Inscription of the Birth of King Sargon of Akkad Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin (Copyright)

The poem might have been composed during the Ur III period (circa 2112 to circa 2004 BCE) when several other works concerning Sargon were written or committed to writing from oral tradition. The kings of the Ur III period – especially Ur-Nammu (reign circa 2112-2094 BCE) and Shulgi of Ur (reign 2094 to circa 2046 BCE) – associated themselves closely with the Akkadian kings, specifically with Sargon and his grandson Naram-Sin (reign 2254-2218 BCE). This claim regarding dating is speculative, however, as no certain date has been given for the work.

The popularity of the poem is attested by the copies found in the ruins of ancient Mesopotamian cities dating to around the 7th century BCE, when the region was controlled by the Assyrians. This clearly suggests tales concerning Sargon – and Naram-Sin – still resonated with audiences over a thousand years after their reigns. The work is unfortunately poorly preserved and exists only in fragments, as noted by scholar Jeremy Black:

Sargon and Ur-Zababa has been tentatively reconstructed from two manuscripts, a fragment from Uruk (Segments A and C) and a more complete tablet from Nippur (Segment B). While the events that concern the poem occur primarily in the north of Babylonia, the tablets on which it is recorded come from the south.

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Sargon & Ur-Zababa focuses on a period in the future king's life when he is delivered from the schemes of the king Ur-Zababa & replaces him.

The locations of the fragments also attest to the popularity of the piece and further suggest its origin in the Ur III period when scribal schools – which used such texts as part of the curriculum – proliferated throughout Sumer under the reign of Shulgi of Ur.

The piece is sometimes known as The Legend of Sargon of Akkad, but that title is far more commonly applied to another work relating Sargon's birth, youth, and conquest of the Sumerian city-states. Sargon and Ur-Zababa, on the other hand, focuses on a specific period in the future king's life when, in accordance with the will of the gods, he is delivered from the schemes of the king Ur-Zababa and, it is suggested, replaces him.

Sargon's Legend & Reign

Almost nothing is known of Sargon's life, and what is known comes from texts regarded today as belonging to the genre of Mesopotamian naru literature – the world's first historical fiction – which casts a famous figure (usually a king) as the main character in a fictional tale. The Legend of Sargon of Akkad is among the best-known pieces from this genre and presents Sargon as the illegitimate son of a priestess, set adrift on the Euphrates River, who is taken in and raised by a gardener, eventually becoming king of Akkad and Lord of Sumer. Black comments:

Little is known about Sargon's origins. According to a much later Akkadian legend [The Legend of Sargon of Akkad], he was the illicit child of a priestess who, much in the manner of Moses in the Bible, was placed in a wicker basket and cast adrift upon the water, to be rescued and raised by a gardener.

Such folktale motifs were also incorporated into Sumerian literature, including, in Sargon and Ur-Zababa, instances of dreams which foretell the future. This folktale motif is embedded within the narrative which has theological concerns, dreams being regarded as messages predicting a divinely ordained future which man alone cannot resist.

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Sargon, according to the poem, is favored by the gods who have him raised by the gardener, Akki, to become cupbearer to the king Ur-Zababa of Kish, whose reign they have decreed must end. Historically, at this time, Sumer was largely under the control of Lugalzagesi of Umma (reign circa 2358-2334 BCE), who was conquering the city-states and building an empire. In the poem, Ur-Zababa, growing suspicious of Sargon after an ill-omened dream, sends his cupbearer to the king with instructions to kill him. Lugalzagesi instead befriends Sargon, who turns on his former master, and together they conquer Kish.

Map of the Akkadian Empire, c. 2334 - 2218 BCE Simeon Netchev (CC BY-NC-ND)

Sargon then broke his pact with Lugalzagesi, defeated him in battle, and imprisoned him. After creating a professionally trained army and consolidating his power, Sargon revolutionized Mesopotamian warfare by leading his army on a campaign of conquest throughout the entire region, eventually establishing the Akkadian Empire (2350/2334-2154 BCE), which would become legendary down through the time of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (912-612 BCE). Scholar Paul Kriwaczek notes:

For at least 1,500 years after his death, Sargon the Great ... was regarded as a semi-sacred figure, the patron saint of all subsequent empires in the Mesopotamian realm. Indeed, two much later kings, one who ruled Assyria around 1900 BCE and the other at the end of the eighth century BCE, adopted his official name, or rather title, Sargon [which means] "Legitimate King", as if to steal a bit of his thunder for themselves.

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Kriwaczek is referring to the Assyrian kings Sargon I (reign circa 1920-1881 BCE), about whom little is known, and Sargon II (reign 722-705 BCE), who became as legendary as Sargon of Akkad, especially after his victory over the kingdom of Urartu in 714 BCE. The popularity of Sargon of Akkad among the Assyrians is attested, not only by these kings, but by the copies of works relating to him found in the ruins of the library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh and, as noted, elsewhere.

Summary & Commentary

The poem relates how Sargon was chosen by the gods to fulfill his destiny by overthrowing Ur-Zababa, even though, as the work begins, Sargon himself seems content as Ur-Zababa's servant, oblivious to the gods' plans. In section A, the dramatic scene is set, describing the glorious city of Kish under the rule of Ur-Zababa. The king has raised the city from a ruin ("like a haunted town") to a prosperous and thriving agricultural and urban center.

The great gods An (Anu) and Enlil, however, have decided that Ur-Zababa's time is at an end. Sargon is introduced toward the conclusion of this segment, and his father's name is given as La'ibum – a name given nowhere else (in The Legend of Sargon of Akkad, he claims to have never known his father) – and it seems the poem originally described Sargon in full, but the fragment breaks off, and the rest is lost.

Segment B, as Black notes, is the most complete and opens with the dream of Ur-Zababa, which, though the details are not given, frightens him and is understood as an omen of his impending fall from grace. The narrator notes how the goddess Inanna has chosen to side with Sargon, who also has a dream in which Inanna drowns Ur-Zababa in a river of blood.

Ur-Zababa interprets Sargon's dream to mean Inanna wants Sargon killed, not himself, and devises a scheme by which he will send Sargon to his head smith at the temple where statues are cast, and the smith will throw Sargon into one of the casting molds. Sargon, suspecting nothing, goes on the errand for the king but is stopped at the temple gate by Inanna, who tells him he cannot enter because he is polluted by blood. This would normally mean he had killed or seriously injured someone, but, as Black notes, in this case, it may be understood as pollution from his dream of the river of blood.

Sargon completes his errand, still seemingly oblivious to Ur-Zababa's plans or those of the gods, and returns to the king, which frightens Ur-Zababa even more as it begins to dawn on him that the gods favor Sargon. He then sends Sargon on a mission to Lugalzagesi, allegedly offering a peace treaty but actually bearing a tablet that tells the king to kill the messenger.

