Lament for Nippur
A Sumerian lament for the religious capital Nippur and its restoration by king Ishme-Dagan. Its composer is unnamed.
- Original byline
- Anonymous
- Published
- Date not recorded
- Form
- Poems
- Authorship
- Still unknown
- Reason for anonymity
- Unrecorded
- Copyright
- Public domain
- Reference
- Wikipedia · Wikidata
The authorship story
The Lament for Nippur grieves the desolation of Enlil's holy city and then turns, unusually among the city laments, to celebration as king Ishme-Dagan of Isin restores the sanctuaries. Composed in the early second millennium BCE, it served the ideology of restoration as much as the record of loss. Though it praises a named king, it names no poet. Like the rest of Sumerian liturgical literature it was composed and transmitted by anonymous temple scribes, and its authorship is recorded here as unknown.
Questions readers ask
Who wrote Lament for Nippur?
Nobody knows. No author for Lament for Nippur has been identified in the documented record.
Can I read Lament for Nippur for free?
Lament for Nippur is in the public domain, though this site has not yet verified a free full-text source for it.
Related works
- Still unknown
Beowulf
The Old English epic of the hero's fights with Grendel, Grendel's mother, and the dragon. Its poet is unknown, and the single surviving manuscript names no author.
- Still unknown
Book of Dede Korkut
The epic story cycle of the Oghuz Turks, framed around the legendary bard Korkut Ata. Its compilers are unknown; the bard is the frame, not a documented author.
- Still unknown
Cantar de Mio Cid
The Castilian epic of Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, the Cid, composed around 1200. The poet is unknown; only the copyist Per Abbat's name survives in the manuscript.
- Still unknown
Debate between bird and fish
A Sumerian disputation poem in which Bird and Fish argue their worth before the god Enki. Composed some four thousand years ago by unnamed scribes.