Chapter Three
War

Justice and Abundance

Justice, abundance, and plenty were ideals on both the human and divine scale, according to the Sumerian texts. The desired state of the universe was peace and prosperity. The gods founded the world as an ordered and bountiful place to live.

After the water of creation had been decreed,
After the name hegal (abundance), born in heaven,
Like plant and herb had clothed the land... (Kramer 1961, 62)

This abundance was given also to humanity.

Abundance of heaven...,
Lahar and Ashnan caused to appear,
In the assembly they brought abundance,
In the land they brought the breath of life,
The decrees of the god they direct,
The contents of the warehouses they multiply,
The storehouses they fill full.

In the house of the poor, hugging the dust,
Entering they bring abundance;
The pair of them, wherever they stand,
Bring heavy increase into the house;
The place where they stand they sate, the place where they sit they supply,
They made good the heart of An and Enlil. (Kramer 1961, 54)

Human kings also desired to bring peace and prosperity to their land. They were supposed to ensure that justice prevailed, and that all people were cared for. A self-laudatory hymn to Ishme-Dagan describes the king's duty thus:

Utu placed justice and truth in my mouth-
To give just verdicts and decisions to the people,
To make truth prevail,
To sustain the righteous, destroy the evil,
To see to it that brother speaks the truth to brother, that the father is respected,
That the older sister is not contradicted, that the mother is feared,
That the weak are not delivered up to the strong, that the frail are protected,
That the powerful should not work their will, that man should not strive against man,
That evil and violence be wiped out, justice flourish,
Utu, the son born of Ningal, set as my allotted portion. (Kramer 1956, 263)

The hymn goes on to state that Ishme-Dagan did indeed live up to this duty:

Evil and violence I curbed (?),
Truth I established in Sumer.
I am a shepherd who loves justice,
I am one who was born in Sumer, a citizen of Nippur,...,
I am a judge who tolerates not inequity (?),
Who gives nothing but just decisions,
(So that) the powerful acts not high and mighty,
The strong oppresses (?) not the weak;
The noble mistreats not the freeman,...,
The poor dares to talk back to the rich,....
For all times, bribed verdicts, twisted words, I banished (?),
I wiped out the unseemly, the abusive,...,
I put to right that which has been perverted, falsehood, and mischief.
The wronged, the widow, the orphan- I respond to their cry "O Utu, O Nanna,"...,
I put an end to the cutthroats that harry (?) the steppe (?),
Firmly do I sustain the just,.... (Kramer 1956, 264)

The king was supposed to create peace in the land. A text attributed as the words of the king Shulgi says:

On that (?) day, in my inscriptions,
That no city was destroyed by me, no walls were breached by me,
That like a frail reed no land was crushed by me,
The singer will put to song. (Kramer 1956, 261)

While this ideal may or may not have been one that kings actually lived up to, it is consistently expressed. In the ideal, justice is carried out perfectly. There are no bribes in the courtroom, and rich and poor are alike before the law. No one uses his power to oppress anyone else. Those who cannot support themselves, like the widow and the orphan, are provided for by the generous king. Violence and cutthroats do not exist. Lying and falsehood have been wiped out. Truth, justice, and peace reign.

A look at some actual Sumerian law codes will help to clarify what they thought justice to consist of. Some sample laws from the code of Ur-Nammu are:

If a man had accused a(nother) man of... and he (i.e., the accuser) had him (i.e., the accused) brought to the river-ordeal, and the river-ordeal proved him innocent, then the man who had brought him (i.e., the accuser) must pay him three shekels of silver.

If a man accused the wife of a man of fornication, and the river(-ordeal) proved her innocent, then the man who had accused her must pay one-third of a mina of silver.

If a (prospective) son-in-law entered the house of his (prospective) father-in-law, but his father-in-law later gave [his daughter (i.e., the prospective bride) to] another man, he (the father-in-law) shall return to him (i.e., the rejected son-in-law) two-fold the amount of bridal presents he had brought.

If a man, in the course of a scuffle, smashed the limb of another man with a club, he shall pay one mina of silver.

If someone severed the nose of another man with a copper knife, he must pay two-thirds of a mina of silver.

If a man appeared as a witness (in a lawsuit), and was shown to be a perjurer, he must pay fifteen shekels of silver.

If a man appeared as a witness (in a lawsuit), but declined to testify on oath, he must make good as much as is involved in that lawsuit.

