According to
A. Leo Oppenheim, the corpus of cuneiform literature amounted to around 1,500 texts at any one time or place, approximately half of which, at least from the first millennium, is extant in fragmentary form, and the most common genres included (in order of predominance) are omen texts,
lexical lists, ritual incantations, cathartic and apotropaic conjurations, historical and mythological epics, fables and proverbs.
Annals, chronicles and historical epics The Assyrian dialect of Akkadian is particularly rich in royal inscriptions from the end of the 14th century BC onward, for example the epics of
Adad-nārārī,
Tukulti-Ninurta, and
Šulmānu-ašarēdu III and the annals which catalogued the campaigns of the neo-Assyrian monarchs. The earliest historical royal epic is, however, that of
Zimri-Lim (–1698 BC
short) of
Mari. Similar literature of the middle Babylonian period is rather poorly preserved with a fragmentary epic of the
Kassite period, that of
Adad-šuma-uṣur and of
Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur I and
Marduk. The chronicle traditional is first attested in the compositions of the early Iron Age which hark back to earlier times, such as the
Chronicle of Early Kings, the
Dynastic Chronicle,
Chronicle P and the Assyrian
Synchronistic History. A series of fifteen neo to late
Babylonian Chronicles have been recovered which narrate the period spanning
Nabû-nasir (747–734 BC) to
Seleucus III Ceraunus (243–223 BC) and were derived from the political events described in
Babylonian astronomical diaries.
Humorous literature Exemplars of comical texts span the genres of burlesque to satire and include humorous love poems and riddles. “At the cleaners” is a tale of the dispute between an insolent scrubber and his client, a “sophomoric fop” who lectures the cleaner in ridiculous detail on how to launder his clothes, driving the exasperated cleaner to suggest that he lose no time in taking it to the river and doing it himself. The
Dialogue of Pessimism was seen as a saturnalia by Böhl, where master and servant switch roles, and as a burlesque by Speiser, where a fatuous master mouthes clichés and a servant echoes him. Lambert considered it a musing of a mercurial adolescent with suicidal tendencies. The
Aluzinnu (“trickster,” a jester, clown or buffoon) text, extant in five fragments from the neo-Assyrian period concerns an individual,
dābibu, ākil karṣi, “character assassin,” who made a living entertaining others with parodies, mimicry, and scatological songs. The
Poor Man of Nippur provides a subversive narrative of the triumph of the underdog over his superior while
Ninurta-Pāqidāt's Dog Bite is a school text of a slapstick nature.
Laws The earliest Akkadian laws are the “Old Assyrian Laws” relating to the conduct of the commercial court of a trading colony in Anatolia, c. 1900 BC. The
Laws of Eshnunna were a collection of sixty laws named for the city of its provenance and dating to around 1770 BC. The
Code of Ḫammu-rapi, c. 1750 BC, was the longest of the Mesopotamian legal collections, extending to nearly three hundred individual laws and accompanied by a lengthy prologue and epilogue. The edict of
Ammi-Saduqa, c. 1646 BC, was the last issued by one of
Ḫammu-rapi’s successors. The Middle Assyrian Laws date to the fourteenth century BC, over a hundred laws are extant from
Assur. The Middle Assyrian Palace Decrees, known as the “Harem Edicts,” from the reigns of
Aššur-uballiṭ I, c. 1360 BC, to
Tukultī-apil-Ešarra I, c. 1076 BC, concern aspects of courtly etiquette and the severe penalties (flagellation, mutilation and execution) for flouting them. The Neo-Babylonian Laws number just fifteen, c. 700 BC, probably from
Sippar.
