Ningishzidda’s (House in Gisbanda) Temple Hymn

The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature

(Texts: All Artifacts, Color Coding, & Writings in Bold Type With Italics Inside Parenthesis, are Added by Editor R. Brown, not the Authors, Translators, or Publishers!)

(gods in blue)

O primeval place, deep mountain founded in an artful fashion,

shrine, terrifying place lying in a pasture,

a dread whose lofty ways none can fathom,

Ĝišbanda, neck-stock, meshed net,

shackles of the great underworld from which none can escape,

your exterior is raised up, prominent like a snare,

your interior is where the sun rises, endowed with wide-spreading plenty.

Your prince is the prince who stretches out his pure hand, the holy one of heaven,

with luxuriant and abundant hair hanging at his back, lord Ninĝišzida.

2a - Ningishzidda, Master Builder, foundation peg   (Ningishzidda places the foundation peg to gods ziggurat temple residences)

Ninĝišzida has erected a house in your precinct,

O Ĝišbanda, and taken his seat upon your dais.

 

10 lines: the house of Ninĝišzida (Ningishzidda) in Ĝišbanda.