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Sumerian lament From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Lament for Uruk, also called the Uruk Lament or the Lament for Unug,[1] is a Sumerian lament. It is dated to the Isin-Larsa period.[2]
The Lament for Uruk is one of five known Mesopotamian "city laments"—dirges for ruined cities in the voice of the city's tutelary goddess, recited by elegists called gala.[3] It was inspired by the Lament for Ur.[4]
First written in c. 1940 BCE,[5] the Lament was recopied during the Hellenistic period, when Babylonia had again been overrun by foreigners.[6][7]
The Lament is 260 lines long, being composed of 12 kirugu (sections, songs) and 11 gišgigal (antiphons).[8]
Numbered by kirugu, the lament is structured as follows:
It is composed in the standard emegir dialect of Sumerian.[10]
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