It has been seen in the case of the invocations that they vary in length from a single word to twenty-three lines, and it is fairly obvious that the increasing length of the invocation gives it more and more of hymnal character. There is a similar variation in the length of the ascriptions. There are some of a single line:
Thy name is altogether good in the mouth of the people.[29]
Thy name is (spread) in the mouth of men, O protecting God,[30]
Among all gods thy deity is praised.
In other hymnal introductions the ascription is three, six, eight, eleven, and more lines in length. As the ascription increases in length, and as the lament and petition of the prayer likewise diminish in length, and as the ascription of praise changes in character, no longer corresponding to the petitions of the suppliant, we get the evolution of the hymn.
In the well-known prayer to Ishtar (No. 7), the hymnal introduction consists of thirty-seven lines. In it occur such rhetorical questions as:
Where is thy name not heard, where not thy decrees?
Where are thy images not made, where are thy temples not founded?
Where art thou not great, where art thou not exalted?
Anu, Enlil and Ea have exalted thee; among the gods have they increased thy dominion.