A Liturgy to Enlil, Series e-lum gud-sun (Zimmern KL. No. 11)

The history of the text of this long and intricate Enlil liturgy elucidates in unusual manner the evolution of Sumerian prayer books until they attained canonical and permanent form. The earliest text of this liturgy is partially preserved on the Tablet Virolleaud published in the Revue d'Assyriologie, Vol. XVI. The fragment was brought to Europe in 1909 by the assyriologist Charles Virolleaud, having been purchased by him during his excavations in Persia. It is light brown and varies from the center to the edge by two inches to one inch in thickness. The fragment is from the upper left corner of a large three(?) column tablet. About half of the first melody is preserved on the obverse. The reverse preserves the last two melodies. From their rubrics we learn that the entire series contained eleven sections. This tablet has the rubric ki-šub-gú after each strophe. The titular litany281 occupies as usual the next to the last place but only the opening lines giving the motif and a few titles are given. The redactor indicates the remaining titles by a rubric “(Recite the title) of a [pg 291] god until they are finished.” The rubric is in Semitic which shows that the redaction was done by Semitic scholars.

The late Assyrian redaction is mentioned in the catalogue of prayer books IV Raw. 53 I 13 and in BL. No. 103 Obv. 13. SBH. No. 21, edited in SBP. 112-119, is tablet one of the late Babylonian School282 and contains the first four songs, duplicates of the first four on K.L. 11. SBH. No. 25, edited in SBP. 120-123,283 carries on the obverse two songs (e-lum di-da-ra and me-e ur-ri men) found on Col. III of K.L. No. 11, Rev., or the two last melodies before the titular litany. A fragment published by Meek in BA. X pt. 1, No. 11, contains the end of e-lum di-da-ra and all of me-e ur-ri men. SBH. 25 and Meek No. 11 belong to the series e-lum di-da-ra, entered in the Assyrian catalogue, IV Raw. 53a 8, and form tablet one of that service.

The titular litany of the e-lum gud-sun series is identical (except for some variants) with the famous titular litany of the mother goddess series mu-ten NU-NUNUZ gim-ma, tablet five, edited in SBP. 149-167. Portions of the titular litany of the Enlil series have been edited in PBS. X 155-167, see pages 163-4. The titular litany of ní-ma-al gù-de-de occurs at the end [pg 292] of tablet two of that series, SBP. 24-9 = BL. 72-3. Not every series has a theological litany of this kind, which ordinarily comes before the er-šem-ma, or intercessional song at the end. The song to the “word,” which occurs in all series, is partially preserved on Obv. III and begins a-ma-ru na-nam. The indispensable song to the weeping mother comes just before the titular litany. This little nine-line melody me-e ur-ri-mèn me-e kàs-mèn must have been a national religious song. It was copied into another Enlil song service as we have seen. The same song introduces tablet four of an Innini series of which we have only the end of tablet three, K. 2759, in BL. 93 f.

Obverse II