Akkadian literature

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As Akkadian literature refers to the predominantly from Mesopotamia dating literature in Akkadian . It was essentially created between the Old Babylonian period , some works are also older, and the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. Chr. And was finally Aramaic replaced literature. It is estimated that we have around a third of the Akkadian literature today, the rest is probably lost forever, and many works are only available in fragments.

Historical summary

The oldest text in the Semitic language was found in Tell Abū Ṣalābīḫ . It should be a little older than 2500 BC. Be. It is a hymn to the sun god Šamaš (Shamash) that is still difficult to understand. The name of the language itself cannot have been Akkadian at that time, as the city of Akkade, after which it is named, was still completely insignificant. Nevertheless, the text can be assigned to a preliminary stage of Akkadian. Including this text, Akkadian literature is nearly as old as Sumerian literature , but the findings of Sumerian literature over many centuries have vastly outstripped Akkadian literature. Not until the middle of the Old Babylonian period (approx. 2000–1600 BC) was the Akkadian literature written to a significant extent. The Gilgameš epic , based on Sumerian stories about the legendary Sumerian king Gilgameš, is recorded for the first time in a series of plates, of which only plates II and III have survived, as well as a few other fragments. Other outstanding works of Akkadian literature such as the Atramhasis epic with the tale of the flood, the Etana myth about the flight into the sky on the back of an eagle by King Etana and the Anzû epic about the robbery of the tables of fate are already part of the repertoire of ancient Babylonian times.

Around 1200 BC The so-called "world creation epic" Enûma elîš is created. For the first time the myth of Nergal and Ereškigal is documented. In addition, the 11-panel version of the Gilgamesh epic is based on the ancient Babylonian text. While sources from Mesopotamia are sparse at this time, a number of texts are attested in Egypt and there are also texts from the Hittite capital Boğazköy (Turkey).

Over time, more works will be added, such as the one in the 9th / 8th Century BC Chr. Created Erra poem , the narrative because of his character and length better Erra epic would be. In addition to these Babylonian texts, there are also Assyrian epics about the kings Tukultī-Ninurta and Adad-nirārī. The most abundant source for the following period is the famous library of Aššurbanipal in Nineveh .

A temporal overlapping theme are various fragmentarily preserved stories and epics about the ancient Akkadian kings Sargon and Narām-Sîn.

In addition to epics and myths, Akkadian literature also consists of hymns (e.g. the Šamaš hymn or the Gula hymn ), individual prayers and lamentations (more in Sumerian), literary letters (e.g. the 8th report of the Sargon II campaign) . ), Incantations and numerous propaganda literature, especially royal inscriptions (e.g. Codex Hammurapi ).

Relationship to Sumerian literature

Little can be said about the relationship between Akkadian and Sumerian literature before the ancient Babylonian period, as the former is hardly documented. In the ancient Babylonian period, however, it clearly proved to be independent. However, shapes and themes are adopted. This applies above all to the Gilgamesh epic, which incorporates the material of several Sumerian stories about Gilgamesh and Enkidu, and to Ištar's journey into hell over the passage of the Venus goddess into the underworld ( see Inanna's passage into the underworld ). The Council of Shuruppak was translated with changes and the story of Adapa and the South Wind was shortened. The twelfth panel of the late version of the Gilgamesh Epic is a translation of the second part of Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Underworld .

Authors of Akkadian Literature

Like Sumerian literature, Akkadian literature is largely anonymous. For the more recent version of the Gilgamesh epic, Sîn-lēqi-unninni is named as the author in a catalog. Nothing more is known of him than his name. It is believed that he was born towards the end of the 2nd millennium BC. Lived. Sîn-lēqi-unninni is likely to have expanded the work and partly redesigned it. The extent and character of the revision remain largely the subject of speculation, as only a small part of the ancient Babylonian table series has survived. In the Erra epic, the author calls himself Kabti-ilāni-Marduk, son of Dābibi himself and writes that the god appeared to him during the night and spoke to him.

Reception of Akkadian literature

Towards the end of the 2nd millennium BC Accadian had become an international lingua franca. As a result, works of Akkadian literature were also copied in the Hittite Empire and Egypt. With the spread of Aramaic as an international language, the influence of Akkadian literature also declined. After the cuneiform script was deciphered in the 19th century, it was felt to be sensational that the Bible's story of the Flood also appeared in the Atram ḫasīs epic and in the 11th table of the Gilgamesh epic. Details such as the sending of various birds out of the ark exactly matched the Bible's narrative, but were older. The interest in the so-called "world creation epic" Enūma Eliš was also shaped by religious history. In addition to the gradually declining interest in the history of religion or in the critique of religion, the Gilgamesh epic in particular is still of interest today due to its undisputed literary quality and its historical position.

