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~ lAMENT FOR UR ~
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THEGODSAND HUMAN DESTINY
Mesopotamians and Egyptians believed that their destinies were determined by
the gods. Drought, hurricanes, sickness, law, and foreign invasion were all attributed to divine intervention. In the "Lament for Ur," the assembly of the gods
decides to punish the Sumerian city-state of Ur.
Enlil called the storm.
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He called the storm that annihilates the land.
The people mourn.
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~fibunda~ce -t;; took from the land.
He calleddisastrouswinds.
The people mourn.
Good winds he took away from Sumer.
The people mourn.
Enlil - choosing Gibil (fire god) as his
The peoplemourn.
Deputed [assigned]evil winds.
The peoplemourn.
Entrusted them to Kingaluda, tenderof
helpercalledthe (great)hurricaneof heaven.
The peoplemourn.
The (blinding) hurricanehowling acrossthe
storms.
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skies-
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the people mourn -
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0 father Nanna (the moon god), that town
the storm that annihilates the land roaring
over the earth the people mourn -
was left a ruin.
The people mourn.
On that day did the storm leave the country.
the tempest unsubduable like breaks through
levees,
beats down upon, devours the city's ships,
(all these) he gathered at the baseof heaven.
The people mourn.
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(Great) fires he lit that heralded the storm.
The people mourn.
I~ people ('s corps~, not potsherds,
littered the approaches.
The walls were gaping;
the high gates, the roads,
were piled with dead.
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n t e WIde streets,
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Ine peoplemourn.
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the searIng heat of desert.
Like flaming heat of noon this fire
where
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scorched.. . .
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The storm orderedby Enlll m hate,
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-the storm which wears away the countty,
covered U r l I' ke a c1ot h,
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vel e It I e a men s eet. . . .
crowds
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(once) gathered,
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bl
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feasting
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lay.
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In all the streets and roadways bodies lay.
In openfieldsthat usedto fill with dancers,
the peoplelay in heaps.
The..countty's blood now filled its holes.
like metal m a mold;
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bodiesdissolved- like butter left in the sun.
On that day did the storm leave the city;
that city was a ruin.
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