The Harps that Once...

S. Ansky, Golda Werman, David G. Roskies

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Year: 1992
• eBook ISBN: 9780300161878
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

The eminent Assyriologist Thorkild Jacobsen, author of Treasures of Darkness, here presents translations of ancient Sumerian poems written near the end of the third-millennium b.c.e., including a number of compositions that have never before been published in translation. The themes developed in the poems—quite possibly the earliest poems extant—are those that have fascinated humanity since the time people first began to spin stories: the longings of young lovers; courage in battle; joy at the birth of a child; the pleasures of drink and song.

The late Thorkild Jacobsen was professor of Assyriology emeritus at Harvard University

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part One. Dumuzi Texts
• The New House
• The Sister's Message
• The Wiles of Women
• The Bridal Sheets
• Let Him Come!
• Dumuzi's Wedding
• Unfaithfulness
• Dumuzi's Dream
• The Wild Bull Who has Lain Down
• Recognition
• Vain Appeal
• In the Desert by the Early Grass
• Part Two. Royal Love Songs
• Love Song to Shu-Suen
• As You Let Day Slip by
• He Arrives
• My "Wool" Being Lettuce
• Vigorously He Sprouted
• The First Child
• Tavern Sketch
• Part Three. Hymns to Gods
• Hymn to Enlil
• Hymn to Inanna
• The Nanshe Hymn
• Part Four. Myths
• The Eridu Genesis
• The Birth of Man
• Enlil and Ninlil
• Enki And Ninsikila/Ninhursaga
• Inanna's Descent
• The Ninurta Myth Lugal-E
• Part Five. Epics
• Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta
• Lugalbanda and the Thunderbird
• Gilgamesh and Aka
• Part Six. Admonitory History
• The Cursing of Akkade
• Part Seven. Hymns to Temples
• Hymn to Kesh
• The Cylinders of Gudea
• Part Eight. Laments for Temples
• Lament for Ur
• The Destroyed House
• The Verdict of Enlil
• Texts Translated
• Index