Lamentation of Ishme-Dagan Over Nippur. 13856 (No. 1)
The liturgical character of this tablet is unique among all the numerous choral compositions of the Isin period. It is a large two column tablet containing six long kišub melodies. Liturgies of such kind, compiled by joining a series of kišubs, or melodies, attended by prostrations, represent an advanced stage in the evolution of these compositions in that the sections are not mechanically joined together by selecting older melodies without much regard for their connection, but as a whole they are apparently original compositions so arranged that they develop a motif from the beginning to the end of the liturgy. Choral services composed of kišubs in the cults of deified kings have been found[28] wherein the deeds and personality of the king are sung, his divine claims are emphasized and his Messianic promises rehearsed. But the liturgy here published resembles in literary style the classical lamentations which always formed the chief temple services of Sumer and Babylonia. It more especially resembles the weeping mother liturgies, but here Ishme-Dagan appears in the lines of the service in a rôle similar to that of the sorrowful mother goddess of the ordinary liturgies, as he weeps for Nippur.
“Her population like cattle of the fields within her have perished. Helas my land I sigh.”
So reads a line from the second melody.
Lines of similar character occur repeatedly in the laments of the mother goddess as she weeps for her people in the standard liturgies. In other words, the cult of the deified kings issues here into its logical result. The god man created to live and die for his people usurps the sphere of the earth mother herself. And like her he is intimately associated with the fortunes of mankind, of nature and all living creatures. The great gods and the hosts of their attendants rule over man and the various phases of the universe from afar. But the mother goddess is the incarnation of fruitful nature, the mother of man whose joys and sorrows she feels. So also in this remarkable liturgy the deified son of the great gods lives among men, becomes their patron and divine companion.
The tablet contained originally about fifty lines in each column, or 200 in all. About one-third of the first column is gone. The first melody contained at least fifty lines and ended somewhere shortly after the first line of Col. II of the obverse. It began by relating how Enlil had ordered the glory of Nippur, and then had become angered against his city, sending upon it desolation at the hands of an invader. When we take up the first lines of Obv. II we are well into the second melody which represents Ishme-Dagan mourning for fathers and mothers who had been separated from their children; for brothers who had been scattered afar; for the cruel reign of the savage conqueror who now rules where the dark-headed people had formerly dwelled in peace.
At about the middle of Obv. II begins the third melody which consists of 38 lines extending to Rev. I 19. In this section the psalmist ponders upon the injustice of his city's fate, and looks for the time when her woes will cease, and Enlil will be reconciled.
The fourth section begins at line 24 of Rev. I and ended near the bottom of this column which is now broken away. Here Ishme-Dagan joins with the psalmists weeping for Nippur.