Coping with Trauma in Ancient Mesopotamia: Thoughts on the Religious Milieu of the “Lamentations”

Abstract

In the literary tradition of ancient Mesopotamia, a distinct poetic genre, known as the “lamentations”, exists. This corpus of texts explores the theme of human and divine expressions of suffering in response to dramatic events. A particularly noteworthy category of lamentations are the city laments, composed in the aftermath of the fall of the Sumerian cities, which evoke the historical episodes surrounding the collapse of the Third Dynasty of Ur (late III millennium BCE). These laments, in their both private and public manifestations, bear a close resemblance to the tenets of polytheistic religion, underpinned by the concept of the universal order and the reciprocal relationship between deities and human beings. In this contribution, I shall offer a commentary on a selection of laments, including those that pertain to the city laments, and a number of poems that are associated with the narrative of the dying gods. This will serve to illustrate the overarching theme of the emotional distress experienced by the gods. The analysis of the religious characteristics of the lamentations aims to highlight the bond between this literary genre and religion, since the lamentations echo the latter’s role in achieving and safeguarding the existential harmony of men and gods in an ordered universe.