Nicole Brisch AOAT 339
 
Tradition and the Poetics of Inovation.  ISBN 978-3-934628-91-5
Sumerian Court Literature of the Larsa Dynasty (c. 2003-1763 BCE) xii + 303 pp. + XVII pl.
78,- EUR

N. Brisch examines the literary legacy of the dynasty of Larsa, terminated by Hammurabi of Babylon in 1763 B.C.E. "The dynasties of Isin and Larsa -- fierce rivals in contending for hegemony over Babylonia -- rarely or never acknowledged their Amorite origins openly, but instead affiliated themselves with Sumerian traditions of royal legitimization. This becomes apparent in the literary texts of the Isin and Larsa rulers, which in all but a few cases were composed in Sumerian, a language that to the best of our knowledge was no longer spoken by this time. Thus, the choice of Sumerian for these compositions is in itself significant. It is only with the rulers of the first dynasty of Babylon (...) that we see the beginnings of a movement away from the Sumerian tradition and the replacement by Akkadian as the language of choice in literary texts. The Larsa dynasty, or more precisely its literary heritage, is positioned at the brink of this change from a certain tradition, for example, visible in the heroic literature on Sumerian kings, to certain new developments (...). Because of these innovations the Larsa royal literatur occupies a unique position within the corpus of Sumerian royal literature, which is often perceived as particularly traditional." -- The study of the literary, historical and linguistic contexts of the Larsa Court Poetry is supplemented by the editions of 14 royal hymns and royal letters mainly of Sin-iddinam and Rim-Sin.

 

Acknowledgement and Preface   vii
Table of Contents    ix
Introduction     1
Chapter 1: Hymns, Genre, Schools, and Letters     9
   1.1. Royal Hymns, Genre, and the Study of Sumerian Literature     9
   1.2. Royal Hymns of the Ur III and Isin Dynasties   19
   1.3. Sumerian Literary Letters as a Genre?   31
Chapter 2: The Larsa Court Literature, Part 1: "Songs of Praise"   37
   2.1. Introduction     37
   2.2. Gungunum   38
   2.3. Sīn-iddinam   40
   2.4. Sīn-iqis^am   48
   2.5. Warad-Sīn   50
   2.6. Rim-Sīn   53
   2.7. The Larsa Praise Songs in Comparison with Those of the Ur III
          and Isin Dynasties   70
Chapter 3: The Larsa Court Literature, Part 2: "Letters of Petition"   75
   3.1. Introduction   75
   3.2. Letters of Petition from Sīn-iddinam to Ninisina and Utu   75
   3.3. Letters of Petition to Rim-Sīn   81
   3.4. The "Royal Correspondence of Larsa"   87
Chapter 4: "Larsa Sumerian"   91
   4.1. Introduction   91
   4.2. Linguistic Change   91
   4.3. The Language of the Larsa Court Literature   94
Conclusion 115
Appendices  121
Appendix 1. Sīn-iddinam A 121
Appendix 2. Sīn-iddinam B  129
Appendix 3. Sīn-iddinam C  137
Appendix 4. Sīn-iddinam to Ninisina 141
Appendix 5. Sīn-iddinam to Utu 157
Appendix 6 . Rim-Sīn A 179
Appendix 7. Rim-Sīn B 185
Appendix 8. Rim-Sīn C 199
Appendix 9. Rim-Sīn D 203
Appendix 10. Rim-Sīn E 211
Appendix 11. Rim-Sīn F 227
Appendix 12. Rim-Sīn G 235
Appendix 13. Rim-Sīn H 241
Appendix 14. Nins^atapada to Rim-Sīn 245
Appendix 15. Catatlogue of the Larsa Court Literature 263
Bibliography 271
Abbreviations 293
List of Plates 295
Indices  297
Plates

 

back to AOAT