If a man proceeded by force, and plowed the arable field of a(nother) man, and he (i.e., the latter) brought a lawsuit (against him), but he (i.e., the squatter) reacts in contempt, that man will forfeit his expenses.

If a man had leased an arable field to a(nother) man for cultivation, but he (the lessee) did not plow it, so that it turned into wasteland, he shall measure out (to the lessor) three kor of barley per iku of field. (Pritchard 1969, 524-525)

Many non-commercial crimes are translated into economic terms, thus allowing easy measurement of severity by comparing the amount of the fines. Some key points of these law codes seem to be: owners deserve to keep what they own; those who are harmed should be recompensed; lying hinders the process of justice; and contracts and agreements should be followed. These standards can be seen in each of the laws.

When the father promises his daughter to a man and then reneges on the promise and instead marries her to another man, the father is the one who has done wrong, and he must give back the rejected man's bridal gifts, and not only that, he must give him the same amount again as a restitution for the broken promise. In this way, the young man has his own property returned to him, since he does not receive what he paid for, and he is given an extra amount to pay for the hurt or humiliation of the broken promise. The father does not gain anything for his crime, but is forced to lose money and goods.

Anyone who lies in court is fined. Anyone who brings false accusations against another must pay for their lies. The payment goes to the accused, as the one who has been harmed by the trial the most. It does not go to the court or government. If a man injures another, he pays a fine to the injured party. This fine applies both to physical injury (smashed limb or nose) and to financial injury (ruining property). The man who plows the field of another without permission gets nothing from it. The owner of the field keeps the crops grown there, and it is the man who illegally plowed it who must pay the fees for seed and equipment. In contrast, if a man hires another to plow his field, and the hired man does not fulfill the contract, he must pay to the owner of the field an amount proportional to the size of the field. In this way, those who lie, break promises, take the property of another, or injure another person, lose, and those who have been injured gain something in restitution.

Not all laws had restitution as their goal, however. Some laws prescribed punishments to the offender that do not seem to give anything back to the injured party. There is one law in the same set that decrees that if a married woman leads on and seduces a man, she shall be put to death, and it is careful to state that the man shall not be executed. In this case, the injured party is supposedly the husband of the adulterous woman. He is not paid by the other man, as the law does not see the action as either man's fault. The fault lies with the woman. It may be possible that executing her is seen as a restitution to the husband, as it removes her from being able to insult his honor in this way again and makes him appear better in the eyes of his peers, since he is no longer a powerless cuckold. But the largest portion of the sentence seems to be to punish the woman in a form of retributive justice. She has done wrong, and must suffer for it. Knowing that execution is the punishment is also a form of deterrent, as it may make women less likely to have extra-marital affairs. This law seems to be on a different level from the other laws quoted earlier, even though they also have a deterrent element to them. It concentrates more on the punishment of the wrongdoer than the restitution of the victim. Although the hymns of the kings state that all should be equal before the law, there are indeed differences in social standing that can be found in the actual law codes; free people are not treated the same as slaves, and men are not treated the same as women.

Waging war was sometimes seen as being a part of upholding justice. The king and city who began war against a peaceful neighbor were breaking the law, and the king and city who then fought against them were bring retribution upon them for this crime, and restoring the correct order of society. A historical account, from about 2500 to 2400 BC, of disputes between the cities Lagash and Umma begins:

Enlil (leading deity of the Sumerian pantheon), the king of all the lands, the father of all the gods, marked off the boundary for Ningirsu (the patron deity of Lagash), and Shara (the patron deity of Umma) by his steadfast word, (and) Mesilim, the king of Kish, measured it off in accordance with the word of Sataran, (and) erected a stele there. (But) Ush, the ishakku of Umma, violated (both) the decree (of the gods) and the word (given by man to man), ripped out its (the boundary's) stele, and entered the plain of Lagash.

