Col. III

Col. IV

The series elum didara is entered in the Assyrian liturgical catalogue, IV Raw. 53a 8, and the first tablet of this Enlil liturgy has been found in the Berlin collection and published by Reisner, SBH. No. 25.477 The Berlin tablet belongs to a great Babylonian temple library of the Greek period redacted by a family of liturgists descendants of Sin-ibni. A fragment of the same first tablet of another Babylonian copy has been found, BM. 81-7-27, 203.478 The catch line of tablet two is lost on SBH. 25 and no part of tablet two has been identified. In 1914 [pg 324] I copied BM. 78239 (=88-5-12, 94) the upper half of a large tablet carrying according to the colophon ninety-six Sumerian lines. The number of lines provided with an interlinear translation on this fragment is only two, which increases the actual number of lines to ninety-eight. Probably a few more should be added for Semitic lines on the lost portion. This tablet, also from a Babylonian redaction, belongs to an edition made by another school of liturgists and contains tablet three of elum didara.

The third tablet of elum didara began with a melody nin-ri nin-ri gû-am-me to the mother goddess Bau (I. 2), who in line 7 is identified with Nanâ. Lines 3-6 introduce by interpolation other local forms of the mother goddess, as a concession to cities whose liturgists succeeded in inserting these lines before the canon of sacred songs were closed in the Isin period. Hence Babylon is favored by a reference to Zarpanit in line 3; Barsippa by a reference to Tašmet in lines 4-6. Bau or Gula wails for Nippur whose destruction is here attributed to the moon-god, Sin. The introduction of a long passage to the moon-god in the weeping mother melody of an Enlil liturgy is unusual. The entire passage reflects the phraseology and ideas of the well-known Sumerian hymn to the moon-god magur azag anna.479 The composer desiring to utilize these fine lines makes a setting for them by describing Sin as the god who visited Nippur with wrath, regardless of the inconsistency of placing such a passage in an Enlil song service which attributed the sorrows of Nippur to Enlil himself.

According to the catch line of tablet two of the Ninurta liturgy gud-nim kurra the third tablet of that series began by the same melody as tablet three of the elum didara.480 It is probable [pg 325] that the first melody of tablet three of both series was identical. Melodies are always identified by their first lines and when these agree we assume that the entire melodies are identical. Since the musicians referred to all melodies by their first lines it was manifestly impossible to begin two different melodies with the same line. But tablet three of the weeping mother liturgy muten nu-nunuz-gim begins its first melody481 nin-ri nin-ri gù-ám, etc., otherwise both melodies differ completely. This is the first known of example of two different melodies bearing the same title. It is curious indeed that an Enlil, a Ninurta and a mater dolorosa series all begin their third tablets in the same manner.

The obverse of BM. 78239 breaks away before the end of the melody nin-ri ninri gú-ám-me. Here forty-five Sumerian lines are lost; one or two melodies at least stood in this break. For the last passage on tablet three, the scribe borrows the first melody of the Ninurta series gud-nim kurra.482 The litanies which begin these melodies or series of addresses to Ninurta differ greatly in the two redactions. Since SBH. No. 18 belongs to a Ninurta series the addresses therein are much more extensive. The composer of the Enlil series elum didara obviously introduced this irrelevant melody to obtain the fine passage to the weeping mother, Rev. 10-21 on BM. 78239. These lines are lost on the Berlin text SBH. No. 18. On the whole the liturgy elum didara is more inconsistent in the development of ideas than any song service of which extensive portions are known. Only tablets one and three are as yet identified and neither of these is much more than half complete.

Reverse