Enki and Sumerian Immortality

<p>There is a wide variety of types and genres in these compositions which are as startling as it is revealing given the age of the culture involved. In Sumer nearly a millennium before the Hebrews wrote their Bible or the Greeks their Iliad and Odyssey we find a growing body of literature (here and throughout this paper the term literature is used in the more restricted sense of belles-lettres) that includes such diverse genres as epic tales and myths hymns and laments - as well as many more wisdom compositions such as maxims fables and other didactic compositions.</p><p>First we turn to the epic tales of Sumer the oldest known examples of heroic poetry. Some twelve epic tales that must have been popular in Sumer can now be fully or partially restored. Based on our evidence they range in length from over four hundred to less than two hundred lines. Consequently they should be called epic tales rather than epics since the latter implies a substantial composition.</p>