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.