Mythology One of the most famous of these was the
Epic of Gilgamesh, and arranged upon an astronomical principle. Each division contains the story of a single adventure in the career of
Gilgamesh, king of
Uruk. The whole story is a composite product, and it is probable that some of the stories are artificially attached to the central figure. Exemplars of omen text appear during the earliest periods of Akkadian literature but come to their maturity early in the first millennium with the formation of canonical versions. Notable among these is the
Enuma Anu Enlil (astrological omens),
Šumma ālu (terrestrial omens),
Šumma izbu (anomalous births),
Alamdimmû (physiognomic omens), and
Iškar Zaqīqu (dream omens). It is among this genre, also, that the
Sakikkū (SA.GIG) “Diagnostic Handbook” belongs. The practice of
extispicy, divination through the entrails of animals, was formalized into a science over the millennia by the Babylonians and supporting texts were eventually gathered into a monumental handbook, the
Bārûtu, extending over a hundred tablets and divided into ten chapters. Divination, however, extended into other fields with, for example, the old Babylonian
libanomancy texts, concerning interpreting portents from incense smoke, being one and Bēl-nadin-šumi's omen text on the flight paths of birds, composed during the reign of
Kassite king
Meli-Šipak, being another exemplar. Incantations form an important part of this literary heritage, covering a range of rituals from the sacred,
Maqlû, "burning" to counter witchcraft,
Šurpu, “incineration” to counter curses,
Namburbi, to preempt inauspicious omens,
Utukkū Lemnūtu (actually bilingual), to exorcise “Evil Demons,” and
Bīt rimki, or “bath house,” the purification and substitution ceremony, to the mundane,
Šà.zi.ga, “the rising of the heart,” potency spells, and
Zu-buru-dabbeda, “to seize the ‘locust tooth’,” a compendium of incantations against field pests.
Wisdom and didactic literature A particularly rich genre of Akkadian texts was that represented by the moniker of “wisdom literature,” although there are differences in opinion concerning which works qualify for inclusion. One of the earliest exemplars was the
Dialogue between a Man and His God from the late Old Babylonian period. Perhaps the most notable were the
Poem of the Righteous Sufferer (
Ludlul bēl nēmeqi) and the
Babylonian Theodicy. Included in this group are a number of fables or contest literature, in varying states of preservation, such as the
Tamarisk and the Palm, the
Fable of the Willow,
Nisaba and Wheat (kibtu), the
Ox and the Horse (Inum Ištar šurbutum, “When exalted Ishtar”), the
Fable of the Fox, and the
Fable of the Riding-donkey.
W. G. Lambert and others include several popular sayings, and proverbs (both bilingual and Babylonian) together with the
Lament of a Sufferer with a Prayer to Marduk,
Counsels of Wisdom,
Counsels of a Pessimist, and
Advice to a Prince in this genre. “A Dialogue between Šūpê-amēli and His Father” (Šimâ milka) is a piece of wisdom literature in the manner of a deathbed debate from the Akkadian hinterland.
Other genres Besides the purely literary works, there were others of varied nature, including collections of letters, partly official, partly private. Among them the most interesting are the letters of
Hammurabi, which have been edited by
Leonard William King.
List of works The following gives the better-known extant works, excluding lexical and synonym lists.