(Then) did Ningirsu, Enlil's foremost warrior, do battle with (the men of) Umma in accordance with his (Enlil's) straightforward word; by the word of Enlil he hurled the great net upon them, and heaped up their skeleton (?) piles in the plain in their (various) places. (As a result) Eannatum, the ishakku of Lagash, the uncle of Entemena, the ishakku of Lagash, marked off the boundary with Enakalli, the ishakku of Umma; led out its (the boundary's) ditch from the Idnun (canal) to the Guedinna; inscribed (several) steles along that ditch; restored Mesilim's stele to its (former) place; (but) did not enter the plain of Umma. He (then) built there the Imdubba of Ningirsu, the Namnunda-kigarra, (as well as) the shrine of Enlil, the shrine of Ninhursag (the Sumerian "mother" goddess), the shrine of Ningirsu, (and) the shrine of Utu (the sun-god). (Kramer 1956, 42)

This boundary is the decree of the gods, and the king who violates it goes against the divine will. Each city has its own set territory, given by Enlil to the city's god, and any attempt to expand that territory without a new decree from Enlil is wrong, and also foolish. The king whose attempted conquests violate the divine will shall not succeed in them. The dispute between Lagash and Umma went on for multiple generations, with many kings of Umma moving over the boundary, or failing to pay the tithes they owed to Lagash as punishment for their previous incursions. When Lagash transgressed the boundary it was a crime. Thus, when Lagash fought back against Umma they were moving at the word of the gods, upholding justice, and their fighting was a good thing. The gods themselves led the people of Lagash in the fight for justice.

However, war was not always seen as just. Often, war was viewed as a disruption of the peace and prosperity that ought to be in effect. How was this contradiction dealt with in the texts?

War and Suffering

If the desire of most is for peace, it arises from a knowledge that war brings death, destruction, and suffering. This aspect of war was often written about in Sumerian times. The lamentation was a very common genre.

One example of this genre is the text currently known as "The Lamentation Over the Destruction of Sumer and Ur." It describes the events when the city of Ur fell to an army out of the east during the reign of King Ibbi-Sin, just before 2000 BC. This was one of the focal events that marked the end of the neo-Sumerian period. The text was probably composed very early on in the old Babylonian period, but the tablets on which it is preserved were mostly collected in ways that make it hard to ascertain their exact dating. Most of the tablets were collected from Nippur or Ur.

This composition is full of distressing images of warfare. The suffering of the people is described in great detail. Destruction is everywhere, and war is clearly not glorious. It begins:

To overturn the (appointed) time, to forsake the (preordained) plans,
The storms gather to strike like a flood.
To overturn the (divine) decrees of Sumer,
To lock the favorable reign in its abode,
To destroy the city, to destroy the temple,
To destroy the cattle pen, to level the sheepfold... (Michalowski 1989, 37)

Ur had been granted kingship over Sumer by the gods, and now the gods have decided to take the kingship away and give it to another people.

The city of Ur is a great charging aurochs, confident in its own strength,
It is the primeval city of Lordship and Kingship, built on sacred ground-
To quickly subdue it like a yoked ox, to bow its neck to the ground,
(the gods) An, Enlil, Enki, and Ninmah decided its fate.
Its fate, which cannot be changed, who can overturn it-
Who can oppose the commands of An and Enlil?
An frightened the (very) dwelling of Sumer, the people were afraid,
Enlil blew an evil storm, silence lay upon the city,
Nintu bolted the door of the storehouses of the land,
Enki blocked the water in the Tigris and Euphrates,
Utu took away the pronouncement of equity and justice,
Inanna handed over (victory in) strife and battle to a rebellious land,
Ningirsu wasted Sumer like milk poured to the dogs.
Revolt descended upon the land, something that no one had ever known,
Something unseen, which had no name, something that could not be fathomed,
The lands were confused in their fear... (Michalowski 1989, 39-41)

The city is attacked and overrun by the Gutians, from Gutium in the mountains. These foreigners are so many that they take all the food from the fields and orchards as they attack Ur. The storms and natural disasters continue. Heaven and earth rumble and tremble. The people of Ur begin to die in great numbers, and families are torn apart. The cities that had previously obeyed the decrees of the king break away from the rule of Ur. And all this is the direct work of the gods, who have sent the storms and the invaders and the rebellion.

[...] they piled up in heaps [...] they spread out like sheaves.
There were corpses floating in the Euphrates, brigands roamed [the roads].
[The father turned away from his wife], he says not, "Oh, my wife!"
[The mother turned away from her child], she says not, "Oh, my child!"
(The one) who had a productive estate [says not], "Oh, my estate!"
The rich left his possessions and took an unfamiliar path.
In those days the kingship of the land was defiled,
The crown that had been on the head (of the king) [...] by itself.
The lands that had taken the same road (in obedience to Ur), were split into factions,
The food offerings of Ur, the shrine (that received) magnificent food offerings, were changed (for the worse). (Michalowski 1989, 43)

It is not only Ur that suffers, but all the cities and lands of Sumer. The invaders, the Gutians and Elamites and Tidnumites and other foreigners, are trampling over all the cities. The battle rages on.