Section C, badly damaged, suggests Sargon has an affair with Lugalzagesi's wife, but for unknown reasons, the king ignores this (or never learns of it) and also Ur-Zababa's request, thereby sparing the young man. The last part of the poem seems to deal with Lugalzagesi's realization that Sargon will also replace him, though this is speculative, as most of the lines have been lost. Historically, however, it is established that Sargon did in fact defeat Lugalzagesi as one of the first steps in establishing his empire.

Text

The following is taken from The Literature of Ancient Sumer, translated by Jeremy Black et al. Ellipses indicate missing lines or words, while question marks suggest an alternate translation for a word.

A.1-9: To ... the sanctuary like a cargo-ship; to ... its great furnaces; to see that its canals…waters of joy, to see that the hoes till the arable tracts and that ... the fields; to turn the house of Kish, which was like a haunted town, into a living settlement again – its king, shepherd Ur-Zababa, rose like Utu over the house of Kish. An and Enlil, however, authoritatively (?) decided (?) by their holy command to alter his term of reigning and to remove the prosperity of the palace.

A.10-13: Then Sargon – his city was the city of ... his father was La'ibum, his mother ... Sargon ... with happy heart. Since he was born ... (unknown number of lines missing).

B.1-7: One day, after the evening had arrived and Sargon had brought the regular deliveries to the palace, Ur-Zababa was sleeping (and dreaming) in the holy bedchamber, his holy residence. He realized what the dream was about, but did not put it into words, did not discuss it with anyone. After Sargon had received the regular deliveries for the palace, Ur-Zababa appointed him cupbearer, putting him in charge of the drinks cupboard. Holy Inanna did not cease to stand by him.

B.8-11: After five or ten days had passed, king Ur-Zababa ... and became frightened in his residence. Like a lion he urinated, sprinkling his legs, and the urine contained blood and pus. He was troubled, he was afraid like a fish floundering in brackish water.

B.12-19: It was then that the cupbearer of Ezina's wine-house, Sargon, lay down not to sleep, but lay down to dream. In the dream, holy Inanna drowned Ur-Zababa in a river of blood. The sleeping Sargon groaned and gnawed the ground. When king Ur-Zababa heard about this groaning, he was brought into the king's holy presence, Sargon was brought into the presence of Ur-Zababa (who said) "Cupbearer, was a dream revealed to you in the night?"

B.20-24: Sargon answered his king: "My king, this is my dream, which I will tell you about: There was a young woman, who was a high as the heavens and as broad as the earth. She was firmly set as the base of a wall. For me, she drowned you in a great river, a river of blood."

B.25-34: Ur-Zababa chewed his lips, he became seriously afraid. He spoke to ..., his chancellor: "My royal sister, Inanna, is going to change (?) my finger into a ... of blood; she will drown Sargon, the cupbearer, in the great river. Belis-tikal, chief smith, man of my choosing, who can write tablets, I will give you orders, let my orders be carried out! Let my advice be followed! Now then, when the cupbearer has delivered my bronze hand-mirror (?) to you, in the E-sikil, the fated house, throw them (the mirror and Sargon) into the mould like statues."

B.35-38: Belis-tikal heeded his king's words and prepared the moulds in the E-sikil, the fated house. The king spoke to Sargon: "Go and deliver my bronze hand-mirror (?) to the chief smith!"

B.38a-42: Sargon left the palace of Ur-Zababa. Holy Inanna, however, did not cease to stand at his right-hand side, and before he had come within five or ten nindan [19 feet/6m] of the E-sikil, the fated house, holy Inanna turned around toward him and blocked his way, (saying): "The E-sikil is a holy house! No one polluted with blood should enter it!"

B.43-45: Thus, he met the chief smith of the king only at the gate of the fated house. After he delivered the king's bronze hand-mirror (?) to the chief smith, Belis-tikal, the chief smith ... and threw it into the mould like statues.

B.46-52: After five or ten days had passed, Sargon came into the presence of Ur-Zababa, his king; he came into the palace, firmly founded like a great mountain. King Ur-Zababa ... and became frightened in his residence. He realized what it was about, but did not put it into words, did not discuss it with anyone. Ur-Zababa became frightened in the bedchamber, his holy residence. He realized what it was about, but did not put it into words, did not discuss it with anyone.

B.53-56: In those days, although writing words on tablets existed, putting tablets into envelopes did not yet exist. King Ur-Zababa dispatched Sargon, the creature of the gods, to Lugalzagesi in Uruk with a message written on clay, which was about murdering Sargon... (unknown number of lines missing).

C.1-7: With the wife of Lugalzagesi ... She (?) ... her femininity as a shelter. Lugalzagesi did not ... the envoy. "Come! He directed his steps to brick-built E-ana!" Lugalzagesi did not grasp it, he did not talk to the envoy. But as soon as he did talk to the envoy…the lord said, 'Alas!" and sat in the dust.

C.8-12: Lugalzagesi replied to the envoy: "Envoy, Sargon does not yield. After he has submitted, Sargon ... Lugalzagesi ... Sargon ... Lugalzagesi ... Why ... Sargon?"

Conclusion

Although Sargon and Ur-Zababa is routinely regarded today as a folktale, it may have been understood as history in its time – just as The Legend of Sargon of Akkad seems to have been – but, like the other works of its kind, would still have served as popular entertainment. Scribes in ancient Mesopotamia not only learned to read, write, and copy works but also to memorize and recite them. According to scholars including Samuel Noah Kramer, Jeremy Black, and Paul Kriwaczek, these compositions could have even been memorized by illiterate performers who would have then added them to their repertoire.

Birth of Sargon of Akkad Jastrow (Public Domain)

The poems concerning Sargon and his empire continued to be copied and recited century after century. Kriwaczek comments:

Most [of these fragments] read like dictation taken down as a record of an oral performance. From these fragments, many inscribed at least a millennium after the events they relate, we may guess that bards and other popular entertainers went on performing epic tales about Sargon and his dynasty for centuries after his lifetime.

These tales tell of their protagonists' heroic prowess at arms, of their religious piety, of their overriding concern for personal worth and honor; of their boldly doing what no man had done before and boldly going where no man had gone before ...Yet, at the same time, the great kings can be shown in a very human light.

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The character of Sargon in Sargon and Ur-Zababa is just such a hero. He is presented as humble, faithful to his master, and trusting to the point that he suspects nothing, even when he is given the message that is essentially his death warrant. The historical record supports the image of Sargon as a conqueror and empire-builder, establishing his rule and crushing any dissent, but in the legends and lore that grew up after his death, he is also the unassuming servant and friend of the gods, whose devotion is rewarded not only by earthly power while he lived but also with immortality in verse, copied, sung, and recited long after his time on earth was through.

This human-authored article has been reviewed by our editorial team before publication to ensure accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards in accordance with our editorial policy.

Part of Tablet V, the Epic of Gilgamesh Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin (Copyright)

Ancient Mesopotamian literature developed circa 2600 BCE after scribes, who had formerly been record-keepers, began composing original works in the region of Sumer. The Sumerians invented writing circa 3600/3500 BCE, refined the script circa 3200 BCE, and scribes may have begun composing their own works prior to circa 2600 BCE, but this is unclear.

