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194:. The world is turned upside down: righteous and unrighteous are killed alike. Erra orders Išum to complete the work by defeating Babylon's enemies. Then the god withdraws to his own seat in Emeslam with the terrifying Seven, and mankind is saved. A propitiatory prayer ends the work.
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The text appears to some readers to be a mythologisation of historic turmoil in
Mesopotamia, though scholars disagree as to the historic events that inspired the poem: the poet exclaims (tablet IV:3) "You changed out of your divinity and made yourself like a man."
170:(1983) call them "personified weapons". The Sibitti call on Erra to lead the destruction of mankind. Išum tries to mollify Erra's wakened violence, to no avail. Foreign peoples invade Babylonia, but are struck down by plague. Even
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The five tablets containing the Erra epos were first published in 1956, with an improved text, based on additional finds, appearing in 1969. Perhaps 70% of the poem has been recovered.
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plague god known from an 'epos' of the eighth century BCE. Erra is the god of mayhem and pestilence who is responsible for periods of political confusion. He was assimilated to
178:, relinquishes his throne to Erra for a time. Tablets II and III are occupied with a debate between Erra and Išum. Erra goes to battle in Babylon,
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The poem opens with an invocation. The god Erra is sleeping fitfully with his consort (identified with Mamītum and not with the mother goddess
309:.1 (January 1983, pp. 221-226) p. 221, prefer to withhold the expectations raised by "'myth', or worse, 'epic'" and simply call it "poem".
162:), who are the sons of heaven and earth—"champions without peer" is the repeated formula—and are each assigned a destructive destiny by
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The poem must have been central to
Babylonian culture: at least thirty-six copies have been recovered from five first-millennium sites—
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The
Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influences on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age
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Kabti-ilani-Marduk’s name has also surfaced in the “Catalogue of Texts and
Authors” from the
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following the text as simply the transcriber of a visionary dream in which Erra himself
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Amulet to ward off plague inscribed with a quotation from the
Akkadian Erra Epic.
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critical edition and translation of the text (electronic
Babylonian Library).
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text soon assumed magical functions Parts of the text were inscribed on
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tablets is not securely known. (Machinist and Sasson 1983:221 note 2).
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Rafael Jiménez
Zamudio, '"El Poema de Erra" Ediciones Clásicas(1999).
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noted the consonance of the purely mythic seven led by Erra with the
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against the plague. The Seven are known from a range of
Akkadian
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Nergal and
Ereshkigal: Re-enchanting the Mesopotamian Underworld
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names vary, but their number, seven, is invariable.
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Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses: Erra (god)
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131:In the epic that is given the modern title
302:, "Rest and Violence in the Poem of Erra"
452:The Book of Ezekiel and the Poem of Erra
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304:Journal of the American Oriental Society
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50:L:1.81 in (4.6 cm)
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483:P. Felix Gössmann, editor.
455:. Saint-Paul. p. 104.
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383:Among the Greeks the
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267:, widely assumed by
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535:Burkert 1992:108ff.
506:Cagni, L. editor.
431:, 1992, p. 109-10.
111:(sometimes called
574:Mesopotamian gods
487:(WĂĽrzburg) 1956.
462:978-3-525-53736-7
425:Burkert, Walter.
220:Epic of Gilgamesh
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69:Neo-Assyrian
584:Plague gods
447:Daniel Bodi
442:Daniel Bodi
248:incantation
60:800–612 BCE
22:Erra amulet
563:Categories
416:.3 (1977).
269:Hellenists
211:Sultantepe
242:and as a
88:Room 55,
449:(1991).
353:V, 42-61
275:See also
240:exorcism
137:colophon
117:Akkadian
115:) is an
92:, London
39:Material
579:Amulets
468:18 July
252:demonic
236:amulets
207:Nineveh
203:Babylon
176:Babylon
160:Sebetti
156:Sibitti
101:118998
57:Created
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385:Titans
180:Sippar
172:Marduk
168:Sasson
121:Nergal
287:Notes
199:Assur
79:Ashur
75:Place
470:2012
457:ISBN
411:SANE
398:Erra
351:Erra
232:Erra
230:The
213:and
190:and
184:Uruk
152:Išum
148:Mami
133:Erra
113:Irra
109:Erra
47:Size
510:in
336:JCS
307:103
192:DÄ“r
164:Anu
158:or
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515:34
339:16
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215:Ur
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