What is Reddit's opinion of The Harps that Once...: Sumerian Poetry in Translation?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

I wonder if you even realize what an undertaking this is.

To provide just a brief sample of what this would require, here's a list of works that you would need to draw from in order to complete this task:

​

• The Harps That Once... Sumerian Poetry In Translation
• The Literature of Ancient Sumer
• Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature
• From Distant Days: Myths, Tales, and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia
• Myths From Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh and Others
• The Standard Babylonian Epic of Anzû
• The Standard Babylonian Myth of Nergal and Ereškigal
• Adapa and the South Wind: Language had the Power of Life and Death
• The Metamorphosis of Enlil in Early Mesopotamia
• Myths of Enki: the Crafty God
• The God Enki in Sumerian Royal Ideology and Mythology
• Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer
• The God Ninurta in the Mythology and Royal Ideology of Ancient Mesopotamia
• The God Asar/Asalluḫi in the Early Mesopotamian Pantheon
• The Healing Goddess Gula: Toward An Understanding of Ancient Babylonian Medicine
• Untersuchungen zur Gestalt einer Unterweltsgöttin: Ereškigal nach den sumerischen und akkadischen Quellentexten
• Lamaštû: An Edition of the Canonical Series of Lamaštû Incantations and Rituals and Related Texts from the Second Millennium BCE
• Primeval History: Babylonian, Biblical, and Enochic: An Intertextual Reading
• The Overturned Boat: Intertextuality of the Adapa Myth and Exorcistic Literature
• Name Word Play and Marduk's Fifty Names in Enūma Eliš

​

This doesn't even include new texts coming to light in the past 10-15 years, like The Song of Bazi, or the vast repetoire of exorcistic literature only briefly touched on in the above links, but which entire works by Tzvi Abusch, Daniel Schwemer, Erica Reiner, F.A.M. Wiggermann and others have been dedicated.

I appreciate your enthusiasm on the board, but I think before you consider taking on such a monumental task, it would be good for you to familiarize yourself with the vast corpus of material you're proposing to translate and present to others.

Several of the pieces linked above are available for free on the Academia aggregate site, and many which are linked to Amazon or AbeBooks are available, in whole or in part, on Academia as well.

Wolkstein's work is a staple of the Mesopotamian polytheist community at this point, so even though I have personal reservations regarding her decision to ignore two major aspects of the Goddess, I do endorse the book as a good hymnal.

It's important that the community has access to hymns and prayers when beginning their journey, and while there are other sources for acquiring such material (ETCSL: #1, #2, #3 or The Harps That Once... by Thorkild Jacobsen being two other sources), the ease with which the book is available through primary and second-hand sellers makes it one of the first that devotees encounter.

For another perspective, as well as additional translations of some of Inana's texts, I'd suggest looking at the work of Betty De Shong Meador. Specifically, her first book: Inanna, Lady of the Largest Heart, focuses on poems about Inana written by the High Priestess Enḫeduanna.

Her follow-up: Princess, Priestess, Poet, explores the Temple Hymns, a collection of poems addressed to the many temples of Ancient Mesopotamia which glorify their resident gods and goddesses. Of the 42 hymns, 3 were written to temples of Inana, and each chapter that discusses one also explores some of Inana's mythology and divine nature.

There's also Louis Pryke's book, ISHTAR, which is a very approachable volume about the goddess Ishtar. The book often incorporates what is known about Inana as well, since both goddesses were syncretized by the Assyrians and Babylonians.

For many, Pryke's work is another "starting point" for devotional activities, since it focuses less on the texts (cult songs, hymns, and prayers), and more on the character and nature of Ishtar, helping us familiarize ourselves with who Ishtar is and how she might interact with us.

Unfortunately, there aren't any authoritative books on Inana/Ishtar written by and for polytheists at this time. There are some offerings, like Galina Krasskova's: Into The Great Below, which collect modern-day hymns and poems dedicated to Inana and Ereshkigala from a wide range of Neopagans, few of whom are Mesopotamian polytheists, unfortunately.

