Editing Akkadian literature

{{Short description|Mesopotamian writings, 23rd–6th century BC}}
{{History of literature by era}}
'''Akkadian literature''' is the [[ancient literature]] written in the [[East Semitic languages|East Semitic]] [[Akkadian language]] ([[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] and [[Babylonian language|Babylonian]] dialects) in [[Mesopotamia]] ([[Akkadian Empire|Akkadian]], [[Assyria]] and [[Babylonia]]) during the period spanning the [[Middle Bronze Age]] to the [[Iron Age]] (roughly the 25th to 4th centuries BC).<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3dzgo7Ymey4C&q=Babylonian%20and%20Assyrian%20Literature|title=Babylonian and Assyrian Literature|first=Epiphanius|last=Wilson|date=1 June 2006|publisher=Echo Library|isbn=9781406804898|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>Silvestro Fiore, Voices from the Clay: The Development of Assyro-Babylonian Literature. U. of Oklahoma Press.</ref>

Drawing on the traditions of [[Sumerian literature]], the [[Akkadians]], [[Assyrians]] and [[Babylonia]]ns compiled a substantial textual tradition of mythological narrative, legal texts, scientific works, letters and other literary forms. Conversely, Akkadian also influenced Sumerian literature.

==Literature in Akkadian society==
Most of what we have from the Assyrians and Babylonians was inscribed in [[cuneiform (script)|cuneiform]] with a metal stylus on tablets of clay, called ''laterculae coctiles'' by [[Pliny the Elder]];  [[papyrus]] seems to have also been utilised, but not been preserved.<ref name=EB1911/>

There were libraries in most towns and temples in Sumer, Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia; an old [[Sumer]]ian proverb averred that "he who would excel in the school of the scribes must rise with the dawn." Women as well as men learned to read and write, and after the time the Sumerians themselves had been absorbed by the Semites circa 2000 BC, this involved a knowledge of the extinct [[Sumerian language]], and a complicated and extensive syllabary. The Assyrians and Babylonians' very advanced systems of writing, science, medicine, civil administration, legal and economic structures and mathematics contributed greatly to their literary output.<ref name=EB1911/>

Many works of Akkadian literature were commissioned by kings who had scribes and scholars in their service. Some of these works served to celebrate the king or the divine, while others recorded information for religious practices or medicine. Poetry, proverbs, folktales, love lyrics, military campaigns and accounts of disputes were all incorporated into Akkadian literature.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lenzi |first=Alan |url= |title=An Introduction to Akkadian Literature: Contexts and Content |date=2020-01-10 |publisher=Penn State Press |isbn=978-1-64602-030-0 |language=en |chapter=Introduction}}</ref>

==Relation to other ancient literatures==
[[File:Cardiff Castle - Bibliothek Allegorien Literatur 3 Assyrisch.jpg|thumb|[[Cardiff Castle]] (Wales). Castle apartments: Library (1870s) - ''Allegory of Assyrian literature'' (relief by [[Thomas Nicholls (sculptor)|Thomas Nicholls]]).]]

A considerable amount of Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian literature was translated from Sumerian originals, and the language of religion and law long continued to be the old agglutinative language of Sumer, which was a [[language isolate]]. Vocabularies, grammars, and interlinear translations were compiled for the use of students, as well as commentaries on the older texts and explanations of obscure words and phrases. The characters of the syllabary were all arranged and named, and elaborate lists of them were drawn up.<ref name=EB1911/>

[[Assyria]]n culture and literature came from the same source as Babylonia, but even here, there was a difference between the two ethnolinguistically similar countries. Assyrian literature was similar to that of Babylonia, however, in the early periods, education was mostly restricted to a single class of society in Assyria, unlike Babylonia.  Under the second Assyrian empire, when [[Nineveh]] had become a great centre of trade, [[Aramaic]] &mdash; the language of commerce and diplomacy &mdash; was added to the number of subjects that the educated class was required to learn, dialects of which still survive among the [[Assyrian people]] today.<ref name=EB1911/>