Writing was created in response to the need to communicate over long distances in trade and, initially, was focused on the purely practical aspects of record-keeping. Scribes in ancient Mesopotamia recorded what commercial goods had been shipped to which destination, their quantity, purpose, and cost. In time, proto-cuneiform script developed into the 600 characters of cuneiform script, allowing for greater freedom of expression, and scribes were then responsible for creating inscriptions of the reigns and deeds of kings, among other works such as legal documents.

Once the Sumerian scribes began writing, it seems, they could not stop and created works defined by modern-day scholars as poetry, wisdom literature, mythology, historical fiction, legends, incantations, hymns, prayers, meditations, didactic tales, and the earliest version of The Epic of Gilgamesh, which would later be fully developed by the Babylonian scribe Shin-Leqi-Unninni (wrote 1300-1000 BCE). Sumerian was replaced as a living language by Akkadian after 2334 BCE, and scribes then composed in Akkadian cuneiform script, which was adopted and adapted by the Babylonians, Kassites, Assyrians, and others.

Modern scholars sometimes include history and legal codes in the definition of "Mesopotamian literature," as these often contain references to supernatural entities, but for the purposes of this article, only imaginative works will be considered. In Mesopotamian literature, "imaginative works" include religious poetry, as the words and deeds of the gods were depicted through poetic devices and imaginative settings. The works developed through the following eras in Mesopotamian history (though the Hittite and Kassite periods will not be addressed in this article owing to space limitations):

• Early Dynastic Period – circa 2900 to 2350/2334 BCE
• Akkadian Period – 2350/2334-2154 BCE
• Ur III Period – circa 2112 to circa 2004 BCE
• Old Babylonian Period – circa 1894-1595 BCE
• Hittite Period – 1700-1200 BCE
• Kassite Period – circa 1595 to circa 1155 BCE
• Assyrian Period – circa 1307-912 BCE
• Neo-Assyrian Period – 912-612 BCE
• Neo-Babylonian Period – 626-539 BCE
• Achaemenid Persian-Sassanian Persian Period – circa 550 BCE to 651 CE

The literature of ancient Mesopotamia is understood to have influenced the works of other civilizations, including those of Egypt, the Levant, Greece, and Rome.

Sumerian Literature

By c. 2150 BCE, literature in Sumer had been established through poetry, including works relating to the hero king Gilgamesh.

Scholar Jeremy Black, throughout his many works on the subject, maintains that Sumerian literature cannot be dated precisely owing to the lack of objective, historical references in many of the pieces. Generally speaking, however, Sumerian scribes are thought to have begun composing original literature circa 2600 BCE.

The Instructions of Shuruppag (also given as The Instructions of Shuruppak), the oldest philosophical work extant, is usually dated to circa 2000 BCE, but according to some scholars, it dates to circa 2600 BCE, which would make it the oldest extant written work in the world along with the Kesh Temple Hymn, also dated to circa 2600 BCE.

Fragmentary tablets of other works dated to that same period provide evidence of scribes signing their names to original compositions, and by circa 2150 BCE, literature in Sumer had been established through poetry, including works relating to the hero king Gilgamesh. The Epic of Gilgamesh is dated to circa 2150-1400 BCE, even though the standard Babylonian version of the text dates from circa 1300-1000 BCE, because of the early Sumerian poems drawn on to create that work:

• Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld
• Gilgamesh and Huwawa
• Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven
• Death of Gilgamesh
• Eridu Genesis

The Sumerians invented not only writing but also literary forms, beginning with poetry, the oldest form of literature in the world. These five works became the original material from which the genre of epic poetry would be created. Eridu Genesis, the first appearance of the story of the Great Flood, would later influence other famous works, including the Egyptian poem The Book of the Heavenly Cow and the tale of Noah's Ark in the biblical book of Genesis.

Poetical works such as The Debate Between Sheep and Grain and The Song of the Hoe (both dated to circa 2000 BCE) established the form of the literary debate and praise poem, respectively, two forms used repeatedly throughout Mesopotamian history and then by other civilizations. Religious praise poems, such as the Hymn to Nisaba, set the form for later prayers, psalms, and hymns, while other Sumerian poems introduced styles, symbols, mythological motifs, and character types that have resonated in the literature of world culture ever since.

Sumerian Hymn to Ishtar Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin (Copyright)

Inanna's Descent (also known as The Descent of Inanna, circa 1900-1600 BCE) is the earliest written evidence of the figure of the dying and reviving god (although the story of the Egyptian god Osiris may have existed earlier in oral form). Inanna and Su-kale-tuda (circa 1800 BCE) is a cautionary tale on the importance of treating others with kindness and a sharp condemnation of rape. Schooldays (circa 2000 BCE) and A Supervisor's Advice to a Young Scribe (circa 2000-1600 BCE) are early masterpieces of satire. The Hymn to Ninkasi, Goddess of Beer (circa 1800 BCE) combines praise of a deity with a recipe for brewing. All of these forms, figures, and themes, to greater or lesser degrees, would be used by later Mesopotamian scribes, who then inspired those of other cultures to do the same.

By 2334 BCE, the Sumerian city-states and kingdoms had been conquered by Sargon of Akkad (Sargon the Great, reign 2334-2279 BCE), who established the Akkadian Empire, and, by this time, the Sumerians had long established the edubba ("House of Tablets"), the scribal school, which encouraged the study, copying, memorization, and recitation of literary works ranging in subject from the creation of the world to the will of the gods, romantic love, sex, politics, religion, and various aspects of daily life.

Akkadian Scribes & Sumerian Renaissance

Akkadian replaced Sumerian as a spoken and written language, but Akkadian scribes continued to copy, memorize, and expand upon Sumerian texts. Scribes studied both languages as part of the curriculum of the edubba in the same way later scholars in Europe would study ancient Greek and Latin. Literary works identified as "Akkadian" in the present day are often Sumerian or Babylonian, just written in Akkadian cuneiform script. Cuneiform was inscribed by making wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets, but these wedges could be used to write any of the languages of Mesopotamia. The same method created by the Sumerians, therefore, continued in use.

The Akkadian scribes were not merely copyists, however, but created their own original works in the form of biographies, religious tales, praise songs, and hymns. The most famous Akkadian scribe is Enheduanna (circa 2300 BCE), daughter of Sargon of Akkad, who wrote 42 poems in addition to her famous praise songs, including the Hymn to Inanna. Her works influenced the development of later religious poetry, most famously the Psalms of the Bible.

Disk of Enheduanna Zunkir (CC BY)

One of the best-known examples of Akkadian literature is the Dialogue of Pessimism (circa 1000 BCE), which has been identified as a Babylonian text reworked by Akkadian scribes (as it would later be by Assyrians). This work of wisdom literature explores the meaning of life by asking why one should do anything. The poem features a master and his slave in a series of conversations in which the master proposes a certain action, like eating dinner, and the slave encourages him; then the master claims he does not want to eat dinner, and the slave provides equally good reasons not to. The poem is a comedy, most likely acted out for an audience, but it also encourages one to question the final meaning of any activity at all.

