Enmerkar And The Lord Of Aratta Rivalry

242 Words1 Pages
Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta was a narrative composed during the Old Babylonian period. This Sumerian text, coming from the site of Nippur and contains about 640 lines divided into sections of equal length. It is the longest text in a group of four and is said to be one of “the finest piece of poetic storytelling ever produced by the Old Babylonian authors” (Vanstiphout 49). The text describes the infamous rivalry between the city of Unug-Kulab (Uruk) and the mountain city/town of Aratta. This rivalry has been described in three other texts as well as this one. In each of the texts, the lord of Kulab, Enmerkar, goes to battle or challenges Aratta. In “Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta,” the rivalry is similar to those seen in the other texts,