THE GODS AND MUSIC IN

ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA:
A REFLECTION FROM THE
HYMNS ŠULGI B AND E
Daniel Sánchez-Muñoz
Department of History and Sciences of Music (UGR)/ RHCM "Victoria Eugenia"
Scholarship Researcher FPU (FPU14/00927)/ 1st Course B.A. Oboe
Wednesday 14 december 2017
Senate House, University of London, Room 264
INTRODUCTION
 ABOUT NAM-NAR
nam-nar =
“Music”

nam nar

Destiny, fate, essence, etc. Singer with excellent

decreed by the gods musical and personal
qualities

Divine nature of
the Music? Human nature
of the Music

A divine decree of the A divine impulse to its

destiny of Music? origin?
 NAM DECREED BY NO-GODS
The bird is exultant, Anzud is exultant: "I am the prince who decides the destiny of
rolling rivers. I keep on the straight and narrow path the righteous who follow Enlil's
counsel. My father Enlil brought me here. He let me bar the entrance to the mountains
as if with a great door. If I fix a fate (nam), who shall alter it? If I but say the word,
who shall change it? Whoever has done this to my nest, if you are a god, I will speak
with you, indeed I will befriend you. If you are a man, I will fix your fate (nam). I
shall not let you have any opponents in the mountains. You shall be 'Hero-fortified-by-
Anzud'."

Lugalbanda and the Anzud Bird (ETCSL 1.8.2.2.: 99-110)

"…… grown as tall as Gilgameš. No one shall remove its throne set up there. Your
god, Lord Ninĝišzida, is the grandson of An; your divine mother is Ninsumun, the
bearing mother of good offspring, who loves her offspring; you are a child born by the
true cow. You are a true youth made to rise over the land of Lagaš by Ninĝirsu; your
name is established from below to above. Gudea, nobody …… what you say. You are
…… a man known to An. You are a true ruler, for whom the house has determined
a good fate (nam). Gudea, son of Ninĝišzida, you will enjoy a long life!"

The building of Ninĝirsu’s Temple (ETCSL 2.1.7.: 1340-1354)

WHICH WAS THE DEGREE OF RELATION OF THE
MESOPOTAMIAN GODS WITH THE MUSIC?
PRESENTATION
OF THE TEXTS
 HYMN ŠULGI B
• Center of the hymn = Praise of perfect habilities
– Military Prowess (lines 21-51)
– Hunting Ability (ls. 56-113)
– Physical Strength (e.g., racing and dancing) (ls. 118-130)
– Skill at Extispicy (ls. 131-149)
– Musical Natural Ability (ls. 154-174)
• He knows and plays very well all the instruments
– Kingly Nature (Innate Sense of Justice and Destiny) (ls. 175-205)
– Skill at Conversing in Foreign Languages (ls. 206-220)
– Innate Sense of Justice (ls. 221-243)
– Observance of Cultic Duties (ls. 244-258)
– The Pacific Internationalist (ls. 259-269)
– Reading Ancient Hymns and Writing New Ones (ls. 270-307)
– Establishment of Scribal Academies, Composition of Hymns (ls. 308-
319)
 HYMN ŠULGI E
• ‘Testament of Šulgi’
– He commissioned his court poets to compose his hymns
– Commemoration of his greatness and deeds for the
benefit of the gods and his people
– Some menaces against who alters his hymns in the
future
– Šulgi
• Interested on Music (nam-nar)
• Respectful with deities
• Unique Courage and Ferocity
– He wish that his hymns are recited in temples every day
 DISCUSSION AND
INTERPRETATION
 PERFECT CONTROL OF MUSIC
Excellent Perfomer Excellent ‘Manager’

I, Šulgi, king of Urim, have also devoted myself to the art of music. Nothing is too
complicated for me; I know the full extent of the tigi and the adab, the perfection of the
art of music. When I fix the frets on the lute, which enraptures my heart, I never damage its
neck; I have devised rules for raising and lowering its intervals. On the gu-uš lyre I know
the melodious tuning. I am familiar with the sa-eš and with drumming on its musical
soundbox. I can take in my hands the miritum, which ……. I know the finger
technique of the alĝar and sabitum, royal creations. In the same way I can produce
sounds from the urzababitum, the ḫarḫar, the zanaru, the ur-gula and the dim-lu-
magura. Even if they bring to me, as one might to a skilled musician, a musical
instrument that I have not heard before, when I strike it up I make its true sound
known; I am able to handle it just like something that has been in my hands before.
Tuning, stringing, unstringing and fastening are not beyond my skills. I do not make the
reed pipe sound like a rustic pipe, and on my own initiative I can wail a šumunša or
make a lament as well as anyone who does it regularly.

