of maintaining the purity and holiness of the statues, the holy objects and the
sacrosanct areas of the temples were the gudu 4 , ˇitas , nu-èsˇ, a-tu 5 , sánga, susbuand partic-
ularly, the isˇib-priests.
Among these many cultic functionaries, those that occur most commonly in all the
temples of Sumer were the gudu 4 -priests. They were not only ritual specialists in charge
of the sacrifices, the care and feeding of the deities, as well as lustration rites, but also
engaged at times in labour service for the household of the deity which they served.
Their major responsibilities included the cults of deceased and living kings (Brisch
2006 : 176 ) and priestesses (see above). Royal antecedents rather than any divine models
for this cultic role are Ziusudra, the so-called hero of the Sumerian Flood Story and
Limer, the gudu 4 -priest, who was king of Mari in the Sumerian King List. We are
fortunate to possess a text furnishing the incantations for the purification of the gudu 4 -
priest before his investiture and consecration in the temple (Farber and Farber 2003 ).
The washing vessel of Enki was used to bathe the candidate with pure water. At sunrise
there were recitations of texts and perhaps sprinkling of magical herbs before the novice
entered the sacred temple. The candidates were probably shaven; their luxurious h
̆
ili-
wig of hair is mentioned in various literary texts. They may have then entered the holy
room set aside for the gudu 4 -priests, where water never ceased to flow (Gudea Cyl. A
xxix 6 , ETCSL 2. 1. 7 , Edzard RIME 3 / 1. 1. 7 ). The duties of the nam-gudu 4 ‘office of
gudu 4 -priest’ were considered prebendary and could be passed down through the
generations or bought and sold. The tale of Enlil and Namzitara is an etiological
composition on the attainment of this prebend (see above).
In the various local cults, purification priests were given many unique designations.
The meanings of all these titles have been lost in the passage of time. In Sumerian
sources, it is difficult to discern the limits of the competences of these clerics, whose
duties seem to be overlapping, in particular in relation to lustration rites. For instance,
one literary hymn provides an exceptional description of the role of the purification
priests: ‘Those endowed with divine powers (me-h
̆
al-h
̆al-ne), 10 purification priests
(isˇib), prostration priests (ki-za-za-a-ne), lustration priests (a-tu 5 – tu 5 – a-ne) and
ablution priests (súsbu-be-e-ne) will never cease coming every month, once a month,
to the great shrine, for your brother (the god Dumuzi), who has taken possession of
the enpriesthood, the enpriesthood of Uruk’ (Alster 1985 : 223 lines 19 – 23 , ETCSL
4. 08. 10 ‘Dumuzid-Inana J’). Two of these five titles are unique to this text. While in
the human sphere all rites of purification were performed by men, in the divine sphere
the purification functions were divided between gods and goddesses with the goddesses
predominating in the earliest periods (Cunningham 1997 : 16 – 18 ). Exceptionally, there
were purification priesthoods in which male–female parity occurred. In the service of
the god of wisdom Enki were the male enkumand the female ninkum(Charpin 1986 :
389 – 393 ). Equipped with various cultic vessels and sprinklers, they used mainly water
in their rites.
Theisˇib-priests were responsible for the performance of various lustration rites. In
general, the isˇib-craft required the learning of the rites of ˇu-luhs
̆
, the ablution rites,
performed with pure water, and the laving of the cult statue of the god. In order to
carry out this function, the isˇib-priest is shown holding the esˇdacultic vessel and could
be depicted naked when bathing the sacred image of the god (e.g. the priestly officiant
bathing sacred image of the god in the Ur-Namma stele). This nakedness, in contra-
distinction to nudity, was a functional nakedness (Asher-Greve and Sweeney 2006 :
–– The ministering clergy ––