THREE SULGI HYMNS: SUMERIAN ROYAL
HYMNS GLORIFYING KING SULGI OF UR
BY
Jacob Klein
Sulgi, the most outstanding ruler of the Sumerian Ur III Dynasty ( ca. 20942047 B.C.E.), not unlike the Great Alexander of ancient Greece, is depicted by
his court poets as a unique combination of a military hero, a charismatic
political leader, a sage and an ardent patron of arts and sciences. Of the large
corpus of the Sumerian royal hymns, recovered from the ruins of ancient
Mesopotamia, those pertaining to Sulgi, represent the oldest and finest pieces
of this literary genre. These hymns are distinguished by their superb artistic
quality, archaic original poetry, and unique spiritual and religious motifs.
The present volume contains, for the first time, a comprehensive introduction
to the Sulgi hymns, with updated bibliography, as well as carefully prepared
definitive editions of three of Sulgi's most fascinating royal epics,
reconstructed from numerous cuneiform texts and fragments. The text
additions are provided with English translations, philological and literary
commentaries, analytical introductions and autographed copies of the
original cuneiform tablets.
267 pp . + 47 plates . English . Hardcover . 1981.