Under the [[Seleucid dynasty|Seleucids]], [[Greek language|Greek]] was introduced into Babylon, and fragments of tablets have been found with Sumerian and Assyrian (i.e. Semitic) words transcribed into Greek letters.<ref name=EB1911/>

==Notable works==
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.<ref>{{ cite book | title = Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization | url = https://archive.org/details/ancientmesopotam0000oppe | url-access = registration | author = A. Leo Oppenheim | publisher = University Of Chicago Press | year = 1977 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/ancientmesopotam0000oppe/page/16 16–17] | isbn = 9780226631868 }}</ref>

===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-nirari I#The Adad-nārārī epic|Adad-nārārī]], [[Tukulti-Ninurta Epic|Tukulti-Ninurta]], and [[Shalmaneser III|Šulmānu-ašarēdu III]] and the annals which catalogued the campaigns of the neo-Assyrian monarchs. The earliest historical royal epic is, however, that of [[Zimrilim|Zimri-Lim]] ({{Circa|1710}}–1698 BC [[Short chronology timeline|short]]) of [[Mari, Syria|Mari]]. Similar literature of the middle Babylonian period is rather poorly preserved with a fragmentary epic of the [[Kassites|Kassite]] period, that of [[Adad-shuma-usur|Adad-šuma-uṣur]] and of [[Nebuchadnezzar I|Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur I]] and [[Marduk]].<ref>{{ cite book | title = Companion to Ancient Epic | chapter = Comparative Observations on the Near Eastern Epic Traditions | author = Jack M. Sasson | editor = John M. Foley | publisher = Wiley-Blackwell | year = 2005 | page = 221 }}</ref>

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 [[Nabu-nasir|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.<ref>[https://archive.today/20121212130021/http://cdli.ucla.edu/cdlisearch/search/index.php?SearchMode=Text&txtID_Txt=P274721 UET 6/2, 414]</ref> 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.<ref>{{ cite journal | title = Humor and Cuneiform Literature | author = Benjamin R. Foster | journal = JANES | volume = 6 | year = 1974 | page = 82 }}</ref>

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<ref>{{ cite journal | title = Structure, Humor, and Satire in the Poor Man of Nippur | author = J. S. Cooper | journal = Journal of Cuneiform Studies | volume = 27 | number = 3 | date = Jul 1975 | pages = 163–174 | doi=10.2307/1359242| jstor = 1359242 | s2cid = 163822119 }}</ref> while [[Ninurta-Pāqidāt's Dog Bite]] is a school text of a slapstick nature.<ref>{{ cite journal | title = Ninurta-Pāqidāt's Dog Bite, and Notes on Other Comic Tales | author = A. R. George | journal = Iraq | volume = 55 | jstor = 4200367 | year = 1993 | pages = 63–75 | doi = 10.2307/4200367 | s2cid = 192947135 }}</ref>

===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 Hammurabi|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 [[Hammurabi|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 [[Ashur-uballit I|Aššur-uballiṭ I]], c. 1360 BC, to [[Tiglath-Pileser I|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]].<ref>{{ cite book | title = Tight Fists Or Open Hands?: Wealth and Poverty in Old Testament Law | author = D. L. Baker | publisher = Wm. B. Eerdmans | year = 2009 | pages = 4–6 }}</ref>

===Mythology===
One of the most famous of these was the ''[[Epic of Gilgamesh]]'',<ref name=EB1911/> which first appears in Akkadian during the Old Babylonian period as a circa 1,000 line epic known by its incipit, ''šūtur eli šarrī'', ‘‘Surpassing all other kings,’’ incorporating some of the stories from the five earlier Sumerian Gilgamesh tales. A plethora of mid to late second millennium versions give witness to its popularity. The Standard Babylonian version, ''ša naqba īmeru'', ‘‘He who saw the deep,’’ contains up to 3,000 lines on eleven tablets and a prose meditation on the fate of man on the twelfth which was virtually a word-for-word translation of the Sumerian “Bilgames and the Netherworld.” It is extant in 73 copies and was credited to a certain [[Sîn-lēqi-unninni]]<ref>{{ cite book | title = The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts, Volume 1 | author = A. R. George | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2003 | pages = 22–33, 379 }}</ref> 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.<ref name=EB1911/>

