The Form and Nature of E-Pa at Lagash

Two RULERS of Lagash who lived about 500 years apart tell us of building a structure which they designate by the ideograms E-PA. They are Ur-Nina, who lived about 3000 B. C., and Gudea, who lived about 2500 B. c. Gudea makes it clear in his inscriptions that this structure was a seven-staged ziggurat on the top of which was a chamber the wife of the god similar to that on the top of the eight-staged ziggurat at Babylon described many centuries later by Herodotus I. The passages in Gudea which make this clear are the following. In the inscription on statue D, after telling how he built the temple Eninnu Ningirsu, he says (col. ii, 11 ff.): e-pa eub-imin-na-ni mu-na-ru Sag-ba nig-sal-us-sa dba-ui nin-a-na-g? si-ba-ni-sca-Saa; his temple of seven stages (or zones) he built. In it the bridal gift of Bau, his lady, he placed 2^. On statue G, i, 11 ff. after he has spoken similarly of building Ningirsu's temple he says: dnin-gir-su lugal-a-ni e-pa e'-ubinim e-pa-bi sag-bi-s'i e-a dnin-gir-su-ge nam-dug-tar-ra mu-naru nig-sal-us-sa Sag-gul-la dnin-gir-su-ge dpa-u dumu an-na dam ki acg-ni mu-na-ta-ag-ge dingir-ra-ni dnin-gis'-i-da egir-bi ib-us'; for Ningirsu, his king, Epa, a house of seven stages, to its height he built For Ningirsu, who decreed good, he built it. The bridal gift, the joy of the heart of Ningirsu and Bau, the child of Anu, the spouse whom he loves, he caused it to cover. His god Ningishzida into it he carried up. It is clear from these passages that Epa was a seven-staged ziggurat. The mention of the bride-price, or bridal gift, or marriage portion, and the carrying up thither of Ningishzida, who appears to have been a form of Tammuz, make it also evicdent that on the top of this ziggurat there was a chamber

Ancient Near East History · Eurasian Exchange Networks · History · Linguistics and language evolution · Philosophy

• Ziggurats, Colors, and Planets

  Peter James, Marinus Anthony Van Der Sluijs•Journal of Cuneiform Studies•2008

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