A praise poem of Šulgi (Šulgi B) (ETCSL 2.4.2.02: 154-174)

 Excellent Music-Lover Excellent ‘Manager’

I am no fool as regards the knowledge acquired since the time that mankind was, from
heaven above, set on its path: when I have discovered tigi and zamzam hymns from past
days, old ones from ancient times, I have never declared them to be false, and have never
contradicted their contents. I have conserved these antiquities, never abandoning them to
oblivion. Wherever the tigi and the zamzam sounded, I have recovered all that knowledge,
and I have had those šir-gida songs brilliantly performed in my own good house. So that
they should never fall into disuse, I have added them to the singers' repertoire, and thereby
I have set the heart of the Land on fire and aflame.

Music as a part
A praise poem of Šulgi (Šulgi B) (ETCSL 2.4.2.02: 270-280)
of the King

47-52. How I glisten like fine silver, how I am musical and eloquent in wisdom; how I, the
shepherd, do everything to absolute perfection: may all this be commended in my kingship.
Of all the lines that there are in my songs, none of them is false -- they are indeed true!

A praise poem of Šulgi (Šulgi E) (ETCSL 2.4.2.05: 47-52)

MUSIC, IN THE MIDDLE OF MANY PERFECT
ABILITIES MASTERED BY THE KING ŠULGI
 WHO DOES THEM?
• A King…?
– Some true data about his life in
Šulgi’s hymns
– Self-recognized in these hymns as
son of kings
– He serves to the gods = maybe he is
not a god = he is not equal to them
• …Or a Deity?
– He writes his name as a god = dŠul-
gi
– Literary and hyperbolic treatment
of the abilities in a human
dimension
– Only a god could control perfectly
so many and difficult abilities
 ŠULGI, A DEIFIED KING
Big number of
reforms

Possible crysis in
the Kingdom

Necessary
justification to
avoid the crysis

Self-
deification

The reforms are

wise and fair

They have a
divine origin
 MUSIC-LOVER DEITIES
He made the lyre, the alĝar instrument, the balaĝ drum with the drumsticks, the
ḫarḫar, the sabitum, and the …… miritum instruments offer their best for his
holy temple. The …… resounded by themselves with a sweet sound. The holy
alĝar instrument of Enki played for him on his own and seven {singers sang}

Enki's journey to Nibru (ETCSL 1.1.4.: 62-67)

Holy Inana said to Ninšubur: "Come my faithful minister of E-ana, my minister

who speaks fair words, my escort who speaks trustworthy words. On this day I
will descend to the underworld. When I have arrived in the underworld, make a
lament for me on the ruin mounds. Beat the drum [šem] for me in the
sanctuary. Make the rounds of the houses of the gods for me.”

Inanna’s Descent to the Netherworld (ETCSL 1.4.1.: 28-36)

Lute player perhaps performing music for Enki

Group of musicians in
front of a seated deity,
probably, Inanna
 PERFORMER DEITIES
"Bring, bring, bring my sister! Bring my Ĝeštin-ana, bring my sister! Bring my
scribe proficient in tablets, bring my sister! Bring my singer expert in songs,
bring my singer! Bring my perspicacious girl, bring my sister! Bring my wise
woman who knows the meanings of dreams, bring my sister! I will relate the
dream to her."

"I am he who kisses the holy lips, I am he who dances on the holy knees, the
knees of Inanna"
Dumuzid's dream (ETCSL 1.4.3.: 19-24, 168-169)

……seat in heaven. …… flood. …… mankind. So he made ……. Then Nintur

……. Holy Inana made a lament for its people.

The Flood story (ETCSL 1.7.5.: C 1-7)

 Inanna as
percussionist

But also related

with other
instruments
(arched harp?)
 AN ACTIVE DIVINE
MUSICAL INTERVENTION

U.E.T. VII 126

 Transcription and Translation of U.E.T. VII 126

Line Sumerian Akkadian Translation

1 sa-di qud-mu-u[m] Front String
2 sa-uš4 ša-mu-šu-um Next String
3 sa-3-sa-sig ša-al-šu-qa-a[t-nu] Third, Thin String
4 sa4-tur a-aba-nu-[ú] Fourth, Small/ Ea-created-
string
5 sa-di-*5 ḫa-am-[šu] Fifth String
6 sa-4-a-ga-gul ri-bi uḫ-ri-im Fourth Behind String
7 sa-3-a-ga-gul šal-ši uḫ-ri-im Third Behind String
8 sa-2-a-ga-gul ši-mi uḫ-ri-im Second Behind String
9 [sa-1]-a-ga-gul uḫ-ru-um Behind String
10 [9]sa-a-9 pi-it-nu Nine String

Signs = base for generalizations in Mesopotamia

(generalizations properly are not allowed)
CONCLUSIONS
 A SIMILAR RELATION
WITH MUSIC

MUSIC-LOVERS

PERFORMERS

MUSICAL
PATRONS

MESOPOTAMIAN
KING ŠULGI DEITIES
 NAM-NAR AS A ESSENTIAL
PART OF THE GODS

• Music = Essential
Divine Ability
• Music (nam-nar) =
Universal Reality
– It concerns equally
to humans and gods
THANK YOU