THE LIBRARY OF ASHURBANIPAL

ANA  MARIA  SEGHESSO

                                 

                         ASHURBANIPAL

The Library of Ashurbanipal was located in Nineveh, an Assyrian city, belonging to King Ashurbanipal, who reigned in the 7th century BC. It consisted of a collection of clay tablets written in cuneiform script, the oldest known writing system. In the 19th century, an English archaeologist discovered the remains of the library and took the tablets, more than 20,000 of them, to the British Museum. This marked the beginning of excavations that continued for several years and, in the 20th century, led to the understanding and dissemination of the highly refined Sumerian culture. At least 4,000 tablets contain astrological predictions based on astronomical and meteorological observations prior to 2000 BC.

              CUNEIFORM  TEXT

They are not limited to astrological predictions; they cover a wide range of subjects, including grammar, lists of cities, mathematics and astronomy, literature, art, history, and religion. Excavations in the Middle East, carried out by American and European scholars, have uncovered an unexpected treasure, significantly extending the boundaries of Antiquity. "In Sumer, more than a thousand years before the Hebrews wrote the first books of the Bible and the Greeks the Iliad and the Odyssey, a brilliant literature already exists, composed of myths, epics, hymns, and laments, as well as numerous collections of proverbs, fables, and essays. It is not unreasonable to predict that the recovery and reconstruction of this ancient literature, so long lost to oblivion, will be one of the greatest contributions of our century to our understanding of the origins of history." "It is fascinating for the decipherer of terracotta tablets, for the translator of cuneiform texts, to trace the path of ideas and works through these ancient civilizations, from the Sumerians to the Babylonians and from the Assyrians to the Hittites, Hurrians, and Arameans." “The Sumerians did not exert a direct influence on the Hebrews, since they disappeared long before the latter entered history.” But there is no doubt that they influenced the Canaanites, who preceded the Jews in Palestine. This is the only possible explanation for the numerous analogies discovered between Sumerian texts and the books of the Bible. The analogies are not isolated but are found in series; it is therefore a true parallelism.” [1]

           ASHURBANIPAL 

The primordial waters, the separation of Heaven and Earth, the clay from which humankind was molded, moral and civil laws, the manifestation of suffering and resignation among mortals—all these themes were addressed by the Sumerians before any other civilization. 

They foreshadowed the fundamental tenets of all subsequent religions, both monotheistic and polytheistic. 

          ENKI AND NINHURSAG 

The Sumerian mythical poem, "Enki and Ninhursag," tells of the paradise created by the gods in the land of Dilmun. The poem recounts that there is a region called Dilmun; it is a pure, limpid, and radiant place, where neither sickness nor death reigns. 

However, something is lacking in Dilmun: fresh water, essential for animals and plants. Enki, the Sumerian god of fresh water and wisdom, commands Utu, the sun god, to bring forth water and abundantly irrigate the land. Dilmun thus becomes a splendid garden. 

The Great Mother Goddess Ninhursag, after generating the divinity of flowing water and three generations of goddesses, causes eight plants to grow in the paradise of the gods. 

The plants possess the power to enable the goddess's procreation and fertility. The poem highlights the fact that Ninhursag's childbirths were painless. Enki, curious to know the taste of the plants—or perhaps to seize female fertility—has them gathered by his messenger, Isimud, and then eats them, one after the other. Ninhursag, outraged by the theft of her plants, curses him and leaves paradise. 

The ingested plants have the quality of generating new beings, but in a womb, and since Enki does not possess one, eight parts of his body, which correspond to the eight plants, suffer poisoning.

                           ENKI

Enlil, god of the air and the principal male deity of the Sumerians, is also unable to cope with the situation. Only Ninhursag possesses the greater power to create life and save Enki from death. 

A new character intervenes: the fox, who negotiates with Enlil, promising that for a reasonable sum, he will convince the goddess to return. Enlil agrees. It is not known how the fox did it; some lines are missing from the narrative, but Ninhursag returns among the gods. Meanwhile, Enki is on the verge of death. 

The goddess has him sit beside her and asks him which part of his body is causing him pain, and Enki tells her, one by one. Ninhursag then creates eight deities to heal the eight illnesses afflicting Enki. 

        

                           ENKI

The goddess possesses greater power than the other gods of the pantheon, and she uses it. This is the plot of the Sumerian myth. The similarity to the Myth of Paradise, written a thousand years later.

 According to tradition, Jehovah planted a garden in the east, in Eden, and there he placed the man he had formed. “A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided into four headwaters.” 

Genesis 2:10 

The sin committed by Enki in stealing the eight plants of Ninhursag evokes the sin committed by Adam and Eve, eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

                  MICHELANGELO

The reaction to disobedience:

 “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, “You must not eat from it,” Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 

By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return. The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever. 

Therefore the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. - So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. Michelangelo Buonarroti The modern ideology of monotheistic religions is far removed from the Sumerian doctrine. - 

A state inferior to that described in the Sumerian text is evident, where women gave birth without suffering. - The wrath of the monotheistic god is expressed in curses against his creatures. - The pagan goddess is moved by Enki and does not allow his death. 

The codes of conduct created by pagan culture and the foundation of its religion have varied considerably in monotheistic religions. 

(1) “I Sumeri”. Samuel N. Kramer. Grandi Tascabili Economici Newton, 1997.