The Prison and Its Justice
1–11 House, furious storm of heaven and earth, battering its enemies, prison, jail of the gods, majestic neck-stock of heaven and earth! Its interior is evening light, dusk spreading wide. Its awesomeness is frightening. Raging sea that rises high, no one knows where its rising waves flow. House, a pitfall waiting for the evil one. It makes the wicked tremble! House, a net whose fine meshes are skillfully woven, which takes people captive! House, which keeps an eye on the just and on evildoers. No one wicked can escape from its grasp. House, river of the ordeal which leaves the just ones alive, and chooses the evil ones! House, with a great name, underworld, mountain where Utu rises. No one can learn its interior! Big house, prison, house of capital offenses, which imposes punishment! House, which chooses the righteous and the wicked. An has made its name great!
12–26 House whose foundations are filled with great awesomeness! Its gate is the yellow evening light, exuding radiance. Its stairs are a great open-mouthed dragon, lying in wait for men. Its door jamb is a great dagger whose two edges ... the evil man. Its architrave is a scorpion which quickly dashes from the dust. It overpowers everything. Its projecting pilasters are lions. No one dares to rush into their grasp. Its vault is the rainbow, imbued with terrible awe. Its hinges are an eagle whose claws grasp everything. Its door is a great mountain which does not open for the wicked, but does open for the righteous man, who was not brought in through its power. Its bars are fierce lions locked in strong embrace. Its latch is a python, sticking out its tongue and hissing. Its bolt is a horned viper, slithering in a wild place. House, surveying heaven and earth, a net spread out! No evildoer can escape its grasp, as it drags the enemy around.
27–31 Nungal, its lady, the powerful goddess whose aura covers heaven and earth, sits on its great, high platform. After taking a seat in the precinct of the house, she controls the Land from there. She listens to the king in the assembly and clamps down on his enemies. Her vigilance never ends.
32–39 Great house! For the enemy it is a trap lying in wait, but giving good advice to the Land, fearsome waves, onrush of a flood that overflows the river banks. When an individual is brought in, he cannot resist its aura. The gods of heaven and earth bow down before its place of judgment. Ninegala takes her seat high on its lapis lazuli platform. She keeps an eye on the judgments and decisions, distinguishing true and false. Her battle-net of fine mesh is cast over the land for her. The evildoer who does not follow her path will not escape her arm.
40–47 When a man of whom his god disapproves arrives at the gate of the great house, which is a furious storm, a flood which covers everybody, he is delivered into the majestic hands of Nungal, the warden of the prison. This man is held by a painful grip like a wild bull with spread forelegs. He is led to a house of sorrow, his face is covered with a cloth, and he goes around naked. He ... the road with his foot, he ... in a wide street. His acquaintances do not address him. They keep away from him.
48–54 Even a powerful man cannot open up its door. Incantations are ineffective. It opens to a city in ruins, whose layout is destroyed. Its inmates, like small birds escaped from the claws of an owl, look to its opening as they look to the rising sun. One brother counts for another the days of misfortune, but their calculations get utterly confused. A man does not recognize his fellow men. They have become strangers. A man does not return the password of his fellow men because their looks are so changed.
55–61 The interior of the temple gives rise to weeping, laments and cries. Its brick walls crush evil men and give rebirth to just men. Its angry heart makes people spend their days in weeping and lamentation. When the time arrives, the prison is decorated as for a public festival, the gods are present at the place of interrogation, at the river ordeal, to separate the just from the evildoers. A just man is given rebirth. Nungal clamps down on her enemy, so he will not escape her clutches.
Nungal’s Praise of Herself
62–74 Then the lady is joyful. The powerful goddess, holy Nungal, praises herself: “An has determined a fate for me, the lady. I am the daughter of An. Enlil too has given me an exalted destiny, for I am his daughter-in-law. The gods have given the divine powers of heaven and earth into my hands. My own mother, Ereshkigal, has allotted to me her divine powers. I have set up my majestic platform in the underworld, the mountain where Utu rises. I am the goddess of the great house, the holy royal residence. I speak with grandeur to Inana. I am her heart’s joy. I assist Nintud at the place of childbirth. I know how to cut the umbilical cord and know the favorable words when determining fates. I am the lady, the true steward of Enlil. He has heaped up possessions for me. The storehouse which never becomes empty is mine. ...
