The earliest extant poetic and narrative texts date to the Early Dynastic Period in the midthird millennium BCE. They were written in an abbreviated, skeletal form that clearly assumed the writer’s and reader’s familiarity with the stories concerned. One of them mentions Lugalbanda, who is one of the heroes of old stories that were much later featured in epic poems (Michalowski 1995: 2281). According to the latter, Gilgamesh was the son of Lugalbanda and the goddess Ninsun, while Lugalbanda performed his heroic deeds under king Enmerkar and then became king himself. One of the Sumerian epics places Gilgamesh in the context of a feud with Akka, king of Kish, and is unique in dealing only with humans, avoiding divine elements and mythical elaboration. The event is usually assumed to be historical (Romer 1980; Katz 1993). Gilgamesh’s name was later also connected with the magnificent walls of Uruk. Even so, only circumstantial evidence supports the historicity of these personalities (Michalowski 1983; Kuhrt 1995: 1. 29-31).
Although this too is much debated (Michalowski 1992: 227-8; Chapter 15, by Noe-gel), I accept here the traditional view that the form into which these stories eventually were elaborated was ‘‘epic.’’ This apparently happened in the time of the Third Dynasty of Ur (ca. 2112-2004), when particularly Shulgi, the second king, enacted wide-ranging reforms that affected not least the scribal school curriculum. Shulgi and his successors were especially interested in two aspects: the use of Sumerian literature as cultural and political propaganda and the establishment of a kinship connection with Gilgamesh (whom Shulgi claimed as his ‘‘divine brother’’) that provided a source of legitimation and a foundation myth for the royal dynasty (Michalowski 1995: 2284; cf. 1988). This explanation is countered by another that sees entertainment as the epics’ primary purpose. Rather than presenting models of an ideal king, they express an ideology typical of folktales: the cleverness and luck of an ‘‘underdog’’ who prevails over those superior in strength and power. If so, the stories may have been especially popular among the poor and illiterate lower classes (Alster 1995: 2322).
The texts survive mostly from the Old Babylonian period (first half of the second millennium bce), when Sumerian may no longer have been a spoken language. The social function of these texts is much debated (Vogelzang and Vanstiphout 1992). One group of scholars argues that the extant texts and the stories told in them corresponded to and preserved a widespread oral tradition (Alster 1995). Others consider it possible that ‘‘writing provided a completely different medium of expression, and that from the very beginning the literature of the clay tablets was fundamentally different from the oral compositions that circulated in society.’’ If so, the texts were entirely restricted to the scribal curriculum and thus isolated from a wider public. In this view, the ‘‘average man or woman probably knew nothing of the poems and stories that we have recovered from the ground of Mesopotamia, and therefore we should not identify the sentiments and values of the literature with the ideals of all members of those ancient societies’’ (Michalowski 1995: 2279-80, 2283; cf. 1992). A different view claims that the audible and visible aspects of literature continued to be two aspects of the same process, that students in scribal schools were trained in rhetoric as well as writing and literature, and that the art of the singer may have been the highest step in their training. ‘‘Many features suggest that Sumerian compositions were fundamentally meant to be recited before an audience.’’ It might thus be best to think of “performance poetry’’ (Alster 1995: 2318-19).
What, then, were these epics about? Since they are the subject of another chapter, I need not go into details (see Chapter 15, by Noegel; for bibliog., see also Romer 1999). The two Enmerkar epics (Kramer 1952) deal with the antagonism between Enmerkar, king of Uruk, and the ruler of Aratta, a city in Iran. Both kings claim superiority, and their conflicting claims are resolved peacefully, through a series of competitions that seal Enmerkar’s victory. In the Lugalbanda epics (Wilcke 1969), this competition has evolved into a war. Lugalbanda, the youngest of eight brothers, has to overcome great odds and his brothers’ hostility to prove his qualities and achieve high status. He prevails through superior intelligence and cunning, even securing for himself supernatural abilities that enable him to render to the king a unique service. Having thus conquered Aratta, he eventually becomes the king’s successor. The Epic of Gilgamesh, the best known of the series, extant in several versions and popular throughout Mesopotamian history (Moran 1995), focuses on a more universal theme: the fear of death and the quest for immortality in achieving everlasting fame.
Much has been made of the significance of these epics in illuminating historical events, relations, or institutions, but since this is virtually the only evidence we have, caution is recommended. Moreover, the historical information conveyed is unspecific, and the events merely provide the backdrop for what really matters: the hero’s or king’s achievement and superiority. Thus the patterns of trade between Uruk and Iran reflected in the Enmerkar and Lugalbanda epics merely confirm what we know from archaeological finds: that the “Mesopotamian cities maintained far-flung trading relations in order to acquire exotic goods.’’ But ‘‘their specific mode of organisation is not illuminated by the Enmerkar story’’ (Kuhrt 1995: 1. 31). The search for historical marriage patterns in ‘‘Gilgamesh and the cedar forest’’ is fraught with uncertainties (Shaffer 1983).
‘‘Gilgamesh and Akka’’ offers an especially interesting case. Early versions of the story probably focused on Gilgamesh’s heroics in the fight to overthrow Uruk’s dependence on Kish. In the extant version, the hero consults both a council of elders that advises against, and an assembly of warriors that supports the revolt from Kish. Thorkild Jacobsen (1943) based some of his (re)construction of‘‘primitive democracy’’ on the juxtaposition of these institutions. Comprehensively reexamining all issues involved and identifying literary devices, Dina Katz (1987) concludes that the epic contains more fiction than fact and cannot be used for purposes of historical reconstruction; the bicameral political structure is the result of an ideologically motivated reinterpretation of the story, in which Gilgamesh’s leadership, originally usurped against the wish of the elders, receives the backing of an assembly that legitimizes his rule (cf. Katz 1993; Romer 1980; Kuhrt 1995: 1.31).
Nor do the extant parts of an epic on Sargon the Great offer much historical information. Overall, then, unlike their much longer Homeric counterparts, the Sumerian epics do not throw much light even on the social or political background to heroic actions and events. Whether and to what extent some of the events themselves are historical cannot be demonstrated on the basis of evidence currently available.
World History
