Inanna and Šulgi: A Sumerian Fertility Song

Abstract

One of the most lucid, succinct, comprehensive assessments of Sulgi and his reign is that of C. J. Gadd in Chapter XXII of vol. I of the revised Cambridge Ancient History . Sulgi's remarkable achievements as ruler of Sumer were no doubt due to his intelligence, energy, courage, and dedication. So, at least the modern historian would surmise. He was also, they might add, lucky—the gods were with him. In this they would agree to some extent with the Sumerian theologians who had no doubt on the matter—Sulgi was a highly successful king, because all the high gods favoured him, and especially because he was the beloved spouse of Inanna. Thus we learn from a tablet in the Bohl Collection at Leiden, it was Inanna, who after tasting of his love, blessed Sulgi with victory in battle and acclaimed him as the king eligible for all the rights, prerogatives, and insignia of kingship ( cf . now The Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Volume of the Jewish Quarterly Review (1967), 370–380). But what Sumer needed most was fertility of field, garden, and orchard. And this need, too, was fulfilled by Inanna as the lover of Sulgi. So, at least, we may conclude from the following poem inscribed on a Nippur tablet in the Istanbul Museum of the Ancient Orient, and copied by Muazzez Ciǧ (Ni. 4171; Plate IV).