A praise poem of Sulgi

Sulgi was the king of Urim for nearly 50 years of the 21st century bce. Under his leadership Urim’s territory grew to encompass all of Sumer and beyond; the size of its bureaucracy, army, and taxation regime grew with it.

Some twenty-five hymns are known praising Sulgi, or praising deities on his behalf. This example is a hymn of self-praise, written as if Sulgi is speaking about himself. Its main intent is to describe a great physical feat, portraying Sulgi as both mighty and devout.

Sulgi outlines his physical prowess in general terms, by means of comparison with powerful wild animals, interspersing this with an enumeration of his relationship to the main deities of Sumer (1—25). He then describes the planning and inauguration of an improved road system between his capital city Urim and the religious centre of Nibru some 120 miles north (26-87). To celebrate its opening, Sulgi says that he himself made the epic journey on foot, from Nibru to Urim and back. Running past throngs of admiring subjects, he reaches Urim at daybreak and celebrates with a ceremony and festival. On the return leg, he battles through fierce storms to enter Nibru at sunset for further festivity and offerings. He ends with a wish that he and his deeds be remembered and glorified (88—101).

Animal and bird imagery permeates this hymn. Sulgi mostly likens himself to a lion (‘a fierce-looking lion, begotten by a dragon’; ‘the lion, never failing in his vigour’; ‘like a lion, spreading fearsomeness’, ‘like a fierce lion’), but creatures which are renowned for their endurance or speed are also summoned up. Equids are the subject of the third paragraph, while the ass image is also used later in the composition: ‘I galloped like an ass in the desert’; ‘trotting like a solitary wild ass’. Sulgi is also ‘like a mountain kid hurrying to its habitation’ or like the mythical Anzud bird ‘lifting its gaze to the mountains’. ‘Like a pigeon anxiously fleeing from a. . . snake, I spread my wings’ is intended to conjure up swiftness of response rather than fear; elsewhere Sulgi compares himself to predatory raptors: ‘I arose like an owl (?), like a falcon.’