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Who were the Authors before Homer in Mesopotamia?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Jean-Jacques Glassner
Jean-Jacques Glassner*
Affiliation:
Centre National de la Recherche scientifique/École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
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Mesopotamian works are usually anonymous; at best the names of some copyists are known. Some significant exceptions, such as Saggil-kênam-ubbib, the author of Théodicée babylonienne, Kabti-ilî-Marduk, author of the ‘myth of Erra’, and Shamash-muballit, the son of Warad-Sîn, who may have been the author of a hymn to the goddess Inanna, do not make up for this lacuna.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 49 , Issue 196 , December 2002 , pp. 86 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2002

References

Notes

1. Text translated in R. Labat et al, Les Religions du Proche Orient, Paris, 1970, p. 320 et seq.

2. Text translated in J. Bottero and S.N. Kramer, Lorsque les dieux faisaient l'homme, Paris, 1989, p. 680 et seq.

3. C.J. Gadd, Cuneiform Texts (…) in the British Museum 36, London, 1921, pp. 35-38.

4. Amongst the latest editions: J. Bottéro, L'Épopée de Gilgamesh, Paris, 1992; R.J. Tournay and A. Shaffer, L'Épopée de Gilgamesh, Paris, 1994; A. George, The Epic of Gilgamesh, New York, 1999; B.R. Foster, The Epic of Gilgamesh, New York, 2001.

5. Text edited by J.V. Kinnier Wilson, The Legend of Etana, Warminster, 1985.

6. W.G. Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, Oxford, 1960, p. 63.

7. A. Livingstone, Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea, State Archives of Assyria III, Helsinki, 1989, text No.2.

8. A. Zgoll, Der Rechtsfall der En-hedu-ana im Lied nin-me-shara, Munster 1997, p. 22, line 81 et seq.

9. A.W. Sjöberg and E. Bergmann, The Collection of the Sumerian Temple Hymns, Locust Valley-New York, 1969, p. 49: line 543 et seq.

10. J. Goodnick Westenholz, ‘Enheduanna, En-Priestess, Hen of Nanna, Spouse of Nanna', in H. Behrens et al., (eds.), Dumu-e2-dub-ba-a, Studies in Honor of A.W. Sjöberg, Philadelphia, 1989, p. 556, line 6'.

11. M. Civil, ‘Les limites de l'information textuelle', in M.-T. Barrelet, (ed.), L'archéologie de l'Iraq du début de l'époque néolithique à 333 avant notre ère, Paris, 1980, p. 229.

12. One of the temples praised in this way, that of the god Nanna at Gaesh, was not built until a century or two after the reign of Sargon: J. Black, Reading Sumerian Poetry, London, 1998, p. 43, note 126.

13. L. Cagni, L'epopea di Erra, Rome, 1969, p. 126: 41 et seq.

14. On this point: J.-J. Glassner, ‘La philosophie mésopotamienne', in A. Jacob, (ed.), Encyclopédie Philosophique Universelle, I, L'Univers philosophique, Paris, 1989, p. 1637 et seq.; ‘The Use of Knowledge in Ancient Mesopotamia', in J.M. Sasson (ed.), Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, III, New York-London-Mexico-New Delhi-Singapore-Sydney-Toronto, 1995, 1815 et seq.; ‘Savoirs secrets et écritures secrètes des scribes mésopotamiens', Politica Hermetica 13, 1999, 15-32.

15. H.M. Kümmel, Familie, Beruf und Amt im spätbabylonischen Uruk, Berlin, 1979, p. 108 et seq.