the sorcerer then proceeds to Eresh, the city of

Nisaba Nisaba was the Mesopotamian goddess of writing and grain. She is one of the oldest Sumerian language, Sumerian deities attested in writing, and remained prominent through many periods of History of Mesopotamia, Mesopotamian history. She was commo ...

, where he somehow manages to sabotage the dairy livestock of Enmerkar. This act of the sorcerer's sabotage was observed by the livestock keepers, Mashgula and Uredina, who then pray to Utu, the sun god, for help. A sorceress of Eresh called "Wise Woman Sagburu" then appears, and outperforms Urgirinuna's sorcery in a series of contests: each time Urgirinuna magically brings an animal from the water by casting in fish eggs, she brings a predator from the water in the same way, which then eats the animals he produces. Having defeated him with superior magic, she refuses to spare his life, and casts him into the Euphrates. When Ensuhkeshdanna hears of this, he admits defeat and submits to Enmerkar. The remainder of the text is too fragmentary to interpret.

Sources

*
Enmerkar and En-suḫgir-ana
' at the

Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL) is an online digital library of texts and translations of Sumerian language, Sumerian literature that was created by a now-completed project based at the Oriental Institute, Oxford, Orient ...

* * {{cite book , last1=Mittermayer , first1=Catherine , title=Enmerkara und der Herr von Arata: ein ungleicher Wettstreit , date=2009 , publisher=Saint-Paul , isbn=978-3-525-54359-7 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LcsLEcCMAR8C , accessdate=26 May 2020 , language=de History of magic Mesopotamian myths Sumerian literature