Dynasty of Dunnum
| Fertile Crescent myth series | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Mesopotamian | |
| Levantine | |
| Arabian | |
| Mesopotamia | |
| Primordial beings | |
| The great gods | |
| Demigods & heroes | |
| Spirits & monsters | |
| Tales from Babylon | |
| 7 Gods who Decree | |
|
4 primary: |
3 sky: |
The Dynasty of Dunnum, sometimes called the Theogony of Dunnum or Dunnu or the Harab Myth,[1] is an ancient Mesopotamian mythical tale of successive generations of gods who take power through parricide and live incestuously with their mothers and/or sisters, until, according to a reconstruction of the broken text, more acceptable behavior prevailed with the last generation of gods,[2] Enlil and his twin sons Nušku and Ninurta, who share rule amicably.[3] It is extant in a sole-surviving late Babylonian copy[4] excavated from the site of the ancient city of Sippar by Hormuzd Rassam in the 19th century.[5]
Synopsis
[edit]It chronicles the conflict of generations of the gods who represent aspects of fertility, agriculture and the seasonal cycle:[6] heaven, earth, sea, river, plough, wild and domesticated animals, herdsman, pasture, fruit-tree and vine.[4]
It begins, according to a restoration:
In the beginning, [Harab married earth.] Family and lord[ship he founded. Saying: “A]rable land we will carve out (of) the ploughed land of the country. [With the p]loughing of their harbu-ploughs they cause the creation of the sea. [The lands ploughed with the mayaru-pl]ow by themselves gave birth to Sumuqan. His str[onghold,] Dunnu, the eternal city, they created, both of them.[7]
— Translated by William W. Hallo, The world's oldest literature: studies in Sumerian belles-lettres
Then Sumuqan kills his father Harab (plough), marries his mother Ki (earth) and his sister and the cycle of carnage begins. The city of Dunnum was a synonymous toponym, with many places so named, such as one in the vicinity of Isin[7] and another lying of the right bank of the Euphrates in what is now northern Syria.[8] A dunnu is a fortified settlement, but the word can also be translated as strength or violence.[9]
Influence
[edit]The tale spread across to Phoenicia and over the Aegean Sea, where its influence can be felt in the Ugarit myth Ba’al and Yam from the Ba’al cycle (ca. 1600-1200 BC),[2] the Hittite myth Song of Kumarbi (14th or 13th century BC)[1] and the Greek poet Hesiod’s Theogony (ca. 800-700 BC).[10]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Ewa Wasilewska (2001). Creation stories of the Middle East. Jessica Kingsley Pub. p. 90.
- ^ a b Thorkild Jacobsen (1978). The treasures of darkness: a history of Mesopotamian religion. Yale University Press. pp. 167–168, 231.
- ^ Frank Moore Cross (1997). Canaanite myth and Hebrew epic: essays in the history of the religion of Israel. Harvard University Press. p. 41.
- ^ a b William W. Hallo (2000). "Founding Myths of Cities in the Ancient Near East: Mesopotamia and Israel". In Pedro Azara; Ricardo Mar; Eduard Riu; Eva Subías (eds.). La fundación de la ciudad: mitos y ritos en el mundo antiguo. Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona. pp. 31–32.
- ^ Tablet BM 74329 at the British Museum.
- ^ Patrick D. Miller, Jr. (1994). "Eridu, Dunno and Babel: A Study in Comparative Mythology". In Richard S. Hess; David Toshio Tsumura (eds.). I Studied Inscriptions from Before the Flood: Ancient Near Eastern, Literary, and Linguistic Approaches to Genesis 1-11. Eisenbrauns. p. 152.
- ^ a b William W. Hallo (2010). The world's oldest literature: studies in Sumerian belles-lettres. Koninklijke Brill N.V. p. 427. ISBN 9789004173811.
- ^ Michael C. Astour (June 1, 1992). "History of Ebla". In Cyrus Herzl Gordon; Gary Rendsburg; Nathan H. Winter (eds.). Eblaitica: essays on the Ebla archives and Eblaite language, Volume 3. Eisenbrauns. p. 36.
- ^ I. J. Gelb; T. Jacobsen; B. Landsberger; A. Leo Oppenheim, eds. (1959). The Assyrian Dictionary. Vol. 3, D. Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. pp. 184–185.
- ^ W. G. Lambert & Peter Walcot (1965). "A New Babylonian Theogony and Hesiod". Kadmos. 4 (1): 64–72. doi:10.1515/kadm.1965.4.1.64. S2CID 162417685.