Tentatively, the Order of the Rod & Ring is working on a devotional book dedicated to the god Dumuzi, who is famously the partner/lover of Inana in Sumerian mythology. While I can't speak toward the book's content, it will very likely incorporate Inana as well. However, I also have no information regarding the book's progress or potential release-date as of right now.

The standard anthologies, when it comes to mythology and assorted literature, are:

• The Harps That Once... Sumerian Poetry in Translation
• The Literature of Ancient Sumer
• Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature
• From Distant Days: Myths, Tales, and Poetry of Mesopotamia
• Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh and Others

​

There are also several works dedicated to specific deities:

• Myths of Enki: the Crafty God
• Ishtar
• The Healing Goddess Gula: Toward An Understanding of Babylonian Medicine
• Lamaštu: An Edition of the Canonical Series of Lamaštu Incantations
• The God Asar/Asalluhi in the Early Mesopotamian Pantheon
• The God Enki in Sumerian Royal Ideology and Mythology
• The Metamorphosis of Enlil in Early Mesopotamia
• The God Ninurta in the Mythology and Royal Ideology of Ancient Mesopotamia

​

As well as works about specific myths:

• Adapa and the South Wind: Language Has the Power of Life and Death
• The Standard Babylonian Myth of Nergal and Ereshkigal
• The Standard Babylonian Epic of Anzu
• The Overturned Boat: Intertextuality of the Adapa Myth and Exorcist Literature

​

The above, of course, just being a sampling of what is available on Amazon, AbeBooks, and the Academia website. There are also many online databases which contain translations of texts, often with publication history, and sometimes even included commentary:

• Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI)
• Open, Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus (ORACC)
• Sources of Early Akkadian Literature (SEAL)
• Database of Neo-Sumerian Texts (BDTNS)
• Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL)
• Neo-Babylonian Cuneiform Corpus (NaBuCCo)

The CDLI is a catalog of all known objects inscribed with cuneiform. It is probably the single greatest resource for finding texts, translations, publications, and even commentaries. It can also be cross-referenced with ORACC's q-catalog number, the ETCSL's t-catalog number, and I believe even the BDTNS number. You can also filter texts by archaeological location and time period, regnal years referenced, literary genre, and even transliteration/translation where available.

ORACC is a sister-project to the CDLI that attempts to catalog all known cuneiform compositions: myths, hymns, cult songs, poetry, praises, regnal remarks, and more. ORACC uses a system known as the q-catalog, whereas the CDLI uses a system known as the p-catalog. q- and p-catalog numbers are assigned to most cuneiform texts and can be cross-referenced back and forth between each database. You can also search transliteration/translation of compositions in the search bar and filter by time period and location.

The remaining sites catalog texts by time period, genre, primary language and publication (where available). SEAL focuses on providing publication data and occasional translations with commentary of Akkadian language texts from the Old Akkadian period (ca. 2340-2200 BCE), Early Old Babylonian period (ca. 2000-1900 BCE), Old Babylonian period (ca. 1800-1600 BCE) and Middle Babylonian period (ca. 1400-1100 BCE). BDTNS focuses primarily on Sumerian language economic and administrative documents from the Ur-III period (ca. 2200-2000 BCE), most of which is only available in transliterated form. The ETCSL collects publication data, translations, and transliterations for Sumerian language texts written during the Old Babylonian period (ca. 1800-1600 BCE). Finally, NaBuCCo focuses on texts from the Neo-Babylonian period (ca. 626-539 BCE), the so-called Chaldean empire.

As with print literature above, this is only a small sampling of the material available for those interested in the culture, religion, and mythology of Mesopotamia. There are other collections, often focusing on specific archaeological sites (like Ebla or Nimrud) or structures (like the Library of Ashurbanipal) that can be found online as well.