The trees of Ur were sick, the reeds of Ur were sick,
Laments sounded all along its city wall.
Daily there was slaughter before it.
Large axes were sharpened in front of Ur,
The spears, the arms of battle, were being launched,
The large bows, javelin, and siege-shield gather together to strike,
The barbed arrows covered its outer side like a raining cloud,
Large stones, one after another, fell with great thuds.
Daily the evil wind returns to (attack) the city.
Ur, which had been confident in its own strength, stood ready for slaughter,
Its people, oppressed by the enemy, could not withstand (their) weapons. (Michalowski 1989, 61)

The storms and famine strike everywhere. People are starving and dying, fighting and dying.

(Those) in the city who had not been felled by weapons, died of hunger,
Hunger filled the city like water, it would not cease,
(This) hunger contorts (people's) faces, it twists their muscles.
Its people are (as if) surrounded by water, they gasp for breath,
Its king breathed heavily in his palace, all alone,
Its people dropped (their) weapons, (their) weapons hit the ground,
They struck their necks with their hands and cried.
They sought council with each other, they searched for clarification,
"Alas, what can we say about it, what more can we add to it?
How long until we are finished off by (this) catastrophe?
Ur- inside it there is death, outside it there is death,
Inside it we are being finished off by famine,
Outside it we are being finished off by Elamite weapons.
In Ur the enemy has oppressed us, oh, we are finished!"
They take refuge behind it (the city walls), they were united (in their fear).
The palace that was destroyed by (onrushing) waters has been defiled, its bolt was torn out,
Elam, like a swelling flood wave, left only the spirits of the dead.
In Ur (people) were smashed as if they were clay pots,
Its refugees were (unable) to flee, they were trapped inside the walls,
Like fish living in a pond, they seek shelter. (Michalowski 1989, 61-63)

The war causes suffering for all the people, lowly and great alike. The king has as little food as the citizens. The Elamites overrun Ur. The king and priests are hauled away as captives or killed. The treasures of the city are looted and destroyed. The temples are defiled. The cows are taken away. The date trees are felled.

The statues that were in the treasury were cut down,
The great stewardess Niniagara cut herself off from the storehouse,
Its throne was cast down before it, she threw herself down into the dust.
Its mighty cows with shining horns were captured, their horns were cut off,
Its unblemished oxen and grass-fed cows were slaughtered,
They were cut down as if they were date palms, and their (carcasses) were tied together.
The palm tree, (strong) as mighty copper, the heroic weapon,
Was torn out like (mere) rushes, was plucked like (mere) rushes, its trunk was turned sideways,
Its top lay in the dust, there was no one to raise it,
The midriffs of its palm fronds were cut off and their tops were burnt off,
Its date clusters that used to fall on the well were torn out.
The fertile reeds, which grew in the sacred..., were defiled,
The great tribute that they had collected was hauled off to the mountains.
The great door ornament of the temple was felled, its parapet was destroyed,
The wild animals that were intertwined on its left and right
Lay before it like heroes smitten by heroes,
Its open-mouthed dragons (and) its awe-inspiring lions
Were pulled down with ropes like captured wild bulls and carried off to enemy territory. (Michalowski 1989, 63)

There are no heroes or glory in this story. The masses remain faceless as they die, and the invaders are described more as a force of nature, a tool of the gods, then as actual people. The king is mentioned, but he does nothing except starve and be captured. The main characters in the story are the gods themselves, and the city of Ur as an entity. There are detailed descriptions of war and battle; however, the descriptions of the suffering and pain and bitterness of the people are even more detailed.

One thing that is covered in great length is the destruction of the temples, the defilement of the sacred objects, and the capture of the priests.

