IV. Four Assyriological Notes

Extract

1. The Identification of the Name ^D-Tagtug Sumero-Babylonian myths and legends were rich in tales of prehistoric rulers, heroes who became the subjects of epics, poems, and cults. Consecutive and intensive study of Cuneiform inscriptions has revealed a vast structure of ancient Sumerian hero-worship upon which was erected their extensive theological and ethical literature. Of the kings of the first legendary dynasty at Kish; Etana, a one-time shepherd, became the hero of a fine poem, preserved only in Semitic, known as The Legend of Etana, him who essayed to mount to heaven on the wings of an eagle in quest of the “plant of child- bearing”. Dumuzi, the hunter, king in a legendary dynasty of Erech, was deified and became the dying god of Sumerian religion. Gilgamish, a king of the same dynasty, became the national hero of Sumer and Akkad, about whom arose endless stories of the chase and the epic of “He that hath seen all things”, or the so-called Epic of Gilgamish. Ziudsuddu, last of the ten legendary kings before the flood, became the famous survivor of the Flood in both Sumerian and Accadian poems of the Deluge. About Adapa, a seafaring sage of Eridu, was told one of the versions of the fall of man.