Source: Black, J. A., Cunningham, G., Robson, E. and Zólyomu, G. The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature ,
Oxford University, 1998 – © All rights reserved to authors. Text reproduced here for aid in research and study purposes
(Texts: All Artifacts, Color Coding, & Writings in Bold Type With Italics Inside Parenthesis, are Added by Editor R. Brown, not the Authors, Translators, or Publishers!)
(gods in blue)
SEGMENT A
(beginning of 1st kirugu)
The roaring storm covered it like a cloak, was spread over it like a sheet.
(Eridu, Enki‘s discovered ziggurat E-enguru & city)
It covered Eridug (Eridu) like a cloak, was spread over it like a sheet.
In the city, the furious storm resounded …….
In Eridug, the furious storm resounded …….
Its voice was smothered with silence as by a sandstorm.
Its people …….
Eridug was smothered with silence as by a sandstorm.
Its people …….
11-18 Its king stayed outside his city as if it were an alien city.
He wept bitter tears.
(Enki, patron god of Eridu, early city established on Earth Colony)
Father Enki stayed outside his city (Eridu) as if it were an alien city.
He wept bitter tears.
For the sake of his harmed city, he wept bitter tears.
Its lady, like a flying bird, left her city.
The mother of E-mah, holy Damgalnuna (Damkina / Ninki, OR Ninhursag, Enki‘s spouse), left her city.
The divine powers (alien technologies) of the city of holiest divine powers were overturned.
The divine powers of the rites of the greatest divine powers (held by Enki) were altered.
In Eridug everything was reduced to ruin, was wrought with confusion.
19-26 The evil-bearing storm went out from the city.
It swept across the Land — a storm which possesses neither kindness nor malice,
does not distinguish between good and evil.
Subir (fire & brimstone) came down like rain. It struck hard.
In the city where bright daylight used to shine forth, the day darkened.
In Eridug where bright daylight used to shine forth, the day darkened.
As if the sun had set below the horizon, it turned into twilight.
(Enlil, Inanna, alien King Anu,-father in heaven to his royal descendants, those who came down to Earth, & Ninhursag)
As if An (Anu) had cursed the city, alone he destroyed it.
As if Enlil had frowned upon it, Eridug, Ec-abzu, bowed low.
28 It cried out bitterly: “O the destruction of the city! The destruction of the house!”
30-37 A second time the storm destroyed the city — its song was plaintive.
…… was breached (?). …… intensified the lament.
It cut the lock from its main gate.
The storm dislodged its door. ……
It stacked the people up in heaps. …… on its own destroyed it.
It turned …… into tears. …… defiled ……
1 line missing
39-47 …… It distorted its appearance. …… It distorted its appearance.
It circled its …… wall. It overturned its foundations.
Throughout his city, the pure, radiant (?) place, the foundations were filled with dust.
It cast down its ziggurat, the shrine which reaches up to heaven, into a heap of debris.
The loftiness of its awe-inspiring door-ornament, befitting a house, collapsed.
It cut down the gate,
(one of many mud-brick-built ziggurat / houses of the gods)
its Great-Ziggurat-of-Heaven-and-Earth-Covered-with-Terrible-Awesomeness,
its shining door, and it broke through its bolt.
It ripped out its doorframe. The house was defaced.
49 The destruction of Eridug! Its destruction was grievous.
51-57 At its lion-faced gate, the place where fates are determined,
it mutilated the copse (?) forming the architrave of the house …….
Ka-hejala (unidentified?) and Igi-hejala (unidentified?), the doorkeepers of the house, …….
Prematurely they destroyed it utterly.
They completely altered …….
At the gate of the fattening-shed, the animal-fattener …… the great offerings.
Its birds and fish were neglected there.
Destruction …….
Throughout his house, radiant (?) in silver and lapis lazuli, tears …….
58-65 The hired man and the governor …….
The festivals …… grandly …….
Holy songs, songs of all kinds …….
The cem drum and ala drum …….
The great divine powers, all the divine powers (alien technologies) …….
The place of the gods of heaven and earth …….
The judgment by the king, the holy scepter at his right side, …….
The en priestess, lumah priest and nindijir priestess …….
(earthling worker, Isimud, Enki, earthling worker)
66-73 The minister Isimud (Enki‘s 2-faced vizier) …….
Strangers to the house …… its side.
Eridug, Ec-abzu, …… silently.
The enemy …… the cleansed tugmah robe.
…… a man …… the people …….
Along with the fluids spilled from his guts, his blood spilled forth.
The ……, which like the azure sky was embellished forever, …… grasped …….
77 Its jicgijal. distressed and anxious …… like a pigeon …….
1 line fragmentary
78 The birds of the destroyed city …… a nest.
The ukuku bird, bird of heart’s sorrow, …… the place.
Pain …….
The area became entangled in wild thornbushes.
It …… wild thornbushes.
The Cimackians and Elamites, the destroyers, looked at the holy kettles which no one may look at.
(Nisaba, Enlil‘s mother-in-law’s residence E-jectug, Goddess of Scribes, record-keeping, & grains)
In the E-jectug–Nisaba, (Nisaba’s residence) the house of wisdom, …… covered over …….
The divine powers (alien technologies) which embellish the abzu …….
When the holy treasures stored in the treasury were put ……, when, like a mist lying heavily on the earth,
……, they went like small birds shooed from their hiding places.
7 lines fragmentary
unknown no. of lines missing
SEGMENT B
(continuation of 4th kirugu)
1 Father Enki uttered a lament for himself …….
2 4th kirugu.
(Utu & Ninurta enter Enki‘s ziggurat residence in Eridu)
3 Bitterly Father Enki uttered a lament for himself.
5-9 Because of this, Enki, king of the Abzu, stayed outside his city as if it were an alien city.
