Wilfred G. Lambert On The Link Between Sumerian Epics And Babylonian Epics

Wikipedia:

Wilfred George Lambert FBA (26 February 1926 – 9 November 2011) was a British historian and archaeologist, a specialist in Assyriology and Near Eastern Archaeology.

. . .Lambert taught and researched at the University of Birmingham for thirty years, during which period he made weekly trips to work on deciphering cuneiform tablets in the British Museum. After retirement, he worked with the Museum on their Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals Project, dealing with the inscriptions on the seals. In January 2010, Professor Lambert and Irving Finkel identified pieces from a cuneiform tablet that was inscribed with the same text as the Cyrus Cylinder.

Lambert was an external consultant for the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary. His work, ‘Introduction: the transmission of the literary and scholarly texts’, in Cuneiform Texts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art II: Literary and scholastic texts of the first millennium BC, was used as background material for The Higher Education Academy’s project, Knowledge and Power in the Neo-Assyrian Empire. He was also noted for his new discoveries in relation to the Gilgamesh text.

. . .Lambert was widely regarded as one of the foremost Assyriologists of the 20th century, known for his meticulous philological work and contributions to the decipherment and interpretation of cuneiform texts. His scholarship significantly advanced the understanding of Mesopotamian religion, wisdom literature, and mythology. Among his most influential works is Babylonian Wisdom Literature (1960), which brought new attention to ancient Near Eastern didactic and philosophical texts, including dialogues, fables, and instructions. He also played a critical role in the study and reconstruction of the Enūma Eliš, the Babylonian creation epic, and provided authoritative editions of Akkadian texts that remain standard references in the field.

Beyond his publications, Lambert contributed to the field through decades of teaching at the University of Birmingham and active participation in major international research projects, including work with the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary and the State Archives of Assyria. His expertise in Sumerian and Akkadian lexicography, as well as his comparative approach to Mesopotamian and biblical traditions, earned him widespread respect. Lambert was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1971, a recognition of his scholarly impact and intellectual leadership in ancient Near Eastern studies.

An excerpt from, “Babylonian wisdom literature” by Wilfred George Lambert, 1960, Oxford University Press, Pg. 6:

When considering Babylonian epics it is necessary to bear in mind how much is directly owed to Sumerian forerunners. The Descent of Ištar, to take the obvious example, is nothing but a free rewriting of the Sumerian Descent of Inanna. Even where the actual story is not proved to be of Sumerian origin the motifs and phraseology can be strongly influenced by Sumerian. It will be understood that Babylonian epics are under a burden of tradition, for which their change in outlook is all the more remarkable. The nearest approach to Enki’s libertinism in the whole range of Babylonian literature is in an incantation which describes how Sin, the moon god, fell in love with one of his cows called Geme-Suena (‘Handmaid-of-Sin”), assumed the form of a bull, and secretly mated with her. It is probably one of those old elements which have survived in incantations with their “fresh earthy pregnance”, to quote a phrase of Landsberger, and this metamorphosis of the god is better paralleled in Canaanite and classical Greek myths than in Mesopotamian sources. In general the gods of Babylonian epics are more respectable, if more dull. Era, as already noted, does not let loose destruction without first persuading Marduk and the other gods of its desirability. In the Gilgamesh Epic Ištar wishes to send a destructive divine bull to earth for revenge on Gilgameš, who had insulted her. By correct etiquette she begs permission from her father Anu, who only grants it after making careful inquiry if his daughter’s intemperate revenge may not lead to the extinction of mankind by famine. Ištar satisfies her father, and use of the divine bull is sanctioned. Another daughter of Anu, the demon Lamaštu, so provoked her father by her improper designs that he forthwith kicked her from heaven to earth. In divine families naughty children have to be punished just as among humans. Two Babylonian epics do centre on fighting among the gods: the Zú Myth, in which the demon god Zû steals the Tablet of Destiny (a literal cuneiform tablet laying down the status quo), and the Epic of Creation, in which the old generation of gods, angry with the younger for its noise, try to destroy them, but are themselves destroyed by Marduk. In both of these epics the main body of gods are assumed to be in the right. Zů, the irresponsible demon, has robbed them of a thing the loss of which could bring chaos on the universe. In the Epic of Creation a primeval monster is threatening extinction on the gods and has to be faced. The responsible gods sit in committee like a group of civil servants, until a junior member is prevailed upon to take up the cause.

Despite the odd misdemeanour, the Mesopotamian gods learnt the art of being good citizens by 1000 B.c. The very fact that many of the old myths, such as the Paradise Myth, were not passed on is evidence of the change of outlook.