Lament for Nippur explained

The Lament for Nippur, or the Lament for Nibru, is a Sumerian lament, also known by its incipit tur₃ me nun-e ("After the cattle pen...").^[1] It is dated to the Old Babylonian Empire .^[2] It is preserved in Penn Museum on tablet CBS13856.^[3]

It is one of five known Mesopotamian "city laments" - dirges for ruined cities in the voice of the city's tutelary goddess.^[4]

Text

The Lament is composed of 9 kirugu (sections, songs) and 8 gišgigal (antiphons) followed by 3 more kirugu.

Numbered by kirugu, the lament is structured as follows:

1. storm of Enlil; Enlil destroys Nippur
2. weeping goddess; Nippur addresses Enlil
3. storm of Enlil; Enlil destroys Nippur
4. weeping goddess; the poet addresses Nippur
5. storm of Enlil; Ishme-Dagan recreates Nippur
6. weeping goddess; the poet addresses Nippur
7. storm of Enlil; Ishme-Dagan recreates Nippur
8. storm of Enlil; Enlil recreates Nippur
9. storm of Enlil; Ishme-Dagan recreates Nippur
10. storm of Enlil; Enlil recreates Nippur
11. storm of Enlil; Ishme-Dagan recreates Nippur
12. storm of Enlil; Enlil recreates Nippur^[5]

It includes passages in the emesal, a sociolect used by high-status women, showing the importance of women's voices in city laments; emesal is also found in the Lament for Ur.^[6]

See also

• The Lament for Sumer and Ur
• The Lament for Ur
• The Lament for Eridu
• The Lament for Uruk

External links

• Full text
• Full translation (Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature)

Notes and References

1. The city lament genre in the ancient Near East (in The fall of cities in the Mediterranean: Commemoration in literature, folk-song, and liturgy, ed. Mary Bachvarova, Dorota Dutsch, and Ann Suter, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016, pp. 13–35). John. Jacobs. January 1, 2016. www.academia.edu.
2. Web site: CDLI-Archival View. cdli.ucla.edu.
3. Web site: Tablet - CBS13856 | Collections - Penn Museum. www.penn.museum.
4. Book: Hirsch, Edward. The Essential Poet's Glossary. April 4, 2017. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 9780544932098 . Google Books.
5. Book: Jacobs, John. The Fall of Cities in the Mediterranean: Commemoration in Literature, Folk-Song, and Liturgy. Ann. Suter. Dorota. Dutsch. Mary R.. Bachvarova. September 20, 2016. Cambridge University Press. 13–35.
6. Book: Boyadjian, Tamar M.. The City Lament: Jerusalem across the Medieval Mediterranean. December 15, 2018. Cornell University Press. 9781501730863 . Google Books.