Gilgameš and Agga (Lines 1-17)
Introduction
The Sumerian epic poem called “Gilgameš and Agga” (also spelled Aga or Akka) describes a conflict between two Mesopotamian cities, Uruk (ruled by Gilgameš) and Kiš (ruled by Agga). The text survives in multiple copies, almost all of which come from Old Babylonian Nippur. Using 16 fragments to reconstruct some 114 lines, the narrative can be summarized as follows: Envoys of the king of Kiš arrive to Uruk with a message. When Gilgameš wanted to wage war/rebel against the ruler of Kiš, the assembly of elders of Uruk rejected his decision, but Gilgameš precedes with his plan anyway. The army of Kiš besieges Uruk, but Gilgameš defeats them and takes the king of Kiš captive. When the king of Kiš endorses the independence of Uruk with Gilgameš as its ruler, Gilgameš sets the Kišite king free. Giving a hint about the impetus for the composition of the narrative (i.e., as a praise hymn), the poem ends with the following line: “Gilgameš, lord of Kulaba, Praising you is sweet.”
N.b., this post is part of a series of my translations of Sumerian texts in preparation for my upcoming Sumerian final on May 9th (in less than 12 hours!). Due to the imminency of the exam, I apologize in advance for any typographical errors which will be corrected in due course. In what follows, I provide images of one copy of the text (not the one used here) as well as a transliteration of the cuneiform and my translation of the first 17 lines (i.e., the first major tablet of text A). Epigraphic and philological commentary is provided via footnotes.
Images
The above images are a tablet which, according to the Gilgamesh and Agga wikipedia page, contains the narrative. This tablet is housed in the Sulaymaniyah Museum in Iraq.
Lines 1-4: Transliteration and Translation
lú-kin-gi4-a ag-ga[1] dumu en-me-bára-ge4-e-si-ke | kiški-ta d.g̃išbìl-ga-mes-ra unugki-šè mu-un-ši-re7-eš | d.g̃išbìl-ga-mes igi ab-ba uruki-ka | inim ba-an-g̃ar inim ì-kin-kin-e |
Agga, son of Enmebaragesi, sent messengers[2] from Kiš to Gilgameš at Uruk. Gilgameš presented the matter (lit. ‘placed the word’) before the elders[3] of the city, searching[4] for the (right) words:
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[1] Alternatively, ak-kà for Akka
[2] ePSD: kiĝgia [MESSENGER] (652x: ED IIIb, Old Akkadian, Lagash II, Ur III, Early Old Babylonian, Old Babylonian) wr. kiĝ2-gi4-a; lu2kiĝ2-gi4-a “messenger”
[3] ePSD: abba [FATHER] (107x: ED IIIb, Old Akkadian, Ur III, Old Babylonian) wr. ab; ab-ba; abba2 “old (person); witness; father; elder; an official” Akk. abu; šību
[4] ePSD: kiĝ [SEEK] (108x: Old Babylonian) wr. kiĝ2 “to seek” Akk. pâru
Lines 5-8: Transliteration and Translation
túl til-le-da túl-kalam til-til-le-da | túl níg̃-bàndada kalam til-til-le-da | túl bùru-da éš-lá til-til-le-da | é kiški-šè gú nam-ba-an-g̃á-g̃á-an-dè-en g̃ištukul ga-àm-ma-sàg̃-ge-en-dè-en[1] |
“To finish the wells;[2] to finish the wells of the land; to finish the small[3] wells of the land; to finish the deep[4] wells with the ešla-rope,[5] let us not be subject[6] to the house of Kiš! Let us strike[7] them with weapons!”[8]
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[1] The PA sign is read sìg by Katz and ETCSL, but surely should be read sàg̃ ‘to beat, strike’.
[2] ePSD: tul [FOUNTAIN] wr. tul2; |LAGAB×TIL| “public fountain; fish pond, pit; ditch, channel; excavation, trench” Akk. būrtu; hirītu; kalakku
[3] ePSD: banda [JUNIOR] (114x: ED IIIb, Ur III, Early Old Babylonian, Old Babylonian, unknown) wr. banda3da “(to be) junior; small; (to be) wild, fierce” Akk. ekdu; şehru
[4] ePSD: burud [PERFORATE] (49x: Old Akkadian, Ur III, Old Babylonian) wr. burudx(U) “breach, hole; depression, low-lying area, depth; to perforate; (to be) deep” Akk. palāšu; šapālu; pilšu; šupālu; šuplu
[5] Katz ‘hoisting ropes’; ETCSL: ‘hoisting gear’. Lit. ‘a hanging rope’. The idea seems to be the rope used to lift the bucket of water from the well. ePSD: eš [ROPE] (62x: ED IIIa, ED IIIb, Ebla, Old Akkadian, Ur III, Early Old Babylonian, Old Babylonian) wr. eš2 “rope, thong, string” Akk. eblu.
