A Sumerian royal self-praise hymn preserved on a clay tablet from Nippur (Ni.4417). The king speaks in the first person, describing how he placed the great scepter to the four winds at the shrine of Nippur — at Duranki, the Bond of Heaven and Earth — and made manifest an eternal destiny. In the second column, Enlil (under his epithet Nunamnir) raises the king’s head and establishes his authority over the city of the land.
The tablet is fragmentary. Only parts of two obverse columns and three lines of the reverse survive. The king’s name is lost. The text belongs to the genre of Sumerian royal hymns — self-praise compositions in which the king rehearses his divine election and cosmic mandate. Similar hymns survive for Shulgi, Ur-Namma, Lipit-Ishtar, and Ishme-Dagan. This text, however, appears unpublished and untranslated.
The Scepter
[…] your […]
[…] wood? […]
like […]
Its great scepter —
to the four winds
I placed it.
In the shrine of Nippur,
at Duranki —
I made it manifest.
A decreed destiny,
unchangeable forever —
at its head
I brought forth
greatness
and skill.
[…]
The Investiture
Heaven […]
His countenance […] its […]
His face he […]
He built for them […]
My head — he raised it:
the Lord Nunamnir.
The Enlil-ship —
in its place
he established it.
The city of the land —
[…]
[Reverse]
[The reverse preserves only three fragmentary lines:]
The head … […] beside him …
The water … heaven … […]
The mouth […]
[The remainder is destroyed.]
Colophon
Title: The Scepter of the Four Winds
Source: Ni.4417, University of Pennsylvania excavations at Nippur. Istanbul Archaeological Museum.
Language: Sumerian.
Genre: Royal self-praise hymn (CANONICAL > Literature > Hymns > Royal).
Period: Likely Ur III or Isin-Larsa dynasty (c. 2112–1763 BCE), based on genre conventions, the Nippur provenance, and the first-person royal voice with Enlil investiture formulae.
Translator: Good Works Translation (NTAC + Claude). Translated independently from the Sumerian transliteration in the Electronic Babylonian Library (eBL) corpus, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
Blood Rule: English derived independently from reading the Sumerian transliteration. No existing English translation was located or consulted for this fragment. The eBL ATF contains no embedded English translations (#tr.en: lines). The eBL references field is empty — no publications are linked to this fragment, suggesting it has not been formally published or translated.
Key terms:
- ĝedru (GEŠ) — scepter, royal staff
- tum₉ limmu₂ — the four winds, i.e., the four cardinal directions; universal sovereignty
- eš₃ nibru — shrine of Nippur, religious capital of Sumer
- dur-an-ki — Duranki, “Bond of Heaven and Earth,” Enlil’s sanctuary
- pa e₃ ak — to make manifest, lit. “to make branches emerge”
- nam tar — to decree a destiny
- saĝ il₂ — to raise the head, the standard investiture formula
- en Nunamnir — Lord Nunamnir, primary epithet of Enlil
- nam Enlil — the Enlil-ship, supreme divine authority over the terrestrial world
Condition: Obverse columns 1–2 partially preserved (27 lines total). Reverse preserves only 3 heavily damaged lines. The king’s name and the hymn’s opening are lost.
Notes: The phrase “its great scepter / to the four winds / I placed” (lines 4–6) expresses universal sovereignty — the scepter reaching to the four cardinal directions from Nippur as the cosmic center. The combination of dur-an-ki (Bond of Heaven and Earth) with the investiture formula saĝ il₂ (raising of the head) identifies this as a standard royal legitimation text: the king claims Enlil elevated him at Nippur and decreed his destiny unalterable. “The Enlil-ship” (nam Enlil) in Column 2 refers to the supreme earthly authority delegated by Enlil to the chosen king — effectively divine right of kingship.
Scribal credit: Archived by Tulku Taka (鷹), Expeditionary Tulku Life 199, New Tianmu Anglican Church.
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Source Text: Transliteration of Ni.4417
Sumerian cuneiform in standard Assyriological transliteration. Published by the Electronic Babylonian Library (eBL), LMU Munich. CC BY 4.0.
Obverse, Column 1
1′. %sux [x]-zu-a
2′. %sux [x] ĝeš?
3′. %sux x-da-gin₇
4′. %sux ĝedru?(GEŠ) mah-bi
5′. %sux tum₉ limmu₂-bi-še₃
6′. %sux ĝar-ra-ĝu₁₀
7′. %sux eš₃ nibru{ki}
8′. %sux dur-an-ki-a-ka
9′. %sux pa e₃ | ak-ĝu₁₀
10′. %sux nam# tar-ra
11′. %sux ul-še₃ nu-kur₂-ru
12′. %sux saĝ-bi-še₃
13′. %sux e₃-a-ĝu₁₀
14′. %sux nam-mah
15′. %sux nam-galam-ma
16′. %sux x-[x]
Obverse, Column 2
1′. %sux AN# [...]
2′. %sux saĝ-ki x [x]-bi
3′. %sux igi mi-ni-in-[x]
4′. %sux mu-ne-du₃?-[x]
5′. %sux saĝ-ĝu₁₀ bi₂ | ni-ib-i[l₂]
6′. %sux en {d}nu-nam | nir-e
7′. %sux nam {d}en-lil₂-[x]
8′. %sux ki-ba ba?#-[x]
9′. %sux mi-ni-in | gi-n[a]
10′. %sux iri ma-d[a]
11′. %sux x [...]
Reverse, Column 1′
1′. %sux saĝ x ri [...] | da-ni-x [...]
2′. %sux a ba?-an-da-x | an kar/ub-(a) x [...]
3′. %sux KA# [...]
Source Colophon
Museum number: Ni.4417
Provenance: Nippur (University of Pennsylvania excavations)
Current location: Istanbul Archaeological Museum
Script: Sumerian cuneiform
Material: Clay tablet (fragmentary)
Transliteration source: Electronic Babylonian Library (eBL), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
License: CC BY 4.0
Access date: April 2026
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