Another epic was that of the "Creation" ''[[Enûma Eliš]]'', whose object was to glorify [[Bel (god)|Bel]]-[[Marduk]] by describing his contest with [[Tiamat]], the dragon of chaos. In the first book, an account is given of the creation of the world from the primeval deep, and the birth of the gods of light. Then comes the story of the struggle between the gods of light and the powers of darkness, and the final victory of Marduk, who clove Tiamat asunder, forming the heaven from half of her body and the earth from the other. Marduk next arranged the stars in order, along with the sun and moon, and gave them laws they were never to transgress. After this, the plants and animals were created, and finally man. Marduk here takes the place of [[Ea (Babylonian god)|Ea]], who appears as the creator in the older legends, and is said to have fashioned man from clay.<ref name=EB1911/>

The legend of Adapa, the first man — a portion of which was [[Amarna letters|found]] in [[Bureau of Correspondence of Pharaoh|the record-office]] of the Egyptian king [[Akhenaton]] at [[Amarna|Tell-el-Amarna]] — explains the origin of death. Adapa, while fishing, had broken the wings of the south wind, and was accordingly summoned before the tribunal of [[Anu]] in heaven. Ea counselled him not to eat or drink anything there. He followed this advice, and thus refused the food that would have made him and his descendants immortal.<ref name=EB1911/>

Among the other legends of Babylonia may be mentioned those of [[Namtar]], the plague-demon; of [[Erra (god)|Erra]], the pestilence; of [[Etana]] and of [[Zu (god)|Anzu]]. Hades, the abode of [[Ereshkigal]] or [[Allatu]], had been entered by [[Nergal]], who, angered by a message sent to her by the gods of the upper world, ordered Namtar to strike off her head. She, however, declared that she would submit to any conditions imposed on her, and would give Nergal the sovereignty of the earth. Nergal accordingly relented, and Allatu became the queen of the infernal world. Etana conspired with the eagle to fly to the highest heaven. The first gate, that of Anu, was successfully reached; but in ascending still farther to the gate of [[Ishtar]], the strength of the eagle gave way, and Etanna was dashed to the ground. As for the storm-god Anzu, we are told that he stole the tablets of destiny, and therewith the prerogatives of [[Enlil]]. God after god was ordered to pursue him and recover them, but it would seem that it was only by a stratagem that they were finally regained.<ref name=EB1911/>

===Omens, divination and incantation texts===

The magnitude of omen literature within the Akkadian corpus is one of the peculiar distinguishing features of this language's legacy. According to Oppenheim, 30% of all documents of this tradition are of this genre.<ref>{{cite book | title = The world's oldest literature: studies in Sumerian belles-lettres | url = https://archive.org/details/worldsoldestlite00hall | url-access = limited | author = W. Hallo | publisher = Brill | year = 2009 | page = [https://archive.org/details/worldsoldestlite00hall/page/n39 7] | isbn = 9789004173811 }}</ref> 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), [[Summa izbu|Šumma izbu]] (anomalous births), [[Esagil-kin-apli#Alamdimmû|Alamdimmû]] (physiognomic omens), and [[Iškar Zaqīqu]] (dream omens). It is among this genre, also, that the [[Esagil-kin-apli#The Sakikkū (SA.GIG)|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.<ref>{{cite book | title = Babylonian Liver Omens: The Chapters Manzazu, Padanu, and Pan Takalti of the Babylonian Extispicy Series Mainly from Assurbanipal's Library | author = Ulla Koch-Westenholz | publisher = Museum Tusculanum | year = 2000 | page = 9 }}</ref> Divination, however, extended into other fields with, for example, the old Babylonian [[libanomancy]] texts, concerning interpreting portents from incense smoke,<ref>{{ cite journal | title =A New Piece of Libanomancy | author = I. L. Finkel | journal = Archiv für Orientforschung | volume = 29 | year = 1983 | pages = 50–57 }}</ref> being one and Bēl-nadin-šumi's omen text on the flight paths of birds, composed during the reign of [[Kassites|Kassite]] king [[Meli-Shipak II|Meli-Šipak]], being another exemplar.<ref>{{cite journal | title = Bird Divination in Mesopotamia - New Evidence From BM 108874 | author = Nicla De Zorzi | journal = KASKAL: Rivista di storia, ambienti e culture del Vicino Oriente Antico | volume = 6 | year = 2009 | pages = 91–94 }}</ref>

