This sixth volume in the series Heidelberger Emesal-Studien is a solid work of traditional Assyriology: a critical edition of four Sumerian cultic laments addressed to the Babylonian god Ninurta. It is a revision of the author’s doctoral dissertation written under the supervision of Stefan Maul and completed in 2019.
The book begins with an introductory chapter that places in context the ancient Mesopotamian liturgical genre of the cultic lament (Sumerian balaĝ), its content and function, and the personnel who sang these laments and handed them down from generation to generation. The balaĝ laments were composed in the Sumerian language. The genre began as an oral tradition but was eventually captured in writing. It is chiefly known from cuneiform tablets written down in the first millennium, some of which supply interlinear translations into Akkadian.
Four of the extant balaĝ laments were addressed to the god Ninurta, a warrior god known in mythology as the conqueror of monsters and avenger of his father, Enlil. They are gathered in this book and subjected to a meticulous philological edition and critical analysis. The sources of the four litanies are 49 cuneiform tablets and fragments, mainly deriving from nineteenth-century excavations at Nineveh and Babylon. About a third of these are published here for the first time and make for a considerable addition to knowledge.
The text editions comprise transliterations of each manuscript, with translations, synoptic where the Sumerian and Akkadian diverge, and philological notes. The transliterations are supported by beautifully clear line-drawings of many of the tablets and fragments. Among the several concordances and indexes that conclude the book it is good to find glossaries of Sumerian and Akkadian words. Everything is there, even for the most demanding reader.
Liturgical laments relate the actions and reactions of gods, and especially goddesses, to mythic catastrophes in which their cities are sacked and their temples pillaged. Their function was to calm divine anger so that a god’s temple could be restored fit for him to reoccupy it. Ritual appeasement was a precondition for a defiled temple to be purged of contamination. The four balaĝ laments of Ninurta are good examples of the genre and allow a fair glimpse of the underlying myth.
Text No. 1 begins with a standard litany of praise addressed to the hero Ninurta, who then learns in a gathering of the gods that a goddess’s house has been pillaged by a violent enemy. Encouraged by a cheerleader, probably the injured goddess, he girds on his weapons and prepares for battle against the enemy, likened to a rainstorm battering a mountain. The scene cuts to the goddess, who laments the desecration of her homes and wonders whether they will ever be restored. She, or a third party, then describes Ninurta’s victory over the hostile mountain and calls for him to put aside his anger and calm down. The lament ends with a litany calling for peace and a plea for the repair of Ninurta’s temple. In this iteration of the myth, Ninurta fills his conventional role in myth as the avenger of his father, who subdues the gods’ enemies in their mountain fastness, but he also appears to be responsible for damage done by those enemies.
In balaĝ No. 2 a weeping goddess laments the destruction of her city and blames her spouse. This is a single episode of the myth, elaborating a theme that is lacking in No. 1, as the text now stands, but common in liturgical laments: in anger the god Enlil allowed an enemy to destroy the goddess’s cities and violate her cult-centres.
Text No. 3 begins with the standard litany of praise to Ninurta and allusion to the pillaging of a goddess’s house, much of which is shared with texts Nos. 1 and 4. The goddess then appeals to Ninurta as a god of unequalled might and asks how long he will remain unresponsive in the face of the enemy. The rest of the lament is missing, apart from a litany which laments the enemy’s attack on the major cities and temples and encourages Ninurta into battle.
The fourth balaĝ lament opens with the standard litany of praise but then dwells on the topic of the gods’ unfathomable word, which attacks the world like a destructive storm. The lament pleads for those who understand the minds of the gods to beg Ninurta not to leave their cities and temples undefended in the face of the storm. Successive litanies then eulogize Ninurta for defeating the hostile mountain and praise his strength to the rest of the gods. As in No. 1, the composition ends with a plea that his temple might be repaired.
These and other cultic laments place events on the divine plane and nowhere mention historical events and human beings. In them the difference between the gods and the enemy is blurred. Ninurta is celebrated for having defeated the enemy on his mountain, but also brings destruction on his own property and the property of his fellow gods, implicitly at Enlil’s command. The stories underlying these laments are variants of a myth in which angry gods made war on the world. The Babylonians had no illusions that god was on their side.