[6] Lit. ‘to place the neck’. Translated as passive in light of the /ba/ conjugation prefix.
[7] ePSD: sag [BEAT] (186x: ED IIIb, Lagash II, Ur III, Old Babylonian) wr. sag3; sag2 “to strike, beat; weave” Akk. mahāşu
[8] ePSD: tukul [WEAPON] (1370x: Old Akkadian, Lagash II, Ur III, Early Old Babylonian, Old Babylonian) wr. ĝeštukul; tukul “stick; weapon” Akk. kakku
Lines 9-14: Transliteration and Translation
ukkin g̃ar-ra ab-ba uru-na-ke4 | d.g̃išbìl-ga-mes-ra mu-na-ni-ib-gi4-gi4 | túl til-le-da túl-kalam til-til-le-da | túl níg̃-bàndada kalam til-til-le-da | túl bùru-da éš-lá til-til-le-da | é kiški-šè gú ga-àm-g̃á-g̃á-an-dè-en g̃ištukul nam-ba-sàg̃-ge-en-dè-en |
The established assembly[1] of the elders of the city responded to Gilgameš: “To finish the wells; to finish the wells of the land; to finish the small wells of the land; to finish the deep wells with the ešla-rope, let us subject ourselves to the house of Kiš! Let us not strike them with weapons!”
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[1] ePSD: unkin [ASSEMBLY] (69x: ED IIIa, ED IIIb, Lagash II, Old Babylonian) wr. unkin; LAK649 “assembly” Akk. puhru
Lines 15-17: Transliteration and Translation
dbìl-ga-mes en kul-aba4ki-a-ke4 | dinanna-ra nir-g̃ál-la-e | inim ab-ba uru-na-ke4 šà-šè nu-um-ma-gíd
Gilgameš, the Lord of Kulaba, trusting in Inanna, he did not take to heart the words of the elders of his city.
Conclusion
What survives of the first tablet of Text A includes 17 lines, all of which have been translated here. However, when collating the some 16 known versions, scholars can reconstruct over 100 lines of text. The text continues by describing how Gilgameš freed Uruk from Kišite dominance and established himself as an independent king. It is my hope that this blog post has given you a representative taste of the Gilgameš and Agga narrative.
Bibliography
ETCSL (composite text): https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/c1811.htm
ETCSL (translation): https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr1811.htm
Katz, Dina. Gilgamesh and Akka. Leiden: Brill, 1993.
Katz, Dina. “Gilgamesh and Akka (1.171).” In The Context of Scripture, vol. 1, Canonical Compositions from the Biblical World. Edited by William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger, Jr. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2003.
Postscript
Over the past eleven blog posts (including this one), I have provided introductions, transliterations, and translations of parts or all of two ditila legal cases, one humorous model court case about adultery, a Hammurapi Cylinder, a Šu-Suen door socket, the Gudea Cylinder A, the Law Code of Lipit-Ištar, and now Gilgamesh and Agga. This is the final post in this mini-series where I review the texts which we’ve translated in my Sumerian class at Hopkins this semester. Although we also translated parts of the Nippur Murder Trial and Inanna’s Descent, I must forego writing up posts on these important texts at the present time due to the imminency of the exam. Regardless of how the exam goes tomorrow morning, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed studying Sumerian this semester, and I hope that this series of translations, whatever minor errors may remain therein, is a testament to the pedagogical excellence of the professor who first taught me to read the world’s oldest attested language.
About The Author
Law Code of Lipit-Ištar (Laws 8-18; CBS8284) 
Gudea Cylinder A xviii 1-28 (E3/1.1.7.CylA) 
Gudea Cylinder A iii 1-29 (E3/1.1.7.CylA) 
Gudea Cylinder A ii 1-29 (E3/1.1.7.CylA) 
Gudea Cylinder A i 1-29 (RIME E3/1.1.7.CylA) 
A (Humorous) Model Court Case about Adultery (IM 28051; Volk #39)
Thank you for sharing this!
I wound up here, frustrated with the outdated translation in Donald Kagan: Problems in Ancient History. (I will always use the paper books as a guide to *what* to read.)
S. Kramer’s 1963 version has:
“To complete the wells, to complete all the wells of the land,
To complete the wells, the small bowls of the land,
To dig the wells, to complete the fastening ropes,”
Small bowls? Your blog has cleared that up! Now I am reading Sumerian! This deepens my shallow, learned vocabulary. I can appreciate the poetic effects here, too.
Thanks for reading and commenting! Sumerian is a lot of fun, and of course especially important for Semitic studies because of its linguistic influence on Akkadian and its role in the development of cuneiform writing.