Abnu šikinšu •
Adad-nārārī I Epic •
Adad-šuma-uṣur Epic •
Adapa and Enmerkar •
Adapa and the South Wind •
Advice to a Prince •
Agushaya Hymn •
Alamdimmû •
Aluzinnu text •
Ardat-lili •
Asakkū marṣūtu •
Ašipus' Almanac (or Handbook) •
At the cleaners •
Atra-ḫasīs •
Autobiography of Adad-guppī •
Autobiography of Kurigalzu •
Autobiography of Marduk •
Babylonian Almanac •
Babylonian King List •
Babylonian Theodicy •
Bārûtu •
Birth legend of Sargon •
Bīt mēseri •
Bīt rimki •
Bīt salā’ mê •
Bullussa-rabi’s Hymn to Gula •
Catalogue of Texts and Authors •
Chronicle of Early Kings •
Chronicle of the Market Prices •
Chronicle of reign of Šulgi •
Chronicle P •
Code of Hammurabi •
Consecration of a priest •
Counsels of a Pessimist •
Counsels of Wisdom •
Crimes and Sacrileges of Nabu-šuma-iškun •
Curse of Akkad •
Cuthean Legend of Naram-Sin •
Dialogue between a Man and His God •
Dialogue of Pessimism •
Dingir.šà.dib.ba •
Donkey Disputation •
Dream of Kurigalzu •
Dynastic Chronicle •
Dynastic Prophecy •
Dynasty of Dunnum (
Harab Myth) •
Eclectic Chronicle •
Edict of Ammi-Saduqa •
Egalkura spells •
Elegies Mourning the Death of Tammuz •
Enlil and Sud •
Enuma Anu Enlil •
Enûma Eliš •
Epic of Anzu •
Epic of Gilgameš •
Epic of the Kassite period •
Epic of Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur •
Epic of the plague-god Erra (Erra and Išum) •
Etana •
Fable of the Fox •
Fable of the Riding-donkey •
Fable of the Willow •
Girra and Elamatum •
Great Prayer to Šamaš •
Great Prayer to Nabû •
Great Revolt Against Naram-Sin •
Harem Edicts •
Hemerology for Nazi-Maruttaš •
Hymn to Ištar (“Ištar 2”) •
Hymn to Ninurta as Savior •
Hymn to the Queen of Nippur •
Ḫulbazizi •
Inana's Ascent •
Iqqur Ipuš •
Iškar Zaqīqu •
Ištar’s hell ride •
Kalûtu catalogue •
KAR 6 •
Kataduggû •
Kedor-laomer texts •
Kettledrum rituals •
King of Battle (šar tamḫāri) •
Ki'utu •
Labbu myth •
Lamaštu •
Lament of a Sufferer with a Prayer to Marduk •
Laws of Eshnunna •
Lipšur litanies •
Ludlul bēl nēmeqi •
Maqlû •
Marduk's Address to the Demons •
Marduk Prophecy •
Middle Assyrian Laws •
Mîs-pî •
Moon god and the cow •
Mukīl rēš lemutti •
MUL.APIN •
Muššu'u •
Na'id-Šihu Epic •
Nabonidus Chronicle •
Namburbi •
Namerimburrudû •
Neo-Babylonian Laws •
Nergal and Ereškigal •
New year ritual-Akitu procession •
Nigdimdimmû •
Ninurta-Pāqidāt's Dog Bite •
Nissaba and the Wheat •
Ox and the Horse •
Palm and Vine •
Pazuzu •
Poor Man of Nippur •
Prophecy A •
Qutāru •
Recipes against Antašubba •
Religious Chronicle •
Royal inscription of Simbar-Šipak •
Sag-gig-ga-meš (Muruṣ qaqqadi) •
Sakikkū •
Salmānu-ašarēdu III Epic •
Synchronistic History •
A Syncretistic Hymn to Ištar •
Șēru šikinšu •
Šammu šikinšu •
Šar Pūḫî •
Šà.zi.ga •
Series of Ox and Horse •
Series of the Fox •
Series of Ox and Horse •
Series of the Poplar •
Series of the Spider •
Šēp lemutti •
Story of the Poor, Forlorn Wren •
Šu'ila •
Šulgi Prophecy •
Šumma ālu •
Šumma amēlu kašip •
Šumma immeru •
Šumma Izbu •
Šumma liptu •
Šumma sinništu qaqqada rabât •
Šurpu •
Tākultu ritual texts •
Tamarisk and Palm •
Tamītu Oracles •
Tašritu hemerology •
Tukulti-Ninurta Epic •
Tu-ra kìlib-ba • The therapeutic series
UGU (Šumma amēlu muḫḫašu umma ukāl) •
Uruhulake of Gula •
Uruk King List •
Uruk Prophecy •
Ušburruda •
Utukkū Lemnūtu •
Verse Account of Nabonidus •
Vision of the Netherworld •
Walker Chronicle •
Weidner Chronicle •
Zimri-Lim Epic •
Zi-pà incantations •
Zisurrû (Sag-ba Sag-ba) •
Zu-buru-dabbeda == See also ==