The sacred box that no one had set eyes upon was seen by the enemy,
The divine bed was not set up, it was not spread with clean hay,
The statues that were in the treasury were cut down,
The temple cook, the dream interpreter, and the "seal keeper" did not prepare the ceremony,
They stood in submission and were carried off by the foreigners.
The holy uzga-priests of the sacred lustrations, the linen clad priests,
Forsake the sacred rites and decrees, they go off to a foreign city. (Michalowski 1989, 65)

Because of this cessation of their care and rituals, because of this destruction of their temples, the gods also suffer as much as the humans. The gods weep and mourn the results of the war as bitterly as the people, and an entire kirugu (section of text; there are five in this composition) is dedicated to the sufferings and lamentations of the gods. Part of it reads:

Nanshe, the Noble Son, was settled outside the city.
Fire approached Ninmar in the shrine Guabba,
Large boats were carrying off its precious metals and stones.
The lady -sacred Ninmar- was despondent because of her perished goods.
Then the day, burning like...,
The province of Lagash was handed over to Elam.
And then the Queen also reached the end of her time,
Ba'u, as if she were human, also reached the end of her time:
"Woe is me, he (Enlil) has handed over (the city to the) storm,
He has handed (it) over to the storm that destroys cities,
He has handed (it) over to the storm that destroys temples!"
Dumuziabzu was full of fear in the temple of Kinunirsha,
Kinunirsha, the city of her noble youth, was ordered to be plundered.
The city of Nanshe, ABxHA ki, was delivered to the foreigners,
Sirara, her beloved dwelling, was handed over to the evil ones,
"Alas, the destroyed city, my destroyed temple!" bitterly she cries. (Michalowski 1989, 47)

The gods complain to each other, and question why this catastrophe is happening to them. But some of the important sections are missing:

"We are spilled out like figurines being cast in molds,
We are being wiped out by the Gutians, the vandals.
We turned to Enki in the Abzu of Eridu:
[...] what can we say, what more can we add?
[...] what can we say, what more can we add?"
[...] went out from Eridu.
[...] ... a shadow...
By night [...] ... by day...
"...
...
Enki, your city has been cursed, it has been given to an enemy land.
We...
Like a palm tree we..., why are we being destroyed?
Like a new boat that..., why are we being destroyed?"
After Enki has cast his eyes on a foreign land,
...
...
Enki took an unfamiliar path away from Eridu... (Michalowski 1989, 51)

This makes it harder to ascertain some of the argument put forth by the composition. It is clear, however, that the gods are begging to know why they and their cities are being destroyed, just as the humans have begged to know these answers.

Finally Nanna goes to his father Enlil and asks him why all the destruction is occurring, and pleads with him to relent. Even Enlil's city and temple are feeling the negative effects of the war.

Su'en wept to his father Enlil:
"O father who begot me, why have you turned away from Ur, the city that was built for you?
O Enlil, why have you turned away from Ur, the city that was built for you?"
The boat with first fruit-offerings no longer brings the first fruit offerings to the father who begot him,
Its food offerings could no longer be brought to Enlil in Nippur.
The En-priests of the city and of the countryside were carried off by phantoms,
Ur, like a city that has been wrought by the hoe, became a ruined mound,
The Kiur, the place of Enlil's flour offerings, became a haunted shrine.
O Enlil, your city... an empty wasteland.
Nippur, your city... an empty wasteland.
The dogs of Ur no longer sniff at the base of the city wall.
The one who (used to) drill large wells, (now just) scratches the ground in the market place.
"My father who bore me, my city, which is all alone, return to your embrace,
Enlil, my (city of) Ur, which is all alone, return to your embrace,
My Ekishnugal, which is all alone, return to your embrace!
May you bring forth offspring in Ur, may you multiply (its) people,
May you restore the (divine) decrees of Sumer that have been forgotten!" (Michalowski 1989, 57-59)

Part of the impetus behind Nanna's request is the gods' own desire for their offerings and temples. This war is causing hardship for them, and they want it stopped so that they may continue to live in comfort. Part of it is also a desire for order to be restored; this situation of chaos is not what the gods planned for the operation of the universe. They want the world to be abundant and prosperous, as shown at the beginning of this chapter, and they want to live their lives in peace and leisure, as shown in Chapter Two. The divine decrees are not functioning properly; they have been forgotten. These decrees establish an ordered existence, and order has been ruined in the war. It is not right that the well-diggers now merely scratch in the dust, and the dogs no longer sniff the wall. These parts of the universe are, due to the war, unable to fulfill their natures. The order of the universe also calls for justice, and justice does not involve indiscriminant suffering. It is stressed multiple times that the gods love their cities, and the inhabitants of their cities. This war has ruined everything: the lives of the people, the lives of the gods, and the normal functioning of the world. Nanna brings these points to Enlil's attention, and asks him to end the war.