As I said above though, most of your posts were done in witchcraft subreddits. Witchcraft is a highly subjective and eclectic practice. It has long cherry-picked aspects of Mesopotamian religion and thrown them into the mix (see: Astarte and Inana in the Burning Times Chant or works like the Simon Necronomicon). Whether or not you want to approach authentic Mesopotamian religion or continue with your UPG and personal experience is entirely up to you.

With regards to cuneiform, there are several sources that you can consult:

The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, or ETCSL for short, is a compendium of cuneiform literature written in the Sumerian language. Each entry has both an English translation of the text as well as a transliteration in the original Sumerian.

Similarly, the University of Pennsylvania maintains the Q-Catalogue, or Q-CAT for short, which includes not only all of the Sumerian language literature available on the ETCSL, but also an abundance of Akkadian language literature from the kingdoms of Akkad, Assyria, and Babylonia that was written during the first and second millennia BCE.

Finally, there's the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative, or CDLI for short. Where the Q-CAT tries to provide translations of all known cuneiform compositions, the CDLI, sometimes called the P-Catalogue or P-CAT, provides scans of the actual cuneiform tablets themselves, often with a transliteration and translation to accompany.

A quick note, as of the last few months my laptop has warned me about the CDLI homepage. So far, I haven't encountered any problems visiting it, but, if you're not comfortable, don't worry: most of the material on the P-CAT can also be read on the Q-CAT.

Now, these are compositions written in a couple of dead languages from a series of cultures that the world was barely even aware of before the 19^(th) century. Very few people "get" anything out of them without some background first. To that end, below are some of the most renown translations, with commentary, in the field:

The Harps That Once . . . by Thorkild Jacobsen, is, in my opinion, the single best volume of Sumerian language literature on the market today. If you want to get both a feel for the prose and poetry of the Sumerians, as well as insight into the meaning and origin of each composition, this is the best book to look into.

Before the Muses, by Benjamin R. Foster, is, likewise, the single best volume of Akkadian language literature available today. Containing translations of more than three-hundred-and-sixty pieces of literature, nearly everything you can find online, and more, is contained in this book. Like Jacobsen, Foster also provides some insight into the themes and composition of groups of pieces, as well as an introduction tracing the evolution of the Akkadian language and its features.

Finally, since many people begin their journey into any pagan faith with its Gods and Goddesses, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the University of Pennsylvania's ongoing project: Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses, often called ORACC by polytheists. Most of Mesopotamia's most enduring deities are covered in these pages, including general information about form and function, longevity of cult, chief centers of worship, mythology, genealogy, and more.

​

When it comes to food offerings, the answer involves explaining a little bit more about our actual devotional practices.

One of the primary ways that we honor our Gods and Goddesses is by providing them with a meal. I use the word "meal" loosely, because it often only consists of the items I mentioned in my previous reply: some fruit, bread and other edibles made from grain, dairy products, and occasionally some meat.

Historically, all of this would have come from the devotees personal stores, or else have been hunted/gathered by hand, making its presentation all the more significant since it meant you viewed the God as a member of your family worthy of a portion of your allowance.

The process, however, is pretty simple:

Pick a time of day that you can consistently perform a routine ceremonial action. Prepare the assorted goods and set them before the Image or Icon of the deity on your altar. Verbally inform the God of your intentions to provide the meal for them. Allow a set amount of time to pass during which the God is left alone to enjoy the meal (most of us allow 5-10 minutes). Then, take the offerings and consume, yourself, any edible portions, or else make use of inedible bits. Finally, pour all beverages out onto the Earth: we never drink liquids used in devotional rites. Repeat the ritual the following day.

There are more layers to these acts, of course, but I've opted for these simpler explanations rather than overburdening them with unnecessary notes that wouldn't make much sense to someone who hasn't learned about our faith yet. I hope you don't mind.