for breakfast, we listened to Peter Pringle
Someone going back to the beginning of what we know. Interesting. Nice.
"The Sumerian god known as ENKI was god of the waters, and he is often depicted with rivers (possibly the Tigris and the Euphrates) flowing from his shoulders. Although the clay tablets on which this story of Enki was written are 5000 years old, they speak of a time even more remote, the time of creation, when the Sumerian gods (known as the Anunnaki) began organizing the world."
"The EPIC OF GILGAMESH is the earliest great work of literature that we know of, and was first written down by the Sumerians around 2100 B.C."
"This song to the Hurrian goddess Nikkal, is the oldest piece of music for which we have both the words and the accompanying musical notes. The work was written on clay tablets around 3500 years ago, and was discovered by archaeologists in the 1950’s in the ruins of the ancient city of Ugarit.
The text of the song is not well understood because the Hurrian language has not been thoroughly studied and the original tablet has bits missing. The goddess Nikkal, like most lunar deities, was associated with fertility and childbirth. Here is a very rough idea of what experts believe is being sung by the singer. I have tried to make this poetic rather than literal."
I have made offerings to the goddess
That she will open her heart in love,
And that my sins will be forgiven.
May my jars of sweet sesame oil please her,
That she may look kindly upon us,
And make us fruitful.
Like the sprouting fields of grain,
May women bring forth with their husbands
And may those who are yet virgins
One day be blessed with children.