Enlil replies:

"There is lamentation in the haunted city, 'mourning' reeds grow there,
In its midst there is lamentation, 'mourning' reeds grow there,
In it (the population) pass their days in sighing.
My son, the Noble Son..., why do you concern yourself with crying?
O Nanna, the Noble Son..., why do you concern yourself with crying?
The judgment of the assembly cannot be turned back,
The word of An and Enlil knows no overturning,
Ur was indeed given kingship (but) it was not given an eternal reign.
From time immemorial, since the land was founded, until the population multiplied,
Who has ever seen a reign of kingship that would take precedence (for ever)?
The reign of its kingship had been long indeed but had to exhaust itself.
O my Nanna, do not exert yourself (in vain), leave your city!" (Michalowski 1989, 59)

Enlil, in turn, reminds Nanna of another two facts. The gods have decreed this. They agreed to the action in their assembly, they all participated, and now they must see it through. The reason they agreed is a basic one. No city can have kingship forever. All reigns must end. This is also the natural course of events, also part of the divine decrees on which the universe is founded. The time has come for Ur to give up its sovereignty. It is best to cease crying over the necessary events, and to flee the city so that he himself might suffer as little as possible. Though upset at this, Nanna and the other gods all leave Ur, and this is when it finally falls to the enemy. It was not until the gods totally withdrew from the city that it could be conquered.

After the city falls, after the enemy has overturned the temple gates and taken away all the treasures, Nanna approaches Enlil again.

In his grief Su'en approached his father,
He went down on his knee in front of Enlil, the father who begot him.
"O father who begot me, how long will the enemy eye be cast upon my account, how long...?
The en-ship and the kingship that you bestowed [...] ...,
Father Enlil, the one who advises with just words,
The wise words of the land [...],
Your inimical judgment [...],
Look into your darkened heart, terrifying like waves!
O father Enlil, the fate that you have decreed cannot be explained!
... of en-ship, my ornament." (Michalowski 1989, 65)

Again, Nanna asks Enlil to restore the cities of Sumer. Even if the kingship must end, there is no reason for the people to continue suffering. The storms and droughts and famines and illnesses should cease. Enlil agrees.

"My son, the city that was built for you in joy and prosperity, it was given to you as your reign,
The destroyed city, the great wall, the walls with broken battlements:
all this is part of the (appointed) reign,
...
... your dwelling- the Etemenniguru- that was properly built.
Ur shall be rebuilt in splendor, may the people bow down (to you),
There is to be bounty at its base, there is to be grain,
There is to be splendor at its top, the Sun will rejoice there!
Let an abundance of grain embrace its table,
May Ur, the city whose fate was pronounced by An, be restored for you!"
Having pronounced his blessing, Enlil raised his head toward the heavens, (saying):
"May the land, north and south, be organized for Nanna,
May the road(s) of the land be set in order for Su'en!
Like a cloud hugging the earth, they shall submit to him,
By order of An and Enlil (abundance) shall be bestowed!"
Father Nanna stood in his city of Ur with head raised high (once again),
The hero Su'en entered into the Ekishnugal.
Ningal refreshed herself in her sacred living quarters,
In Ur she entered into her Ekishnugal. (Michalowski 1989, 67)

The composition ends with a description of the return of prosperity. Peace and justice are restored. The gods are praised.

May An not change the decrees of heaven, the plans to treat the people with justice,
May An not change the decisions and judgments to lead the people properly,
Travel on the roads of the land- may An not change it,
May An and Enlil not change it- may An not change it,
May Enki and Ninmah not change it- may An not change it,
That the Tigris and Euphrates (again) carry water- may An not change it,
That there (again) be rain in the skies and good crops on the ground- may An not change it,
That there be water courses with water and fields with grain- may An not change it,
That the marshes support fish and fowl- may An not change it,
That fresh reeds and new shoots grow in the canebrake- may An not change it,
May An and Enlil not change it,
May Enki and Ninmah not change it,
That the orchards bear honey-plants and grapevines- may An not change it,
That the high plain bear the mashgurum plant- may An not change it,
That there be long life in the palace- may An not change it,
That the sealand bring forth abundance- may An not change it,
That the land be populated from north to south- may An not change it,
May An and Enlil not change it- may An not change it,
May Enki and Ninmah not change it- may An not change it,
That cities be rebuilt, that the people be numerous- may An not change it,
That in the whole universe the people be cared for- may An not change it!
O Nanna, your kingship is sweet, return to your place!
May a good abundant reign be long lasting in Ur!
Let its people lie down in safe pastures, let them copulate!
O mankind... egi2-re mu-lu a-she-re.
O Nanna- oh, your city! Oh, your temple! Oh, your people! (Michalowski 1989, 69)