Akkadian continued in use through the Ur III period, also known as the time of the Sumerian Renaissance, as this era saw a rebirth of and widespread interest in Sumerian culture and literature. Ur-Nammu (reign circa 2112-2094 BCE), founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur, encouraged literacy, and his policies were continued by his son and successor, Shulgi of Ur (reign 2094 to circa 2046 BCE), who had been trained as a scribe and composed original poetry. One of the most famous works dated to Shulgi's reign (though the author is unknown) is The Death of Ur-Nammu, honoring his father while also providing one of the earliest descriptions of the Mesopotamian afterlife and addressing the difficulties in coping with grief – whether on the earthly plane or in the underworld.

A Praise Poem of Shulgi Daderot (Public Domain)

A Praise Poem of Shulgi was written to celebrate and immortalize the king's famous run of 200 miles (321.8 km) between Nippur and Ur in a single day and is also an example of original works honoring human achievement, not just a king's victories in battle or the goodness of the gods. Lullaby for a Son of Shulgi is considered the world's first lullaby, composed by an unknown scribe of Shulgi's court, or the king himself, for one of his children. Shulgi's policies regarding literacy led to the widespread establishment of scribal schools throughout his kingdom, which, in turn, resulted in a burst of creativity from the scribes in his region and elsewhere.

In the early 2nd millennium BCE, a new genre developed, known in the modern era as Mesopotamian naru literature, which featured a famous historical figure (usually a king) in a fictional tale. Among the best-known works from this genre are The Legend of Cutha and The Curse of Agade, but, according to some scholars, The Epic of Gilgamesh is also Mesopotamian naru literature.

This genre developed from a long-established scribal duty: engraving a king's accomplishments on a stele (known as a naru). In Mesopotamian naru literature, the scribe simply took a famous historical king and inscribed his deeds just like always – only now those deeds were fictional, and the tale served to convey a moral lesson instead of glorifying the monarch. Some works, in fact, present the king in a negative light. In this way, the Mesopotamians invented historical fiction.

Babylonian Scribes & Libraries

Akkadian and Babylonian scribes were educated according to the precepts established by the Sumerians, and in cities such as Ur, Uruk, and Babylon, literacy flourished. Babylonian literature continued the tradition of preserving Sumerian works while creating new ones, which would then influence later writers. The Ludlul-Bel-Nemeqi ("Poem of the Righteous Sufferer"), a Sumerian poem dated to circa 1700 BCE (and later rewritten and extensively developed by Babylonian scribes circa 1307-1282 BCE), is a meditation on the meaning of suffering, why bad things happen to good people, and is understood as influencing the later biblical book of Job.

Ludlul-Bel-Nemeqi, in turn, may have been influenced by the Dialogue Between a Man and His God (dated circa 2000-1600 BCE), which deals with this same theme or, depending on the dating one accepts, could have been the inspiration for that work. Scribes would have had access to earlier works through public libraries or their own private collections.

Libraries were firmly established by the time of the Old Babylonian Period, usually as part of the temple complex.

Libraries were firmly established by the time of the Old Babylonian Period, usually as part of the temple complex but also in scribal schools, and it was the responsibility of the head librarian (or keeper of the temple library in the complex) to preserve the collection, replace lost or damaged works, and add new works by locating and having them copied.

One example of this, among many, is the poem The Poor Man of Nippur. The extant copy is dated to 701 BCE, but, according to some scholars, the story dates to circa 1500 BCE or earlier. It was almost certainly originally a Sumerian work, written in Akkadian script, and then copied for a library's collection in Babylonia. The scribe Shin-Leqi-Unninni, famous as the author of The Epic of Gilgamesh, would have been one of these scribes, working for a scribal house or temple, copying works while writing his own originals.

Scholars continue to debate whether there were private libraries in people's homes in ancient Mesopotamia, but this argument seems pointless. It has already been established, through the excavation of the library of the Neo-Assyrian king Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, that some tablets were taken from personal libraries.

Ashurbanipal (reign 668-627 BCE), like Shulgi of Ur, was trained as a scribe, wrote his own works, and established the library at Nineveh to preserve the whole history and culture of Mesopotamia. He sent his couriers throughout the Assyrian Empire to find, copy, and collect books. Although ancient Mesopotamian works have been found in the modern day at many sites in the Near East, some of the most important have come from the ruins of the library at Nineveh.

Demand for Tablets for the Libary of Ashurbanipal Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin (Copyright)

Assyrian Works

Ashurbanipal was the last great king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which produced its own literary works, but Assyrian scribes had been engaged in creating original compositions since shortly after (or during) the reign of the Assyrian king Adad Nirari I (1307-1275 BCE) with the Adad-Nirari Epic. The tablets of this work are badly damaged, so it is impossible for modern scholars to tell whether it is strictly historical or more along the lines of Mesopotamian naru literature, but the story concerns the king's victory in battle over the Babylonians.

Assyrian scribes were also at work revising earlier Sumerian & Babylonian pieces.

This epic may have been inspired by the Anitta Text, written by the Hittite king Anitta (reign circa 1740-1725 BCE), a trained scribe and the first to compose a work in the language of the Hittites. The Anitta Text records the king's great military victory and praises him as a mighty warrior, which was standard in inscriptions of a king's reign, but the legible parts of the Adad-Nirari Epic seem similar to the Anitta Text, though a definite link between the two is purely speculative.

A more complete Assyrian work is the Tukulti-Ninurta Epic (circa 1200 BCE), featuring the king Tukulti-Ninurta I (reign 1244-1208 BCE) and praising his victory over the Kassite king Kashtiliash IV (reign circa 1232-1225 BCE), who ruled from Babylon. In this work, Kashtiliash IV breaks his treaty with Tukulti-Ninurta I, and the latter shows mercy, hoping to avoid armed conflict. When Kashtiliash IV refuses his overtures of peace, Tukulti-Ninurta I leads his army against the Kassite king, defeats him, and brings the spoils of war back to his capital, where they are offered in homage to the gods.

Both epics focus on military victories, but Assyrian scribes were also at work revising earlier Sumerian and Babylonian pieces, as well as continuing their regular duties. Among the most important of these, for the palace scribe, was making sure that the king's inscriptions were engraved in a timely manner, and the best example of this is the story of the greatest party ever thrown: Ashurnasirpal II's Kalhu festival of 879 BCE. Ashurnasirpal II (reign 884-859 BCE) threw his grand party to inaugurate his new city of Kalhu and then commissioned his scribes to immortalize the event in writing. History, legal codes, agricultural documents, legal documents, political decrees, and others still occupied the scribes, and yet, to their credit, they made the time to work at their craft in creating original compositions.