75–82 “Mercy and compassion are mine. I frighten no one. I keep an eye on the black-headed people. They are under my surveillance. I hold the tablet of life in my hand and I register the just ones on it. The evildoers cannot escape my arm. I learn their deeds. All countries look to me as to their divine mother. I temper severe punishments. I am a compassionate mother. I cool down even the angriest heart, sprinkling it with cool water. I calm down the wounded heart. I snatch men from the jaws of destruction.
83–94 “My house is built on compassion. I am a life-giving lady. Its shadow is like the shadow of a cypress tree growing in a pure place. Birtum the very strong, my husband, lives there with me. Taking a seat on its great, high platform, he gives mighty orders. The guardians of my house and the fair-looking protective goddesses ... My chief superintendent, Ig-alim, is the neck-stock of my hands. He has been promoted to take care of my house. ... My messenger does not forget anything. He is the pride of the palace. In the city named after Enlil, I recognize true and false. Ninharana brings the news and puts it before me. My chief barber sets up the bed for me in the house imbued with awesomeness. Nezila arranges joyful occasions.
95–105 “When someone has been brought into the palace of the king and this man is accused of a capital offense, my chief prosecutor, Nindimgul, stretches out his arm in accusation. He sentences that person to death, but he will not be killed. He snatches the man from the jaws of destruction and brings him into my house of life and keeps him under guard. No one wears clean clothes in my dusty house. My house falls on the person like a drunken man. He will be listening for snakes and scorpions in the darkness of the house. My house gives birth to a just person, but exterminates a false one. Since there are pity and tears within its brick walls, and it is built with compassion, it soothes the heart of that person, and refreshes his spirits.
106–116 “When it has appeased the heart of his god for him, when it has polished him clean like silver of good quality, when it has made him shine through the dust, when it has cleansed him of dirt like silver of best quality ..., he will be entrusted again into the favorable hands of his god. Then may the god of this man praise me appropriately forever! May this man praise me highly. May he proclaim my greatness! The proclamation of my praise throughout the Land will be breathtaking! May he provide ... butter from the pure cattle-pen, and bring the best of it for me! May he provide fattened sheep from the pure sheepfold, and bring the best of them for me! Then I will never cease to be the friendly guardian of this man. In the palace, I will be his protector. I will keep watch over him there.”
Praise to Nungal
117–121 Because the lady has revealed her greatness, because she has provided the prison, the jail, her beloved dwelling, with awesome radiance, praise be to Nungal, the powerful goddess, the neck-stock of the Anuna gods, whose ... no one knows, foremost one whose divine powers are untouchable!
Notes on the Text of a Hymn to Nungal
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A Hymn to Nungal is reconstructed from several ancient manuscripts, whose surviving passages do not always preserve the same language. Its numbered ranges identify lines 1–121 of the reconstructed Sumerian text, written in the language of ancient southern Mesopotamia, rather than modern paragraph and verse divisions. An ellipsis indicates a broken or incomprehensible passage, including places where the surviving text cannot be translated with confidence.1
In A Hymn to Nungal 32–47, the “great house” is a place of judgment and confinement, although the expression can also refer to a palace. The prison meaning has been proposed for several occurrences within the hymn, where the same building is described through the authority it exercises over offenders. Its opening also explicitly identifies a guardhouse, giving a more specific description of the building’s function.2
The flood in A Hymn to Nungal 32–39 overflows the riverbanks, but one manuscript instead describes its continuing rage, size, and overflowing waters. In A Hymn to Nungal 83–94, one manuscript adds a further description of the joyful occasions arranged by Nezila. That added description has been tentatively translated as “valued,” and its uncertain meaning belongs to the manuscript variation within this passage.3
The verbs describing the prisoner’s movements are uncertain in A Hymn to Nungal 40–47, where his movements along the road and through the street cannot be fully recovered. The dagger image in A Hymn to Nungal 12–26 also has a gap, leaving part of the description of its two edges untranslated. Other phrases remain tentative even where the English reads smoothly, including Nungal’s assistance at childbirth in A Hymn to Nungal 62–74 and her description of herself as life-giving in A Hymn to Nungal 83–94.4
Notes
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