The Nippur Lament: Royal Rhetoric and Divine Legitimation in the Reign of Isme-Dagan of Isin (1953-1935 B.C.).

• Author: Zgoll, Annette
• Position: Review

By STEVE TINNEY. Occasional Publications of the Samuel Noah Kramer Fund, no. 16. Philadelphia: UNIVERSITY MUSEUM, 1996. Pp. xxii + 276, illustrations, 28 plates. $65.

This book gives the first comprehensive critical edition of the Nippur Lament with commentary and score. It is based on thirty-three tablets or fragments, almost one third of them identified by Steve Tinney. But more than a text edition awaits the reader: it is the explicit aim of the study to "set the Nippur Lament in its ancient literary, historical and cultural context . . ." and to "develop a picture of the means and ends of Isme-Dagan's involvement with the chief god of the land, Enlil" (p. 1). Tinney gives the results of his investigations in seven chapters of general interest, followed by four chapters that present the translation and philological analysis (sources, score, composite text, and commentary). A bibliography, three indexes, figures, and plates conclude the book.

The introduction (chapter one) gives the historical background for the reign of Isme-Dagan, based on city laments, the hymns of Isme-Dagan, royal inscriptions, and date formulae. The evidence is succinctly and clearly presented (pp. 8ff.). The concepts of critical genre (a modern scholarly classification) as opposed to ethnic genre ("attitudes of a given body of people to their literature," p. 13) are introduced in chapter two and their application to Sumerian literature is considered. Formal criteria for ethnic Sumerian genres are difficult to recognize. It is likely that form, theme, and performance played a role in Sumerian genre designations. Since there is no native Sumerian term, it is not certain that city laments should be interpreted as an ethnic Sumerian genre - the groupings in the catalogues may have different reasons - but presumably all the city laments played a role in royal ritual.

Since the city laments share similar themes and structure, it is sensible to treat them as belonging to a single critical genre. A "top-level genre distinction" may be made through their use in liturgy and ritual, as opposed to myth and other narratives (p. 24). The fourfold structure of the NL (devastation, appeal, promise/restoration, and ritual) is discussed in chapter three (p. 27). Comparison with other city laments, including the Curse of Agade, Enlil hymns, and the royal hymn Ur-Ninurta A, shows that the NL focuses on restoration and on a positive portrayal of the king, in contrast to texts...