Enmerkar and Ensuhgirana
Also known as: Enmerkar and Ensuhkešdanna, Enmerkar and Ensuhgirana, Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta II
A Sumerian court-poem in which Enmerkar of Uruk contests with En-suhgir-ana (Ensuhkešdanna) of Aratta for supremacy under Inanna’s patronage, trading boasts, riddles, and diplomatic challenges until Aratta yields.
Description
The poem stages a rivalry between Uruk and mountainous Aratta, with Inanna’s favor as the decisive token of kingship. Enmerkar asserts Uruk’s precedence and sends a herald to Aratta with demands that mix cultic obligations and political submission. En-suhgir-ana answers through counter-boasts and a riddle-challenge meant to shame Uruk. After the herald’s extended recitations and a wisdom-test resolved by a sage woman aligned with Uruk, Aratta concedes the contest and recognizes Uruk’s primacy. The narrative champions Inanna’s cult at Uruk and frames royal legitimacy as a fusion of divine patronage, eloquence, and cunning rather than brute force.
Historiography
Transmitted in multiple fragmentary tablets from the Ur III and Old Babylonian periods, the poem belongs to the Enmerkar–Aratta cycle alongside “Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta.” Modern editions reconcile overlapping witnesses with variant lines and episode ordering. Scholars read it as courtly ideology for Uruk, emphasizing Inanna’s patronage and cultural supremacy over highland polities. The text’s disputation and riddle scenes connect it with Sumerian wisdom traditions and rhetorical display pieces.
Date Notes
Sumerian poem preserved on Ur III and Old Babylonian tablets; part of the Enmerkar–Aratta cycle likely drawing on earlier oral traditions.
Archetypes
Major Characters
- Enmerkar
- Ensuhgirana
- Inanna
- The Messenger
Myths
- The Sorcerers’ Contest between Uruk and Aratta
- Inanna’s Favor and the Subduing of Aratta
Facts
- Belongs to the Enmerkar–Aratta narrative cycle centered on Uruk’s primacy.
- Contrasts lowland Uruk with highland Aratta through rhetoric rather than warfare.
- Inanna’s patronage functions as the ultimate ground of royal legitimacy.
- Features a formal exchange of messages delivered by a single herald.
- Includes a wisdom riddle resolved by a sage woman named Sagburu.
- Depicts tribute and cultic obligations owed by Aratta to Uruk.
- Shares motifs with Sumerian disputation and proverb traditions.
- Likely compiled from earlier oral materials into Ur III/Old Babylonian written form.
- Closely related in setting and ideology to “Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta.”
- Emphasizes eloquence, cleverness, and divine sanction over martial conquest.