Among the most famous of these from the Assyrian period is The Epic of Ishtar and Izdubar (also given as The Epic of Izdubar), dated to the reign of the Neo-Assyrian king Sargon II (722-705 BCE) and found in the ruins of his city of Dur-Sharrukin. The work is a retelling of The Epic of Gilgamesh, but it makes significant changes. In Gilgamesh, the hero's companion is the wild man Enkidu, while here he is the sage Heabani. The heroes do not defeat the demon monster Humbaba in this version, but a king named Khumbaba. There is also no mention of the Great Flood. Assyrian scribes reworked many earlier pieces, including The Descent of Inanna, which they changed into Ishtar's Descent to the Underworld.

Goddess Ishtar descent to the underworld tablet Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin (Copyright)

Conclusion

The Persians continued the same tradition of literacy and the preservation of the past, but the definition of "Persian literature" is debated by modern scholars. Some scholars claim Persian literature dates from circa 522 BCE and the Behistun Inscription of Darius I (the Great, reign 522-486 BCE), while others refute this, noting the destruction of the library at Persepolis circa 330 BCE by Alexander the Great, which eliminated any evidence of early Persian literary works.

These scholars claim Persian literature can only be dated from the time of the Sassanian Empire (224-651), when the Avesta was set down in writing, and the vision of Zoroastrianism inspired poetic works and commentary. Most scholars date Persian literature from circa 750 through the 15th century, beginning with the rise of the Abbasid dynasty.

The long literary tradition of Mesopotamia was continued by the Persians, however, and the legacy of storytelling was honored further in the medieval period through the epic work Shahnameh – The Persian Book of Kings – by the poet Abolqasem Ferdowsi between 977 and 1010. The Shahnameh, like The Epic of Gilgamesh, is recognized as one of the greatest works of world literature, inspiring many others that continue to engage readers in the present day. These pieces, however, and the many others, would never have existed if ancient Sumerian scribes had not, at one time in the distant past, left off the mundane tasks of everyday life to devote themselves to creating works of the imagination.

This human-authored article has been reviewed by our editorial team before publication to ensure accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards in accordance with our editorial policy.

Cuneiform Writing Jan van der Crabben (CC BY-NC-SA)

The Akkadian poet Enheduanna (circa 2300 BCE) is the world's first author known by name and was the daughter of Sargon of Akkad (Sargon the Great, reign 2334-2279 BCE). Whether Enheduanna was, in fact, a blood relative of Sargon's or the title was figurative is not known.

It is clear, however, that Sargon placed enormous trust in Enheduanna in elevating her to the position of high priestess of the most important temple in Sumer (in the city of Ur) and leaving to her the responsibility for melding the Sumerian gods with the Akkadian ones to create the stability his empire needed to flourish.

Further, she is credited with creating the paradigms of poetry, psalms, and prayers used throughout the ancient world which led to the development of the genres recognized in the present day. Scholar Paul Kriwaczek writes:

Her compositions, though only rediscovered in modern times, remained models of petitionary prayer for [centuries]. Through the Babylonians, they influenced and inspired the prayers and psalms of the Hebrew Bible and the Homeric hymns of Greece. Through them, faint echoes of Enheduanna, the first named literary author in history, can even be heard in the hymnody of the early Christian church. (121)

Her influence during her lifetime was as impressive as her literary legacy. Entrusted by her father with great responsibility, Enheduanna not only exceeded those expectations but changed the entire culture. Through her written works, she altered the very nature of the Mesopotamian gods and the perception the people had of the divine.

Life

Enheduanna's name translates as "High Priestess of An" (the sky god) or "En-Priestess, wife of the god Nanna." She came from the northern city of Akkad and, as Kriwaczek notes, "would have had a Semitic birth name [but] on moving to Ur, the very heartland of Sumerian culture, she took a Sumerian official title: Enheduanna – 'En' (Chief Priest or Priestess); 'hedu' (ornament); 'Ana' (of heaven)." (120)

Map of the Akkadian Empire, c. 2334 - 2218 BCE Simeon Netchev (CC BY-NC-ND)

She organized and presided over the city's temple complex, the heart of the city, and held her own against an attempted coup by a Sumerian rebel named Lugal-Ane who forced her into exile. The Akkadian Empire, for all the wealth and stability it brought to the region, was constantly plagued by uprisings in the various regions under its control. One of Enheduanna's responsibilities in the region of Sumer would have been to keep the populace in check through religion.

Her hymns re-defined the gods for the people of the Akkadian Empire under Sargon's rule and helped provide the underlying religious homogeneity sought by the king.

In the case of Lugal-Ane, however, she seems to have been bested, at least initially. In her poem The Exaltation of Inanna, she tells the story of being driven from her post as high priestess and cast into exile. She writes a plea for help to the goddess Inanna requesting her to petition the god An for help:

Funeral offerings were brought, as if I had never lived there.

I approached the light, but the light scorched me.

I approached the shade, but I was covered with a storm.

My honeyed mouth became scummed. Tell An about Lugal-Ane and my fate!

May An undo it for me! As soon as you tell An about it, An will release me. (lines 67-76)

Inanna apparently heard her prayer and, through divine intercession, Enheduanna was finally restored to her rightful place in the temple. She seems to have been the first woman to hold this position in Ur and her comportment as high priestess would have served as an exemplary model for those who followed her.

Works

She is best known for her works Inninsagurra, Ninmesarra, and Inninmehusa, which translate as "The Great-Hearted Mistress", "The Exaltation of Inanna", and "Goddess of the Fearsome Powers", all three powerful hymns to the goddess Inanna (later identified with goddesses such as the Akkadian/Assyrian Ishtar, the Hittite Sauska, the Greek Aphrodite, and the Phoenician Astarte, among others).

These hymns redefined the gods for the people of the Akkadian Empire under Sargon's rule and helped provide the underlying religious homogeneity sought by the king. Enheduanna's works made the deities more accessible, stressing the importance of a personal relationship with one's god as well as the gods' accessibility. For over 40 years, Enheduanna held the office of high priestess, even surviving the attempted coup against her authority by Lugal-Ane.

In addition to her hymns, Enheduanna is remembered for the 42 poems she wrote reflecting personal frustrations and hopes, religious devotion, her response to war, and feelings about the world she lived in. Her writing is personal and direct, and, as scholar Stephen Bertman notes:

The hymns provide us with the names of the major divinities the Mesopotamians worshipped and tell us where their chief temples were located [but] it is the prayers that teach us about humanity, for in prayers we encounter the hopes and fears of everyday mortal life. (172)

Enheduanna's prayers honestly express those hopes and fears and do so in her very distinct voice. Paul Kriwaczek paints a picture of the poet at work:

Sitting in her chamber, or perhaps her office, for the director of an enterprise as large and prestigious as the Nanna temple of Ur must surely have been afforded the very best working arrangements, her hair beautifully coiffed by Ilum Palilis [her hairdresser] and staff, dictating to her scribe, perhaps the very Sagadu whose seal Wooley found, Enheduanna proceeded to make her permanent mark on history by composing, in her own name, a series of more than forty extraordinary liturgical works, which were copied and recopied for nearly 2,000 years. (121)

Disk of Enheduanna Zunkir (CC BY)

The skill and beauty of these works aside, their impact on Mesopotamian theology was profound. Enheduanna drew the gods closer to the people of the land, synthesizing Sumerian and Akkadian beliefs, to create a richer understanding than either had before. Enheduanna's reflections on the moon god Nanna, for example, made him a deeper and more sympathetic character and she elevated Inanna from a local vegetative deity to the all-powerful Queen of Heaven. These two deities, and the others she transformed through her work, appeared more compassionate than before; gods for all of the people and not only Sumerians or Akkadians.