Text samples

Beginning of an incantation against the "toothworm":

After (sky god) Anu created heaven, heaven created
earth, earth created
rivers, rivers created
canals, canals created
morass.
(and) the quagmire had created the worm
, the worm went before (the sun god) shamash to cry,
"What did you give me to eat?
What did you give me to suck?"

From an old Babylonian song of praise for the goddess Ištar:

The goddess sings
about , the awesome among the goddesses, praised again and again is the mistress of men, the great among the Igigi (gods)!
Ištar sings
about , the awe-inspiring one among the goddesses, always praised be the mistress of men, the great one among the Igigi (gods)!

The joyful, dressed to seduce,
wrapped in fruit, fragrance and lust,
the joy-Ištar, dressed to seduce,
enveloped in fruit, fragrance and lust.

From Gilgamesh's complaint about his dead friend Enkidu (text with damage):

May the ways of the cedar forest weep around you, Enkidu,
may weep ... day and night!
May the elders of the city, of the wide city, the Uruk hurdle
weep for you , may the crowd weep that greeted us farewell!
May the peaks of the mountains weep for you,
the pure ...
May the corridors weep like your mother!
May boxwood, cypress and cedar weep for you ...
...
May the bear weep, the hyena, the panther, the cheetah, the deer and jackal, the lion, the wild bull, the deer, the ibex, the herds of wild animals!
May the sacred Ulai River weep for you, on the banks of which we walked swelling!

See also

literature

  • Erica Reiner: The Akkadian Literature. In: W. Röllig (Hrsg.): Altorientalische Literaturen . Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft Athenaion, Wiesbaden 1978, ISBN 3-79970-710-7 .
  • Benjamin R. Forster: Akkadian Literature. In: CS Ehrlich (ed.): From an Antique Land . Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham 2009, ISBN 978-0-7425-4334-8 .
  • K. Hecker, Studies on the Akkadian Epic , Old Orient and Old Testament - Sonderreich, Volume 8, Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1974, ISBN 3-7887-0419-5
  • SM Maul, The Gilgamesh Epos , Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-52870-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ M. Krebernik, in: J. Bauer et al. (Ed.) Mesopotamia. Late Uruk Period and Early Dynastic Period Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 160/1, Freiburg (Switzerland) / Göttingen 1998, ISBN 3-525-53797-2 , p. 320
  2. ^ AR George, The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic , Oxford 2003, ISBN 0-19-814922-0 , pp. 159-286
  3. ^ A. Annus, The Standard Babylonian Epic of Anzu , State Archives of Assyria Cuneiform Texts, Volume III, Helsinki 2001, ISBN 951-45-9051-1
  4. ↑ G. Pettinato, Nergel ed ereshkigal , Rome 2000, ISSN 0391-8149
  5. ↑ K. Hecker, Studies on Akkadian Epic , Old Orient and Old Testament - Sonderreichen, Volume 8, Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1974, ISBN 3-7887-0419-5 , p. 37
  6. ↑ J. Good Nick West Wood, Legends of the Kings of Akkad , Mesopotamian Civilizations 7, Winona Lake 1997, ISBN 0-931464-85-4
  7. ↑ A. Cavigneaux, Une version sumérienne de la légende d'Adapa , Journal of Assyriology 104, 2014, ISSN from 0084 to 5299, pp 1-41
  8. ^ AR George, The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic , Oxford 2003, ISBN 0-19-814922-0 , pp. 28-33
  9. ↑ L. Cagni, L'epopea di Erra , Studi Semitici 34, Rome 1969, p 31, and 126f. (V 42–43)
  10. ↑ K. Hecker, Investigations on the Akkadian Epic , Old Orient and Old Testament - Sonderreichen, Volume 8, Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1974, ISBN 3-7887-0419-5 , pp. 2-4
  11. ^ DO Edzard, in: Dominique Charpin et al. (Ed.): Mesopotamia. The ancient Babylonian period , Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 160/4, Friborg / Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-53063-3 p. 510f.
  12. ^ AR George, The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic , Oxford 2003, ISBN 0-19-814922-0 , pp. 650f.