Sumerian Mythology: Captivating Myths of Gods, Goddesses, and Legendary Creatures of Ancient Sumer and Their Importance to the Sumerians by Matt Clayton

Sumerian Mythology: Captivating Myths of Gods, Goddesses, and Legendary Creatures of Ancient Sumer and Their Importance to the Sumerians by Matt Clayton

Author:Matt Clayton [Clayton, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mythology
ISBN: 9781080352906
Google: ibzpxwEACAAJ
Amazon: B07VD4CJ96
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: 2019-07-13T16:16:17+00:00


Lugalbanda in the Mountain Cave

This tale is part of a longer narrative detailing deeds of Enmerkar’s heroic son, Lugalbanda, who in turn was the father of the great Gilgamesh. The pretext for this story is Enmerkar’s desire to wage war on Aratta. During the march of Uruk’s army through the Zabu (Zagros) Mountains on their way to Aratta, Lugalbanda is paralyzed by illness, and his friends make the heart-wrenching decision to leave him behind in the hopes that he will recover and rejoin them.

Lugalbanda’s companions leave him well provisioned with many kinds of food and drink, as well as his axe and dagger. The translators of this story from the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature note that while Lugalbanda’s friends hope he will get well again, they are in fact hedging their bets and also preparing him for burial, since the kinds of items they leave with him were part of Sumerian burial traditions. The story also shows the importance of the sun, the moon, and the planet Venus within Sumerian religion, since Lugalbanda prays to each of them for healing once he recovers enough to be able to pray at all. A further point of the story is to show how important and favored Lugalbanda is, since in addition to the three deities who heal him, he is visited by Zangara, the god of dreams, and by four major deities (An, Enlil, Enki, and Ninhursag), who come to eat the offering feast he prepares for them.

There came a time when Enmerkar, King of Uruk, decided to mount a campaign against the city of Aratta. Aratta would not submit to Uruk, and so Enmerkar marshaled his army and prepared for an assault against that strong and beautiful city. The number of men in Enmerkar’s army was so great that it was like a flood in numbers and in strength.

When all was ready, Enmerkar led his army on the road to Aratta. Enmerkar marched at the head of his army, and his armor and weapons glinted in the sun. So brightly did they shine that all who saw him did not wonder in the least that this was the very son of Utu. The army of Uruk marched over hills and across plains. For five days, they marched toward Aratta. On the sixth day, they stopped to rest, and on the seventh, they began to march into the mountains.

Now, the captains of Enmerkar’s army were seven warriors, champions and heroes all, sons of Urash, the earth goddess, and raised in the very house of An himself. The eighth captain was Enmerkar’s son, Lugalbanda, a man both strong and crafty. But while the army was marching through the mountains, Lugalbanda fell gravely ill. He fell to the ground and could neither move nor speak, although he still breathed and his heart still beat. Enmerkar’s and Lugalbanda’s friends all tried to help him, but nothing they did made any difference.

“We should bring him back to Uruk,” said one soldier.

“We cannot,” said Enmerkar, “for it is too far to go, and we can spare no one.



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