Part of the allure of Enheduanna's work is her open sensuality and ardent devotion. In The Great-Hearted Mistress (also sometimes translated simply as A Hymn to Inanna), the poet writes:

You are magnificent, your name is praised, you alone are magnificent!

My lady...I am yours! This will always be so! May your heart be soothed towards me!

...

Your divinity is resplendant in the Land! My body has experienced your great punishment.

Lament, bitterness, sleeplessness, distress, separation...mercy, compassion, care,

Lenience, and homage are yours, and to cause flooding, to open hard ground and to turn

Darkness into light. (lines 218, 244-253)

Elsewhere in the poem (lines 115-131), Enheduanna praises Inanna for her gifts of desirability and arousal and notes how she has the power to "turn a man into a woman and a woman into a man" (line 121), a possible reference to the androgyny of Inanna's clergy and cult followers. Inanna's temples and attendant rituals were administered by clergy of both sexes, and her devotees were noted for their habit of cross-dressing, blending, blurring, or eliminating the distinction between male and female in pursuit of transcendence through Inanna.

Enhuduanna herself alludes to this same experience throughout her works, in lines too numerous to cite, imploring the goddess to take her, to be one with her, to destroy and save her. These same sentiments would later be expressed in the psalms of the Bible, though usually with far less sensuality. The biblical poem The Song of Songs comes closest to approximating the passion of Enheduanna's hymns.

Controversy

Although there is no doubt that a woman named Enheduanna lived and was high priestess at Ur, some scholars question whether this woman can be considered the author of the hymns bearing her name. Scholar Jeremy Black, for example, claims that, while there is enough evidence to establish her historicity, there is none suggesting she wrote the poetry she is famous for. Black notes:

At best we can say that Enheduana had a scribe, known to us by his cylinder seal, and that it is possible, even likely, that hymns were composed on her behalf...At worst, it should be pointed out that all the manuscript sources are from the second millenium BCE, mostly from the eighteenth century, some six centuries after she lived. (316)

The objection to Enheduanna's authorship has been challenged on the grounds that the poet names herself in a number of her works – In The Great-Hearted Mistress at line 219 and in The Exaltation of Inanna at lines 66 and 81 – to establish her authorship. Later writers attributed the poetry to her and, as Kriwaczek notes:

Enheduanna proceeded to make her permanent mark on history by composing, in her own name, a series of more than forty extraordinary liturgical works, which were copied and recopied for nearly 2,000 years. (121)

Disregarding the textual and historical evidence for her authorship on the grounds that it is "more likely" the poems were written by a male scribe, is untenable. It seems far more probable that the cylinder seal of her scribe was used on documents to authenticate them as coming from her office – a common use of the cylinder seal – and does not argue for the scribe's authorship of Enheduanna's works.

Conclusion

In 1927, the British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley found the now-famous Enhuduanna calcite disc in his excavations at the Sumerian site of Ur. The three inscriptions on the disc identify the four figures depicted: Enheduanna, her Estate Manager Adda, her hairdresser Ilum Palilis, and her scribe Sagadu.

The royal inscription on the disc, reads: "Enheduanna, zirru-priestess, wife of the god Nanna, daughter of Sargon, king of the world, in the temple of the goddess Innana.” The figure of Enheduanna is placed prominently on the disc emphasizing her importance in relation to the others and, further, her position of great power and influence on the culture of her time.

Wooley also uncovered the temple complex where the priestesses were buried in a special cemetery. Kriwaczek writes:

Records suggest that offerings continued to be made to these dead priestesses. That one of the most striking artefacts, physical proof of Enheduanna's existence, was found in a layer dateable to many centuries after her lifetime, makes it likely that she in particular was remembered and honoured long after the fall of the dynasty that had appointed her to the management of the temple. (120)

Further proof of her profound impact on culture is that she is still remembered and honoured in the present day, and poems are still composed on the model she created over 4,000 years ago.

Author's Note: Sincere thanks to reader Elizabeth Viverito for her insights into Enheduanna's work.

This human-authored article has been reviewed by our editorial team before publication to ensure accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards in accordance with our editorial policy.

Akkadian Ruler Sumerophile (Public Domain)

Sargon of Akkad (reign 2334-2279 BCE) was the king of the Akkadian Empire of Mesopotamia, the first multinational empire in history, who united the disparate kingdoms of the region under a central authority. He is equally famous today as the father of the great poet-priestess Enheduanna (circa 2300 BCE), the first author known by name in history.

Sargon (also known as Sargon the Great, Shar-Gani-Sharri, and Sarru-Kan, meaning "True King" or "Legitimate King") was, according to his autobiography, The Legend of Sargon of Akkad, born an illegitimate son of a "changeling," which could refer to a temple priestess of the goddess Innana/Ishtar (whose clergy were androgynous) and never knew his father.

His mother could not reveal her pregnancy or keep the child, and so he was set adrift by her in a basket on the Euphrates River, where he was later found by a man named Akki, who was a gardener for Ur-Zababa, the King of the Sumerian city of Kish. Akki adopted the boy and taught him how to garden, and from this very humble beginning, Sargon would rise to conquer all Mesopotamia.

Sargon came to be considered one of the greatest kings who had ever reigned, celebrated in glorious tales down through the Persian Empire.

The Akkadian Empire was the first political entity to make extensive and efficient use of bureaucracy and administration on a large scale and set the standard for future rulers and kingdoms. His story was long known throughout Mesopotamia, where, in time, he came to be considered one of the greatest kings who had ever reigned, celebrated in glorious tales down through the Persian Empire, along with his grandson Naram-Sin (reign 2254-2218 BCE).

Scholar Paul Kriwaczek sums up the impact Sargon had on later generations in Mesopotamia:

For at least 1,500 years after his death, Sargon the Great, founder of the Akkadian Empire, was regarded as a semi-sacred figure, the patron saint of all subsequent empires in the Mesopotamian realm.

(111)

Even so, where he came from and even his actual name are unknown.

