3.3 Assyrian literature
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INCANTATION FROM THE SERIES HULBAZIZI, LINES 63-67: MAY SÎN, LORD OF THE CROWN, QUIETEN YOU; MAY NINURTA, LORD OF WEAPONS, BREAK YOUR WEAPONS; MAY NERGAL, LORD OF THE NETHERWORLD HOLD YOU IN BATTLE; MAY EA AND ASALLUHI CUT OFF YOUR POISON. CLEAR OFF!
MS in Assyrian on white chalcedony, Assyria, 900-600 BC, 1 demon head, 3,4x2,2x1,3 cm, 10 lines in cuneiform script, with a fine detailed visage of the demon Pazuzu combining human and lionine features, deeply carved on one side, and a winged solar disc beneath the text.
Binding: Barking, Essex, 1998, blue quarter morocco gilt folding case by Aquarius.
Context: Another incantation from the Hulbazizi series is MS 3001.
LEXICAL LIST OF TEMPLES AND OTHER BUILDING TYPES, THE SERIES OF KAGAL, TABLET 2. COLOPHON: BY THE HAND OF BEL-AH-IDDINA, JUNIOR SCRIBE SON OF NINURTA-UBALLISSU ROYAL SCRIBE, ON THE DICTATION OF MARDUK-UBALLISSU, MONTH 9, DAY 24, EPONYM OF ASHUR-AH-IDDINA
MS in Sumerian and Assyrian on yellow toned clay, Niniveh, Assyria, ca. 700 BC, 1 tablet, 14,3x9,0x2,2 cm, 2 columns, 146 lines in an expert cuneiform script by the royal scribe.
Commentary: The two tablets together listed nearly 300 temples. The lexical lists were basic tools for authors, scribes and administration. For 2 early Sumerian examples, see MSS 2272 and 2340. The present tablet also shows the mastery in lay-out and script by the royal scribe, who signed his work in the colophon.
THE GILGAMESH CYLINDER SEAL
GILGAMESH AND ENKIDU, SLAYING THE BULL OF HEAVEN
MS in Neo-Assyrian on brown agate, Assyria, ca. 7th c. BC, 1 cylinder seal, h. 3,9 cm, diam. 1,6 cm, with Enkidu, wearing a short kilt decorated with rosettes, hair and beard in curls, an axe in one hand, holding the tail of the Bull of Heaven in the other, the winged human-headed bull crouches down on its foreleg, in front Gilgamesh, wearing long fringed robe with rosettes, a double horned headdress, long curled hair and beard, holding one of the bull's horns while plunging his sword into its neck.
Binding: Barking, Essex, 1995, quarter brown morocco gilt folding case, by Aquarius.
Context: 3 tablets of the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven, are MSS 2652/2-4.
Commentary: In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Bull of Heaven was a
mythical beast demanded by the goddess Ishtar to destroy the city of Uruk when
her amorous advances towards its king, Gilgamesh, were rejected. Gilgamesh was
king of Uruk ca. 2700 BC. The earliest epic about him so far is from 19th c.
BC, cf. MS
3025, but cf. MS 2652/3 from ca. 2600 BC.
The most complete
version of the Gilgamesh legend survives in 12 fragmentary tablets which were
discovered in the excavations of the library of King Ashurbanipal (668-627 BC)
at Niniveh. The slaying of the Bull of Heaven episode is treated in tablet VI:
"Gilgamesh, like an able slaughterer, strikes with his sword the Bull of
Heaven forcefully and precisely between shoulders and neck".
Only about 5
cylinder seals with this motive survive.
Published: As cover illustration of both volumes of A.R. George: The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic. Oxford, University Press, 2003.