It bowed its neck down to the ground.
Eridu‘s lady, holy Damgalnuna (Damkina, or Ninhursag, Enki‘s spouse), the faithful cow,
the compassionate one, clawed at her breast, clawed at her eyes.
She uttered a frenzied cry.
She held a dagger and a sword in her two hands — they clashed together.
10-15 She tore out her hair like rushes, uttering a bitter lament:
“You, my city whose woman does not dwell there, whose charms do not satisfy her —
where is a lament uttered bitterly for you?
Eridug! You, my city whose woman does not dwell there, whose charms do not satisfy her —
where are tears wept for you?
I fall like a bull in your lofty …… falls ……. I am …….
My heart …… queen …….”
unknown no. of lines missing
(incorporating end of 5th kirugu)
SEGMENT C
(continuation of 6th kirugu)
…… far away …… the great gods.
The lord Enlil, king of the lands, looked maliciously at Sumer.
He demolished it.
(E-kur, Enlil‘s ziggurat residence in Nippur, his Earth Colony “Command Central”)
He destroyed the Ki-ur, the great place.
He razed with the pickaxe all of the shining E-kur (Enlil‘s temple residence in Nippur).
He destroyed it but did not abandon it — at the lunches, in his great dining-hall, they call his name.
(Ninhursag, sister to Enki, 1/2 sister to Enlil)
19-20 Aruru (Ninhursag), the sister of Enlil, destroyed her city Irisajrig.
In Kec (Kish), the creation place (of Adapa’s fashioning) of the Land,
the people saw inside its holy sanctuary where daylight had been unknown.
She destroyed it but did not abandon it — at the lunches, in her great dining-hall, they call her name.
(Nannar / Suen / Sin / Acimbabbar, son to Enlil & Ninlil, & patron god of Ur)
The lord Nanna (Nannar), the lord, destroyed his city Urim (Ur).
He decimated the Land with famine.
He committed a sacrilege against the E-kic-nu-jal (temple).
He struck at its heart.
He destroyed it but did not abandon it — at the lunches, in his great dining-hall, they call his name.
(Inanna, daughter to Nannar & Ningal, & Goddess of Love & War)
21-25 Inanna, the queen of heaven and earth, destroyed her city Unug (Uruk).
Fleeing from the E-ana (Anu‘s & Inanna‘s temple residence in Uruk),
the house of seven corners (7 is symbol of Enlil – Earth) and seven fires……,
she destroyed it but did not abandon it — at the lunches, in her great dining-hall, they call her name.
26 (Damgalnuna (Damkina, Enki‘s spouse) speaks:)
“My beloved, who has ever seen such a destruction as that of your city Eridug!”
28 “My beloved, for how long was it built? For how long is it destroyed? …… adornment of the Abzu.”
30-36 “Lord Enki, who has ever seen such a destruction as that of your city Eridug?
Who has ever seen such a misfortune as that of Ec-abzu, your house?”
No one goes up to his offering terrace.
At the lunches, in his great dining-hall, they do not call his name.
Enki, king of the Abzu, felt distressed, felt anxious.
At the words of his spouse, he himself began to wail.
He lay down and fasted.
37-44 My king, you must not be distressed, you must not be anxious.
(Enki & descendants struggle to follow along with Enlil‘s descendants’ decisions)
Father Enki, you must not be distressed, you must not be anxious.
Son of An, return your heart to your Ki-ur and your attention to your city.
Living in an alien city is miserable — return your attention to your city.
Living in an alien house is miserable — return your attention to your house.
What can anyone compare with this city? —
Return your attention to your city.
What can anyone compare with this house? —
Return your attention to your house.
Eridug‘s day is long. Its night is over.
45-52 May your throne say to you “Sit down”.
May your bed say to you “Lie down”.
May your house say to you “Be rested”.
May your holy dais also say joyfully to you “Sit down”.
May your father An, the king of the gods, satisfy your heart.
A person, a humble man, brings you a lament over your wife’s faithful house.
When he sings it before you, may that person soothe your heart.
When he recites a prayer, look kindly upon him.
54 It destroyed your …… and struck against your house.
56-59 …… and may he restore it for you.
2 lines fragmentary
Do not hide like a criminal …….
A VERSION FROM UR
(UET 6 142)
SEGMENT A
1-5 House of princely powers, standing in mighty water (marshes) — the waters have receded from it …….
One can walk on its wide swamp.
Within it grow wild thornbushes.
The delightful boat Antelope of the abzu — the waters have receded from it; …… its sheepfold …… the wharf.
They were Sirsir (unidentified?), the tutelary deity, and the man who rides the boat.
(boats dock at Enki’s ziggurat residence in Eridu)
At the prow …… was hurled down in front of them.
Evildoers destroyed the house, and its rites were disturbed.
6-7 At the giguna shrine, the sacred house, evildoers …….
The E-unir — the shrine raises its head as high as heaven.
Its shadow …….
8-14 At the great gate, the lion-faced gate, the place where fates are determined, evildoers …….
They set fire to its door.
Ka-hejala (unidentified?) and Igi-hejala (unidentified?), the doorkeepers of the house, …….
…… Enki, at the …… place, …… its people.
…… the destroyed place, the abzu …… the powers of the Anuna (Anunnaki) gods.
3 lines fragmentary
unknown no. of lines missing (continuation of 3rd kirugu)
SEGMENT B
1-6 Eridug ……. City in the reed-beds …….
In Eridug, bull and cow …….
Without being a marsh boar …….
Eridug, like a bull …….
The lady of the city cried, “My city ……!”
(Enki, eldest son to King Anu, wisest of the giant aliens on Earth)
8 Father Enki! O your house, o your city, o your people …… the mountains.
9 Its jicgijal.
