- Enmerkar
Enmerkar, according to the
Sumerian king list , was the builder ofUruk inSumer , and was said to have reigned for "420 years" (or 900 as some copies).The king list adds that he brought the official kingship with him from the city of
E-ana , after his fatherMesh-ki-ang-gasher , son ofUtu , had "entered the sea and disappeared."Enmerkar is also known from a few other Sumerian legends, most notably "
Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta ", where a previous confusion of the languages of mankind is mentioned. Here, he himself is called 'the son of Utu' (Utu was the Sumerian Sun god). In addition to founding Uruk, he is said here to have had a temple built atEridu , and is even credited with the invention of writing on clay tablets for purposes of threateningAratta into submission.David Rohl has claimed parallels between Enmerkar, founder of Uruk, and Nimrod the Hunter, founder of Erech (the Biblical name for Uruk) according to Genesis 10, and builder of theTower of Babel in post-Biblical legends. Rohl has even suggested that Eridu nearUr was the original site ofBabel , and that the incompleteziggurat found there, by far the oldest and largest of its kind, are none other than the ruins of the Biblical tower. ["Legends: The Genesis of Civilization" and "The Lost Testament" by David Rohl]ee also
*
History of Sumer
*Mesopotamian mythology References
External links
* [http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=c.1.8.2*# ETCSL - Texts and translations of Enmerkar legends] ( [http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk/catalogue/catalogue1.htm#lugalbanda alternate site] )
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