away the ghosts, and drink water for you, to keep away the ghosts. Your holy dais
is set up beside them.
(Hymn to Inana as Ninegala (Inana D) lines 66 – 76 , ETCSL 4. 07. 4 )CONCLUSIONThus, the Sumerian cultic officiants laboured for the gods, interpreting their will,
assuaging their anger, providing them with nourishment and adornment, and being
the means for their manifestation to the populace. They prayed for individuals and
communities. However, the priests did not merely serve the deities in any and all the
offices of the temple, they were also the mediators between the divine and human
realms and partook of both. They were made holy by their contact with the divine,
which they retained in their eternal afterlife.
NOTES
1 For deities assuming en-ship, see below. For the term ‘en’ applied to deceased persons, see
Jagersma 2007 : 296 who translates as ‘ancestral lords’.
2 The translation is based on that given in ETCSL with modifications based on interpretations of
other scholars who have treated this text: Gragg 1969 ; Biggs 1971 ; Jacobsen 1987 : 377 – 385 ; Geller
1996 ; Wilcke 2006. For the most recent edition of these lines, see Wilcke 2006 : 233 – 234.
3 While the title of the high priestess of Enlil is written en in Sumerian texts, there is a variation
between entu,NIN, and possibly NIN.DINGIR in the Akkadian texts (Westenholz 1992 : 302 ;
Huber Vulliet 2010 : 138 ). The title rendered by the logogram NIN is not limited to Nippur where
it occurs also as the title of the high priestess of Ninurta but is found in sites north of that city.
Huber Vulliet ( 2010 : 139 ) suggests that ‘il est don possible que le titre NIN désignait la grande
prêtresse d’un dieu poliade dans le centre et le nord mésopotamien dès le troisième millénaire’.
4 Already pointed out by Steinkeller 1999 : 121 note 61 and 128. It is interesting to note that the
reference to NUNUZ.ZI.dNANNA in the Enh
̆eduana composition, Innin-sˇà-gur 4 – raline 219
maintains the pre-OB form without the en: En-h
̆é-du 7 –an-na-me-enNUNUZ.ZI.dNANNA
(Sjöberg 1975 : 198 ). In the ETCSL rendering, there is an attempt to change this line to conform
to OB expectations: En-h
̆é-du 7 –an-na-me-<en> zirru(ETCSL 4. 07. 3 , Inana C), undoubtedly
reading EN.NUNUZ.ZI.dNANNA.
5 Although the etymology and meaning of the title zirruis unknown, certain scholars analyse the
diri-compound as if it were an izi-compound into its constituent logograms signifying ‘faithful
woman of Nanna’ which they assume is its meaning. For a discussion of the possible meaning
‘zirru-hen’, see Westenholz 1989 : 541 – 544. See further Zgoll 1997 a: 145 – 146 , 301 – 302 ; Steinkeller
1999 : 121 – 122 and note 61 , 128 ; Marchesi 2004 : 170 and note 109 (rather than zirru, he reads
(nu)nunus
x(MUNUS)
(nus)-zi-(d)nana‘the good (/zid/) woman or zir-woman(?) of Nanna’); Veldhuis
2004 : 279.
6 First entry from Deimel SF 57 col. i 3 – 5 ; second entry from OIP 99 AbS 46 i 3 – 5 ; in general, for
a discussion of these lexical sources, see by J. G. Westenholz 1992 : 300 – 301. These lexical lists
limited to cult personnel have no later exemplars.
7 Diri Oxford 396 – 400 (MSL XV 45 ), see Diri Sippar 1 ii 09 ’– 13 ’ (MSL XV 59 ), see also new
bilingual Diri in Veldhuis 2005 : 319 f.; Proto-Lu 233 ff. (MSL XII 41 ), see also DCCLT OB Nippur
Lu. For discussions of the lexical sources, see Renger 1967 : 114 f. and Steinkeller 1999 : 121 notes
60 and 61 and 127 note 84.
8 Rather than zirru, Marchesi ( 2004 : 170 and note 109 ) reads the compound as a series of logograms
and phonological signs: (nu)nunusx(MUNUS)(nus)-zi-(d)nanna“faithful woman of Nanna.” This
reading would create confusion between it and the (nu)nuzziof Utu which would then sound–– The ministering clergy ––