Early Life & Rise to Power

Sargon was not the name given him at birth, but the throne name he chose for himself, meaning, as noted, "Legitimate King." It is a Semitic, not Sumerian, name, and so it is generally accepted that he was a Semite, but there is no way to know if this is true. Nothing certain is known of Sargon's birth or younger years. In fact, although his name was among the most famous in antiquity, he was unknown to the modern world until the 19th century, when his inscriptions and autobiography were discovered among the many texts of the Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh. The Legend of Sargon of Akkad reads, in part:

My mother was a changeling, my father I knew not,
The brother of my father loved the hills,
My home was in the highlands, where the herbs grow.
My mother conceived me in secret, she gave birth to me in concealment.
She set me in a basket of rushes,
She sealed the lid with tar.
She cast me into the river, but it did not rise over me,
The water carried me to Akki, the drawer of water.
He lifted me out as he dipped his jar into the river,
He took me as his son, he raised me,
He made me his gardener.

(Bauer, 95)

Akki adopted the boy and raised him as his own son. Sargon rose in stature at court to become the king's cupbearer. Scholar Susan Wise Bauer notes that, "ancient cupbearers were not merely butlers. The Sumerian inscriptions do not describe the cupbearer's duties, but in Assyria, not too long afterwards, the cupbearer was second only to the king" (97).

In his capacity as cupbearer, Sargon had the king's trust, but this was put to the test when a neighboring king, Lugalzagesi of Umma, embarked on a military campaign of conquest in the region. Ancient Mesopotamia (like ancient Greece) was dotted with many small city-states, all of which fought one another over fertile territory and water.

Lugalzagesi of Umma (reign circa 2358-2334 BCE) marched his army through the region of Sumer and conquered the city-states one by one, uniting all of them under his authority as the king Eannatum of Lagash had before him. He seems to have earlier agreed to leave Kish alone, but after conquering Uruk, he decided to move on Kish.

Inscription of the Birth of King Sargon of Akkad Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin (Copyright)

Bauer writes how, "Ur-Zababa, learning that the army of the conqueror was approaching his city, grew so frightened that he 'sprinkled his legs'"(97), a line from the literary work Sargon and Ur-Zababa. Ur-Zababa had grown suspicious of Sargon and, although there seems to be no evidence that the cupbearer had given him cause, decided to send him to Lugalzagesi, ostensibly with an offer of peace, to get rid of him.

Whether Ur-Zababa actually included in the message anything about terms and conditions is not known; what is known, at least according to Sargon and Ur-Zababa, is that the message asked Lugalzagesi to kill Sargon upon receiving it. For whatever reason, Lugalzagesi refused to comply and instead invited Sargon to join him. Together, they marched on Kish and took the city easily. Ur-Zababa escaped and went into hiding.

Precisely what happened next is unclear owing to the many legends that grew up around Sargon's life and reign over the centuries. It is possible that he had an affair with Lugalzagesi's wife at this point or that he was sent on a mission, which he turned into the first engagement of his own conquest of the region. Whatever happened between him and Lugalzagesi, they were as quickly antagonists as they had been allies.

Sargon marched on Uruk and took it. Lugalzagesi marched his army from Kish to meet Sargon in battle and was defeated. Sargon then put him in chains, tied a rope around his neck, and took him to the city of Nippur, sacred to the god Enlil, upon whom Lugalzagesi had relied, and forced him to march in humiliation through Enlil's gate. Sargon chose for himself the goddess Ishtar (Inanna) for his divine protector and, with both Ur-Zababa and Lugalzagesi out of the way, proclaimed himself king of Kish and swiftly subdued the region of Sumer.

Military Campaigns & Empire Building

When Sargon overthrew Lugalzagesi, he gained an already united kingdom, which he could use to advantage in military campaigns to establish the first empire over all of Mesopotamia. He may have been helped in this by his own legend, which established his humble background. As in later ages and other cultures, up to the present day, class distinctions in the Sumerian cities had led to a growing resentment by the lower class for the upper elite. The wealthiest citizens were able to take as much land as they could hold, and the lower classes routinely felt disenfranchised.

Birth of Sargon of Akkad Jastrow (Public Domain)

Sargon's tale of his humble beginnings as a gardener would have appealed to the large numbers of working-class Sumerians who may have seen him as a liberator and reformer. Directly after his rise to power, however, the city-states and their ruling elite hardly accepted Sargon with grace and submission; they rebelled against their new ruler and forced him to prove his legitimacy as king through military might.

After conquering Sumer, he either built a new city or renovated an older one, Akkad (also known as Agade), on the banks of the Euphrates River. This was a complete break with precedent in that, previously, the king of an existing city conquered another for the glory of the home city and the resources that would now be available. Sargon, on the other hand, conquered for no city, only for himself, and once he had control of the area, he built his own city to enjoy the benefits of conquest. Not content with what he had accomplished thus far, he set out again on campaign. Bauer writes:

With the Mesopotamian plain under his control, Sargon set out to build an empire that stretched beyond Mesopotamia. He led these soldiers in campaign after campaign: 'Sargon, the king of Kish,' reads one of his tablets, 'triumphed in thirty-four battles.' He crossed the Tigris and seized land from the Elamites.

He fought his way north to the city of Mari, which he captured, and then pushed even further into the land of another Semitic tribe, wilder and more nomadic than his own Akkadians: the Amorites, who ranged across the land west of the Caspian Sea. Campaigning up the Tigris, he reached and conquered the little northern city of Ashur... After this, he ranged even farther north and asserted his rule over the equally small city of Nineveh...Sargon may even have invaded Asia Minor.

(101)

He may also have taken Cyprus, and he claims to have marched to the Mediterranean Sea and sent ships as far away as the lands of the Indus Valley Civilization for trade. He marched throughout Mesopotamia, conquering one city-state after another, and expanded his empire as far as modern-day Lebanon and the Taurus mountains of Turkey, and then went even further. He instituted military practices of combining different types of fighting forces in looser formations (to enable greater mobility and adaptability on the field), which became standard down through the time of Alexander the Great. He swept across the land with his army until he had formed the first empire in the world. Kriwaczek writes:

There had been Mesopotamian heroes before of course. The famous kings of early Uruk, like Gilgamesh and his father Lugalbanda, were the protagonists of a series of fantastical accounts and tales of outlandish deeds that became mainstays of the Sumerian literary canon and were copied and recopied inscribal schools and palace scriptoria for centuries, sometimes millennia.

But they belong to the age of mythology rather than heroic legend; they told of intimate intercourse with the gods, battles with fearful monsters, the search for immortality and extraordinary other-worldly adventures. With the advent of Sargon, his sons and grandsons, the tales become, not necessarily more believable, but at least centred on the here-and-now of earthly life.

(113)

The Akkadian Empire

Forming an empire is one thing, but keeping it operating is quite another. Still, in administration, Sargon proved himself as capable as he was in military conquest. In order to maintain his presence throughout his empire, Sargon strategically placed his best and most trusted men and women in positions of power in the various cities. The "Citizens of Akkad," as a later Babylonian text calls them, were the governors, clergy, and administrators in over 65 different cities.

