The
Dynasty of Dunnum, sometimes called the
Theogony of Dunnum or
Dunnu or the
Harab Myth,
[1] is an ancient
Mesopotamian mythical tale of successive generations of gods who take power through parricide and live incestuously with their mothers and/or sisters, until, according to a reconstruction of the broken text, more acceptable behavior prevailed with the last generation of gods,
[2] Enlil and his twin sons
Nušku and
Ninurta, who share rule amicably.
[3] It is extant in a sole-surviving late Babylonian copy
[4] excavated from the site of the ancient city of
Sippar by
Hormuzd Rassam in the 19th century.
[5]
Synopsis[edit]
It chronicles the conflict of generations of the gods who represent aspects of fertility, agriculture and the seasonal cycle:
[6] heaven, earth, sea, river, plough, wild and domesticated animals, herdsman, pasture, fruit-tree and vine.
[4]
It begins, according to a restoration:
In the beginning, [Harab married earth.] Family and lord[ship he founded. Saying: “A]rable land we will carve out (of) the ploughed land of the country. [With the p]loughing of their
harbu-ploughs they cause the creation of the sea. [The lands ploughed with the
mayaru-pl]ow by themselves gave birth to Sumuqan. His str[onghold,] Dunnu, the eternal city, they created, both of them.
[7]
— Translated by William W. Hallo, The world's oldest literature: studies in Sumerian belles-lettres
Then Sumuqan kills his father Harab (plough), marries his mother Ki (earth) and his sister and the cycle of carnage begins. The city of Dunnum was a synonymous toponym, with many places so named, such as one in the vicinity of Isin
[7] and another lying of the right bank of the
Euphrates in what is now northern Syria.
[8] A
dunnu is a fortified settlement, but the word can also be translated as
strength or
violence.
[9]
Influence[edit]
The tale spread across to Phoenicia and over the Aegean, where its influence can be felt in the
Ugarit myth
Ba’al and Yam from the
Ba’al cycle (ca. 1600-1200 BC),
[2] the
Hittite myth
Song of Kumarbi (14th or 13th century BC)
[1] and the Greek poet Hesiod’s
Theogony (ca. 800-700 BC).
[10]
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