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, [[Utukku|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.<ref>{{cite journal | title = The Dogs of Ninkilim, part two: Babylonian rituals to counter field pests | author = A. R. George and Junko Taniguchi | journal = Iraq | volume = LXXII | year = 2010 | pages = 79–148 | doi = 10.1017/S0021088900000607 | s2cid = 190713244 | url = https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/10101/1/IRAQ72_0006_offprint.pdf }}</ref>

===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.<ref name=clifford>{{cite book | title = Wisdom Literature in Mesopotamia and Israel | author = Victor Avigdor Hurowitz | editor = Richard J. Clifford | publisher = SBL | year = 2007 | pages = xi–xiii, 37–51 }}</ref> 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''.<ref>{{cite book | title = Dispute poems and dialogues in the ancient and mediaeval Near East | chapter = Some Questions About the Akkadian Disputes | author = Marianna E. Vogelzang | editor = aG.J. Reinink and aH.L.J. Vanstiphout | publisher = Peeters | year = 1991 | page = 47 }}</ref>

[[Wilfred G. Lambert|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.<ref name=clifford/> There are also Akkadian translations of earlier [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] works such as the [[Instructions of Shuruppak]] which are often considered belonging to this tradition.

=== Disputation poems ===
{{Main|Akkadian disputations}}
The Akkadian disputation poem or Akkadian debate, also known as the Babylonian disputation poem, is a genre of Akkadian literature in the form of a [[disputation]]. They feature a dialogue or a debate involving two contenders, usually cast as inarticulate beings such as particular objects, plants, animals, and so forth. Extant compositions from this genre date from the early 2nd millennium BC, the earliest example being the ''[[Tamarisk and Palm]]'', to the late 1st millennium BC. These poems occur in verse and follow a type of meter called 2||2 or ''Vierheber'', which is the same meter found in some other Akkadian texts like the [[Enūma Eliš|Enuma Elish]].<ref>* {{Cite book |last=Jiménez |first=Enrique |url=https://brill.com/display/title/32443 |title=The Babylonian Disputation Poems |date=2017 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-33625-4}}</ref>

===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]].<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911|wstitle=Babylonia and Assyria|volume=3|pages=99-112|inline=1}}</ref>

===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]]
• [[Addagoppe of Harran|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]]
• [[Naram-Sin of Akkad#The Curse of Akkad|Curse of Akkad]]
• [[Cuthean Legend of Naram-Sin]]
• [[Dialogue between a Man and His God]]
• [[Dialogue of Pessimism]]
• [[Dingir.šà.dib.ba]]
• [[Donkey Disputation]] 
•  [[Kurigalzu II#The dream of Kurigalzu|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 Gilgamesh|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 muḫḫašu)|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 ==
{{Portal|Literature}}
* [[Ancient literature]]
* [[Ancient near eastern cosmology]]

== Further reading ==
*[[Shin Shifra]] (2008). ''Words as Magic and the Magic in Words''. Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, The Israeli Ministry of Defence Press (in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]). These are transcriptions of Shifra's discourses on literature of the Ancient Near East, first broadcast as a "University on the Air" course on the Israeli [[Army Radio]].

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Ancient Mesopotamia}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Akkadian literature| ]]
[[Category:Babylonia]]
[[Category:History of Assyria]]