Map of the Akkadian Empire, c. 2334 - 2218 BCE Simeon Netchev (CC BY-NC-ND)

One of his inscriptions reads: "From the sea above to the sea below, the sons of Akkad held the chiefdoms of his cities," and Bauer notes how, "In this kingdom, the Sumerians rapidly found themselves living as foreigners in their own cities...When Sargon took over a city, it became an Akkadian stronghold, staffed with Akkadian officials and garrisoned with Akkadian troops" (99). Sargon's placement of trusted officials drew the various regions more closely under his control.

Sargon cleverly placed his daughter, Enheduanna, as high priestess at Ur and, through her, seems to have been able to manipulate religious, political, and cultural affairs from afar. Enheduanna is recognized today as the world's first author known by name, and, from what is known of her life, she seems to have been a very capable and powerful administrator in addition to her literary talents. This arrangement worked so well that Sargon's grandson, Naram-Sin, would appoint his daughter to the same position.

As the centuries passed, the difficulties were forgotten, & all that was remembered were Sargon's heroic feats & the 'golden age' of the Akkadians.

The stability provided by this empire gave rise to the construction of roads, improved irrigation, a wider sphere of influence in trade, as well as developments in arts and sciences. The Akkadian Empire created the first postal system, where clay tablets inscribed in cuneiform Akkadian script were wrapped in outer clay envelopes marked with the name and address of the recipient and the seal of the sender. These letters could not be opened except by the person they were intended for because there was no way to open the clay envelope, save by breaking it, thus ensuring privacy in correspondence.

Sargon also standardized weights and measures for use in trade and daily commerce, initiated a system of taxation which was fair to all social classes, and engaged in numerous building projects such as the restoration of Babylon (which, according to some sources, he founded – though this claim has been repeatedly challenged). He also created, trained, and equipped a full-time army – centered in the city of Akkad – where, as an inscription reads, 5400 soldiers "ate bread daily" with the king. While this does not seem to be the kind of professional army later created by the Assyrian king Tilgath Pileser III (as it seems it was neither year-round nor kept in a near-constant state of mobilization), it was a great advance over the armies of the past, filled by unwilling conscripts.

Even with these improvements to the lives of the citizens of Mesopotamia, the people still rebelled against Akkadian rule. Throughout his life, Sargon would continually put down uprisings as city-states asserted their autonomy and rose against the empire. As the centuries passed, however, whatever difficulties the people had with Sargon's rule were forgotten, and all that was remembered were his heroic feats and the 'golden age' of the Akkadians. For the next 3,000 years, the Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and others would tell tales of Sargon of Akkad and his glorious victories, citing Sargon's own words from his purported autobiography:

In my old age of 55, all the lands revolted against me, and they besieged me in Agade but the old lion still had teeth and claws, I went forth to battle and defeated them: I knocked them over and destroyed their vast army. Now, any king who wants to call himself my equal, wherever I went, let him go!

According to the Sumerian king list, Sargon reigned for 56 years and died in old age of natural causes. If he had seemed larger than life to his people during his reign, he assumed an almost god-like status in death. Kriwaczek writes:

Up until now, civilization based itself upon the belief that humanity was created by gods for their own purposes. The cities, the repositories of civilization, were divine foundations, having started, we guess, as sacred pilgrimage centres. Each city was the creation and home of a particular god. It is as if 'real life' was the one lived by the gods in the divine realm while what went on down here on earth was a largely irrelevant sideshow.

The age of Sargon and Naram-Sin altered all that, switched the focus to the human world, and introduced a new conception of the meaning of the universe: one that made people rather than gods the principal subjects of the Mesopotamian story. Humanity was now in control. Men - and women - became rulers of their own destiny. To be sure, people were still pious, still presented sacrifices to the temples, offered the libations, performed the rites, invoked the gods' names at every opportunity. But the piety of the age now had a quite different flavour.

(119)

Legend & Legacy

The legends which grew up around Sargon and his dynasty were still being written, copied, and performed publicly in the last days of the Assyrian Empire (612 BCE), and the famous copper head of Sargon (found at Nineveh in 1931, making clear his importance to the Assyrians) is one of the most instantly recognizable works of Mesopotamian art. The story of the baby set forth in a basket on the river, who is found by nobility and grows up to be a great leader of his people, was used to great effect by the Hebrew scribe who borrowed it to write the biblical book of Exodus and the story of the hero Moses.

Moses Found by Pharaoh's Daughter Providence Lithograph Company (Public Domain)

Sargon's story is the tale of the hero who rises from obscure beginnings to save his people. Whether he was seen as this kind of savior by those who lived under his reign is doubtful, considering the number of rebellions he had to put down, but to those who came after him, those who lived under the occupation of the Gutians (described by scholar Samuel Noah Kramer as demoralizing, destructive, and "a ruthless, barbaric hoarde"), he and his dynasty represented the glorious age of hero-kings which was now gone.

The tales of Sargon are thought to have inspired the Sumerians to rise up and throw off the oppressive Gutian rule circa 2050 BCE. Under the Sumerian kings Utu-Hegal and Ur-Nammu, the Gutians were challenged and, under Ur-Nammu's successor, Shulgi of Ur, were driven from Sumer, which allowed for the flourishing of the so-called Sumerian Renaissance of the Ur III period (circa 2112 to circa 2004 BCE). The two greatest Sumerian kings of the Ur III period, Ur-Nammu (reign circa 2112-2094 BCE) and Shulgi of Ur (reign 2094 to circa 2046 BCE), both patterned their public images after those of Sargon and Naram-Sin.

Conclusion

After Sargon's death, the empire passed to his son Rimush, who was forced to endure what his father had and put down the rebellions challenging his legitimacy. Rimush reigned for nine years and, when he died, the kingship passed to Sargon's other son, Manishtusu, who ruled for the next 15 years.

Though both sons ruled well, the height of the Akkadian Empire was realized under Sargon's grandson, Naram-Sin. During his reign, the empire grew and flourished beyond the boundaries even Sargon had attained. After his death, his son Shar-Kali-Sharri became ruler, and, at this time, the empire began to unravel as city-states broke away to form their own independent kingdoms.

Shar-Kali-Sarri waged almost continual war against the Elamites, the Amorites, and the invading Gutians while trying to hold the empire together, but it could no longer be maintained. The Gutian invasion has been most commonly credited with the collapse of the Akkadian Empire and the Mesopotamian dark age that ensued, and this was certainly the view of later scribes in ancient Mesopotamia who portrayed the Gutians as destroyers of civilization.

Recent studies, however, suggest that it was most likely climate change that caused a famine and, perhaps, disruption in trade, weakening the empire to the point where the type of invasions and rebellions that were easily met and put down in the past could no longer be managed as effectively.

Famine is alluded to in a later work of Mesopotamian naru literature, The Curse of Agade, which tells of the destruction of Akkad by the will of the gods. Whether famine, invasion, the wrath of the gods, or all three, the city of Akkad fell, the great kings were gone, and the empire passed into the legends which would be told, retold, written, and copied until the stories of what once was became all that was left of the Akkadian Empire of Sargon the Great.

This human-authored article has been reviewed by our editorial team before publication to ensure accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards in accordance with our editorial policy.