The beginning and end of a city's reign are equally part of the appointed order of events. But just as no reign can last forever, no war can last forever. War is only a temporary state, in order to bring about a certain end. After that, the world returns to its normal course, "the decrees of heaven, the plans to treat the people with justice." The gods created this world to be an abundant place for them to live, and so it is also an abundant place for people to live. While most of the composition laments the war, in the end peace is restored, and the text concludes with a listing of the goodness of the universe and the beneficence of the gods. This beneficence is the true divine decree.

War and the Gods

War is clearly attributed to the gods in these texts. Indeed, everything is attributed to the gods. It is the gods who cause war to begin, and it is the gods who cause war to end. It is the gods who decide who will win and who will lose, just as they decided that Ur should fall to the Gutians. If a human does go against the divine will and start a war, such as by disobeying the boundaries, that person will lose the battle, as Umma did. There do not seem to be any exceptions to this rule.

The divine decrees set up the world in good working order. It is not the normal course of events for there to be war or famine, no matter how often these things may occur. It seems from our current historical perspective that war was very common in Sumer, but the texts cited in this chapter state that war was not the ideal. Justice, peace, and prosperity were the ideal.

The gods organized the world so that it might be good to them. Since they created humans to work for them, and to provide them with housing, nourishment, and clothes, one would imagine that they would try to make human life as productive as possible, and war definitely cuts down on productivity. So why have it happen? One way out of this dilemma would be to imagine that war was caused by humans, and the gods did not decree it. That was not the position the Sumerians took, however.

Another fact that makes war seem even more unlikely is that it causes suffering to the gods as well. The cessation of commerce that is brought about by the destruction during war leaves the gods hungry and uncared for, and when cities are destroyed the gods' homes are also destroyed. It is the same as the situation seen in the Flood story. Why then do the gods cause these wars to happen? War seems entirely undesirable for humans and gods and the entire universe.

Part of the answer could be that not all of the gods decree wars. Some of them are fairly powerless to control the course of events in this way. When Nanna wanted the war to stop, instead of being able to make it cease he could only go and ask Enlil to end it. It seems that while some gods are consulted when deciding to start a war, others are not. Even if they are consulted, the gods are capable of making decisions in haste and then regretting them, as was seen in some of the creation stories and the Flood story. It's all well and good for them to know that the kingship ought to change, but once their temples are destroyed they start to think that maybe it's time to give up this action that formerly seemed correct and necessary.

It is said many times that the divine decrees cannot be overturned. Even so, it often looks to human eyes as if they are. First kingship of a certain city is decreed. Then war is decreed, overturning that kingship. Then, an end to the war is decreed, overturning the decree of war. This seems like a long series of mind-changing on the part of the gods. The "Lamentation" even begins, "To overturn the (appointed) time, to forsake the (preordained) plans, the storms gather to strike like a flood. To overturn the (divine) decrees of Sumer... (Michalowski 1989, 37)." Kingship was decreed, and now when Ur falls that is at first presented in the text as an overturning, a forsaking. Why can the kingship not just continue, the people ask?

The kingship cannot just continue because nothing continues forever. That is the final answer of the gods. This is no overturning- this was part of the decree from the beginning. Enlil says: "The destroyed city, the great wall, the walls with broken battlements: all this is part of the (appointed) reign (Michalowski 1989, 67)." There is a higher law than this kingship, and that is the law of impermanence. The kingship shall pass; the peace shall pass; the war shall pass; the famine shall pass; the feasting shall pass. This impermanence is the decree that cannot be overturned. This is divine justice.

Why? Why can nothing last? That is not answered. "O father Enlil, the fate that you have decreed cannot be explained (Michalowski 1989, 65)!" It is just the way things are, that is all the answer there is for us. People will have to learn to accept and deal with this fact. That acceptance is discussed in the next chapter.

link to Chapter Four