EPIC EMPIRES

I.                 Sumerian (ca. 6000BC – 3000BC)

In Southern Mesopotamia (Iraq) about 6000B.C. the sag-giga “the black-headed people” settled in “city-states”. There they developed year round agriculture, surplus food, and division of labor, temples and record keeping which led to writing. This was the “Cradle of Civilization”.

We have come together at the rivers

No longer nomads of the Eastern plains

Joined in hands and minds for civil union

Within the Fertile Crescent’s reedy canes.

Between the mighty Tigris and Euphrates

Planting, plowing with oxen in the fields

Crops of biter vetch, barley, flax and peas

Digging water ditches increased our yields.

I’m Dumuzid, the shepherd, once a king

That slept upon the earth as did my flocks

I wandered West with others to Uruk

To build our homes with reeds and muddy blocks.

Some were herders, craftsmen, merchants, even priests

The potter’s wheel revolved to give us bowls

We carved first sailing boats beginning trade

And built the holy temples for our souls.

We rolled on wheels transporting us and crops

The moon inspired a twenty-four hour day

Math based on sixty times six, a circle

With stylus wrote cuneiform text in clay.

I am Dumuzid, the shepherd, a god

Uniquely child of Heaven and of Earth

The consort of the goddess, Inanna

Fifth king of Bad-tibira, my re-birth.

Again the formless firmament did breathe

As fresh and salt of Chaos waters merged

Eternal Thought created All from One

Holy spiritual beings did emerge.

Anunnaki were council to the gods

An, Enlil, Ninhursag, the Queen

As Shepherd, I have lived in both the worlds

The Tablets of Destiny, I have seen.

Nammu gave An a son named, Enki

Nammu and Enki created man from clay

Adamu, first of the black-headed ones

“Let us make man in OUR image” they say.

Let’s create Ninti, lady of the rib.

Inana planted the Huluppu tree

Within the roots, a serpent made its nest

In the trunk the dark maid Lilith you’ll see.

“When the kingship of Heaven was lowered

The kingship was in Enki’s Eridu”

The beings of Heaven and Earth emerged

And Inana’s Houses of Heaven grew.

“And the sons of god saw…daughters of man

They bare children unto them…mighty men”

Dumuzid observed many temples built

To Inana, daughter of goddess, Suen.

Inana received the “mes”(mays) in Eridu

Then took these gifts of civilization

To Uruk, the new center of power

Instilling on Earth, her inspiration.

She then went to visit the Netherworld

To take her sister’s power of the Kur

Determined through the seven gates she moved

But “the eyes of death” were too much for her.

Her corpse nailed to a wall as gods did mourn

Enki resurrected her, his love sincere

Dumuzid and his sister took her place

Betrayed, he wept but stays six months a year.

King Gilgamesh of flesh and two-thirds god

The king of Uruk who saw the abyss

The land of giants, monsters and mighty men

The gods judged Gilgamesh, sorely amiss.

Goddess Aruru creates, Enkidu

This uncontrolled wildman causes a fright

A woman came to tame poor Enkidu

Tamed, he challenged King Gilgamesh to fight.

They fought and fought and neither one could win

They called a draw and soon became good friends

Traveling to the Forrest of the Cedars

To kill a giant, cut trees and thus begins…

They slay the giant, Humbaba and cut trees

But the goddess, Inanna, is rejected by Gil…

The Bull of Heaven is slain by Enkidu

And gods curse him as he falls deathly ill.

King Gilgamesh laments his friend’s cursed fate

And asks the gods to help his friend so true

God Shamash cracks a hole into the Earth

Enkidu, from the Netherworld, jumps through.

We planned and schemed and built and lived and died

We loved and fought and ate and drank and prayed

But power, greed and hate and jealousy

Soon saw our Sumer citizens betrayed.